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HERE IS THE NEWS: IT IS BORING by Mr Biffo

17/9/2015

23 Comments

 
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So here's a thing. Those of you lovely people who have been with Digitiser2000 since the start - and we've been going for almost a year now, lest we forget - will have noticed a subtle shift in recent months. 

In short... we stopped trying to compete with the major games websites. Basically... we no longer run games news, which we were at one point trying - and mostly failing - to keep up with. 

Given that we're essentially a 1.5 man/woman operation, there was no way to compete anyway, so it was stupid of me to even bother trying. We don't have a budget outside of our Patreon/Paypal donations, and much as I'd love to do Digi2000 full-time - and short of somebody offering me a full-time wage for it - I do like my job, and I've got a responsibility to pay the bills. 

But I think Digi2000 now is more true to itself now - it was always set up to be a thing that scratched an itch for me, one that wasn't getting scratched elsewhere... get it out of my system, so my other work benefited. Digi2000 lets me write how I want to write - amuse and enlighten myself first, and hope others enjoy it too. A sharp increase in our readership over the last month suggest it's a better strategy going forward anyway.

So. Here's what I want to say: in the last week there have been several gaming news stories which have dropped my jaw with their sheer banality. Am I out of touch, or is much of what gets reported on when it comes to games just, like, really, really, really boring? 

BANAL
I mean absolutely no disrespect to any of the journalists writing for Eurogramer, or Videogamer, or IGN, or any of the other big sites in what I'm about to say...  frankly - all of the gaming portals out there usually have something worth reading (or - increasingly - watching). You've got readers to attract, and you have a duty to report what's going to get the clicks, and I get that. But - sorry - sometimes what counts as gaming news just leaves me bewildered.

Take today's big story: Naughty Dog seemed to have sort of, maybe, ish, let slip that they're working on The Last of Us 2... WELL, DUH! Really?! The Last of Us was one of the best and biggest games of recent years. OF COURSE THEY'RE WORKING ON THE LAST OF US 2...!!! The story even briefly trended on Twitter, along with the news that the moon was planning to appear this evening, shortly after the sun set.

And then there was the stunner earlier in the week that Sony has changed the name of its PlayStation Virtual Reality headset Project Morpheus (remember, it was called PROJECT Morpheus, which always indicated it wasn't going to be the final name) to - wait for it - PlayStation VR. Yes - literally the most obvious and bland name it could come up with, but probably the most logical one. 

And yet - woo-hoo! - the Twittersphere seemed to go into meltdown, and it was the top story on several websites. Is there so little else to talk about that such a nugget of utter nothing becomes a story?? Are we really that desperate to fill our quotas of clicks?!
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OUT OF TOUCH
Maybe I've been out of the loop too long. Maybe I just don't get the excitement that comes from Naughty Dog announcing something that I thought was a given, or why Sony changing the name of a thing to something more bland should get people talking. Or maybe I'm just old and cynical. 

And I really do mean no disrespect to everyone reporting those stories, or those who are interested in them. I just sometimes look across the landscape of the gaming media and it frustrates me that I have to filter through the exact same stories on different sites before I find the unique content, the stuff where the writer's personality shines through. Where they've come at the story from a different angle.

It's all words - a massive wall of similar words, on similar-looking websites, that I have to hack through to get to stuff I want to read. Like picking krill out of a blue whale's teeth.

It's partly why Kotaku is top of my bookmarks - it's completely features-led. Similarly, Rock, Paper, Shotgun does it's own thing, unashamedly. Gamesradar wisely drew other Future sites - SFX, specifically - into itself, and people like Jim Sterling and other YouTubers have brilliantly manufactured themselves as their own individual brand identity. But at the risk of sounding like the crusty fart at the dinner party, it's what I miss most about the games mags of old; personality, character, a sense of individual identity.

And that personality is there, if you dig for it. There are some great writers working in games journalism these days, but it feels like many of them are hidden away behind a duty to write the same news stories that everyone else is writing, across websites that, aesthetically, look more or less the same as one another.

