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The Implications of a Skills Gap
Over on MTV Multiplayer, games journo Stephen Totilo draws attention to how certain denizens of gaming forum NeoGaf have called him out for sucking at Street Fighter II.
Here’s the background: Totilo recently participated in a fun little gaming bout with the rapper Soulja Boy, whom I’m not at all familiar with outside of that YouTube video where he’s offering his insightful critique of the indie game Braid. The two played some Geometry Wars, some Gears of War 2 and Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. (Watch the vids.)
Totilo won the Geometry Wars round, failed miserably at Gears of War 2 and was edged out in the demo version of Street Fighter HD (no one at MTV apparently wanted to shell out the $15 to unlock the full version?). But having not thrown a single fireball, jumping around “too much,” forgetting how to do a hurricane kick and not realizing that fierce attacks were mapped to the shoulder buttons, Totilo garnered the ire of critical forum posters.
One NeoGaf-er even said, "This sort of thing should cost Stephen Totilo his job. Someone acting as an authority on games simply can’t be so bad at games. It’s just not right.
"… But what’s even more sad is that there’s probably a good chunk of the gaming media that are just as pathetic."
Like, whoa.
About his lack of skill in Street Fighter, Totilo asks his readers, “Does this bother anyone? Bear in mind, I’ve never reviewed a ‘Street Fighter’ game nor interviewed one of its developers. I have covered ‘Gears’ a lot. So is there a problem here?
“What skill level would you like the people who cover video games to have with games? What kind of gaming ability do you think is necessary for the job?”
I’ll be honest here: I just assume that anyone who grew up playing games at least since the 1990s knows how to do a Shoryuken, Hadouken and Hurricane Kick. So reading that Totilo, one of the more visible journos in games, doesn’t know how to perform the fundamental moves of SF—moves that really haven’t changed much in 20 years—is kind of surprising. But that’s just me being close-minded and a bit fanboyish—not everyone played SF growing up. What a shocking realization for me; today the world came crashing down.
How much value a reader puts into a writer's gaming skills is going to vary on a case-by-case basis. As a member of an audience, I don't want to read a piece in which it's obvious that the writer knows less than me in a certain area, because then, what's the point? There's no new information being transferred there. But in the case of Totilo he wasn't reporting on SF, rather the event was just a fun little celeb meetup, meant only to entertain readers with its ridiculousness. His main body of work isn't even game reviews, and I seriously doubt he would attempt to preach about SF considering his unfamiliarity with the franchise.
When people read my reporting on say, Nintendo's fiscal quarter, are they thinking to themselves, “I could pwn this jerk-off in F-Zero”? I doubt that's what they're thinking, although sometimes I am a jerk-off.
That being said, I think that game journos do need to play more games. The folks at more consumer-oriented review-focused outlets like Edge's print magazine, GameSpot, IGN, GamesRadar, OXM, etc. are required to play tons of games across a wide array of genres, and if they’re not playing certain titles or genres, they’re at least exposed to them to a large degree, so they're in the clear on this one. But sometimes I wonder if bloggers and newshounds play games enough (as someone not typically required to review games, I could be placed under the same scrutiny). I’m not saying Totilo isn’t a gamer or insinuating he doesn’t play games—it’s pretty obvious he and others do play lots of games. (It'd be stupid not to take advantage of that work/play synergy.) I will say in general that it’s exceedingly important to be a well-rounded gamer if you’re writing for an audience so enthusiastic about a form of entertainment such as this.
It's advice I could take myself. I've been pretty good lately, though, about playing craploads of different games, not because I feel like I have to, but because there is such Skittles-like variation out there right now (lots of different colors, but all delicious--taste the rainbow, my friends). Typically I get in a mode where I'm all about console and PC strategy games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Company of Heroes and Valkyria Chronicles, and if not that, I'm fiending for online shooters. But a couple of RPGs, World of Goo and Wii Fit have been stealing lots of time as well these days, and yes, I can't wait for SFIV.
