Video Game Journalism: Good Idea, Bad Idea

If you've ever watched Animaniacs, you'll understand the title's reference. Anyway, the following is a list of five things you SHOULD do if you were a video game reviewer or journalist, followed by the direct opposite thing that you should avoid doing. Like the title says, it's a Good Idea versus a Bad Idea.

1) Upcoming Games- There's a new game coming out soon, and gamers are hyped. No new information has been made public about the game yet, but your editors are demanding that you write something about this new game.

Good Idea: Writing a list of elements that you know the hard core fans want in the upcoming game, and then explain why they want these things. EG, what do Square's fans want from the Final Fantasy 7 Remake? It appears they want a way to revive Aerith. Explain why.

Bad Idea: Convincing someone in the company to give you some insider info about the game, and then just leak that info to the public without the company's permission. EG, Kotaku leaking information about Fallout 4. Bethesda responded to that by blacklisting the site and everyone who works there.

2) Video Game Reviews- The latest game is out and it is fantastic, but it contains elements that you personally disagree with. Mainly, the main female character is practically naked.

Good Idea: Give the game the score it deserves but add a note stating that this element might not be for everyone. For example, say "The game's graphics are top notch, the controls crisp and responsive, the music unforgettable, and the replay value is high. 10/10. As a side note, the main female character's clothing choices might not be to everyone's taste and may be offensive to some player's sensibilities. Keep that in mind before you buy."

Bad Idea: Lower the game's deserved score because of how the character is dressed. You are reviewing a product, and people are trusting you to be fair in your judgment. A game's excellence is not measured in how a female character is dressed, after all. This is why Polygon's review of Bayonetta 2 proved to be so controversial, and why so many gamers are turning away from game reviewers and towards Let's Players to get their game reviews.

3) Dating a Game Developer- You were interviewing a game developer and you think to yourself "what an attractive individual." Pretty soon, you two start dating.

Good Idea: Disclose the relationship and abstain from covering that person; let someone else do it. It'll be very hard to be unbiased towards your new Significant Other; you can try, but it's simply safer to admit to the world "this person and I are in a relationship, I leave it to my coworkers to cover my SO's work."

Bad Idea: Keep the relationship under wraps while still writing on their works.

Worse Idea: Give your new SO glowing praise and positive coverage while the two of you are still seeing each other. People WILL find out, you will lose a ton of credibility, and you'll end up on DeepFreeze.it. Right, Nathan Grayson?

4) Product Placement- You're not making a lot of money, but your reviews and articles are scoring thousands of hits a day, You've been approached by some companies that want you to place their products in your works.

Good Idea: Work with the site you work for to put up certain adds on your articles and explain to your readers that, due to monetary troubles, you've allowed ads on your articles. Now pray to whoever you worship that at least half your readers will turn off that Ad Block!

Also a Good Idea: Turn down the offers and open up a Patreon.

Bad Idea: Put the product placement everywhere. Shill the products every chance you get, and have yourself photographed surrounded by said products. People will notice and you will be seen as the sell-out that you are.

5) Promoting your Politics- You are one hundred percent dedicated to a certain political movement, a certain ideal, and you want to promote it to your readers.

Good Idea: Don't bother. Seriously. Nobody cares that you're a Feminist/ Objectivist/ Communist/ Libertarian. People only care about games. Focus on that.

Also a Good Idea: Write a personal blog entry, separate from your work, where you promote your ideology of choice.

Bad Idea: Promote your ideology in your game reviews or articles. Like I said before, people won't care for it one bit. You'll also demonstrate yourself as someone who is wholly unprofessional, so you will lose audience.

Terrible Idea: Subtly (or overtly) state that if your readers don't agree with you, they're bad people. That's part of the reason Leigh Alexander lost her job, and just one of the many reasons Gamergate happened.