I’m sure that by now you’ve noticed that games these days are being shaped by what how the media, particularly by gaming journalism. After the reaction to Sekiro’s difficulty and other indie games been blasted for their different takes in story-telling, one has to wonder if gaming is still as free as we all like to think?
I’m here to argue that the gaming scene, much like current main media is starting to get influenced by the voices of some of the gaming journalist who are on this pathological warfare to ensure that the games of tomorrow are made in their ideology of what they consider “progressive” in today’s climate.
As you know, I’m an advocate for freedom of expression and freedom of speech. So when I hear that these gaming journalist of today are constantly & subjectively bashing on games that don’t fit their ideology as opposed to looking at them from an honest and fair objective manner, it bothers me greatly. This is not how you obtain true progress. Take this for an example, Intel is currently working on an AI that will proactively filter and ban toxic behaviour online.
Now the cause is honorable no doubt, but how exactly do you measure toxicity in online gaming? To me, this screams of dangerous censorship that can proof to be a massive problem in the future. Today, the AI’s stopping someone from hurling insults online, tomorrow its censoring opinions. There’s no way to really use technology to fight the darkside of human nature. Also, tea-bagging as started to be tied in to toxic behaviour so where do you draw the line.
Then you have journalist that attack game’s narratives and stories, all under the guise of inclusion and diversity. Listen, I’m all about that diversity, but this is not how to do it and it will never work. All you’re doing is creating a resistance that will only grow more and more before they’ve hard enough and fight back.
Some stories simple can’t include EVERYTHING! That’s something that people will need to understand. If you wan’t a particular story told, you gotta make the effort to create it. Yes you can ask those that have the ability to make games to include something, but when you start to demand it, that’s not the way.
Games are undeniably being shaped by what current climate of journalism and it’s clear that they have no intention of stopping this toxic crusade.
Creativity in gaming is been affected and it’s not for the better. Sometimes it works and we get some great games, but most of the time you can feel game that’s forcing an agenda down your throat, whether it’s gameplay mechanic, story or both, all in an effort to avoid being badly reviewed or being offensive. That’s how I interpreted what’s happening these days. I mean, take one look at social media and you’ll see what I mean.