Anyhow, not knowing how to throw the metaphorical fireball doesn’t necessarily make a games journalist less credible, as long as the writing is up to snuff overall and as long as he or she isn't trying to pose as an expert in an area where he or she is not. But knowing how to do something as seemingly silly and irrelevant as a Hadouken does earn brownie points with the often unforgiving core crowd, if that even matters.
But would Totilo's detractors be happier reading daily industry and cultural coverage written by the likes of Fatal1ty or Tsquared? I mean, they're pro gamers and they've got the "cred," right? Commentators say, "Well, you don't have to be an expert at games, just decent." But if we're using gaming skill as a strict barometer of gaming knowledge, why wouldn't one logically raise the other? And what does it mean to be "decent" at a game anyway?
Totilo seems to want to reacquaint himself with Capcom's seminal fighting series. One NeoGaf poster wrote, “We like our game journos to be at least decent in general with games. You sucked…SF is an established franchise you should have done a lot better.”
To which the writer responded, “100 percent agreed. No joke: guess what my New Year's Resolution is?”
Mine, on the other hand, is drinking a little less.
Here’s the background: Totilo recently participated in a fun little gaming bout with the rapper Soulja Boy, whom I’m not at all familiar with outside of that YouTube video where he’s offering his insightful critique of the indie game Braid. The two played some Geometry Wars, some Gears of War 2 and Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. (Watch the vids.)
Totilo won the Geometry Wars round, failed miserably at Gears of War 2 and was edged out in the demo version of Street Fighter HD (no one at MTV apparently wanted to shell out the $15 to unlock the full version?). But having not thrown a single fireball, jumping around “too much,” forgetting how to do a hurricane kick and not realizing that fierce attacks were mapped to the shoulder buttons, Totilo garnered the ire of critical forum posters.
One NeoGaf-er even said, "This sort of thing should cost Stephen Totilo his job. Someone acting as an authority on games simply can’t be so bad at games. It’s just not right.
"… But what’s even more sad is that there’s probably a good chunk of the gaming media that are just as pathetic."
Like, whoa.
About his lack of skill in Street Fighter, Totilo asks his readers, “Does this bother anyone? Bear in mind, I’ve never reviewed a ‘Street Fighter’ game nor interviewed one of its developers. I have covered ‘Gears’ a lot. So is there a problem here?
“What skill level would you like the people who cover video games to have with games? What kind of gaming ability do you think is necessary for the job?”
I’ll be honest here: I just assume that anyone who grew up playing games at least since the 1990s knows how to do a Shoryuken, Hadouken and Hurricane Kick. So reading that Totilo, one of the more visible journos in games, doesn’t know how to perform the fundamental moves of SF—moves that really haven’t changed much in 20 years—is kind of surprising. But that’s just me being close-minded and a bit fanboyish—not everyone played SF growing up. What a shocking realization for me; today the world came crashing down.
How much value a reader puts into a writer's gaming skills is going to vary on a case-by-case basis. As a member of an audience, I don't want to read a piece in which it's obvious that the writer knows less than me in a certain area, because then, what's the point? There's no new information being transferred there. But in the case of Totilo he wasn't reporting on SF, rather the event was just a fun little celeb meetup, meant only to entertain readers with its ridiculousness. His main body of work isn't even game reviews, and I seriously doubt he would attempt to preach about SF considering his unfamiliarity with the franchise.
When people read my reporting on say, Nintendo's fiscal quarter, are they thinking to themselves, “I could pwn this jerk-off in F-Zero”? I doubt that's what they're thinking, although sometimes I am a jerk-off.
That being said, I think that game journos do need to play more games. The folks at more consumer-oriented review-focused outlets like Edge's print magazine, GameSpot, IGN, GamesRadar, OXM, etc. are required to play tons of games across a wide array of genres, and if they’re not playing certain titles or genres, they’re at least exposed to them to a large degree, so they're in the clear on this one. But sometimes I wonder if bloggers and newshounds play games enough (as someone not typically required to review games, I could be placed under the same scrutiny). I’m not saying Totilo isn’t a gamer or insinuating he doesn’t play games—it’s pretty obvious he and others do play lots of games. (It'd be stupid not to take advantage of that work/play synergy.) I will say in general that it’s exceedingly important to be a well-rounded gamer if you’re writing for an audience so enthusiastic about a form of entertainment such as this.
