I recently came across the blog of the RAM Raider.
It’s basically the thoughts and rantings of a seasoned UK-based gaming journalist who seems quite angry about the way things are in ‘the industry’. None of the stuff is a massive surprise – PRs are dickheads, getting an ‘exclusive’ means promising a high review score, magazines aren’t selling as much as they used to – and so on, but it’s still worth a read.
‘Rammy’ likes to slag off reviews and those who write them (who then post angry replies in his ‘comments’ section), which always has a certain voyeuristic entertainment value, but in between the copious amounts of bitchiness and coarse language, there are a few more thought-provoking pieces and interesting tidbits.
Such as why most of the staff of PC Zone suddenly disappeared from their pages a short while ago. Or how New Games Journalism (NGJ) is a load of self-indulgent wank.
Not that I agree with everything he says but, speaking mainly as someone who buys, and is increasingly disappointed by, games magazines (rather than someone who thinks his own collection of amateurish ramblings qualifies him as a ‘writer’) he’s certainly got a few good points about the state of games journalism at the moment. The main one being – things aren’t as good as they used to be.
EDIT: Plus, he hates Edge magazine. Which is always a good thing.