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@Errol - I don't care that HHG is popular. With all due respect to Williams, I'm not sure whether he's actually that popular because unlike the other figures I pointed to whom I came to know from people recommending their work or inviting them onto to shows I followed because of host valuing their opinions, the only reason I'm even aware of HHG's existence is people constantly complaining about him .
What I'm criticizing for someone that says he takes his work so seriously is how open you're leaving yourself to not being taken seriously by making this so personal. There was a really great article somewhere in the title that got completely buried in your ongoing need to decry how disrespected you feel by someone you blatently disrespected yourself. Again, I don't defend HHG's reaction at all but if some other person in this field calls me "b*tch" or something equally offensive because I didn't do somethng they wanted they shouldn't expect me to acknowledge their existence. And they've certainly lshouldn't expect me to respect them requesting let alone seemingly demanding something of me later down the road. Trust that it's going to take some legwork from that person and probably a mandate from someone signing my paychecks before there will be anything "friendly" between us, competition or otherwise.
I get why you're upset with him. I also completely get why he would want nothing to do with you and he's as justified. The only thing you deserve of him as probably an apology and you owe him one yourself. Past that, get on with your life and career. I don't have to tell you to be "on his nuts" as you put it because you're there already. I'm asking you to hop off already. Since Dennis's first article on the guy, you've been jumping on Williams not about anything presented in the article and everything to do with you not getting your battle. You spent nearly all but the last paragraph of this article not addressing stereotypng and where Williams may play on in on that and instead chronicling your why you're bitter toward the guy. And as talented as you are, it's a waste.
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First, you seriously come off like a jlted lover. Not that Williams's own actions in certain spots are particularly worth defending, but there's no maybe in your case. You were out of line and overreacted, you really don't get to dictate the response, and this continued crusade against him over you being bitter he won't play wth you is an embarrassing case of the pot calling the unprofessional, stereotypical kettle black.
Second, there is a lack of African-American voices in the games press that has troubled me ever since really taking a serious look at it as something I may want to look into back in 2006. I'd be lying through my teeth to say I'm not somewhat conflicted by Williams. But I'm more troubled if not offended at this notion just because he found his lane and avenue of success it's this notion his success is some indicator that being a stereotype is the only way in considering two of people I've looked up to since getting into this are the furtherest thing from.
I'd like to think I don't even have to even explain what N'Gai Croal has been as a voice in the games press. And even starting his consulting company Hit Detection, he still writes and makes appearences offering his point of view. I don't think Jeff Haynes is in the press anymore but he had his tenure in the editorial staff at IGN heading their Playstation and later PC teams back when that was the structure there. There's also Latoya Peterson and Naomi Clark whom I met and interverewed with Croal back at SXSW whom probably aren't looked upon as games press primarily, but have offered their thoughts on the industry speaking or in writing as well. There are other models to look at past how Williams rose into the place he holds today.
You don't have to like the guy. You certainly could stand to get over yourself and move on as opposed to looking like someone that wants to make a name off of his name. There's a place for him just as there has been room for Croal and Haynes. There will be room for others that may either take jobs at established outlets or create their thing as Williams did.
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Chris, not all journalism is hard news. Bear in mind probably half a newspaper is actually hard news and most of the rest of are news features, sports entertainment and life & arts reporting. Soft news. It's still journalism. Those people stiil get honored at just as the front page wth journalism awards.
Moments like Patrick Klepek broke the news of what was going on at Infinity Ward, that's as close to hard news as often usually gets reported. And bear in mind, while most fans like to hide from this fact, video game journalism is business journalism as much as entertainment journalism. I've worked an job that had me dealing with multiple international and Americanl newspapers and you're more likely a story about this industry n the business section than entertainment. For all the griping about people outside the industry not respect gamers and the industry, a lot of people in the community do a real bang-up of of themselves framing wanting to frame the games press as just "enthusiast" and run from people examining it as the billion dollar business that it actually is.
Also, many people in this industry don't demand that. Actually I've witnessed people for whom their careers are mostly built on reviews and previews and that aspect of this part of the media refuse to call themselves journalists. But if you're out doing what Leigh Alexander and many others have been doing in doing investigative work, I think you have the right to be acknowledged as such. There's nothing pretentious about that.
I think what remorse I've had about reviewing in the past has less to do with what's written here and has a lot more wth other things. One, as I was covering games at The Daily Texan years back, there was some stuff that just never ran because there was the issue of a lack of space. Part of me never really liked having someone take the effort to send us games and them never getting reviewed or a review not running. Then again the one's that never ran weren't particularly good nor high profile either. Wasn't my decision a lot of them time not being an editor. I actually bumped heads with editors over it as I essentially took on a de facto video games editor role but had no control of what went on even if by our measure of website the video game content was by far some of the most read content we published. But the other editors had their own pet interests so I was handcuffed.
