Write What You See

[GameBanshee News]

An interesting piece on Next Generation from N'Gai Croal urges journalists to actually write down what they see. A novel take.

And while I stand by that point, it’s not the entire truth – it’s not as simple as saying that videogames have been too optimistic and should now become pessimistic instead. There’s more to it.

In my early days as a videogame journalist, when all I had to go on was my knowledge of film and theatre, it was Bungie who taught me that the design document doesn’t correspond exactly to a film script; where a director can take a shooting script and shoot it, a game designer operates in a state of constant evolution. It was Neversoft who, when I asked how they knew that the control scheme for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater would be so intuitive, looked at me quizzically before answering that they tested it and made changes to it over and over again.

But that still doesn’t capture the problem. The challenge that faces those of us who would preview games is not simply that their creative process is iterative, but that we’re often shown these games during that iterative process rather than during the process of refinement, which is when, say, movies might be first shown at a test screening or during a film festival. It would be like looking at early drafts of a script and asking a film reviewer or theatre critic to predict how the film or play will turn out. This is why most artists who work in other media don’t show journalists their work in progress, and when they do, it’s often to preview writers who are neutral or positive about what they see.

[Tricky]

I see.. I see.. I see a fat payment from my advertising client, an invitation to a press meeting accompanied with a fancy dinner at a five star restaurant, a free game and someone who almost certainly doesn't look entirely just like Peter Molyeunx's long lost twin brother. See, now that wasn't so hard.