Gamergate is about ethical
issues in video game journalism. Some people say it's about misogyny and
harassment in video game culture, and will there is misogyny and harassment
this problem is not about that, at the core of gamergate it is talking about
ethical problems in video game journalism. This all started before gamergate,
November 2007.
Jeff Gerstmann who is a video
game journalist was fired "on the spot" due to advertiser pressure
for his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Gamespot had backgrounds
and multiple banner ads all pitching Kane & Lynch. publisher Eidos
"took issue with the review and threatened to pull its ad campaign."
One of the best reviewers goes because the publisher didn’t like the review and
the website didn’t want to lose money, a very bad use of power by the publisher
Eidos.
In October 2012 Jeff Keeley
who is a Canadian video game journalist was accused of being in bed with the
video game industry and ran with a picture of a languid-looking Keeley sitting
between a Halo 4 poster and a bag of product-placed Doritos and neatly stapled
Mountain Dew bottles. It is the most important image in games journalism today.
video game journalism only
spans three it started out as a grassroots, wild and woolly, no-holds-barred
pursuit and took years to become the largely corporate-run big business we know
today. The popularization of video games and the resultant co-opting of game
journalism by large corporations hasn't been all bad. After all, it's led to
the exponential growth of the game industry and has created a world where
people openly let their freaky gamer flags fly.
In 1974 the first issue of Play Meter Magazine
was out but this was aimed at coin-op
owners, but the first real consumer video game publication in the States was Electronic Games Magazine and it the UK Computer
and Video Games in November 1981
In 1974 the first issue of
Play Meter Magazine was released but this was aimed at coin-op owners, but the
first real consumer video game publication in the States was Electronic Games
Magazine but in the UK it was Computer and Video Games, it's first issue was in
November 1981, this birth the video game reviewer.
The mid 80's saw the first
issue of the most important video game Magazine ever Nintendo Power, Nintendo
Power focused heavily on providing game strategy, tips and tricks, reviews, and
previews of upcoming games. This Magazine single handedly helped video games go
into pop culture.
In the 90's This expanded
audience of new gamers were hungry for gaming info and magazine publishers
scrambled to fill the demand without fully realizing that a new form of popular
media was quickly overtaking them the gaming website, and all if most gaming
Magazines died off including the death of Nintendo Power in December 2012
