Why We Just Might Be On To Something Here At GGG!

Before you read this piece, go here and read that one by Dave McCarthy. It’s important. I’ll wait.

Back? Good. That was a pretty great piece, wasn’t it? He makes an awful lot of really good points, some of which I will repeat here.

Kyle was ragging on Joystiq a bit ago and after looking at that site I couldn’t agree more. There’s an awful lot of tremendously exciting stuff going on the world of games, and so much of what’s truly new, innovative, unique, and exciting is completely ignored by what passes for “game journalism” these days. Sadly, a lot of this kind of writing is driven by that double-edged sword so common on web sites…chasing hits and advertising revenue.

For sites like Joystiq and I suppose many others, it’s important to attract as many hits as possible so that the site can earn more and more advertising revenue and, theoretically, develop into a better and better site. But the problem, the really huge problem, is that when you’re just chasing site hits, you’re catering to the lowest common denominator of what the average internet surfer really wants. And, as McCarthy fearlessly put it in his piece, “…most people are interested in bad things.”

So in order to generate as many hits as possible, earn as much advertising revenue as possible, and become the “best” or the “biggest” game site or blog out there, you basically have to fill your site with content about “bad things.”

Like what, you ask? Well, do a Google search for articles about any of the Halo games. Or Call Of Duty. Or God Of War. Or Gears Of War. Fuck, even those two titles are almost identical. Anyway, after you do that, then do some Google searches for games like PixelJunk: Monsters. Or Everyday Shooter. Or The Majesty Of Color. Or I Made This, You Play This, We Are Enemies. The numbers will be much much much smaller.

I know, it’s dangerous to equate popularity with quality one way or the other. Just because a game sells a lot of copies doesn’t mean it’s good. Nor does that mean that it’s bad. But again, McCarthy puts it best when he writes “I don’t think I’ve ever read anything interesting about God of War, or the Halo sequels, and what has Resistance ever contributed to the sum of humanity? I would rather read about why a bad game is interesting than another sixteen-page mind-numbing epic about how many different ways you can shoot someone in one of these bland, by-the-numbers borefests.” And THAT is what makes games like Halo or Gears Of War or Call Of Duty so excruciatingly bad. They are clumsy, indistinguishable, “by-the-numbers borefests” with little to offer beyond new weapons and minor enhancements on the type of nauseatingly dull gameplay that’s been done to death for years now. And yet…and yet…that is what generates hits.

We here at GGG might not get the most hits or the most attention and we don’t get any advertising revenue at all (thank God) but that keeps us honest. It keeps us writing about the kinds of games and art and stuff that we really truly like and enjoy. It’s a small slice of honesty and reality in an internet landscape dominated more and more by slickness, ulterior motives, astroturfing, marketing, branding, co-opting, hipsterism, hits and dollars but here we are and there are lots and lots and LOTS of other little gems out there too. You just have to know where to look. Although if you’re reading this post you probably already know that, and both Kyle and I are really thankful you’re here!

- Matt