• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Why are gaming sites like IGN don't have actual gaming journalists

KAL2006

Banned
It's strange that IGN is popular and doesn't have actual game journalists. They are basically a PR/astroturfing website.

Even sites like Game trailers back in the old days had these cool retrospective videos and mythbuster videos that looked like alot of research and effort took place to make those videos.

IGN started out as a site with gamer girl pages to now being a site about upcoming games schedule video, top ten list and etc. The videos all just seem low effort.

I'll give a few examples where IGN and other sites failed. Take for example Steam Deck impressions most website had generic impressions like it's feels good to hold. But then you have a YouTube channel like Linus who actually gave decent impressions, heat camera to check heating, showed running with a mouse directly connected and on a monitor. Compared to similar devices like Aya Neo.

Now recently another YouTube channel just exposed the retro game selling market. Which I remember IGN used to astroturf for some of these companies that have been involved in the retro game selling market. Why would a bigger company like IGN that has more resources be stupid enough to astroturf for retro game selling market but a smaller YouTube channel can expose them.
 

MacReady13

Member
Agreed with the above- it's all political now and pushing one's agenda over actual news on games. People think I'm the old man yelling at clouds but give me the old days of gaming over today's fucking bullshit. I used to love getting the latest magazine's when I was younger. Now I come to forums like this for my gaming news. There are NO good gaming sites anymore (well, none that I know of) that actually discuss games as fucking gamers!
 

Pejo

Member
Gaming journalist is an outdated job that isn't necessary anymore with the internet. They were great back when I was reading monthly mags, but now it's all gone to trash. I haven't given a single gaming "journalist" website a click in years. I would hope that they all die out sooner than later, which I think will be good for the industry.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Lots of people leave school convinced they have what it takes to earn a living from a creative career. They are competent writers, artists etc. but nothing special. Probably above average but never spectacular.

They leave college/school with dreams unfulfilled falling into their career path. Still harbouring the delusion that they can make it big if they had time/motivation/energy.

Sites now take advantage of people like this who can bash out a readable 600-1000 words for $15/$20 but who also get the chance to say they are now published. The writers then use this outlet to inject what they really want to write about and bleed personal passions into their articles. Hence the laughable political takes, or maudlin blog entries or the preachy nature of them.
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
Why a gaming website put together by non-journalists need to have journalist s? IGN can be whatever it want to be. They don't own gaming anything.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Because tits sell ad revenue

DzZDp5DUUAAWTqu.jpg
 
Ask why you all keep going back to those sites. They obviously don't give a fuck and are destroying the industry. Why do you think you NEED them? Do reviews and news HERE. Most of you actual gamers are 100x more qualified to do their job, so post your news and reviews here.
 
Last edited:

AmuroChan

Member
Real journalism don't get clicks. IGN many years ago used to do long-form articles like the history of Naughty Dog. That's a 10,000+ word article with numerous first-hand interviews that took months to write. That article probably got as many clicks in its lifetime as what a typical IGN article today (that took 5 minutes to write) gets in 1 hour. It's just simple economics. The ROI on real journalism on a site like IGN is just not profitable. That's not what people go to IGN for these days.
 

Mess

Member
There is no such a thing as a "game journalist". But I guess it has a better ring to it than game blogger.
 

Fbh

Member
Because no one wants to pay for it.
Sites like IGN are expected to be free and as such their business model has shifted towards maximizing clicks.

Spending weeks or possibly months working on some in depth journalistic work doesn't make sense when you can just have someone put together a "top 10 games we want to see at gamescom" article in an hour and probably get 10X the clicks.
 
Last edited:

YukiOnna

Member
IGN, Gamespot, Eurogamer, etc. Use to have some decent articles, features, interviews, coverage, etc. that kept having me return, but that's died off now and become less and less relevant. I browse through those sites pages and there's nothing of interest anymore. The Opinion pieces are so simple and barely worth generating discussion over. It's also why I lament E3 being phased out because it doesn't give reason for them to focus on an event for the season or work out more post E3 interviews, etc.

But this is also why Kotaku gets so much attention due to their clickbait style "articles" that always generate a reaction over something insightful and well researched.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Look man, sites like IGN, Gamespot, Polygon and all those turds are 100% dependent on advertisements and advertorials.

Their business model is generating as many clicks as possible without annoying any advertiser, thus the result is extremely shallow coverage that is just a whole bunch of nothing.
 

Drew1440

Member
Journalism in general has devolved into: is xyz racist/sexist/systemic?
YouTube is sadly the way to go, and even then you have to be really selective with the channels you subscribe to, too many are slaves to the algorithm.
 

laynelane

Member
My impression of IGN and other sites like it is they're more about clicks and ad money than integrity and journalism. There doesn't seem to be any love for the hobby there at all. It's just a business solely focused on profits. It's their prerogative, of course, but that's the main reason I no longer look for news from IGN or even visit their site.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
What constitutes an actual gaming journalist?
Is this one of those why dont gaming developers have Game Design degrees things?
Because tits sell ad revenue

DzZDp5DUUAAWTqu.jpg

^Actually has a Journalism and Entertainment Degree.

Most of the contributors to IGN the ones who people know know have done their four years and are interested in gaming (probably the most important thing).
IGN also has really talented editors already so even as a contributor you know someone will be over your shoulder if you arent yet a level 20 journo.
And "freelance" contributors either also have degrees or became contributors on merit.