I also think early on, I was significanly more lenient on certain games than I would be now if I actually hadn't soured on the entire reviews process. I was pretty light on Dirge of Ceberus and there were some more objective technical critisisms I just don't think I was experienced enough in criticism to point to. Then again, I was also for all intents not writing for possibly as hardcore an audience as IGN or 1UP. But I tend to look back on my period as a reviewer with some remorseful feeling just because I feel I was way too green in retrospect.
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I actually tried writing this comment about three or four times and ultimately just to avoid posting a long, possibly unintentionally offensive rant I'll just say I'm less prone to respecting the endless complaining about him finding his own lane and more prone to respecting the people in this sector of the entertainment medium whom are actually busy producing the 40% of content that resembles actual journalism on a level beyond what's comes out of Super Bowl media day.
True, Mike, but I think a lot of that idea is rooted in the perception many of the sequels don't push fresh ideas the way sequels in the past may have. That may be looking back with rose-colored glasses and thinking ever sequel progress like Mario or Zelda, but I think that's where it comes from.
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Metacritic is absolutely useless to me and is often leveraged in in the business of games I'm not too comfortable with. From complaints I've read and heard from editors, it also seems to have a history of not particularly showing actual respect to the meanings of certain site's actual scales. If it ceased to exist tomorrow, I'd personally feel the world better for it.
But that's one person's view and it's existence doesn't require my value of it. I know plenty of people that do. I have the bias as a writer of believing the words of a review should bear more than a review score if one even needs to exist. I have friends that aren't writers and frankly they just want to know if something is universally liked. If a problem arises or they catch some issue later on, they'll look up more information on it later.
Is it limiting? Absolutely. Can you miss a diamond in the rough of you don't catch it by word of mouth? Sure. Then again, the only people I've known with the time to play most everything that comes out during a year are students, unemployed or work in the games press. Even then, most of those people have a fairly sizeable backlog. So if you're only going to buy five games a year, I can't really blame you using a tool that might save you from Tony Hawk's Ride if you don't have the time to read a Gamepro or EGM or visit 1UP or IGN and read every other review that get published.
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@Rob Honestly, I've never so much questioned whether the big players were out of idea so much as if they are scared to support any. Any time I've spent talking to developers it seems the ideas are out there. Just always seems publishers are gun shy. Then again, I also have to consider the side I've talked to.
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When on earth did Spike ever become the #1 outlet for entertainment? And what of Spike have you seen done classy? Have you seen the Guys Choice Awards? Yeah, this really is a network that strays ups the class level.
I don't spend my time losing my lunch over the Spike VGAs because I know what to expect from a Spike show. It And as much as I'd like to see something more along the lines of what happens at D.I.C.E. or GDC, those don't make for compelling television at all as they are. I attended the GDC Online Awards. Good, classy ceremony that would have to be needless padded to go on the air.
ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd uses the saying if you're going to complain, you better have a solution. For all of the whining about the VGAs this time of year ever year, rarely does anyone offers up the fix that solves the problem of a video game awards ceremony as a television program. And remember, the part of the Grammy's, Academy Awards, Tony's and any other major awards ceremony that we see is produced as a television program. There's a reason the ratio of trophies handed out to musical performances has gradually declined at the Grammy's over the past 15 or so year after ratings started to dip.
Want to be represented in a better fashion, great. But the endless griping about everything while rarely having tangilble solutions or actions the gaming community does year round goes a hell of a lot further to prove stereotypes than what damage Spike does with a couple hour show in which I've never spoken to a non-gamer that pays attention to its existence.
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You know no less than I do. I'm a shameless Sonic apologist.
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@Errol All due respect, him not doing business with you is a rather weak justification for calling a person a phony. Comes off a little bitter. If there's anything I've picked up in a lot of my time post-college is not to business with just anyone with an proposal or idea. Now that I'm in process of pitching and pre-production of a video game show, to be honest I'm very reluctant to deal with anyone concerning it I don't know on some level and trust. And I have no status. Depending on how you're approaching him, I can easily see a scenario in which he might have blocked you.
That all said, I don't know you or him personally and can vouch for either of you being real or phony. You could be totally on point on the guy. But you're coming off a little greasy going at anyone's credibility with that as the basis of the charge.
The Davisons just make anything better.
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