News
What Are We?
Cordova, TN; October 7, in the year of our Lord 2014--Family
Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family
friendly video games is posing a thought provoking question in
the form of three little words. What Are We? What is the gaming
media really? What should gaming journalists actually be? Are we
puppets for large corporations? Are we pass throughs to publish
all of their propaganda? Are we filters to sift through the bad
and only publish the good? Are we supposed to be fan boys of
certain companies? Are we supposed to be anti-fanboys of other
companies? What Are We? What do you think we should be?
I should clarify one important thing. An anti-fanboy is someone
who hates on a certain company. Take all the Sega fanboys for
example. After the Dreamcast went under they had nothing new to
support. They were not fond of Sony or Microsoft. One thing they
knew - they hated Nintendo. So they became anti-fanboys of
Nintendo. Any time someone hates on Nintendo, ask them what they
thought of Sega. Most of the time they were Sega fanboys bitter
that Sega stopped making hardware. Other times you will be
talking to a Microsoft or Sony fanboy.
Talk to any of the gaming companies and they want us to be their
cheerleaders. They want us in the gaming media to spend all of
our time, and financial resources making them richer. Want to
know a secret? They don’t share. They don’t reciprocate. They
are selfish, self centered, and self absorbed. They are like
Daffy Duck screaming: “MINE, MINE, ALL MINE!” There has been
accusations that sites like IGN have been paid off. There is
certainly enough evidence to warrant a good look at that
accusation. At the same time we are missing the boat here. Where
are the thought provoking ideas coming out of the gaming
journalist arena?
The gaming media too often is subjected to politics and
discrimination by PR employees. These people hand out
information on their clients product in a way that gets their
client exposure. That exposure turns into sales. A good review
normally provides more sales than a bad one. So they are looking
out for the self interests of their clients. That makes too many
gaming sites regurgitate company propaganda in reviews. After
all the path of least resistance is what too many are doing in
the gaming media. They don’t want to burn bridges, so they
compromise their integrity. Christians have been discriminated
against in the video game industry for decades. I don’t need to
go over all my personal experiences. Nintendo, Microsoft, and
Sony have all been guilty of it against Family Friendly Gaming.
We don’t sulk, instead we continue to try and work with them -
despite their poor treatment of us over the years.
Family Friendly Gaming is not just another gaming site. We
filter the press releases. We remove the idolatry of political
correctness whenever we find it. We are not just a pass through.
We do our original works. Yes we still use some of their
content. Our standards have gone up in 2014. Whereas others are
lowering standards and lowering expectations, we are increasing
them. So What Are We? We are gaming journalists who point
everyone to God. That means a road less traveled. A harder road
to take. It means we get denied reviewable copies sometimes. It
means we get treated like dirt by PR employees at times. We are
not their pass throughs. We are not their cheerleaders. We are
not their fanboys. We are not their anti-fanboys. We report on
the good, and we report on the bad. Like calling a sporting
event. When the defense intercepts, we are not there to make
that offense look good. We are there to report what happened. As
long as it is family friendly we will utilize all of our
resources to report on them. We will continue to follow the
parable of the talents in dealing with companies. We encourage
all other gaming journalists to do the same. Be fair minded in
terms of reporting on, covering, and reviewing all companies and
products. Don’t give them a good review because they are a huge
advertiser. Don’t give them a bad review because their PR
employees are just a bunch of moochers, and liars. Be even
handed. Be fair minded. At the same time call a spade - a spade.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Family Friendly Gaming