I'm ~26 hours in Hogwarts Legacy now and all the furor is really getting hilarious to me, because...it's a thoroughly average game. It has some real highlights, but it lacks a lot of polish. It's not bad--it's very enjoyable in many ways--but it's not transcendent either. It's...fine. Wired could have earnestly given it a 3/10 or a 4/10 review and I wouldn't have batted an eye; depending on how you personally value things, that would be a fair score. And doing so probably would've done more to sway people away from the game than the obviously political review they gave.
Areas of journalism that require continual access always seem the worst (sports journalism, gaming journalism, White House gossip, etc). It's a problem that I haven't the slightest idea how to resolve.
Yeah, I think one of the biggest problems with access is that there is no real way to solve it. It's both necessary and what keeps the public sometimes misinformed, uninformed, or even disinformed.
Ed, this was just a brilliant essay. Your exploration of why it’s impossible to remove bias from journalism is excellent, but I especially love your turn at the end--that it’s ok and even good for critics to argue and be wrong, just so long as they’re not serving corporate interests.
And your point about the influence of advertising on editorial content reminded me of how, in the 90s, Ms Magazine tried to reboot, but without advertising. They published an editorial listing a few of the ways advertisers could influence content, which was eye-opening to me. Much later, when my kids were little and I subscribed to Parents, I noticed that at least twice an issue there would be an article or item that urged parents to cover their kids in a shot-glass worth of sunscreen every time they went outside, and to use up a bottle of sunscreen every day. “Aha!” I thought. “I sense the hand of the advertisers in these insane recommendations!”
Sadly, the advertising-free Ms Magazine folded after a few years. Noble in its conception, though.
Thanks! And, yes, I think it's very easy to forget or ignore corporate interests in journalism, especially since the difference between an ad and reporting has become so blurred.
WHAT ABOUT ETHICS IN VIDEOGAME JOURNALI--- Oh, wait!
Interesting article. As an aside, I'm normally not a "videogames are an expression of beautiful mathematics" kind of person - my favourite games of all time being Pathologic, Disco Elysium and Sunless Sea, which are all flawed as systems, but provided me with deeply emotionally and intellectually stimulating experiences, which were sometimes fun too! - but I wonder whether a MMORPGs can ever be a great example of a videogame as art because of the world-breaking unpredictability of human beings. From old MUDs like Avalon through to WoW and pretty Japanese online games my best friend's badgered me into trying, there have //always// been regular instances of players saying or doing things that break the immersion and the elegance of the game as an aesthetic experience.
I think with MMORPG, part of the artistry is essentializing the immersion breaking aspects.
I'm going to be writing about Nathan Fielder soon and I'd say that part of the work, there, is dealing with unpredictability that threatens to shatter the artifice.
hmmm that's an interesting point - I would consider Fielder's work art and some of the best episodes of Nathan For You ('Smokers Aloud' and 'Finding Frances' in my opinion) very impressive works of art... Fielder has post-production and editing on his side when dealing with the live emergent unpredictability of people, though.
He does, but I would say that that show thrives on the unpredictability. Finding Frances itself wouldn't exist if not for the unpredictability of people because Nathan never would have learned this weird story about this alleged Bill Gates impersonator, and many of the best moments of the episode have the Bill Gates impersonator just kind of...doing weird things.
I'm ~26 hours in Hogwarts Legacy now and all the furor is really getting hilarious to me, because...it's a thoroughly average game. It has some real highlights, but it lacks a lot of polish. It's not bad--it's very enjoyable in many ways--but it's not transcendent either. It's...fine. Wired could have earnestly given it a 3/10 or a 4/10 review and I wouldn't have batted an eye; depending on how you personally value things, that would be a fair score. And doing so probably would've done more to sway people away from the game than the obviously political review they gave.
Areas of journalism that require continual access always seem the worst (sports journalism, gaming journalism, White House gossip, etc). It's a problem that I haven't the slightest idea how to resolve.
Yeah, I think one of the biggest problems with access is that there is no real way to solve it. It's both necessary and what keeps the public sometimes misinformed, uninformed, or even disinformed.
Ed, this was just a brilliant essay. Your exploration of why it’s impossible to remove bias from journalism is excellent, but I especially love your turn at the end--that it’s ok and even good for critics to argue and be wrong, just so long as they’re not serving corporate interests.
And your point about the influence of advertising on editorial content reminded me of how, in the 90s, Ms Magazine tried to reboot, but without advertising. They published an editorial listing a few of the ways advertisers could influence content, which was eye-opening to me. Much later, when my kids were little and I subscribed to Parents, I noticed that at least twice an issue there would be an article or item that urged parents to cover their kids in a shot-glass worth of sunscreen every time they went outside, and to use up a bottle of sunscreen every day. “Aha!” I thought. “I sense the hand of the advertisers in these insane recommendations!”
Sadly, the advertising-free Ms Magazine folded after a few years. Noble in its conception, though.
Thanks! And, yes, I think it's very easy to forget or ignore corporate interests in journalism, especially since the difference between an ad and reporting has become so blurred.
Excellent breadth in this essay, cheers!
Thanks!
The Caine Mutiny though!
I actually have been interested in that book for several years
I hear it won a Pulitzer!
WHAT ABOUT ETHICS IN VIDEOGAME JOURNALI--- Oh, wait!
Interesting article. As an aside, I'm normally not a "videogames are an expression of beautiful mathematics" kind of person - my favourite games of all time being Pathologic, Disco Elysium and Sunless Sea, which are all flawed as systems, but provided me with deeply emotionally and intellectually stimulating experiences, which were sometimes fun too! - but I wonder whether a MMORPGs can ever be a great example of a videogame as art because of the world-breaking unpredictability of human beings. From old MUDs like Avalon through to WoW and pretty Japanese online games my best friend's badgered me into trying, there have //always// been regular instances of players saying or doing things that break the immersion and the elegance of the game as an aesthetic experience.
I think with MMORPG, part of the artistry is essentializing the immersion breaking aspects.
I'm going to be writing about Nathan Fielder soon and I'd say that part of the work, there, is dealing with unpredictability that threatens to shatter the artifice.
hmmm that's an interesting point - I would consider Fielder's work art and some of the best episodes of Nathan For You ('Smokers Aloud' and 'Finding Frances' in my opinion) very impressive works of art... Fielder has post-production and editing on his side when dealing with the live emergent unpredictability of people, though.
He does, but I would say that that show thrives on the unpredictability. Finding Frances itself wouldn't exist if not for the unpredictability of people because Nathan never would have learned this weird story about this alleged Bill Gates impersonator, and many of the best moments of the episode have the Bill Gates impersonator just kind of...doing weird things.
"There I go... diggin' in again."
fuck Hogwarts legacy JK Rowling and anyone who helps that terf continue her trans genocide by both sidesing the issue