It's advice I could take myself. I've been pretty good lately, though, about playing craploads of different games, not because I feel like I have to, but because there is such Skittles-like variation out there right now (lots of different colors, but all delicious--taste the rainbow, my friends). Typically I get in a mode where I'm all about console and PC strategy games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Company of Heroes and Valkyria Chronicles, and if not that, I'm fiending for online shooters. But a couple of RPGs, World of Goo and Wii Fit have been stealing lots of time as well these days, and yes, I can't wait for SFIV.
Anyhow, not knowing how to throw the metaphorical fireball doesn’t necessarily make a games journalist less credible, as long as the writing is up to snuff overall and as long as he or she isn't trying to pose as an expert in an area where he or she is not. But knowing how to do something as seemingly silly and irrelevant as a Hadouken does earn brownie points with the often unforgiving core crowd, if that even matters.
But would Totilo's detractors be happier reading daily industry and cultural coverage written by the likes of Fatal1ty or Tsquared? I mean, they're pro gamers and they've got the "cred," right? Commentators say, "Well, you don't have to be an expert at games, just decent." But if we're using gaming skill as a strict barometer of gaming knowledge, why wouldn't one logically raise the other? And what does it mean to be "decent" at a game anyway?
Totilo seems to want to reacquaint himself with Capcom's seminal fighting series. One NeoGaf poster wrote, “We like our game journos to be at least decent in general with games. You sucked…SF is an established franchise you should have done a lot better.”
To which the writer responded, “100 percent agreed. No joke: guess what my New Year's Resolution is?”
Mine, on the other hand, is drinking a little less.
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I find it interesting that some people are equating a persons skill at playing one particular game with his ability to write about games in general. I play a huge amount of games, but bar this new year when I won a bout of Street Fighter 2 with the Rock Band drum kit, I'd not played the game in perhaps 15 years, and even then I'd played it only a handful of times.
As much as it might shock those who have been playing it since 1991, a huge amount of people have never played, nor have any desire to play Street Fighter.
I'm sure that the inhabitants of the Gaf would keel over when they found out that most of the writers for Kerrang can't stand the music they are told to write about, but that doesn't mean that aren't able to write about it.
Being knowledgeable about an industry and understanding what makes a quality game has nothing to do with a writers skills (full disclosure - this comes from a geezer gamer who plays games usually on normal and even sometimes on easy).
In fact, this situation only illustrates what's wrong with gaming websites and most gaming "journalists" today. Because gaming journalists and websites are still not considered respectable by mainstream media, most of those employed are paid very little, attracting mainly younger writers who will work for next to nothing and are unqualified (the number of former GameStop employees in the industry is surprising). This demographic is from the Nintendo era and is skewed towards Japanese consoles and games. I wonder if the same people posting on NeoGaf who are shocked Totillo didn't memorize particular SF moves would be shocked that he didn't memorize the technology charts from the original Civilization or the ballistic stats for weapons from Steel Panthers.
More mature writers (by age, if not temperament) would have a more balanced perspective and appreciate the contributions of older Western PC developers, who advanced gaming much more than their console Japanese counterparts (3D, online, etc.). It would also do away with the frustrating mistake many of these young writers make - mistaking snarkiness for investigative journalism. Finally, these sites could expand beyond their niche demographic with a more balanced writing staff. Sadly, given the state of the economy I can't see any of these sites increasing the pay for their staff anytime soon.
I dunno, I always assumed that whoever wrote the latest RTS, FPS or RPG review for Edge or EGM etc was skilled in the respective genre. The art in games is the gameplay, a game may look pretty but if the gameplay isn't analysed in depth then the review tends to be wrong and really frustrates me. I couldn't review an RTS game at all and would never do so as I wouldn't be able to analyse the game with years of RTS skill guiding my insight, I would be oblivious to so many things which matter to the genres audience. Different games tend towards different styles of reviewing too, I really like it when a reviewer of rpgs is obviously into the genres respective defining game mechanics the underneath of the underneath, and not just the storyline or basic gameplay, because this ultimately determines the rpgs life cycle for me. Essentially with games and genres being so complex I expect games Journos to have their respective niches, but maybe companies could have gaming101 training courses giving their staff a good general overview of how different core games work so they don't get pwned when gaming in public. That would be pretty awesome interview question "How do you pull off a hadouken", but still, probably not that relevant.
