Mass Effect In The Gaming Journalism World

The Mass Effect 3 ending debate has been a hot topic for the last few weeks, and throughout it's course it has reveal some interesting things. The main thing that has stuck out to me is the continued criticism and bile certain gaming sites and "journalist" aim towards those in favor of a change in ending.

Supporters of a new Mass Effect 3 have been called entitled, biodrones, babies and many other crude things by the writers who are suppose to be the voice of our culture. Of course, this could be easily traced back to money, who pays more for an opinion and what brings the most page views. This to me points out a very alarming point in our gaming world, the one with the deepest pockets controls the word. What ever happened to unbiased news reporting? There are a few reputable writers out there that even though they don't particularly agree with the supporters, they don't go calling them names, insulting their cause or injecting their personal feelings to a non-opinion article. Forbes has been pretty much the only unbiased, loud-spoken voice of reason during this whole debate. A business publication is more credible than a handful of the top visited gaming sites. That should not be the case.

Is our gaming culture that easily bought out by big companies that there has to be an outside source to report the facts without going off into a rant about how much they hate the cause in order to keep their endorsement? Of course, after all the negativity and what I can assume is a drop in site activity, many of the game journalist flipped to the support side just so they could say they do. That is not good journalism. Not only does it make us look like indecisive band-wagoners, it makes the genre in general seem like one big joke.

Video game "journalists" are people too with many varying opinions. They can both report a story and opine about it, that is one hundred percent true. However, when you go on a rant about how the opposing side should just "stop crying and get over it" you lose some of that trust the reader has instilled in you. You make yourself look like you don't really give a shit about what the other side has to say. I believe that there has to be a certain level of professionalism and finesse when you post your opinion on something controversial that gets people excited. You can not shut your ears to the other side.

We need to have people we can trust to be the flag carriers of our culture. The obelisk by which we stand proud and vocalize our thoughts without being talked down to. We shouldn't need to look to other sources for credibility, it needs to be from our own. As long as advertisement dollars are at stake though, I am afraid of the hill the gaming journalism is going down on. I hope that a few hold fast and keep themselves true or we're going to be in trouble.