 |
If you like reading thoughtful writing about games I implore you: buy something.
Buy a copy of Kill Screen. Subscribe to Wired. Grab a Kotaku t-shirt. Sign up for that card at GameStop that gets you a year of Game Informer. Heck, drop a dollar for a print copy of The Los Angeles Times or The New York Times and hope that they're covering games that day.
Because, if there's any lesson to learn from the recent lay-offs at IGN, its that this ad-supported model for revenue just ain't working. And if you want to keep reading the efforts of great writers who care about games we need you to help pitch in.
I know that the internet if full of tons of great news available for free. It will always be thus. But if you're reading this piece you're out for more than newswire tidbits -- you're looking for something more.
Believe me, its a bummer to be begging like this. But the reality is that games journalism -- at least the kind that pays old writers like me -- appears to be contracting. And the people whose job it is to make money from websites can't figure out how to pay the bills, let alone our meager fees.
So they're cutting, paring back or shutting down. Earlier this year the money men euthanized Crispy Gamer. I'm still digesting what the loss of that place means to me. Crispy Gamer paid generously -- enough so that you could really invest in writing a meaty, meaningful critique of a game without feeling like you were giving up a week of your life for the price of dinner at Outback Steakhouse.
I know its not your job to give a shit about how the people who review and write about games get paid. We have an awesome job -- one envied by many who would love to do it for free. And many of those newcomers, toiling in obscurity for less than chicken-scratch, are already producing brilliant work.
But I'm starting to look at games writing through the same lens of other creative efforts -- stuff like music, comics and even games themselves. The more you cater to a niche audience the more you rely on the dedicated few. Indie bands live or die on the ticket sales and merch purchases of their die-hard fans. Indie game creators depend on generous donations from fans to keep their small projects afloat.
The purveyors of thoughtful writing about games need your patronage just as much. And its our responsibility to give you good ways to help us out. So while I'm calling on you, the reader, to help pitch in if you can, I'm also putting our editors and publishers on notice.
We must provide our most dedicated readers a good value proposition on their dollar. If they're down to contribute in a way other than clicking on adds we need to be right there with something cool, clever and worthwhile to reward them for their generosity.
The world isn't coming to an end. But it is changing. And my biggest fear is that the dozens of brilliant writers I've come to know over the past few years will leaving the gaming beat for greener pastures. Perhaps that isn't such a bad thing. Maybe those who write about this subject will always be a transitory bunch -- with new, young and hungry turks stepping up to fill the slots of those who abandon their posts.
But I think we can have both. We can have a free Internet -- full to the brim of content and news available at a moment's notice. And we can also have the kind of writing that costs a little more -- the kind that supports writers who have dedicated their lives and efforts to covering games.
Either way we're gonna need your help to make it happen. We're in this thing together.
Pretension +1 is a weekly column by Gus Mastrapa that passes the games journalism collection plate around the room.
Join The Joystick Division!
Become part of the Joystick Division community by following us on Twitter and Digg and Liking us on Facebook.
