The game industry isn’t completely for kids anymore. That’s something missed by all violent game critics. Parents can check out the ESRB website before buying a game for their kid, or, as shocking as it may be, be with them when they’re choosing a game to buy. What is your child doing out alone with $50 in the first place if you’re not there? Getting some of the basics of game playing isn’t hard either and enjoying the medium with your child is a must regardless of the situation. Peeking into their room once in a while to see what’s on screen isn’t a bad idea either at a bare minimum, but personal responsibility seems to be a premium these days.

Where do you see your writing career taking you a few years down the road? Any plans you'd like to share with us?

I want to write. That’s the basic response. The long winded response is that I’d love to be able to push gaming journalism in a different direction. As it stands, it’s unprofessional, riddled with cheap jokes, and leading to many believing this is an industry for kids, as I mentioned above. It’s filled with hype that tends to overtake the important things.

To put this into perspective, many gaming magazines don’t have a single article on the current legislation being brought against the industry, yet they find room for a full-page, single screen shot of an upcoming game with potential promise. The website GamePolitics manages to find multiple stories per day. Why can’t the magazines find one per month?

That’s not to say there’s no place for fun (it is an entertainment medium after all), but if you flip through older game magazines and current ones, the standards haven’t evolved at all with the audience growing up from the days of the NES. Where did this go wrong? Only two magazines (not including those outside the US such as Edge) have ever tried a full journalistic approach: Electronic Games and Next Generation. They’re no longer around. The gaming audience isn’t used to a true source, and have been pushed into reading hyperbole that leads to junk like the “console wars.”

Do I make cheap jokes here on Blogcritics? Sure, the subhead is a potential goldmine. However, the reviews should be clean and to the point. If there’s some history to the game or if it’s a sequel, that’s relevant information that many professional writers seem scared to tackle. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, possibly because many may not even know the history or don’t care to do the research. I can’t think of any reasons beyond that. The audience needs to be educated on things like this, and the journalists have the ability to do just that. It’s a fast moving medium, and many fans have only recently jumped on board. Why not let them know there’s more out there than the latest thing? That’s what I want to do.