My goodness! You've found the secret solution!
It's clickbait garbage with little to no actual value and it's annoying because it fills my goddamned news/youtube/twitter feeds because that's what they're trying to get me to go to.
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Now Game of Thrones is over, what will videogame websites do for content? - Jim Sterling
- Thread starter Gowans
- Start date
It's clickbait garbage with little to no actual value and it's annoying because it fills my goddamned news/youtube/twitter feeds because that's what they're trying to get me to go to.
Even smaller outlets are branching out covering Marvel stuff and popular media outside of video games.
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Jim is spot-on, I mean, look at the Polygon front page. One article about an actual video game, two if you count the Elder Scrolls mini game.
Pretty much every website that was once about videogames has become some kind of generalized outlet for "geek" stuff, and usually just mainstream geek stuff like GoT and Marvel movies.
There's a lot of room for these sites to get out of the daily news cycle of videogame reporting and do things like studies on retro games, longer pieces on companies, maybe a look back at the GoT Telltale game and tabletop RPG if they really want to tie in with the current zeitgeist. But that takes more effort and isn't as easy as churning out an 800-word quick hit piece on reactions about the show's finale, so this is what we get.
Pretty much every website that was once about videogames has become some kind of generalized outlet for "geek" stuff, and usually just mainstream geek stuff like GoT and Marvel movies.
There's a lot of room for these sites to get out of the daily news cycle of videogame reporting and do things like studies on retro games, longer pieces on companies, maybe a look back at the GoT Telltale game and tabletop RPG if they really want to tie in with the current zeitgeist. But that takes more effort and isn't as easy as churning out an 800-word quick hit piece on reactions about the show's finale, so this is what we get.
I remember this sort of thing being a huge pet peeve of mine back when I still browsed IGN. They had filters for each of the major consoles, for movies, for series, but not a filter simply for "video games". It was basically impossible to browse for all gaming news without the pop culture stuff.
Now that i think of it, this is the main reason why I stopped going there.
(I still listen to some of their podcasts, especially Game Scoop.)
Now that i think of it, this is the main reason why I stopped going there.
(I still listen to some of their podcasts, especially Game Scoop.)
lol this is ridiculous.Jim is spot-on, I mean, look at the Polygon front page. One article about an actual video game, two if you count the Elder Scrolls mini game.
Pretty much every website that was once about videogames has become some kind of generalized outlet for "geek" stuff, and usually just mainstream geek stuff like GoT and Marvel movies.
There's a lot of room for these sites to get out of the daily news cycle of videogame reporting and do things like studies on retro games, longer pieces on companies, maybe a look back at the GoT Telltale game and tabletop RPG if they really want to tie in with the current zeitgeist. But that takes more effort and isn't as easy as churning out an 800-word quick hit piece on reactions about the show's finale, so this is what we get.
The push towards covering geek media on previously games-centric websites is about survival. You go where the eyeballs are, especially if there's audience crossover. You think websites are doing this because people...aren't clicking? I don't think that puts into "clickbait" insomuch as you're serving the broader interests of the community who came to your website for, initially, video games, and now views you as a more general interest geek portal.
Polygon isn't only a video game site...Jim is spot-on, I mean, look at the Polygon front page. One article about an actual video game, two if you count the Elder Scrolls mini game.
Pretty much every website that was once about videogames has become some kind of generalized outlet for "geek" stuff, and usually just mainstream geek stuff like GoT and Marvel movies.
There's a lot of room for these sites to get out of the daily news cycle of videogame reporting and do things like studies on retro games, longer pieces on companies, maybe a look back at the GoT Telltale game and tabletop RPG if they really want to tie in with the current zeitgeist. But that takes more effort and isn't as easy as churning out an 800-word quick hit piece on reactions about the show's finale, so this is what we get.
i dont think theres anything wrong with it. theres probably a large intersection between the audiences of games and tv shows. and we are going through a dry spell in gaming right now, soooo.. why not talk about some game of thrones
Also, in our increasingly interconnected pop-culture landscape, it's difficult to draw a solid demarcation line between gaming and non-gaming content without limiting yourself in the future. All of this is a side-effect of games leeching into everything associated with popular entertainment. Netflix is at E3 for gods sake and they're making things like Bandersnatch which resembles video games as much as traditional TV.
Cross media coverage isn't just about opportunity, it's also getting more impossible to avoid.
I mean, I can't blame IGN or any other site to post a lot about GoT. It was a big thing. But yeah, that's a LOOOOOT of GoT.
Opening a video game website and finding Game of Throne snippets plastered all over the landing page is very unpleasant, I closed these sites instantly.
If I wanted TV content, I would visit sites which are dedicated or generalized for it and not a video game website.
