Sunday Thoughts: 6/12/09
I'm complaining about the standards of internet writing again...Published 06/12/2009 at 13:00 by colossalblue
I’m becoming a little bit jaded by this whole “video game writer” gig. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it immensely. I’d rather be doing it for a magazine though.
That isn’t a reflection on the staff or readers of this fine website, it’s more a genuine wish that the internet hadn’t taken the craft of writing and turned it into a race in which all the contestants, upon finishing the race, get shouted at and subjected to ill-advised and often libellous accusations.
Here’s the typical life-span of an internet based article: The story is heard-of by an intrepid young journalist wanting to make a name for himself. He (or she) looks into the source of the story as quickly as possible in an attempt to ascertain its trustworthiness. If it looks like it can be relied upon then he hastily writes it up in an attempt to get it live on the website before anyone else catches wind of the story and beats him to the punch. The story goes live.
Our protagonist has sourced, verified and written up the story before anyone else and now goes through the soul-destroying process of submitting it to a few news-aggregator sites to try to get the recognition he and his website deserves. The story gets flagged as a duplicate to the three dozen other instances that appeared in the few minutes after he submitted the original by idiot users who don’t really understand what they’re doing. Eventually it gets accepted and goes on to generate some small level of interest.
The story is then pulled apart by people commenting on the website about how it is utter rubbish or it was vaguely hinted at in an interview a month ago so it’s old news now that it has been confirmed. Many people accuse him of being under the influence of some shadowy and entirely imagined mega-corporation. Others imply that he is only publishing the story because he wants hits, as if getting hits on someone else’s website benefits him in any way other than a tiny and fleeting growth to his reputation (which poorly judged stories would actually damage).
A brave few commenting on the story have actually read and understood it. This gives our plucky young journalist hope but that is soon dashed as he notices three or four of the huge mega-sites are now running the story and not quoting a source for it. Some of them have even hurriedly paraphrased his original article. He makes tentative complaints but his emails go unanswered or receive stock-replies that don’t actually address the issue of plagiarism at all.
The following day he receives seven news tips from various sources all linking him to one of the huge sites that ran the story without quoting him as their source. People have stumbled over his story, plagiarised by a massive media group and told him he should have covered it by now.
Three weeks later the same story crops up on a blog somewhere and gets more attention from the news aggregators than his original ever did. Our hero actually has to search back through archives to confirm to himself that he had covered the story weeks earlier. He is questioning his own sanity. Upon confirming that the story is almost a month old he curses his rotten misfortune for being quick and good and honest.
Of course, this is extreme but it has happened. I know this because it has all happened to me and, as far as I’m aware, most of it has happened to various other writers here too. You don’t get this sort of mess with a magazine, they are slow and methodical and permanent. Once the magazine is printed it stands for all time as a record with a date on it that you wrote those words. You have to research properly because any errors are there for the world to pick at forever. On the internet a story is massive one day and totally forgotten the next. It encourages dishonesty and slack practices.
I’ve often been heard lamenting the curse of internet journalism so you might choose to just ignore me. I am sure that my wishing for a more honourable, accountable way of writing for the internet will not lead to anything because ultimately it’s the readers who have the final call and it’s the readers who, generally speaking, want hit-baiting, poorly written and badly researched pieces of knee-jerk rumour and propaganda. Of course almost all of them claim they dislike that sort of stuff but it’s the only thing they actually read so their actions are speaking far louder than their words.
Until the readership gets responsible I’m afraid we all have to play the same game and the best we can do is try our hardest to stand behind what we write given the brief chance we have to research it. For the foreseeable future it seems that I will just have to put up with the way things are and hope for a more intelligent future for writing on the internet. Unless anyone wants to buy a magazine I write for?
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
nofi | 06/12/2009 12:47
Wants a custom tag.
4293 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I get this all the time. For reason the internet is populated by idiots that only ‘believe’ a story if it’s on something like CVG. The irony is, of course, that by the time it’s on there it’s already done the rounds at least a few days earlier.
It won’t change though, and with aggregators like N4G attracting all manner of people this hive mind methodology is only going to propagate. Still, we’ll continue doing what we do best, and stop trying to change the world… :p
JamboGT | 06/12/2009 13:06
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428 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I read this article last week! You are too late with it…sorry…
On a serious note it is a problem for journalism in general, though I have to say “gamers” (I hate that word) are a particularly rabid bunch.
Roynaldo | 06/12/2009 13:22
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2976 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I dont entirely understand why being first matters so much, unless it is to grow egos and to gain recognition that you are fast at what you do.
