New Games Journalism Vs Old Games Journalism

New Games Journalism
New games journalism can be any article on games, from a review to talking about its development, that has been written in the style of what we know as 'New Journalism.' New journalism is a writing style that was created in the 1960s-1970s, where the writer focuses more on personal experiences/emotionse, rather than writing about the subject in a more analytical style. For example, if I were to review the new Call of Duty game in this style, rather than discussing the game mechanics and design style, I would discuss my experience playing a match online. In this blog I will discuss one of the NGJ articles that I read, called 'Bow N***er' by Ian Shanahan.

'Bow N***er,' discusses the writers experience playing Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast on-line, and how players interact in this game. The article focuses on the writers experience playing against someone that is disrespectful and doesn't play by 'the rules.' The article is written in the style that the writer is his character in the game and such is the style of new journalism, trying to get the reader to connect with how he is playing the game. The first person storytelling of the article, crossed with the implied Good Vs Evil battle, gives the reader a emotional review of the style of gameplay, with an analysis of the core game mechanics and aesthetics brushed upon briefly in each paragraph.

In my opinion, NGJ is a highly successful form of writing. The fact that the style focuses on player experience is an effective way for readers to find out what a game is actually like to play, the weak point of NGJ is that if the reader wants to read about game mechanics and core features in great detail, they need to read OGJ as NGJ doesn't focus on this.

Old Games Journalism
Old Games Journalism is the traditional approach to reviewing games. The writing style is alot more formal than NGJ and tends to focus entirely on game mechanics etc. rather than player experience. The article that I will look at for this style of writing is a Half Life 2 review by Kristan Reed.

The article is instantly recognisable as being in the style of OGJ, it is a straight forward review of the game, without any personal experience or emotion discussed. The article talks about the games' visuals and its development process, then moves on to talk about player interaction within the game world, which moves on to story and style of play etc. The article is written more informally than most OGJ, in a way that makes it easy for the reader to understand all the areas that are covered. This was a very in-depth review of the game and gives the reader a clear understanding of what does and doesn't work about the game in terms of its mechanics, aesthetics and otherwise.

I find OGJ articles to be a very effective writing style, successfully informing the player on key parts of a game, covering every aspect of a game other than player experience and emotion.

Final Opinion
To sum up, both forms of journalism are an effective way of informing the reader on a game. If the reader simply wants to find out what a game is like, NGJ is more effective as it doesn't bog the reader down in any speifics, but if the reader wants a more in-depth view of a game, then OGJ is the better style. Personally, I prefer to read a bit of both in my articles, I want to know the specifics but at the same time I want to know what it is actually like to play the game, how the player actually feels whilst in the game world.