Veteran critic Adam Sessler has announced his departure from Rev3 Games to explore other ventures in the gaming industry.
I can’t say I’m a long-time follower of Sessler’s work. The first time he was brought to my attention was after his somewhat controversial comments about God of War: Ascensions trophy titles, and I’ve only occasionally viewed his work since.
I also can’t say I’m totally surprised at his decision, due to a comment his made on his Twitter account earlier this year.
@LogicBreaker it's not my responsibility. They create, I am a parasite who benefits from their creation. It's a simple ecosystem.
— Adam Sessler (@AdamSessler) February 26, 2014
Its a very pessimistic view on the role of journalists and critics. Sessler does not see himself as a creator, nor does he believe in the value of his work. In fact, creators should ignore him and follow their own conscience.
Can a journalist or critic operate on the belief their work is without value? If they do believe so, is it not their responsibility to find a way to instil value in their work?
If one feels resigned to simply interpret the work of others and give an opinion which they feel is of no value to the creator or the customer, it may be time to reevaluate their work.
Sessler seems to have done so, but rather than refocus his efforts in front of the camera, he has decided to step out of the spot light and focus on his consultancy firm TheoryHead, Inc.
While this could be the right move for Sessler, the consumers, and gaming journalism industry, suffer.
While Sessler could have employed his experience working with journalists and critics to better serve the audience and creators, he is walking the same path most retiring game journalists do: helping developers to sell games.
Often one sees public relations members or community managers who once worked in games journalism; people who saw journalism as a stepping stone to finding a job with a major publisher or console developer.
Its also not uncommon to see former journalists branching out into promoting games themselves.
This can be dangerous for the gaming journalism industry. Say a journalist (and huge Nintendo/Xbox/Konami/EA/etc fan) working in the industry lands a job at a major news outlet. Their dream all along has been to work for Developer X, the creator of their favourite franchise. So when their editor asks them to review a game from Developer X? Well criticising it too much might hurt their chances of landing their dream job. This may not be the case for every journalist, but surely it must be a consideration for some.
So it is with journalists who wish to become game creators themselves. Placing themselves in the shoes of the developer, they must wonder "How would I feel if it was my game being reviewed so harshly?" This has the possibility of altering their attitudes towards critiquing.
I think the fact Sessler was the president of a consulting firm - founded in 2010 - at the same time he was working as a critic is a cause of concern for the audience.
There doesn’t appear to be enough people in the industry who view journalism as valid career in the industry.
In a Tumblr post announcing his departure from Rev3 Games, Sessler writes, “the time feels right to explore new avenues inside of gaming to help further the medium.”
Why Sessler didn’t feel this could be done in gaming journalism, I don’t understand. Maybe not in its current state, but surely he could have brought to bear his years of experience to influence gaming journalism to take a new direction.
The feeling as of a parasite is a self-inflicted one. There is so much left untapped within video gaming culture and business because of the need to maintain the hype of new releases. One can still explore new avenues to further the medium from within journalism, so long as they find a way to break away from the cycle of preview-release-review.
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