Screw It; I’m A Video Game Journalist Now

I don’t like the current landscape of our industry — both as a gamer, as a commentator, and even as an innocent bystander; an outsider looking in. I’ve been a Gamer with a capital G for nearly 25 years, and I’ve finally come to terms with what that means to me, personally and professionally.

But we, as gamers, aren’t being represented in the media. And we aren’t being properly served by said media.

So screw it. I’m a video game journalist now.

We all deserve better than what we have; as journalists, as consumers, as players, as writers. As human beings. We need to stop treating each other like caricatures, stop treating dissenting opinions as personal slights, and stop putting up with anything less than complete honesty, transparency, and integrity from our news media.

I don’t like constantly reading about death threats, rape threats, bomb threats, or threats of school shootings. I don’t like the widespread vitriol being spouted at inconsequential critics, loudmouth pundits, or amateur developers. And I certainly don’t like the one-sided the subsequent personal and professional attacks on people, simply because they have different opinion.

I don’t like the sweeping generalizations claiming that gamers are dead or “gamers are over” and that a few threats from some deranged-internet-keyboard-warrior-trolls signifies the “death of an identity”.

It’s time to change the way we do business around here. You deserve better. We deserve better. It’s time to shake things up. It’s time to evolve the status quo.

So screw it. I’m a video game journalist now.

What The Critical Hit is going to do here is cover games because we (usually) have fun playing them.

We’re going to write about this industry because we love it, or because we want to improve it in some way.

We’re going to question and critique the industry, and we’re going to question and critique each other. We’re going to engage the community in spirited debate. We’re going to represent.

We’re going to interview people that are interesting and engaging, who personify passion, or the valid criticisms of said passion, and we’re going to conduct these interviews with professionalism, respect, and integrity.

We’re going to be honest with our readers and our viewers about conflicts of interest, about who we support monetarily and non, and who supports us monetarily and non. We’re going to operate at an ethical paramount.

So, welcome aboard. This is how journalism is supposed to be executed, so this is how we’re going to do it.

Screw it. We’re video game journalists now.