Interview: Bill Kunkel — The Game Doctor - Page 2

RF: And you were writing about games years before EG.

BK: Oh yeah, in Video. As for the Brit, I think he was just being snarky, but he gave me a good idea for a chapter that I'll be writing in my column on the Digital Press site.

RF: I can't wait to check it out.

BK: Actually, he suggested a chapter I didn't write and, in retrospect, he was correct; I should have written about it. The wanker.

RF: Do you feel game journalism is too politically correct today? It seems that as videogame journalism grows, the journalists have become as bland as politicians trying to pander to everyone. It seems that selling a magazine or whatever takes priority over everything else. Was it always this way? Is it right to place magazine sales or website hits over integrity? Is lack of integrity part of the reason video game journalism is still not accepted?

BK: I don't think that today's game journalists lack integrity, but they do lack other things. The magazines are all too specialized, there are virtually no magazines that treat electronic gaming, be it console, PC, arcade, PSP, DS, whatever, as a hobby or even a lifestyle. Just because I tend to enjoy console games doesn't mean I don't want to know all about, say, the new Petroglyph Star Wars game on PC, or why Doom 3 got such indifferent reviews — and even why the movie didn't work successfully. It's all integrated, it's all synergistic. Instead, if you own a PS2, you buy a PS2 magazine and so on — you're only looking down one of many interesting corridors in the game universe. Also, the Internet has eroded the foundations of print journalism. If you graduate from the U. of Missouri School of Journalism, you don't want to write for Xbox Magazine because the money isn't there, among other reasons. The Internet can give you the information so much faster. Magazines can offer in-depth analysis, but it doesn't seem as if that's always their mission. Also, the industry, and especially the game media, are always fixated on the NEXT generation of games rather than appreciating the systems they already have.

RF: But there are multi-platform magazines like Game Informer that has the largest readership of any game mag on the planet. GI started out as an advertising tool for Funcoland so is that what the problem is? Are magazines just ads for game companies? And because of that you're not allowed to stretch your "journalistic muscle?"

BK: Certainly, too many magazines are being published by people whose interests conflict with those of the game players. Diehard Gamefan was perceived as objective, but was it? This is an industry where literal tools of the game companies are bought by readers who believe they're reading something with credibility as an objective source. Hell, Nintendo Power may well be the most financially successful magazine in the history of this business, but anybody who trusted in the objectivity of the magazine was drinking Mario's Kool-Aid, so to speak. Magazines that start off as marketing vehicles never lose that stink and serious journalists are generally appalled by the way game writers are romanced so easily by the game companies.

Article Author: Rob Faraldi

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