Doesn't matter to me at all. Totilo's a great game journo because he writes well, has something interesting to say, and asks great questions. Of course skill has some relevance, but if the writer knows his/her own limitations then it isn't a problem. It would be a problem if Tolito thought a new fighting game was innovative for including fireballs or the quarter-turn +punch combo that shoots them.
I don't think game-playing skill alone can factor into a game journalist's credibility. As banandy has pointed out, we all haved our favoured genres and journos are no different. What I look for more than anything else is a writer's skill in putting together a story, getting his facts right and being able to impart the knowledge they've gained as a fan and as a journalist to me, their audience.
While Totilo's lack of skill in SF may look embarrassing, how does that affect his professional work as a writer/editor/researcher? It may seem offensive to the SF power elite (or those who fancy themselves to be) but I'll go out on a limb and say the overwhelming majority of Totilo's readership could give a flying fudge.
The last thing I want is for game writers to be these one-trick ponies, like the Halo expert or the NHL09 expert. Their gaming world view would probably be very narrow. And there are a select group of people out there are bonafide "power gamers"... people who are naturally talented at game and excel at anything they touch, but they're also not necessarily the best candidates to be game journos either. For one, it might be hard for them to relate to their general audience, most of whom probably do not possess even a fraction of their skills at gaming.
I cannot see how skill in beat-em-ups has any relevance on the review skill of a games journalist.
Do you want an RTS expert reviewing FPS games? What about a hardcore RPG player reviewing a turn-based strategy game?
I worry about the integrity of the writer, his/her favourite genres, and the quality of their writing, not about if he is good at some other type of game than the one s/he is writing about. Reviews, Previews, News, etc. "general skill" to me does not matter.
I grew up in the 90's, I have no clue how to do any moves in street fighter. Though if I were writing a review of the latest Doom, Quake or Command and Conquer, my lack of street fighter II skill matters not.
I'm more worried about the writers writing skills, and how the writer approaches reviews. I could give a darn if he can't do a dragon fruit punch. I'd be really freaking thrilled if just one reviewer these days could wright a review without telling me what he did last week, or what he's doing now. Like Dan Akroyd said in Dragnet, Just The Freakin' Facts Mam!!!
I'll try almost any game at least once, but there are several categories of games which I just don't care for. Maybe he just doesn't like fighters in general, or SF2 in particular. I don't particularly care for any of them myself, but I like and play the Soul Calibur games.
Some game sites/rags throw new titles to whoever's available. In contrast to Jesse's suggestion below about breadth-vs-depth, other mags allot specific games to specific writers who are both interested in and well-versed in that particular genre or type of game. That way, the audience gets a more in-depth article by someone who actually knows and cares about that type of game or genre in particular. Case in point, Play's go-to writer for fighters is generally Heather Campbell; that's her favored genre, and it shows in her detailed articles on the subject.
I'm a hardcore, competitive gamer...and have been one for many years, but even still, there are tons of big-name games (World of Warcraft, Super Smash Bros, Tekken, GT, Halo, Madden, God of War, etc.) that I've barely or never played and would get pwned or just come across as a total noob/nub if I picked up the controller and played someone.
If you're honest with yourself, I'm willing to bet that you too can name a bunch of well-known games where the same would be true for you.
If hardcore gamers can be noobs from time to time, then why can't journalists?
The whole issue of an "entry level of skill" seems pretty moot to me. What member of the enthusiast gamer media doesn't have at least that? Maybe the game reviewer for CNN or your local paper will be inept, but who listens to them anyway?