  • Ryan Macaffrey IGN - Has a Journalism Degree
  • Miranda Sanchez IGN - Has a Journalism Degree
  • Tina Amini IGN - Has a Media, Culture and Communications Degree
  • Lucy O'Brian IGN - Has a frikken Masters
  • Casey DeFri IGN - Has a Mass Comm Degree.
  • Sydnee Goodman IGN - Has a Human Biology degree.....wait what? Ohh yeah she got there on merit.
I could keep going and going but anyone who has followed IGNs podcasts or "the talent" will know that most of them are legit.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
One word - money.

I worked for a game site where I worked for free but got paid in games. Its very common.

Usually the leader on the site gets money, where in the end he gets a shit salary for the amount of work he does.
 

junguler

Banned
why do you even care about gaming sites tho? when was the last time they actually mattered? access is all they have which is also given to normal youtubers and streamers which are infinitely more knowledgeable about these things anyway.
 

Arsic

Gold Member
Like others have said, its all about money. The easiest click shit is what they pump out. Gotta keep the doors open.

With YTers and Twitch streamers becoming far more important for game coverage, impressions, etc they really can't compete day in day out for views and impressions.

I'll gladly take IGNs current state over Kotaku. Those guys 100% low tier goblin click Bait articles and the titles. They will post the same article 3 times in a day to their Twitter to keep getting impressions and clicks. It is desperate as all fuck.
 
They are all bloggers. I think there is only one actual Uni educated "journalist" in the business and I think that's Ryan McCaffrey at IGN but he got caught on Crowbcat's Cyberpunk video for doing that wonderful stuff those people got caught on.
 

MiguelItUp

Gold Member
All while there are still people that treat their reviews like they're tried and true. It's baffling.

why do you even care about gaming sites tho? when was the last time they actually mattered? access is all they have which is also given to normal youtubers and streamers which are infinitely more knowledgeable about these things anyway.
That's how I've always felt about it. I used to go to IGN to read reviews and previews many moons ago, but when Game Trailers was born, I went there instead. Because at least then I could see actual gameplay while the game was being reviewed. It just felt... better to me. I didn't care about the numbers themselves, just wanted to see the game in action, while curious to know what they thought about it.

As YouTubers and Twitch grew and Game Trailers died, I decided to go to them to see a game being played and reacted to in real time. At least with these folks there's proof that they actually played the game. As opposed to "game journalists" that have admitted to reviewing titles that didn't even complete or really put a dent in. But some how people still praise their opinions as fact. It's wild.

The icing on top is how majority of the big outlets nowadays just pander and blast political and social issues that feel very out of place. It still blows my mind that people give them clicks.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Is IGN actually popular? Seems like it has been over 5 years since I have even looked up a critical review. Usually the only time I see reviews is when people are bitching about the review on here. It is all user reviews or youtube videos these days.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I feel like the people who host it now don’t actually care about the content they deliver. I don’t have bad things to say about Max or Brian, but it’s like they have gotten kinda tired of the content. The “attractive women” leave after a while to pursue other interests, so it’s just not all that exciting. They’re trying to pursue the target audience and that in and of itself can be obnoxious to someone who has grown up with game sites since the 90’s.

The whole thing of “creating content just because you’re a gaming site” just isn’t interesting to me anymore. I STILL DO enjoy gaming news. It’s just bits and pieces. Sometimes all I really need to do is read the headlines and move on. It takes me back to G4 when Olivia Munn use to make jokes about MGS4. How easy was it to make a joke about it being a movie? You didn’t even have to play it. It was just her position at the time. Now a days do you think those jokes matter? They’re not even funny anymore. I think gaming can burn itself out. That is until everyone is sorta called back in with an exciting game or a new announcement. Otherwise it feels like digging in a canyon for gold.

Outside of my own opinion - their YouTube has like 20+ million subs and they get Google hits for anything new in the world of gaming. So yeah, I think they are probably doing just fine.
 
Last edited:

Optimus Lime

(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Because consumer reviews are superfluous in the age of the internet. You just don't need strangers to tell you what to play, see, listen to, or read anymore. 'Reviews' are an absolute waste of time, when I can go and watch videos, listen on Spotify, or watch on Netflix.

So, their business model changed. It changed to 'bald men with beards and women with blue hair, side cuts, and their tits out opining on left wing politics because that's Doing The Work oh and by the way video games'.

I'll stick to anonymous Youtube videos of gameplay, thanks. Commentary off, preferably.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
They are shills and propaganda. IGN is a shell of its former self. I was never too much of a fan, but they did have guys like Jeremy Parish, Matt C, Anoop etc. Those were actual gamers. Its sadly a bygone era. Its not about games anymore. Its about mass consumerism. About promoting Fortnite gear to kids, virtue signalling them also. And why do all those sites look so terrible and lifeless today? They are bloated with huge pictures and captions.

And its really sad, all this virtue signalling and propaganda. Its the reason I stopped following Easy Allies also. I was a long time fan, since GT in fact. But this shit I don't allign with. There isn't much left. I don't read reviews anymore, I don't follow scores much either. Ask me what RE Village got on average and I honestly don't know, it was received well and I loved it myself but thats all I know. I mostly YT some footage of a game i'm on the fence about, watch a few mins, some gameplay and mechanics, and then decide.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
There's no journalism for games.

Hobby sites can't afford to piss off anyone and serious media will laugh at the idea of publishing anything about videogames that isn't a scare-the-parents story.
 
Top Bottom