But on the other hand, I understand the need for monetization so that sites or even youtubers (like even Angry Joe!) can continue to provide us with specialized video game content down the line.
Thank goodness that when I open up the Gaming Forum area of ResetERA and only find this thread about Game of Thrones on the first page, I respect the community/moderators for maintaining it.
If I wanted TV content, I would visit sites which are dedicated or generalized for it and not a video game website.
But on the other hand, I understand the need for monetization so that sites or even youtubers (like even Angry Joe!) can continue to provide us with specialized video game content down the line.
Thank goodness that when I open up the Gaming Forum area of ResetERA and only find this thread about Game of Thrones on the first page, I respect the community/moderators for maintaining it.
You're being
intentionally obtuse here. Yes they cover video games. They also cover other "nerd" pop culture stuff. Doesn't mean they're strictly a video game site. Just like PS4 isn't strictly a video game console. You can also buy and watch movies and TV on it. Listen to music on it. It's an entertainment console
Right about what? Another obvious statement that anyone with two eyeballs and basic comprehension skills can understand?
There's no issue here. "Video game websites" have always covered more than strictly video games. Even Era has a section for things other than video games, and it calls itself a video game community. Video games are a part of the larger nerd culture, which includes movies and tv shows such as game of thrones.
Yeah, I don't know if anyone else here knows what I'm talking about, but there was an article a few days ago talking about how completely unprepared many big sites are for the coming demise of Game of Thrones and the lack of guaranteed income they were counting on for years on the past. There's no real substitute on the Horizon - doesn't matter if you were a video game website, a food blog, a fitness guide: Game of Thrones always worked and seemingly everyone in the media landsacpe made use of it.
This doesn't happen just because video game editors are such huge GoT nerds. These article bring in a lot more views and with it money than your typical video game news.
I hate doing this as I think modern day journalism has gone down the crapper in not just gaming news but news in general, but news outlets have no choice but to play to the algorithms at this point.
With Social Media trying to "assume what you want to see" and automating things so much unless you use click bait or outrageous titles you won't even get clicks (or be seen to get clicked on in general). Hell I can't even get notifications on the artists and friends I put specifically at the top of my FB lists when I go out of my way to make them show up, but boi I'll see the 10th ad for the same stupid mobile game or see the same article a website has published for 4 days.
I've seen lots of good articles fly completely under the radar to make way for the 10th repost of the last controversial post Kotaku made because it gets clicks. On top of that smaller creators can barely get noticed as social media sites get more and more friendly with advertisers and bigger names forcing smaller names to pay more just to be seen by even the people who follow that content creator specifically.
It's no wonder everyone's resorted to going all hyperbole and clickbait on the topic of the week when if you don't you're hemorrhaging revenue. It shouldn't be that way but unfortunately that's how it is in my eyes.
With Social Media trying to "assume what you want to see" and automating things so much unless you use click bait or outrageous titles you won't even get clicks (or be seen to get clicked on in general). Hell I can't even get notifications on the artists and friends I put specifically at the top of my FB lists when I go out of my way to make them show up, but boi I'll see the 10th ad for the same stupid mobile game or see the same article a website has published for 4 days.
I've seen lots of good articles fly completely under the radar to make way for the 10th repost of the last controversial post Kotaku made because it gets clicks. On top of that smaller creators can barely get noticed as social media sites get more and more friendly with advertisers and bigger names forcing smaller names to pay more just to be seen by even the people who follow that content creator specifically.
It's no wonder everyone's resorted to going all hyperbole and clickbait on the topic of the week when if you don't you're hemorrhaging revenue. It shouldn't be that way but unfortunately that's how it is in my eyes.
I don't think the disappearance of Game of Thrones is going to suddenly sink a bunch of websites. They did OK during the two years it was off the air, after all. It's valid to wonder if there will be some ebb after the flow of Endgame/Game of Thrones, but more than likely people will want to read about SOMETHING, and the pivot will happen naturally. I'm just frustrated at the casual reaction to stuff like this. If they exclusively focused on games news, these sites might not exist? As someone that writes about games and publishes games news on a daily basis, I know the numbers. They're not great.
I don't know, only learned about this because of this thread. Doesn't seem like a real issue.
Certainly didn't stop Era users from bringing the news to this forum, which is how I follow them.
Certainly didn't stop Era users from bringing the news to this forum, which is how I follow them.
I think the problem is if you check these websites for gaming news. It makes harder for people to read gaming news when your homepage is basically just Game of Thrones.
I basically evade this by only reading sites where this doesn't happen, but it feels a bit like mainstream gaming media will end up hurting the visibility of anything non-AAA when a lot of their site is MCU/GOT and only the biggest games out there can compete with it. Makes for a less diverse industry.
