Crossfire Craps Lightning in My Eyes (and I Love It)

@ Soleron

I like you. You seem like you have a decent head on your shoulders, unlike many of the anonymous masses on the internet. You stick to your points and even fire back with some snark of your own. Love it. Anyway, on to your points:

My "alternative title" wasn't just a title; it was a basic, boring summary of the whole article. "Neat. Look." That's even shorter, but it's boring. Or just, "Look." Even shorter. Even more boring. "Craps lightning in my eyes" is a bit crude (and even a bit gross), but it gives you an instant image in your mind. I like imagery as a writer, and I like it as a reader. Personally, I would rather click on something that says "This game will ejaculate colors straight into your cerebellum" than "This game has music and guns in it." It's more interesting to read, and it's way more fun to write.

I understand that not everyone will agree, but the only thing separating one writer on the internet from another is their voice and style. This is my voice, and to hide it behind a thin veil of objectivity would create more straightforward news, it's true, but it would give you no real commentary or insight into the headlines. "Just the facts" is what some (most?) people want out of their news. But video game news is not normal news. It's video game news. The demographic is 13-year old boys with an anime fetish (no offense to the 13-year-old boys with anime fetishes, we need you!). Why do you think Kotaku is so popular when half of the posts are Asian porn and the other half are funny game-related pictures?

The bottom line: websites - all websites - make ad revenue based on hits. "Serious journalism" in an industry based off something fun like video games does not get hits. Yes, it will have a small loyal demographic of smart gamers, but that doesn't pay the bills. We cater to the masses. We inform, but we also seek to entertain. It comes down to personal preference too. I like to read news spiced up with off-the-wall imagery, so that's how I write. Some people will like it, and some people will not like it. Unprofessional. Entertaining. Different connotations for the same thing.

Next up: our reputation. The VGC info page you are referencing is all about the charts. Our sales charts are world-known, and the only numbers available for overseas companies. NPD numbers are US-only, and not free to the public like ours are. So, we have a fair bit of recognition. The Guinness Book of World Records cites us in all their books, and I think that's really cool. But... that's just the numbers.

VGC has been providing news/features/editorials/reviews for quite awhile, but not since the site split in 3.0 have they had a spotlight to themselves. As such, we don't really have an identity yet aside from the "I'm here lookin' at the charts and ooo an interesting news article on the side!" gamrFeed is it's own entity, and we are trying to improve, really. I wholeheartedly agree that copy/pasting press releases is not news (press releases are, ya know, for the PRESS), and I am actively trying to improve things like that sitewide. However, "real (print?) media" as you put it is dying. Magazines go under all the time. Newspapers close. The internet is just so much faster and more readily accessible, and you can get news up to the second from any number of sites across the internet. When a story is first uncovered, one site will post it, and the rest of them will have it up within the day. So you find the site that has writers you like reading, or funny original videos, or serious hard-hitting interviews, and you follow it. gamrFeed will have all these things, and soon. I want to be the site that has funny stuff right next to the "real" journalism. But we won't be in Guinness. Game journalism of the future is on the internet - in forums, in blogs, on tumblrs. Video game news isn't news; it's everything that's happening fed into your mind 24/7... printed on nothing.

We DO have a long way to go. This whole "News is on the internet now OMG!" still has a long way to go. And I CAN write. If I have a serious game-related issue, I'll post about it. If I find a funny video I think people might want to see, I'll post that too. I'm a writer, and I like games. I don't seek to mislead; I seek to entertain and inform. If I find something that I'd want to be told about, it's newsworthy to me, and I'll try to bring it you my lovely readers in an entertaining manner. Sorry you weren't entertained, but... relax a bit. It's just games. It's not as serious business as people try to make it.

@nsimberg

I am not offended by the language; it is only that it makes you seem unprofessional next to actual journalism by the real media. I'm certainly not opposed to hyperbole. Your 'alternative' article title looks fine, conveys the same meaning - why didn't you use it?

And, yes, where IGN and the rest use similar language they are similarly unprofessional.

Your comment ought not to be addressing my faults as a person (which is not helping) but instead how you plan to improve your reputation in the 'old media' you value so much (The VGC info page is full of 'See how many sources have cited us!!!") without improving the quality of journalism. And I note you didn't address my other point of VGC's news consisting mostly of pasting in parts of press releases as news.

But evidently I managed to get something through to you, as you put almost as many words in that comment than in the actual article. If only you put that standard of English into the article.

Keep up the personal attacks; they're an effective distraction from actually fixing the issues.

@ Soleron:

I apologize that we have not lived up to the high journalistic standards set by other industry leaders such as Kotaku, IGN, and Destructoid, where hyperbole and slightly off-color language is apparently as common as nuns in a strip club. We'll do our best to cater to your unrealistic whims in the future, and we'll replace every instance of the word "crap" with "poo poo" or the more scientific "fecal matter" if it will change your perception of us as a disreputable video game news source.

Out of the (so far) 243 people that have clicked on this article, you are one of the four that took time out of your day to comment. We appreciate the input; I'm sure you are a very busy man that doesn't have a lot of time to waste complaining about the state of video game journalism. You may have missed the point of the article, however, so I will abbreviate it for you so as not to waste even more of your time with what you seem to think is unnecessary embellishments:

"Crossfire looks cool. Try it. Here's a video."

Thanks for reading. We look forward to more constructive criticism from forward-thinkers such as yourself in the future.

I'll check the demo out. Looks like my cup of tea.

@Soleron: Wow.

this looks pretty sweet ill download it

If you want to become a serious, respectable news source, swearing in the title (or body of the article as has happened a few times this week) is not going to help.

VGC's news team comes across as forum members who write up 'impressions' threads as news posts instead of forum posts only because it pays better. Or copy-paste press releases / other news sites' content and claiming to be doing journalism.

You've got a long way to go.

i'll check the demo