Apologies to start off with a sensationalist title as if I were a tabloid newspaper, but alarm is the appropriate response. The fact is that we, the consumers of games, are no longer getting opinions we can rely upon. Taken a look at IGN on youtube recently? The fact is that there is disproportionate coverage of the games made by the companies that IGN is being sponsored by opposed to those it isn't. Even more worrying, it was recently noted that game journalism companies make money through advertising games than they do by actually selling their own magazines and posting online articles. If this were the case with a newspaper as we've seen with News International, there would be a furore, but the problem is that there is a difference between new pundits and the gaming community: maturity.
Say what you like about gaming being an immature hobby, but the fact is that it's no more immature than a great deal of the people who partake in it; a simple look at comments on Battlefield or Call of Duty articles and forums is enough to see the kind of rampant fanboyism that serves no-one except the developers. And now that so-called journalists are not only taking part in these purile arguments, but they're also fueling the fire by deliberately spiting players of competing franchises. This is fundamentally wrong: we should be relying on journalists to give us balanced opinions, not whip up teenagers into a frenzy in a similar manner to poking the bieberhive.
But never fear, because for one bad turn, enthalpy demands there be a good one, and we are going to see the release of DLC to patch Mass Effect 3's ending to something more palatable. This was seemingly decided after a great deal of well laid out and argued discussion on behalf of those gamers who are less articulate and fall into the raving mob variety. The fact is that gamers have a great deal of consumer power: millions can be lost if players embargo a game, and with the expansion of gaming into astronomical sales figures, (Modern Warfare 3 alone being the largest entertainment release in recorded history), we need to be more vocal than ever. Go directly to the developers with complaints, and don't go to the journalists. Rely on online reviews, such as those by TotalBiscuit and others with more balanced opinions rather than the journalists who we can no longer rely on for anything other than fanboy prodding, or even better, form your own: God knows there are enough demos out there for you to try hundreds of games before you purchase. Remember that nothing earns more money for the industry than mindless fanboyism, and if they earn more money for delivery poor quality products because no-one is willing to stand up for better plot or gameplay despite their love for a franchise, then there is no incentive to improve the games we enjoy.
Keep it sane, and see you on the battlefield.
