14 DAY TRIAL // There is a virus going through major gaming media outlets, and it doesn't really have a name. The result is the consolification of the editors, making the PC platform something to be cast aside as a fringe option that only weird people are using.
This is an editorial, and it should be treated as such. Some of you might have noticed this, others not so much. Some of you might be die-hard fans of the consoles and don't really care, and that's OK. No one is saying anything about consoles being worse or PC being better. This is not about that discussion.
The problem I've noticed is that PC gamers are no longer represented in the gaming media outlets and that is really sad. A decade ago, the writers for gaming websites were PC gaming fans and it showed in their work, but then the consoles become more prevalent and everything got dumbed down to a level that's almost ridiculous.
Now we have game critics who call themselves gamers, even if they never played on PCs, have probably started just a few years ago (way too soon to be called a gamer), have no idea of what happened a decade ago in gaming unless they wiki it, and are generally couch potatoes that are ascribing to a category just by name.
Not naming names
I'm not going to name names of media outlets since this is not the point. I'm just remarking on how things are right now. I'm pretty sure that many of you have seen some recent comments about missing functions on PCs, which only showed the ignorance and lack of experience of editors.
Imagine a Venn diagram, with three bubbles that need to intersect. A critic needs to have sufficient experience from his life as a real gamer that spans more than a decade; he needs to understand the capabilities and missing features of each platform, and he needs to be able to transmit his (her) experience in a meaningful way.
Right now, that's not happening. With just a few exceptions, most of the important publications have abandoned the PC platform altogether. Even if an editor gets a PC review code for a shooter, let's take Fallout 4 for example, which is basically an FPS at its core, he will connect a controller. We all know that a controller is probably the worst possible solution for an FPS. I dare you to find videos from media outlets that don't have the controller command showing videos and screenshots.
There is no obvious solution to this problem, and it's not like companies can be forced to hire people who have been playing games longer than Justin Bieber was alive. We can only try to do things differently and hope that the gaming community takes notice. In the meantime, expect to see more uninformed opinions about what the PC can do coming from critics who should know better, but can't.
Also, as a side note. What's will all the tattoos? Many of the critics who also have an online presence are heavily tattooed. Is that a requirement to get the job?