Because there's so much choice now - we're dealing with games media as a global platform now, not just a UK newsstand scene - I just find myself lost when I dip into it.

SAY WHAT?
I dunno what I'm really trying to say. I suppose I just feel that so much of what's out there online, when it comes to games reporting, is white noise, and it gets exhausting trying to fight through it... more often than not I don't bother these days. Read one site, and you've read 'em  all.

It's not a criticism as such - it's my issue after all, and none of those major gaming websites need the advice of old Banquo's Ghost here. I just find my focus narrowing down - and it's little wonder that social media is now so often where people do go to get their news: if it's trending, it means plenty of people have already done much of the filtering for you.

And that's it. That's all I have to say on the issue of important gaming news. Talking of which... have you seen our list of funny stuffed monkeys...? 


FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES by Mr Biffo
  • EVERYBODY'S CHANGED THEIR MIND by Mr Biffo 
  • VIDEO GAMES: A PRIMAL INSTINCT by Mr Biffo 
23 Comments
Da5e
17/9/2015 10:43:26 am

I'd still like to see more comments on the state of gaming from Insincere Dave, though. He's so insincere!

Also: more Cyber-X, please.

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Mr Biffo
17/9/2015 10:45:36 am

Yeah - I've been trying to think of a new way to use the characters. I will ensure that we do so soon.

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Matt N
17/9/2015 10:58:35 am

This makes me think of the olde dayes, where Dominik Diamond and Patrick Moore (rest his soul) were on Gamesmaster, Violet Berlin and geezerchap (Andy Crane?) were on Bad Influence, and Zzap!64 still walked the earth. I really, really miss those days. But not Dominik Diamond so much.

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Mr Biffo
17/9/2015 11:03:20 am

Yeah, on Digi in Ye Olden Days we used to rail against the cult of personality in games mags - ironically, given that I write as "me" now - but I sort of miss it. It had its place, and made games writing more colourful, individual and personal I feel.

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David St. Hubbins
17/9/2015 11:03:09 am

You're right, so much of the news is...not really news.

I'd much rather read about someone's experience with something, than some vague details about a semi announcement which was always going to be happening anyway.

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Mr Biffo
17/9/2015 11:04:56 am

I get that they sort of have to do it, but often it seems like there's undue weight given to stories that are just a bit nothing.

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David St. Hubbins
17/9/2015 11:48:16 am

Definitely. The sheer amount that's been written about Destiny 'news' over the past year is baffling

Shish link
17/9/2015 01:13:49 pm

I hope you're not *completely* stopping the gaming news, but just limiting it to the things you think are worth writing about? I would miss the news if it goes, as I like digi's style and signal-to-noise ratio...

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Mr Biffo
17/9/2015 01:51:05 pm

No no - not at all. I'll still pluck out stuff that I think is worth commenting on (such as yesterday's GTA drama thingy).

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Euphemia
17/9/2015 01:23:09 pm

I welcome it. Most games "news" tends to be unexpurgated press releases or uncritical hype/marketing. When it's out, just let us know if you think it deserves to live in the shit bucket, or the This Is The Shit bucket.

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Col. Asdasd
17/9/2015 01:28:13 pm

Just bring back Kieron. I don't care for his disciples or imitators. In fact I resent them for falling short rather than admire them for aiming high.

Having said that, the work he did was writ large throughout Future's and the rest of the press's output at the time (and almost certainly before, but I only started reading games mags in like 1997). This was when you could pick up something as cynical and propagandist as Official Nintendo Magazine and find warm, authentic and surprisingly ribald writing stamped through the copy like a stick of rock.

I think maybe the American magazines never really had that, and the uneasy mergers between American and Brit publishing houses in the internet age has resulted in the jettisoning of that philosophy of personality-infused writing which we miss so much.

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Chris
17/9/2015 07:03:38 pm

I agree about sites needing more individualistic commentary - I'll even read the same story across different sites so long as the writing is entertaining or informative.

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ChorltonWheelie
17/9/2015 07:17:43 pm

Lets have some fun and occasionally talk about our daft hobby.

