SimCity debacle shows what a pathetic state gaming journalism is in

allinwonder

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Maxis Insider Tells RPS: SimCity Servers Not Necessary
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/12/simcity-server-not-necessary/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RockPaperShotgun+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%29

It took an "insider" for gaming sites to report something anyone with some knowledge of programming already knows.

I myself write a lot of complex agent-based simulation and it runs fast on my Core 2 Duo laptop. The level of simulation in SimCity (which actually proves to be broken and only pseudo-agent-based) is like kids's toy compared to other off-the-shelf simulation models. And EA claims it is so complex that it can only be run on EA's server. We all know it was bullshit from the beginning.

Yet what's sad is ALMOST NO MAINSTREAM GAMING SITE called out on that bullshit. It is truly a sad thing that the critical thinking ability in gaming journalism is gone.
 

tippy2k2

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Well first off: It's not "obvious". You don't need programming skills to be a game journalist and they're going off of what EA/Maxis is telling them. I would be surprised if many game journalists had the knowledge and ability to prove that EA/Maxis is lying to them.

Second off (I mean this as no insult and I believe even Susan said it in one of the Podcats): Game journalists are NOT reporters. They don't investigate and they don't dig for stories; they report on video games. Their job capacity is more "critic" then reporter.

Besides, many HAVE questioned the need for servers including Jim Sterling in his most recent video [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6978-SimShitty] and our very own Escapist staff in the most recent potcat [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-podcast/6974-083-SimCity-Story-Based-RPGs-and-Google-Glass]. This is the only gaming site that I go to so I can't comment for others but I can't imagine that The Escapist has been the only one to question it.

EDIT:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122654-Maxis-Developer-Denies-Need-For-Single-Player-SimCity-Servers

Posted 39 minutes after your thread.
 

Dryk

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Tenmar said:
One problem with that article and with most video game journalism is that there wasn't a secondary independent source to confirm.
This was the confirmation of all the tests people have been doing around the place. Checking the network traffic or pulling the connection and waiting is all you need to do to call them out.
 

Comocat

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I think futile is a better word than pathetic. It's not like there are transparency laws where EA has to comment about a game. If the VP of Maxis says all the game calculations are run on their servers in retrospect that sounds pretty bugfuck crazy, but it's not like anyone could force her to clarify. When pressed against a wall most PR fall back on "it will be amazing when you see it!"

Dryk said:
Tenmar said:
One problem with that article and with most video game journalism is that there wasn't a secondary independent source to confirm.
This was the confirmation of all the tests people have been doing around the place. Checking the network traffic or pulling the connection and waiting is all you need to do to call them out.
For the most part the game needed to be live before you could actually test this and if the reviewer did that in beta I can't think of a better way to never get early access to an EA game again. It would be fairly impressive on the fly thinking to be on a studio tour and be able to assert the improbabilities of such massive server side calculations.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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tippy2k2 said:
Besides, many HAVE questioned the need for servers including Jim Sterling in his most recent video [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6978-SimShitty] and our very own Escapist staff in the most recent potcat [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-podcast/6974-083-SimCity-Story-Based-RPGs-and-Google-Glass]. This is the only gaming site that I go to so I can't comment for others but I can't imagine that The Escapist has been the only one to question it.


Podcat.

That is all.
 

Sargonas42

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The problem with this whole post is you think the term "gaming journalism" applies to all sites board. There are multiple sides to the aspect. There are "Journalists" (who are terribly few and far between) and there are "Bloggers" who are a dime a dozen. The vast majority of writers do not count as journalists, as much as they would like to. (But thats ok!)

Tippy2k2 hit the nail on the head with one of his key points. A REAL journalist has a certain set of rules they follow... a key one being that ALL sources are independently verified before publishing. That would require that you get an anonymous source from Maxis to leak details, then hunt down ANOTHER one who can corroborate the story independently. Only then do you print something. This is just one example of the many codes of integrity a true journalist follows to help maintain their ability to provide you with reliable, trust worthy info. (Another being that any "anonymous" source has to be fully identified and documented with at least an editor as well as the writer. The ID typically never leaves beyond their tight circle, but you can't just say "it's a guy who sent me a pic of his redacted company badge, so I know we are good.")

Chris Kohler at Wired, for example, actually has a degree in journalism and follows these sorts of guidelines religiously. He approaches gaming news the same way a writer for the NY Times would. Other people, like Jim Sterling, take the more "cable news" approach and just throw together stuff that is entertaining and at least mostly grounded in enough fact to be workable in order to deliver content to us that is entertaining. (Please note I am not criticizing or praising either person over the other for their work. Both of the people I cited I consider to be extremely good friends of mine, and I love and enjoy their work equally.)

All sites that are part of the Gaming Media have the same goal, be popular, be successful, and have a huge audience. Each one has different finer goals, and different ideas of how best to achieve them. That's perfectly fine, but we as readers need to know the difference between a journalist and a blogger (or any other kind of person) and be able to digest the info from each under the right light correctly to make informed decisions. You can't blame some of them for doing a bad job at something they have no intent to do in the first place.