Are You Being Served?: Ethics in Video Game Journalism

In late July, Marcus Beer appeared on GameTrailers’ Invisible Walls program and set his sights on independent developers Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow. Beer labelled the two developers as "Hipsters," "Wankers," "Tosspots" and so on. Fish fired back at Beer on Twitter, the argument escalated and Fish decided it was time to step away from the games industry. 

Marcus Beer presents Annoyed Gamer

In late August, Marcus Beer returned for the second season premiere of his show Annoyed Gamer. This time he criticised the games media for coming to the defence of Phil Fish after their entanglement. Beer felt that the media had unfairly labelled him a “bully” and had no right to defend Fish. He claimed the media is, “there to serve the gamer, the reader, the viewer, the consumer...not the big boys, not the indie devs, not anybody else.”

However, Beer doesn’t seem to fully understand the role of journalism.

Grand Theft Auto V- Part 1: No Fun Allowed!

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, I have not finished GTA V. All opinions presented are based on my early experiences with the game and do not take into account the conclusion of the game's story. 

‘Fun’ is not a word I would use to describe Grand Theft Auto 5. 

But neither would I say its boring. Or even bad.

It is, most definitely, frustrating.

I played GTA V for 13 hours on launch day - from mid-afternoon until the early hours of morning - and I could have easily played more. I was totally engrossed, not even mindful of how much time had passed until my eyes began to hurt. And even though it was a struggle to stop playing, I cant recall a moment I thought, “I am enjoying this game.”

Even on day two, it was easy to get caught up in hours of GTA’s gun-toting, high speed action dramedy, but again it wasn’t what I would classify as fun.

Before I get too much into that, lets look back at past Grand Theft Auto games.

I’m a big fan of the PlayStation 2 era titles. GTA 3 is my clear favourite. It had an atmosphere the others failed to capture; it was silly and satirical, but the muted colour palette and bleak mood invaded every aspect of the city. Even during the daytime, a thick grey sky (likely the result of PS2 graphical limitations) never let any light shine through. The sparse traffic and quiet city streets meant any explosion or punctuated gun fire made a stark impression. It’s hauntingly beautiful.

Keeping 'Quiet': Consumers vs. Creators

Before Hideo Kojima first revealed Metal Gear Solid V he speculated, “The next project will challenge a certain type of taboo. If I mess up, I'll probably have to leave the industry." He’s not in that much trouble yet, but one aspect of his latest project has definitely caused a storm amongst the video game community.

While we caught a glimpse of Quiet almost four months ago at this year’s E3 conference, Kojima revealed her full character model through Twitter. Prior to the reveal, he tweeted about the design process for her character, recounting how he asked character designer Yoji Shinkawa to make her “more erotic,” and his hopes she would appeal to cosplayers and figurine collectors. Some cosplayers had asked him to reveal Quiet's full design so they might prepare a costume before the Tokyo Game Show. Due to legal reasons he couldn't reveal it to individuals, so he decided to released the images officially through Kojima Productions.