As for Totilo, just because he can't beat... whoever that was... he was playing Gears with means nothing. A reviewer should be well-rounded moreso than skilled in a particular genre, or, worse, a particular game. Journalists don't have time to sit on Gears of War 2 for weeks at a time getting "leet". If they do, fine, but most of the time, they're busy playing a LOT of games, through to completion, and covering those games, not "practicing".
Most journalists have great ethics in that they'll play a game and develop an accurate opinion (gaming is less subjective than, say, movies--in gaming, shit has to work, or it's broken). They're not going to do "reps" or a particular game needlessly, though. Maybe Joe Blow doesn't have any other games, or doesn't care about any other games, and can become a Call of Duty master, but I frankly would rather not read anything written by someone like that.
Perhaps my single-player focus, and teamwork over competition focus, causes me to misunderstand this competitive streak in gaming.
I think they do need some skill. After all, as journalists they are there to give as fullest and well-researched report/article on the game in question as is possible.
Now, how can a journalist give the fullest opinion on a game if they only have the ability to complete half of it? Only find half the items? Only see half the levels or game areas?
This might come about from being skilful, which probably comes about from having an interest in gaming and the want to find out more.
Someone further down mentioned any other journalist. A sports journalist for example. So this journalist may not have played the sport professionally, but will be a well-informed follower of that sport and maybe even an amateur player. They'd need to be to be able to constantly research for articles and such that they write. This would be the same for a gaming journalist.
(Apologies for disjointedness of post. Early. Work. Hangover.)
The sports journalist analogy you've mentioned doesn't quite work for me. Surely asking said sports journalist to have played professionally would be more akin to asking a games reviewer to have actually developed a game?
I think this is difficult territory we are walking on here. Being a journalist first and foremost is not about knowing what you're writing about - it's about knowing how to write. It's about the proper use of language, grammar and spelling, following some basic rules and knowing how to convey information. There are a few things one can learn about journalism, but being a good journalist is not something anyone can do. I'll go as far as saying that being able to write is some form of talent.
The next step is knowing what you're talking about. Now the question is, where do you draw the line? Does a person who reviews games have to have played everything that happened since Pong? Or is it sufficient that he or she knows what was there, which games were the milestones, which ones brought their genre forward? If someone writes a review about a specific game, I expect them to have played it, preferrably to the end, but at least far enough to have a good impression of what the game is about. I expect them to have some knowledge about the genre, similar titles, and possibly even a liking or preference for that type of game. I however don't expect them to have played every predecessor or title of the same genre since the dawn of time. Now while it could be interesting to read game coverage by the likes of Fatal1ty, it could just as well be a total waste of time - depending on his writing skills.
Come on, reviewers should always try to give us a better idea of whether we'll like the game or not, whether it's too our tastes and up with the others that compete for our money. They can talk about other stuff too, it can make it more interesting and the modern crowd tends to read a few reviews if attall, so they might aswell be a bit indivual.
He doesn't have to have played every game under the sun, I'm not sure that would help as he'd have a really weird perspective and might be bitter about mechanics that are gone and technical failures that just don't matter to people who are looking to have FUN. Even if occasionally it's nice to have comparisons and if a reviewer can recommend some game as having the best ....... on a platform at the time of writing, that's pretty helpful. I mean, there are two Burnout games released with a space of two years on PSP, but which one is best? The older one has a better score, but that's because at the time everyone was just amazed that it was on PSP. I don't really want my reviewer to give a higher score based on how much of a cultural phenomenon the game was... So that sucks. Good conclusion eh. Maybe we need features every few months where they do a lowdown on the actual current best of a genre for each platform? And they could say what's good about the runners up aswell, so that each gamer could tell what was right for him.
And if you're reviewing Street Fighter you have to be skilled in it- your core audience is wanting to know how it plays on the highest level. They want a hint of it's new personality and how the little sport works.
Itd also be good to get a n00b to review it. Or someone who plays action games but hasn't got into fighters to review it. Because people in that crowd want to know if it'll be good for them to buy it too.
I don't see what the issue is really. People are clinging on to the idea that one review serves all? Gosh. Ppl in this medium are such n00bs.