I don't mind stuff like EZA having one GOT video every now and then, I just don't watch it and watch their other content. But they aren't a news outlet, I think that's the difference. I wouldn't get my sports news from a site that would post so much about TV series as well as I don't want to get gaming news from sites with so much TV/movie content.
I don't think the article was framed like it will lead to the disappearance of said website, just that the lack of a golden goose like GoT, a topic that almost guaranteed traffic no matter the field you were writing for, could take away one of the few reliable sources of income that isn't plain old SEO'd garbage. It's frustrating I can't seem to find it anymore :/
I completely agree with your point, however. When talking about editorial choices, audiences seem to completely forget about their own role and that an outlet's main task is, to a certain degree, produce content its audience is interested in. A few years ago I researched a piece on Kickstarter and Crowdfunding in general and why public interest seems to've been lower at that point that at its inception. Game Developers told me it's because the media just wasn't interested anymore in producing any news or previews around that kind of content because they were burned too often on bad products. After talking to a number of international outlets, the one answer I always got was way more simple: That articles about new kickstarter campaigns and unfinished crowdfunding projects in general got garbage traffic.
Most every conspiracy theory about video game journalists and why they choose to report on certain things but not other certain things are pretty easy to explain: Because those first things generates interest from the audience and those second things don't. Capitalism, ho?
(Big props for you guys' incredible output of freelance articles until you just couldn't justify it financially anymore. It seemingly didn't work out, but it was so good to see Waypoint really going for it.)
websites have to cater to these things, because being strictly about video games doesn't cut it anymore. if they were only about video games, the site would be completely dead. the only site that can slightly get by that is Giant Bomb, and that's only because they have a hardcore fanbase with a paid subscriber model that keeps them afloat.
Try A Plague Tale. It's stunning how similiar the tone and its asthetics are at times.
Yup! You'd think it was obvious but you still had to ask. I agree it's no issue, GoT is dead.
I guess that, at the end of the day, there's just more content available in the TV/Movie space than there will ever be if you focus entirely on videogames.
Holy crap, I kept scrolling and it kept going! there were only breaks because they had to put some avengers stuff in there as well.
I'm not against websites doing more than just games but we have to draw a line somewhere.
OP
OP
For me I highly curate where I get my content from, I'm interested in specific personalities options on topics of their focus.
Giant Bomb on games, Mark Kermode in Movies, Linus on tech etc. And then have focused areas to read more like here on Era and specific sub Reddit's.
I often subscribe to a bunch of sites in various forms, on YouTube, podcasts l, twitter etc.
But because I'm focused more on individuals that I understand their backgrounds the larger sites struggle as part of the issue is the thinking of "why should I care about what this person has to say".
It then further feels watered down when I feel "why am I having content on this"
Main example has been larger sites flooding my YouTube sub feed with crap(and sometimes spoilers outside of us), in wishing for a game only feed I've just unsubbed.
I get it it's hard, I'm even going to streamers now to get deeper looks at games as they have been picking up new titles and playing what's large online more than some older sources of info and content.
It's all changing, for me there is so much great content now I'm spoilt and can find it all on YouTube, twitch, podcasts, patron, here, Reddit etc that it's really easy to just cut out these sites that are un-focusing as it doesn't suit what I'm looking for anymore.
Giant Bomb on games, Mark Kermode in Movies, Linus on tech etc. And then have focused areas to read more like here on Era and specific sub Reddit's.
I often subscribe to a bunch of sites in various forms, on YouTube, podcasts l, twitter etc.
But because I'm focused more on individuals that I understand their backgrounds the larger sites struggle as part of the issue is the thinking of "why should I care about what this person has to say".
It then further feels watered down when I feel "why am I having content on this"
Main example has been larger sites flooding my YouTube sub feed with crap(and sometimes spoilers outside of us), in wishing for a game only feed I've just unsubbed.
I get it it's hard, I'm even going to streamers now to get deeper looks at games as they have been picking up new titles and playing what's large online more than some older sources of info and content.
It's all changing, for me there is so much great content now I'm spoilt and can find it all on YouTube, twitch, podcasts, patron, here, Reddit etc that it's really easy to just cut out these sites that are un-focusing as it doesn't suit what I'm looking for anymore.
Imagine going to a website named "Imagine Games Network" just to be met with a wall of articles about things other than games...
I mean, yeah, IGN has been "covering" other things for a long time, but I would be surprised if there was any significant portion of visitors that saw it as anything other than a website where they can get gaming news from...
I mean, yeah, IGN has been "covering" other things for a long time, but I would be surprised if there was any significant portion of visitors that saw it as anything other than a website where they can get gaming news from...
How? IIRC, it was literally a merging of like, 4 or 5 other strictly gaming related websites, including N64.com, Next-Generation, PSX, etc. ...
