12-13-2024, 12:31 PM
Videogame "journalism" was fun when I was studying. Helping to run the website, working with other people, writing articles, trying to compete with other outlets.
We never did it for the money, although the free games were a nice bonus. Most of my gang like myself moved on to do better things either inside or outside the gaming industry.
I don't see how that is any different from the bros that run YouTube channels, launch crypto coins or mod Discord servers today.
Games was the thing that interested us at the time but it might has well have been cooking, music or fishing, the point was never the games.
It seems to me that a lot of these jaded game journalists simply want the high school band to stay together, something that was just never going to happen regardless of the economics involved. I don't think younger generations with their Twitch channels, V-tubers, Genshin Impacts and Fortnite servers are missing out on anything. We mostly had to make due with text and images and we couldn't easily create our own media or record our own footage outside of photoshopping some artwork and screenshots. It just wasn't possible without a devkit.
If I told my 16 year old self that in 2024 lots of 'real' games would be Free to Play or only $10 a month I'd instantly want to go to that future.
