I return to my fondness for Insert Credit, which is (was?) one of the world’s first truly honest blogs about video games– honest as in aiming only to represent the authors’ thoughts, with no advertising, no comments, no attempts to enhance credibility with appearances. The site ran a feature posted on August 21, 2003 about how to improve, or at least move forward, the dismal pseudoscience we in the industry call “game journalism”. It seems worth rereading in light of recent controversies. Writers on games that you may have heard of, if you bother to pay attention to the bylines at all, such as Brandon Sheffield, Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh, Chris Kohler, and Tycho Brahe (Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade) weigh in with personal thoughts on the matter. It’s too bad we don’t see enough of this energy shine through in the work they do for their day jobs. It probably doesn’t sell well.

Imagine there’s a company– let’s call them “Midway”– that owns a number of different restaurants, each with its own specialty. The meals these restaurants serve are getting fancier and more complex as people’s tastes grow towards the elaborate. Unfortunately, even though the preparations are more difficult and expensive to make, the price for customers doesn’t have much room to go up. This company and other restaurant-owners are concerned about this trend. It’s clear to that whole industry that everyone will need to figure out to make these extravagant productions in a way that doesn’t bankrupt them.

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Let’s think about the future for a second. You probably don’t understand the kids that make up the bulk of our audience, but I do. I call them the network MySpace remix 3.0 social generation. Unlike any other people before them, young people today like to interact with each other. They also like music. YouTube is the perfect example of whatever point it is I’m making. Everything should be online and customizable.