A good “after the fact” blog about recent news and a well thought out review are much more (imo) important to us gamers on the interwebz to start a discussion, interact/ grow a community with.
Im probably sounding like a broken record here coz I feel ive said this many times before but you kind of brought it up at the end with : “the readers who, generally speaking, want hit-baiting, poorly written and badly researched pieces of knee-jerk rumour and propaganda.”- No, no i bloody dont want that, infact its what I hate most about internet gaming news sites. I want facts, well written, well thought out and if you can, throw in a bit of humour.
All these half baked rumours created from a single picture or a tweet or whatever are beyond annoying in my eyes.
You obviously have ambitions to make your writing skills go further, so im sorry that the world as it is wont let you, just have confidence there are a few sane people out there who see your great work for what it is and they dont nit pick over who did what first, I for one dont care whos first ,only whos is better and more enjoyable to read.
nofi | 06/12/2009 13:31
Wants a custom tag.
4293 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
“I dont entirely understand why being first matters so much”
It’s nice because decent sites then source us, and more people find out about us. Simples.
Roynaldo | 06/12/2009 13:40
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2976 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Im gonna need further elaboration coz that reads like you are wanting to be first so you get hits, just like every other site who argues that they were first, doesnt that make TSA part of the problem Cb describes?
Ryan1991 | 06/12/2009 13:53
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1983 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I think Cb is saying that when TSA puts up an article first, they always link where they got their information from. Whereas, other websites who got their information from TSA, don’t link TSA as their source.
Roynaldo | 06/12/2009 13:58
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2976 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Oh…right, its about honesty and gratitude and the jerks that dont have it.
Ryan1991 | 06/12/2009 14:00
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1983 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Exactly.
Aitrus | 07/12/2009 09:18
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1487 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I feel the same, Roynaldo, and isn’t that why most of us are here at TSA? Because they don’t have the crap but the well thought out and nicely written stuff with good humour.
I can see how it sucks for a writer to do honest work in researching an article, getting a contact to a small developer to exclusive news or something like that and then just see the work ’stolen’ by other sites who bring the story without references. The only thing you can do is to keep working within your own ethics.
Hicko | 06/12/2009 13:28
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143 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Interestin article. I hadn’t thought of it from that point of view. The good thing about tsa though is that the reader base seems to be pretty loyal. As long as people read what you write, keep doing it…..pleeeeeeaaaaaasse.
seedaripper1973 | 06/12/2009 13:35
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1727 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
…ouch…
BIGAL-1992 | 06/12/2009 13:38
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1229 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
To be honest, you guys are the most trustworthy site I go to for video game stories.
theshockwave | 06/12/2009 13:40
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1873 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Great article.
The good news is I’ll be reading this article again, slightly changed, on plenty of other websites in the days to come. The bad news is, in the days to come, no-one will know that you wrote it and no-one will come here to TSA to read it.
I feel quite sorry for you guys, I know whats it like to do something you are proud and not get the credit you deserve for it.
aerobes | 06/12/2009 14:36
Member
678 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Since i stumbled upon TSA one day a while back (I’m not overly internet savvy) i haven’t looked back, I still read a few magazines but don’t read any other sites.
I read every feature whether i am interested in the subject matter or not and only comment if i feel the need, Not just for points.
My only bugbear is that i hadn’t found the site sooner!
Please keep up the good work and thankyou.
gazzagb | 06/12/2009 14:41
Master of speling mitakse
2760 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I remember when you got fed up of sites pinching your Singstar list for the store update so put a surprise song in there – that was great! lol
nofi | 06/12/2009 15:32
Wants a custom tag.
4293 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
http://tinyurl.com/loltrophies
Beat The Cub.
Is that a real Trophy? No. But you’d be surprised how many sites took our EXCLUSIVE list without sourcing us, 288 at the last count.
Manorhowze | 06/12/2009 15:53
Driving God
2028 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
That is brilliant. I completely missed that one when it came out. I love how no one has picked up on it.
nofi | 06/12/2009 15:56
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4293 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
It’s kinda what CB’s talking about though – Zuler manually typed that list in and we were the first to have the whole thing. Adding a wee extra Trophy was our way of seeing how else used our list – there’s so few links back to us that it’s incredibly annoying and frustrating.
We’ve done more, too – don’t worry, will reveal them soon.
Manorhowze | 06/12/2009 16:02
Driving God
2028 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Yeah I had a look on a few of the links and there was no source given on any of the ones I saw, must be so frustrating as it doesnt take much to say where it came from.