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Fettus XVIII
17/9/2015 10:38:06 pm

My interest in gaming largely fizzled out in the PS1 era. My interest in Digitiser remains undimmed. A smattering of retro stuff will always entertain me. Beyond that, do what thou wilt.

And indeed, now you've made me ponder it, I remember Morse and Pat Butcher and Snakes far more than I do any actual video games reviews.

With love,

Gallus XIV

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alan
17/9/2015 11:27:47 pm

Make me laugh and i'll keep on coming back,if it has a gaming hue then all the better.

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Lewis link
18/9/2015 10:47:08 am

Keep up the excellent work Mr B, your site is a shining beacon of daftness in a raft of mediocre gaming news.

I wholeheartedly agree with your point about Kotaku and their commitment to decent and unusual features (and in fact, I've written a few of them myself). But I understand why gaming sites need to fill their pages with any old 'news' - they need to keep content ticking over to get saps like us checking in several times a day, and short news stories are much cheaper and quicker to write than in-depth features. Opinion articles are generally cheap and quick to write, however, and I'd love to see a few more of them on Eurogamer et al. Don't just tell us the news, tell us what you think of it!

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Mr Biffo
18/9/2015 01:32:07 pm

Cheers, all. The games stuff will, of course, remain. Aside from anything else, there are a ton of game releases due between now and Christmas, and hopefully we'll be covering all those. It's a games site first and foremost. That said, I'm sort of really enjoying myself at the moment with the stupid lists - it's a continuum, so it'll evolve. I don't want the site to ever feel like a chore, though, and hopefully while I'm enjoying it you will too. I've kind of got to go where the muse takes me.

But... we've actually had our biggest two weeks ever - hits have rather gone through the roof recently. We dipped towards the end of August, around my holiday, but we've picked up the momentum we seemed to be generating at the start of last month after the Spoons article! It feels like we've turned a corner. I even got a lovely message from Danny Wallace the other day, saying he enjoys the site!

Conversely, our sponsors/donors have tailed off a bit. We've lost some Patrons, and gone down into three figures for the first time, which is a bit of a concern. I don't know if that's because a little less games stuff (actually, if you add it up there's as much games stuff as ever - it's just in there among not-totally-game-related stuff) is scaring off the hardcore. Hopefully t-shirts and whatnot will help provide a new funding stream.

As always, I can't stress enough how much I appreciate you reading, sharing, and supporting us however you can. It makes the time and effort so worthwhile.

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stef
21/9/2015 05:26:00 pm

Do you feel the coverage you have received of kotaku has helped they went mad for your spoon article, personally i found this site from your old friends GC

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Mr Biffo
21/9/2015 08:47:14 pm

Yeah, it does help to get mentioned on other sites (including Kotaku - which is nice, because I've been a fan for a while). That said, it only ever seems to give us a massive boost for a day or two, and then everything drops back down... The readership has steadily increased over the year, though - we seem to retain a few more people every time we have one of those big plugs. Twitter and word of mouth are every bit as useful.

Mr Smith
18/9/2015 06:48:13 pm

I saw some news today. The Games Media Awards nominees were announced, and Mr Biffo was not on the list.

That's not just boring news, that's rubbish news. :*(

Pffft. Cliquey cliques.

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Mr Biffo
18/9/2015 07:49:27 pm

Well... I'm not very good when it comes to cliques. Or networking. Never was alas. Awards are always a bit "in" though - even the BAFTAs, and the like. You still have to put your own work forwards for it to be considered for nomination (or someone has to do it on your behalf). Digi2000 was never, ever, going to be in with a shout even if I'd submitted it (and I did consider it for about 10 seconds). There's too much on here that's just plain nonsense, surely? And not enough proper journalism. That's not false modesty - I think Digi's ace! - but when you see who it'd be up against it's hardly the same sort of thing. There are some very worthy nominees in there though.

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Mr Biffo
18/9/2015 07:50:26 pm

PS. That said... thank you, Smithy.

Cc
23/3/2016 10:35:03 pm

Yup.
To all of the above.
Except comment 7.

Reply



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