P.S. grammar doesn't matter so much to some readers either, so it's not like you can turn that into an ultimatum of what 'Good Journalism' is.
Interesting blog, I would just suggest considering the expectations placed on journalists in other industries like sports, film or music.
We don't expect them to be able to play sports professionally, direct films, or lay down gold records...but we do expect them to have intermediate-advanced knowledge in the area they cover.
On the flip side though, analysts who are or were former professionals (like say Charles Barkley/TNT) are able to give a much richer, intimate "I've done that first-hand" sort of commentary.
In any case, I would liken the SF anecdote as something along the lines of:
a) a sports journalist (who primarily covers NFL, NBA, MLB) trying to cover hockey or rugby.
b) a film critic like Roger Ebert covering some cult Japanese anime that appeals only to its loyal fanbase.
c) a pop radio station DJ trying to cover country music.
Give the guy a break, SF wasn't his cup of tea. This just shows us the rich diversity and variety of video games and video gamers' tastes.
Totilo aside, I strongly believe it important that anybody writing opinion pieces on videogames should require an entry level of skill.
Case in point: I recently watched a video article on a respected videogame blog comparing the reported over-easiness of the new Prince of Persia with the supposedly punishing difficulty of Mirror's Edge.
Both journos articulated their points well and made good cases for and against each design approach, but the Mirror's Edge video running in the background showed what can only have been the reporter's grandmother's first foray into gaming - dying over and over again and running around in circles, unable to perform even the most cursory of climbs onto safe ledges.
Now unless that video was created purely for effect, I'd say that this reporter's ineptitude caused misinformation on the difficulty of this videogame. As such, I expect game commentary to come from someone at least as skilled as myself, (who can't win a multiplayer fragfest to save my life), which only comes from experience - just as I would expect a film critic to have a wide breath of experience with the medium upon which to draw comparisons.
>>Anyhow, not knowing how to throw the metaphorical fireball doesn’t necessarily make a games journalist less credible, as long as the writing is up to snuff overall and as long as he or she isn't trying to pose as an expert in an area where he or she is not. But knowing how to do something as seemingly silly and irrelevant as a Hadouken does earn brownie points with the often unforgiving core crowd, if that even matters.
But it does show that, in the 90's, that journalist did not play street fighter at the arcade, did not own street fighter on a home console, did not have any friends who played Street Fighter, or just never played it with them.
Now for me, a big Street Fighter fan and playing it since it came to the SNES, it does make me think less of this person as a video game journalist. That's just my own elitism I guess, but I think it just shows that this journalist is not somebody who shares the same video game experiences I have. He's the journalist though, I'm just somebody posting a comment.
>>But would Totilo's detractors be happier reading daily industry and cultural coverage written by the likes of Fatal1ty or Tsquared?
That could be pretty interesting, on the cultural coverage. I guess it depends on if they're good writers or not. That makes me think, what makes a video game journalist opinion's worth anything in the first place? Being a good writer? Does that mean any good writer can be a video game journalist then, or is there more to it? It's not like a movie reviewer needs to have experience in acting or directing either.
>>And what does it mean to be "decent" at a game anyway?
well, you said it yourself, throwing the fireball, at least in SFII
It does seem a bit silly to think someone should lose credibility as a journo because he isn't good at SF. I don't use the default button map in SFII so if I were to play an event with default buttons, I wouldn't know where any of the buttons were either (he may just suck at the game which I still think is fine).
As long as the guy isn't reviewing on it or isn't writing about it pretending to an expert I don't care if he doesn't know that a quarter circle forward + punch is a Hadouken.
Still, it does show there's a rather large part of gaming history that the journalist was not a part of, something that was pretty important in the experiences of many gamers.
Andy DLC,
You happen to be on live? If so, you buy SSF2HDR? My gamertag is O1 (the letter O followed by the number 1) and I'm having a hard time finding much of a challenge on there. Last check I was ranked 75th in the world in classic mode. Only play once in a while though (yeah, I'm tooten my own horn).
Anybody up for a challenge shoot me an invite.
sorry, I'm not on xbox live, but thanks for the offer.
That's unfortunate. NP