In the article by Iroquois Pliskin in Games Journalism Needs Journalists he states, "Every innovative, trailblazing game needs a good business model to succeed, and that's why it's interesting to know something about the vicissitudes of the various publishers, and to get an understanding of why they make the choices they do. This is what journalists can provide and critics cannot." I am going to try and write my whole blog on this. Because nothing really stuck out too much for me to write about. So here we go.
He is correct in saying that every game needs a business model to succeed. Every piece of merchandise set forth by any company no matter if it is clothing line (American Eagle, Express, Polo etc), shoe line (Jordan's, Nike's etc), cell phone lines or companies. They all need a strong business model if they have any chance to succeed. However, videogames i feel would need the strongest most potent model to make it in the biz. WHY! Because for clothing and shoes there are a lot more people that are heading out to the stores to pick those things up. There is a lot more give in style, price, quality, quantity etc for people to choose from. With videogames it is a little different. YES YES YES there are a lot of style, trends, genres etc but it isn't as vast as in different industries. One war game isn't going to have to compete against ten thousand different war games to try and appeal to that one person or group of people. It is more likely in my opinion for a videogame to die rather than a color or style of shoe. There is more clientele in the shoe or jean industry rather than in the videogame industry.
As for his slight but, powerful argument as what journalists can bring and critics cant, if you read the whole article you get what he is saying. Journalists bring more knowledge and a different prospective on things to the table they don't talk about the game in a critique stand point but in a stand point if that game or piece of shit in some cases is going to make or break for the company that developed it. Does any of this make sense!!!??? Or am i being too informal?
You're always worried you don't make sense, but you always do! Don't worry! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that journalist bring a different and interesting perspective to writing about video games. I believe both reviews and a more traditional journalistic styles should co exist. Also, I enjoyed the point you made about there being a bigger industry for clothes than for video games. But video games are always becoming more popular! Yay!