Rubbing the right people the wrong way

You've gotta give it up for Dan Hsu. The Editor in Chief of "esteemed" video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly (or EGM for short) posted an editorial in the most recent issue. As anyone with brains would assume from reading it, he stirred things up a bit. If you're too lazy to check out the link, the long and short of Dan's article is that a few reputable sources confirmed something which more than a few jaded gamers already assumed to be true. This something is that certain video game magazines and websites will readily allow video game makers to influence what games they report on if they throw enough advertising dollars their way. There is a mountain of integrity issues at play here, and all of them are rather upsetting.

The argument being made by some that Dan is a big wuss for not naming names is a pretty shallow one. As many others have stated, EGM is not a news site in the business of revealing scandals. Leave such messy business to other more capable individuals. EGM is a fairly respectable gaming magazine who is taking a fair risk by calling out both it's fellow magazines, as well as several advertisers it has likely dealt with in the past.

Now I don't know about you, but I find the idea of video game reporting being bought for a few advertising dollars as disgusting. It also is a big self-inflicted kick in the nuts to an industry which spends quite a bit of time whining about how it deserves to be recognized as an art form along with film and television. Well this isn't how to do it (Neither is this, but that's beside the point). For the love of god, how many thousands of games come out every year? Are you telling me there are decent magazines out there without enough ad revenue to not have to trade cover stories for ads?

Unfortunately though, people like Dan are not easy to find. This story will not crawl beyond the pages and postings of hardcore gaming sites until the legitimate press starts reporting on gaming stories other than what anti-gaming laws got signed lately, or the whole hot coffee scandal (which so sickens me I won't even grant it a link). I guess we'll just have to wait to see if someone in power hears the cry for a serious investigation into the practices of the video game industry. In the mean time I'm gonna be suspicious of all gaming magazines from now on (although Game informer was already on that list big time), until they prove to me I don't have a reason to be.

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