[lloydatkinson]

Is this a good or bad thing? I don’t really know much about kotaku.

But I do know game journalists don’t exactly produce the greatest content, everything from “the game is too hard 1/10” to IGNs obvious paid for scores to “this game has a male character, therefore it must be sexist”.

[smcl]

This is a pretty hyperbolic take on games reviewers, other than the paid reviews which does exist but is pretty easy to identify and ignore. I've seen games being criticised for being too hard but even Elden Ring, Lies of P et al aren't getting 1/10 for that. I've seen people lamenting the same lazy copy-pasted male character being the protagonist again and again, but never decrying that it's outright sexist that a male character exists in a game (and you're kind of telling on yourself with this one, tbh)

There's plenty of great games journalism out there. I'm similarly unsure about Kotaku, but let's not get silly here.

[gurchik]

The gaming community is often delusional and will rant online about a journalist giving a game a 9/10 instead of a 10/10. Good reviews, where the journalist actually played the game and has experience to compare it to, goes unnoticed. Garbage articles, like "Nintendo used a disability slur in a song" (turns out they're speaking Japanese) get huge attention.

[smcl]

Yeah I’ve seen that a few people get very upset over one reviewers’ subjective take on a game to the extent that they’ll hound them online. James Stephanie Sterling’s 7/10 on Tears of the Kingdom springs to mind (though they seem to be a bit of a lightning rod for hate overall). I can’t fathom it myself, I’ll read and watch a few reviews to get an overall feel for the game and see from there. Come to think of it, most of the reviews I encounter don’t give a score.

[notjoemama]

Isn’t there a discussion to be had about journalists (and activists) needing to insert intersectionality into fantasy worlds in a genre for a demographic that didn’t ask for it?

I’m detecting an air of elevated ego in your reply. I understand the toxicity that has and does (now to a much lessor degree) exist, but can’t we recognize when social justice jumps sharks? I think we can. It’s ok to admit when activism goes too far, wandering into the territory of enforcing morals onto other people; making the same mistake the religious right has done…

[smcl]

If you want to have that discussion, feel free to find the people who think the existence of 1 (one) male character indicates sexism, like the GP described, and discuss it with them. Tbh it sounds more like you want to use the GP's hyperbole as a wedge to open up a (ugh) "culture war" debate and frankly I'm not interested.

[Goronmon]

Isn’t there a discussion to be had about journalists (and activists) needing to insert intersectionality into fantasy worlds in a genre for a demographic that didn’t ask for it?

Don't we need to have a discussion first to debate whether you should be writing comments on such topics first? I mean, I didn't ask for your opinions, so I think it's a discussion worth having.

[overthemoon]

There's some lazy, parasitic, and axe-grinding writing in games journalism, as in all kinds of journalism. I am personally annoyed by how often I see Reddit posts and YouTube summarized like they're a story. But the good stuff is good, and this is IMO a good trend. Aftermath itself might suck, but I'd like to see more passionate video game writers get an opportunity to run their own outlet rather than churn out stupid bullshit about Twitter posts to create more surface for ads.

[xxs]

>Aftermath itself might suck,

The initial articles are well written.

[vehemenz]

"We're trying something different, thanks for joining us"

A comma splice isn't the end of the world, but if this is the post that's advertising your new enterprise to the rest of the world, then it tells me you have some inexperienced writers.

[starkparker]

Even experienced writers suck at this. It means they have no actual editors.

[xxs]

That's an interesting observation - I'd have never noticed it in such a way. Reminds me "Nobody. Understands. Punctuation."[0] that's often reposted on hacker news.

[0]: https://www.stilldrinking.org/nobody-understands-punctuation

[ameister14]

I do not agree. It's readable, but not well written.

ex. "Fortnite saw 3.9 concurrent players on OG’s launch day, besting recent records, and huge subsequent numbers. It was the number one category on Twitch, bolstered by a 24-hour stream by Ninja, who made his name on the game."

[nottorp]

As a potential game player, why do I care about that? Is the game any good? What is it about?

[overthemoon]

Fair enough, I want to give it a chance for sure.

[Goronmon]

From my experience, "great content" to gamers is just content that confirms their pre-existing opinions and biases. Anything that goes beyond that is labeled "bad journalism".

[xxs]

This part is true for most people and most topics, including politics. A lot of the gaming audience would be young(er) people that are part of the scene - so the strong feelings part is given.