Zuler | 06/12/2009 16:12
Team TSA: Writer
10496 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Yeah, it is rather frustrating for me too, and I’ve noticed it for most, if not all, of the trophy lists I’ve done.
I know also because it’s the exact same order I type them in, with the same spellings, punctuation marks, etc.
Dexter17 | 06/12/2009 17:14
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3262 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Check PS3trophies.com. Any of your lists there?
Oh, and great article CB, it really does put things into perspective.
Zuler | 06/12/2009 17:16
Team TSA: Writer
10496 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Yeah, for sure. Like The Saboteur was taken directly from my own game, noone else had the game at the time I believe.
cc_star | 06/12/2009 17:19
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It made me laugh when we were told to source it… we (well you) were the effin source
nofi | 06/12/2009 17:24
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@dexter17
LOL. That’s all I’ll say.
djhsecondnature | 06/12/2009 15:41
Team TSA: Media
882 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Couldn’t agree more. Interesting thing it though, that some things just can’t be pinched
davidjmclare | 06/12/2009 17:11
always on easy
1094 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
its just too easy for small websites to copy and paste i guess, but will they ever get the respect or followers? i checked the beat the cub link and clicked on the first few, their websites looked terrible, i wouldnt want to join their site based on the looks and lack of explanation or detail.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 06/12/2009 17:56
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Very good article.
I do not use TSA because it gets news before other websites, people are constantly telling me N4G gets news 24hours before usually. This may be true in some cases, but I use TSA because of all the features, the community and how each article covering the latest news is delivered.
Obviously it is far preferable when you can get your news out first.
nofi | 06/12/2009 18:42
Wants a custom tag.
4293 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
N4G doesn’t get ‘any’ news though.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 06/12/2009 20:35
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I don’t get what you mean. Do you mean they don’t get any news from primary sources (like finding out stuff themselves) and steal all their news from other people/websites or they do not display any news on their website, as they always have news evident.
nofi | 06/12/2009 20:51
Wants a custom tag.
4293 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I mean all N4G is is a listing of other site’s news. That’s what it’s for – if you have a news story on your own site you post it on N4G. If nobody posted their own stories, N4G would be empty. It’s just a list of news from other sites.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 06/12/2009 21:18
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Well I guess you learn something everyday. N4G are constantly updating though so I guess many people consider it a premium source for gaming news (guess that’s why it’s called ‘News 4 Gamers’.
Anyway, I am aware TSA get a lot of exclusive news (e.g. trophy lists; looking at you Zuler) and offer more than just news (a lot more) so i am by no means saying N4G is better or being critical of the site (I would not have over 2000 TSA Points if I did consider the site to be the best gaming-related website on the internet.
Raen | 06/12/2009 18:40
Team TSA: Writer
3719 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
To be honest, this is one of the reasons that (most of the time) I steer away from news posts. Of course I will post news but a) I find it hard to do without straying into a massive editorial, b) I really dislike getting torn apart in comments (I’ve written on the subject before) and c) writing blogs/crazy shit like ‘What If’ is far more fun. Oh and the podcast is good to do as well, because I can just say what I want and I don’t get feedback till it comes out a little while later. Gives me time to cool off and/or forget what I talked about on the podcast.
aerobes | 06/12/2009 18:52
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678 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
I can understand completely.
For instance (not a rant!), I’m pretty underwhelmed by Brink so far but i never said anything in the comments from Gastos’ post the other day because i need to learn more about the title.
On the other hand i love the ‘What If’ feature and for some reason i picture you and Davs as the guys from ‘Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness’ Not sure why.
Raen | 07/12/2009 09:28
Team TSA: Writer
3719 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
You’re wrong, Brink is awesome
Nah if you don’t like it, that’s fine, I’m glad you’re holding off judgement. I’m not sure if what was in the video was exactly what I saw at the EuroGamer Expo, but it looks very, very similar so I didn’t watch it. However what I saw had a few things that seemed pretty exciting to me. You’ll love it! (Also not a rant, I just really want this to succeed, it’s their first original title).
What If is awesome.
SYY2127 | 07/12/2009 04:27
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I feel for you!
Tuffcub | 07/12/2009 09:02
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4063 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Magazines are usually a couple of months out of date, I’d rather have the interweb. I dont see the point of N4G though, find a good trustworthy site (er like this one) and stick to it, why go anywhere els?
Raen | 07/12/2009 09:30
Team TSA: Writer
3719 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I don’t read them for news really (although they’ll generally have a more complete story) but more for reviews (they have more time to work on them) and commentary. For me it’s all about the time they can put into their journalistic output in comparison to the web.