About the Site
Video Game Media Watch is a survey of how video games are portrayed in the news and other media. It deals with topics such as fairness/bias, accuracy, professionalism, style and the influence of advertising and public relations on those who write and talk about games for the specialist and mainstream media. It mixes original reporting with unapologetic opinions on the video game journalism industry.
The previous incarnation of this blog, The Video Game Ombudsman, launched in June of 2003 on Blogspot. The current incarnation launched in August of 2005. It is updated when the editor has the time and inclination, which is usually Monday through Thursday.
In October of 2005, Video Game Media Watch absorbed GameJournalism.com, a blog by Rich Miller on many of the same subjects. Rich’s posts have been archvied and are marked with the WordPress category “GameJournalism.com.” They can be reached using this link
Got something you’d like VGMWatch to take a look at? Send it to kyle.orland@vgmwatch.com
A Statement on Conflicts of Interest
On this site, I write about some video game outlets that I also write for as a paid freelancer. I will try to disclose when I am talking about an outlet I write for in the text of any article in which they are mentioned. With that information, the reader can decide for himself whether my reationship with that outlet has colored my writing.
This site is currently published by E-mpire Co. Ltd., which publishes other video game sites including NintendoNow. I will make similar disclosures when discussing any E-mpire properties.
A complete list of outlets I write for can be found on my Workblog.
on November 2nd, 2005 at 12:23 pm
I’ve been a member of tis site since it was just a forum. You should take a look as they’re pretty good.
on December 25th, 2006 at 4:03 am
Hello, my name is Brandon. Ever since i was a little child, I had dreamed of becomming lots of different occupations. Now, however, when i finally comes down to going off to college or persuing a new career soon, I have to narrow my “wantings” a little bit less. I enjoy video games - I enjoy them a lot; however, the fact of the matter is, is that I do not just like playing them, but I find joy in playing video games and accessing all of the knowledge I need to know to win an argument in what video game is better, or what system as more potential, etc. Not only all of that, but my greatest joy is finding a video game’s weaknesses; when i say this, i mean the complete little things that no one ever notices. For instance, in Halo 1 and 2, if you start out with a machine gun and decide to pick up another gun (but you do not choose the option to have dual yeild, just one gun, and switch to access the other), in order to have a dual yield, you have to find another gun to swap or switch to drop it and pick it back up again to have ‘duals’. Why couldn’t they simply just make a button to drop your guns? Anyways, my main point in all of this is I want to know how you become a video game journalist. I need to know what colleges to go to in order to start off a small or perhaps large career in this field. If you could give me some more information, I would like that very much. So please feel free to email me or give me some guidence……I’m so lost…..
on June 12th, 2007 at 1:38 am
I read about this site in EGM, and was hoping there would be a way to check on individual publications/websites as to how fair their reviews are. I think having a video game media watchdog is a GREAT idea, but it would be really useful if I could click on or look up something (like gamespot.com, for example) and see a report on whether or not their reviews are swayed by companies giving them “gifts”… or something to that effect.
I don’t know how practical it would be, or if it can be done, but I think it would be extremely useful.
on June 16th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I also read about this site in Shoe’s latest editorial in EGM. While I would like to see a “are they biased/bribed” sort of link the poster above me mentioned, I doubt it will happen due to lack of evidence and lawsuits. However, perhaps a running count of articles/words to ads might be of interest over time. I’ve dropped magazines that seemed to be getting longer on ads and shorter on content. Maybe even a running opinion of how a given magazine is changing over time with different editors, etc.