Thursday, August 10, 2017
Suburban Killbot Year 4
Suburban Killbot Year 4
It�s time to celebrate (?) another year of Suburban Killbot! I was hoping this edition of my yearly update would allow me to share some good writing related news. But unfortunately, there�s nothing to report. I�m still working on my new book, which is progressing more slowly than I�d planned, but you can�t really rush these things. I�ll probably do a post about that soon. Instead, I�m just going to use this update to rant about stuff. Enjoy!
I�ve said before that I don�t visit many gaming related sites these days for �various reasons�. Those �various reasons� primarily being that so many of these sites seem to be staffed by clueless, incompetent bloggers who demonstrate a lack of interest in or even a basic understanding of the medium on which they are supposed to be reporting.
But on occasion, I do visit these sites as they may have gameplay videos of upcoming titles I�m interested in playing. And, just recently, I was watching some Total War: Warhammer videos. These were preview videos showcasing battles from the game. And in the videos posted by two different gaming sites, all of the people playing were f**king terrible.
You might say my assessment of their skill isn�t fair. Maybe they�d never played a TW game before? But why would you send someone who had never played a title in a series running for over 15 years, to showcase the latest title in that series to your audience? Hell, based on these videos, I�m not sure the people playing have even played any kind of strategy title before. In one case, I�m not convinced they�ve even used a mouse and keyboard before.
I later watched a video of the new Doom being played by another site, and based on the video and their inability to aim, move and shoot at the same time, I�d guess the person had never played an FPS before on either console or PC. It was painful to watch, and it does a disservice to both the game and the audience.
How the f**k are people so incompetent being employed to write about and report on these games? Sure, there�s genres I�m not particularly skilled in, but if I was going to be recording preview footage of an upcoming title in a professional capacity, I�d at least try to familiarise myself with the basics beforehand, to ensure I give my audience content of value, to demonstrate the game in a way that wasn�t entirely inept.
Because people want to learn about the game, and they won�t learn anything watching someone struggle with basic camera controls or WASD movement. I don�t think it�s unreasonable to expect people working at gaming sites to have at least a rudimentary understanding of the basics. This is the equivalent of someone sitting down to eat a meal, holding the knife and fork upside down and then jabbing at the food with the blunt end. It�s embarrassing to watch, and a waste of my time.
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