Pulse Cannon

Hello all you little Cannoneers and welcome to another fun fact filled edition of the Pulse Cannon.
Last week I told you about Toothing, Dogging and Nintendogging. At the time I thought they were a hoax. But a kind reader in England, Mathew Kenyon, wrote me telling me that dogging at least is very real, and has snared even the rich and famous (well, in England at least, I doubt many in North America have any idea who Stan Collymore is). Frankly I don’t know what to say, other than keep that man away from the Nintendo DS.

Anyway, onto other events this past week. David Jaffe has once again made a post (two now that I check again) on his blog which has already and will ruffle some feathers. The first post has a really nice and inflammatory comment regarding Game Journalists not being in the Game Industry, and of course that right there set off any number of people who failed to read more into what he was saying. Which was basically “Game Journalists should hold the game industry more accountable in their reviews, and not be such lap dogs.” Frankly I’d like to thank David for addressing the IGNs and Gamespots of the world, and for inviting them to join us at Inside Pulse (OK no more tooting that horn, I promise).

I have a few things I’d like to say, I suppose, about the state of Game “Journalism”. First of all I’d say that right now there is barely anything like journalism in games. At least not when it comes to most sites, or even the magazines. Of the sites out there, I’d have to say that only Next Generation, GamesIndustry.biz and the Escapist really fall into a role of being investigative journalists. The rest of the web, us here at IP included, are basically just the icing without the cake. We provide a service, no doubt about that, by providing timely reviews for you the gamer to help form an opinion on a game before you purchase it. We also give you commentary and opinions on the industry, but we don’t interview (or at least not very often) game designers or testers or anything like it. Not once have I read about what a graphic artist feels about the development process or what a coder feels about the publishing aspect of the industry.

It’s not like I’m saying this is easy to accomplish. I’d say this is probably what the industry would like to see remain, David Jaffe being the exception. The less people question things like unpaid overtime the more companies will get away with it. Game Journalism has no real separation between tabloid and investigative news. There is no way for readers to determine who is Access Hollywood and who is 60 Minutes when it comes to important news in gaming.

I’d like to see more sites like The Escapist and Next Generation, as they are the people who cover the hard news in the business. The more sites we have like that, the easier it will be for sites like IGN and Gamespot to have untainted reviews. Or perhaps I should say the harder it will be for company’s to get away with buying a high score for a game that deserves nothing even close.

One last thing before I go. This Friday will be Rememberance Day in Canada, Veterans Day in the United States and Armistice Day in a few European countrys, so please take the time to thank both those who came back and those unfortnate ones who didn’t however you can. It’s because of their sacrifices back then that we enjoy what we have today. Have a great week.


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