Recently I was reading thru the Freeplay columns on Gamespot and came across some interesting opinions about defining the game industry.  Who does it belong to?  What roles do companies like Gamespot play in all this?  What SHOULD Gamespot be writing about?  This all came about because of a blog entry from God of War designer, David Jaffe and the point of view he shared that seem to spark some controversy.  

Jaffe wrote:
 "It really bothers me when game journalists throw themselves in with the folks who actually make the games when they talk about OUR industry.

I'm not sure if you have noticed this as well, but I see this a lot, especially in op-ed pieces, letters from the editor,etc....often times it reads something like this:

-We need to examine other ideas than just racing games or our industry will dry up....

OR

-Our industry is worth 11 billion dollars...

...but the thing is, the game journalists are not part of the game industry in my mind. They have their OWN industry: magazine publishing. Or web publishing. Or hey, even journalism! But not GAME MAKING."

To me, this is some dangerous thinking.  The only good part of what he said is how he ended the sentence saying "in my mind".  Now, I know we live in a society that values free speech but I felt I should say something about this ignorant way of thinking because I have yet to read a rebuttal that directly disagrees with what he said.....and put this controversy into context. 

First off, lets look at the video game industry as a whole and figure out what makes an "industry" an industry.  It is made up of a bunch of different entities in order to exists....just like anything else.  I think we can all agree that there are game developers, publishers, marketing guys, accountants, etc. that play a direct role on how certain video games succeed in the industry.  In reality, these guys have general control over the direction the industry will move.  But there are other sides of the Video Game Industry, not just the "Game Making" part.  Saying that, I think there is some major confusion about Jaffe's definition of "Game Making" industry. 

The way I see it, all of us make up the industry:  The game developer, the consumer, and even the "journalist" (I hate using that word to describe them).  Without the "journalist", the video game industry would defiantly be a different beast.  Companies like Gamespot help force competition between different developers that continually raise the bar against each other to meet and win over consumer expectations.  Because of their reports, they influence the way consumers buy games that directly dictates to the developers what is successful and what is not.   Would the industry be the same without companies like Gamespot reporting on games?  No way.  I think we'd see a lot more "not so great" games being made like Big Mutha Truckers 2 if it weren't for the "journalists" that really expose them for what they are.

Personally, in the past few years I pretty much only buy the games AFTER I read some kind of review about them.  My faith in the opinions of Gamespot editors (and other companies like PC Gamer, IGN, Gamespy) are so influential, they pretty much tell me on which games to buy and what not to.  I can make up my own mind, but their feedback is a critical deciding factor for me.  I know I'm not the only one that does this.  After talking to fellow members of my Xbox Live group, going to forums, and talking to clerks at places like EBgames, I know the "journalists" of this industry have a strong impact on the way games are developed and made based on consumer demands.   

Jaffe even went on to suggest what direction game "journalism" should go in.  This one made me laugh out loud: 

"Give me THAT but with KOJIMA....OR MIYAMOTO! And no more of this bull**** about how he plays the ****ing banjo and likes to garden. Wow, that's hard hitting! **** guys, dig into the man and let us know what makes him tick, what he really likes and dislikes, his political views, what his stresses are, what his vices are, does he feel stress to save Nintendo, etc....you know, go and WRITE something! " 

Ok, as a consumer, what would you rather know?  Would you rather read about a game or console your on the fence about buying OR reading about some faceless developer's political views.  A poll was put up by Bob Colayco in his Freeplay column and out of 2250 votes, 90% of you said that consumers are more interested in knowing about the actual game than about the guy who made it and his political agenda.  Yea, maybe fanboy will go out and want to know more about the developers personal interests but generally speaking, most of us don't really care.  We get enough unwanted political views from Hollywood already, we don't need the game industry to do the same. 

The bottom line is these "journalists" are making great contributions to OUR industry right now.  I seem to rely on them more than I can trust anything that comes out of EA Games these days!  As long as our game "journalists" remain faithful to our industry, we can rest assure we need them close to us to keep these developers honest and putting out quality products.  So what it boils down to is this guy, David Jaffe, needs to continue to make good games but for God sake stop telling game "journalists" what to write about and selfishly hording all the industries credit to just GAME MAKING.  He has some shallow thinking here and I think we all have to be careful not to step in the Bull *%@#. 

....Thats my two cents....