I was out of the loop of gaming for a good number of years, and bought a PS5 recently to jump back in.
What the heck has happened to gaming websites? A decade ago, Gamespot used to have great content and weekly videos from the likes of Kevin VanOrd, Greg Kasavin, Cam & Seb, Johnny Chiodini, Jane Douglas, Danny O'Dwyer.
Quality content like Start/Select, Skyrim Mods of the Week and The Lobby has been replaced by Tech deals, Amazon Deals, trending terms, movie buzzwords and seemingly a load of articles written by ChatGPT. IGN hasn't faired any better.
Some of these guys have gone the crowd-funded Patreon route, but are there any major sites left producing quality media like the good ol' days?
@Supern0va Push Square. It’s all you need, buddy. (Sammy, you can make my deposit in the usual account) 😜
But seriously, you’re not wrong. The big sites that used to be good resources have all collapsed under a complete misunderstanding of their fan base. Many have succumbed to fractures from within due to lack of evolution with the times, lazy reporting, politics, and corporate corruption.
I think the main issue is the explosion of online content creation. Sites that are not open to interact with their user base and evolve with their communities simply become redundant and uninteresting. I keep coming back here not only for the staff and their timely upkeep with news, but also because the users are engaged with sharing opinions and ideas.
That said, there’s still a few sites out there if you need more than what Push Square provides. VGC and GamesIndustry Biz are good sources for a lot of the newsworthy things. There’s a lot of overlap with Push Square, but sometimes they have slightly different features. Also consider checking out the products on Last Stand Media if you want more podcasting and video features, deep dives, industry interviews, etc. Even without being a patron, there’s tons of free content and a heavy PlayStation influence.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution You are not wrong and I made a comment a few weeks back to the effect of "don't change PushSq". Too many websites are now clickbait/shock orientated and people (at least I am) are now so jaded that they have turned away....or perhaps they haven't, who knows, who cares at this point.
It isn't just gaming websites though and most media in general, all imo of course.
@CaptD To be honest, some the articles on Push Square have felt very clickbait-like recently given there's a consistent narrative of "Rebirth is selling worse than Remake so that makes it a flop" which exists to spawn engagement on the site.
Granted the game may well have not reached Square Enix's expectations but their expectations have been completely absurd since Tomb Raider 2013.
@Grumblevolcano Yeah I guess you are right there although I do feel with PushSq that you know the gist of the article before you click on it and so can just avoid it (I haven't read any of those FF articles for instance) whereas some websites use a heading so vague that you click on it and read something that isn't remotely worth reporting on.
@Th3solution Yes this website does have a lot of community engagement compared to others. The (seemingly) small group of staff does convey that sense of community and genuine interest which I feel is missing these days from the big corporate sites. I guess it just costs too much to pay people a full-time job to conduct good journalism and create good video content these days when they can get the AI algorithm to create articles instead to get the clicks they need!
Even the comments section is virtually empty on the big sites, with maybe 2 or 3 comments per article. I remember seeing hundreds!
I do miss the webisode series though that were features of the old GameSpot, where they'd get suggestions and comments from the community and incorporate them into feedback, gameplay and discussion videos with developers. I was over the moon when one of my comments was read on on next weeks episode, and my question was read to a developer on live E3 coverage!
Danny O'Dwyer's NoClip series on YouTube has excellent documentaries and is well worth a watch if anyone is interested!
@Supern0va Yes, I’ve seen those empty comment sections on other sites too and wondered where all the engagement was. The fact that the writers and editors here will respond directly to questions and comments is really a unique part of the site’s overall allure. Almost every review has a comment from the reviewer that offers to answer any questions and that’s very appreciated. The site also has a fairly robust moderation process too which helps to keep it from being overtaken by trolls, bots, or just mean people in general. The moderation isn’t perfect and sometimes there’s unfortunate collateral damage, but overall it keeps things from spiraling into twitter-like anarchy. The frequenters, especially here on the forums, are mostly kind, reasonable, and insightful people of a diverse background and that’s part of Push Square’s special sauce.
