New Games Journalism vs Old Games Journalism

It's interesting to note that although the phrase 'New Games Journalism' wasn't coined until 2004 by Kieron Gillen in a blog post of all things (considering the, let's face it, lack of widespread interest in blogs at the time), it is certainly applicable to different eras of games journalism.

Games journalism began in the same manner as most other journalism; stuffy and fact filled, focusing on the mechanics of a game and how it plays, and that's about it. By the early eighties, it had flipped to more magazine like proportions, with the majority of popular games journalism being both written and viewed by games' major market; young adults.

After that there was a downturn in games journalism across the pond, but it stayed strong in Europe, and in the nineties came the internet. Once again, a new form of journalism arose, and journal articles on gaming were like streams of consciousness on screen, written by the same people that went on to become major gaming publications like IGN and PC Gamer.

If I were to decide on a divider, I would say that New Games Journalism largely consists of what the internet has done to how people review and learn about games beyond just buying them and playing them, and Old Games Journalism is what came about along with the advent of digital gaming.

I think New Games Journalism is certainly more interesting, and to be honest I haven't read enough Old Games Journalism to give an accurate opinion on which is more useful.


Here we have an article from Electronic Games, a games journal which was popular in the early eighties and
after it shut down, rose again during the early nineties, but was eventually 'outgunned' by internet based
journalism.

New Games Journalism, or now should I say Modern Games Journalism, has been completely taken over by the internet and more visual based information. For example, many people find information on games by watching walkthroughs designed to entertain and make the viewer laugh, for example; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU5JJraK7jQ
a walkthrough of Alien: Isolation by the, I would say infamous, PewDiePie. Not to say that there aren't more
intellectual journalism based videos out there, such as this video on the top 25 Playstation 3 games of 2014 by IGN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaaEgJ_JH2c

However, considering actual conveying of information versus entertainment value, is Old Gaming Journalism more useful? Most certainly. More entertaining? Not on your life. And that's why I prefer New Games Journalism.