I appreciate the recommendation and I’ll check out NoClip. YouTube and the internet in general is a sea of content where it is often hard to find the good stuff.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I honestly prefer Push Square and its sister sites over other gaming sites like Kotaku, which I think is maybe one of the worst places you could go to for video game news from how opinionated they are and how many controversies they have gotten into, sometimes from spreading misinformation or even having an employee there go on a racist rant and hinting at anti-Japanese violence just because Nintendo didn’t provide them a review copy of Tears of the Kingdom last year when Kotaku literally got blacklisted by them a few years ago for promoting piracy. They also seem to delve into very random things not related to gaming at all.
Even though some articles on Hookshot’s websites can be a little clickbait-y, I think one of the best parts of their sites is of course, how interactive they are with their users and audience. One of the things I always like doing on Push Square, Pure Xbox, Nintendo Life and Time Extension is chatting with others on random topics (related to video games or not) via the forums. Everyone I have met there are super friendly, and they sometimes enlighten me on topics and help me see the bigger picture on certain situations with their perspectives and opinions. The writers on the sites are kind and pretty funny too, unlike other gaming sites. There are some bad apples in the community of course, but I haven’t really seen or interacted with them.
Definitely a huge declinein gaming journalism. I just fear there's not enough money to be made, forcing so many websites to do clickbait stuff. Especially endavours like Kotaku, IGN and GameSpot, I think they're to big to be sustainable.
Quality content isn't free. I feel like there's two ways to be succesful in gaming journalism:
Be a lean and small company. Not only are you flexible to change together with the gaming landscape, but you keep costs relatively low, so you don't need huge success stories to stay viable. Being a solo YouTuber for instance.
Have people pay up front for your time. Like a Patreon or a subscription system.
But being a large website and staying consistently good is... it must be hard to have the numbers work out. I have no idea how Hookshot is doing it; hope they can stay afloat while keeping the great articles coming.
Interesting to think about. Most magazines have died out due to the instant news and ability to interact of the Internet. And now many once popular sites are kind of diversifying and largely being vehicles for press releases and aggregating news from elsewhere. Actual journalism appears to be very limited. I used to visit TheSixthAxis for many years and their content has dwindled quite dramatically, though it was noticeable that the decline went hand in hand with less reader interaction. It became very stuffy and highbrow, too. A very unattractive air of superiority, if you like. I suppose my point being that PS and the other sites under the umbrella recognise the importance of strong engagement and do a good job of keeping the readership involved. I've come and gone a lot for around 10 years or so now and while I feel like the connection has gone a little bit (to me, personally), certainly the forums are quieter, PS are doing a far superior job of maintaining a strong readership than seemingly many other sites. I particularly enjoy Sammy's takes on Asian gaming culture and while I know it's definitely not easy, I would like to read more original content. We don't see too many Soapbox articles anymore, for one. Having said all that, keep going PS.
Aftermath are great, totally worth a sub. Think that’s the way forward for sites like this, ad-based click-oriented content ultimately rewards terrible reactionary journalism.
@Kidfried Yes I think that's the case. When I think back to Gamespots old videos they had multiple cameras, professional lighting, proper intros, the works. It must have cost a fortune to keep it up.I remember one time they arranged a 'Skyrim mods of the week' live event at a pub in London where all the fans of the show got to meet up with the guys that made the show and have a drink, how's that for community spirit!
They did have a pro subscription but I guess that couldn't keep that level of quality going. What was good was that it was top tier content all under one roof/website, made by talented games enthusiasts, as opposed to media content creators. There's so much crap to sift through on YouTube these days, and half its made to feed the algorithm.
PushSquares articles are really good though, but any video stuff I guess is to too expensive to justify.
Although if they every decided to do a 20 minute news round up every week, month or fortnight I'd watch it, and pay the premium membership for the privilege!
The internet has become increasingly more corporate and consolidated over the last two decades. This is a reflection of that in the gaming space.
Push Square and its sister site Nintendo Life feel like a few of the remaining bastions of the older internet, where smaller publications were still producing high-quality original content and online social interaction wasn't all structured around gargantuan social media services.
A change in how news is covered as well as a major change in how the games industry is seen by those covering it.
Media is now competing with Youtube, Twitch and other legacy sites. Websites are also fighting Google that constantly changes how the SEO works (why everyone has pivoted to guides and why clickbait engagement is increasing even from strong legacy sites like Eurogamer).
There is also the lack of new, young journalists covering the industry (almost all of them are 35-40 years old) providing fresh perspectives.
During the 2000's and early 10's we had new blood who were energetic, had interesting voices, were optimistic towards games.
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Topic: What happened to gaming websites?
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