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I was approached by a friend earlier today who had questions regarding writing. More specifically freelance writing. As I can't diverge the details, this is going to be a slightly complicated lead-in (I've started over four times already). So instead of being all fuzzy I'm going to set up a hypothetical scenario that somewhat matches the real-life one.
This friend of mine wanted to set up a site that covers esports. Not like LiquidDota, TLnet, or GosuGamers, sites that cover just the competitive side of esports. However, it wasn't to be a business site like Esports Insider or Esports Observer either, where they simply report on the latest sponsorships most of the time. It'd be more like a traditional magazine. Longer pieces. Think pieces. Well informed editorials. All stuff that gets my juices flowing. Or, normally gets my juices flowing. In this case, I expressed some skepticism.
When someone I know approaches me with a question regarding a project, I also (maybe wrongfully sometimes) assume they want some feedback. And when I thought about this idea I realized that it's something I'd read but it's something that would never work. In esports, written content isn't dead but it's not sustainable. Sites open and close every month. Grand promises of excellence at launch results in cut-backs and interns doing shitty clickbait reporting a year later. And that saddens me.
A while after I gave the feedback I realized that I didn't do a good job. Everyone can say something won't work but the true value comes when you give other solutions. And to me, it's obvious: you have to go down the video route. But that's hard as well. TheScore esports have probably done the best job of transitioning in video content and even their content is often very shallow and they half-ass the research. So I turned to traditional media and fired up the youtube channel of what, to me, still is the gold standard in reporting: The New York Times. They had some incredibly interesting pieces on there (which is why I'm writing this at 3:30am) but their production value is way above what this project would be able to do from the start. So I turned to some old VICE videos.
Now VICE has fallen, in terms of quality, over the last few years but I stumbled across this amazing mini-doc about Russian pilots in the Congo. It's a great example of actual journalism because this reporter doesn't fall into the hole of "hehe they're Russians, they're all drunks". No, she's there because she heard about something interesting and she keeps an open mind. This allows her to find a deeply compelling story about a group of hard-working men that risk their lives on a daily basis and she invites us to learn about their culture. For those of you who took the time to watch the video, look at the reporter's face at any given moment. There are times when she's scared, hesitant, or annoyed but throughout the whole ordeal she's still happy. Her demeanor tells the story of someone that's not there for fame or a big paycheck. She's there because she has a passion for finding these stories, and for inviting us along with her. This is a possible solution to the aforementioned problem.
After I finished the doc, I did what I normally do: I google the reporter to see what more of their work I can find. But I found nothing. Or next to nothing. A link to a facebook page. Checked it out in case she links her stories there, as most journalists do. Yup, that's her on the picture alright. But no stories posted. Only postings of apartments for rent? Turns out she's a real estate agent now, working for her grandmother's company. And while I know nothing of this person and why she went down this route, it saddened me. Here's a great storyteller who is now a real estate agent. I'm sorry to everyone in that industry but I doubt that's anyone's passion.
Maybe journalism is dying out? Maybe I should just start clicking on those youtube videos with lots of red circles and the 😱-emoji in the thumbnail? If so, I should also start clicking those "Top 5 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes" articles google keeps on recommending me cause I binged the show once, four years ago, when I was down and out with the flu. Maybe I can get the news through TikTok, somehow?
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While your friend's ambition for a more refined take on esports akin to say, The New Yorker, is admirable, it doesn't strike me as a grounded one. I have skepticism that the average esport fan would be drawn into 1,000-2,000 word opinion essays or 5,000-10,000 word features and profiles, or at least enough to build a sustainable e-magazine. I've read some exceptional investigative journalism on esports from Kotaku, but it's not their primary fixation. Frankly, I think that is the closest the friend could get to traditional print journalism covering esports, or freelancing and pitching an esports angle to those traditional outlets.
Today's news media is still struggling to find a revenue model that is sustainable and allows for quality reporting in this internet-driven age. Few outlets have the clout like the NYT to raise subscriptions, so they go for the BuzzFeed model of clickbait, listicles and very social media centered videos. Problem is the metrics that Facebook gave for video viewership that pre-empted that pivot to video that seemingly every media outlet did was faulty if I remember right, so hundreds were laid off for a medium transition that may not even be worth it. If the best esports reporting comes from video, I have to wonder if the analytics are showing that it isn't succeeding as expected, and if that will come to the chopping block for under-performing.
And in the case of that VICE reporter, talent has been bleeding out of the news industry. Plenty of magazines and newspapers in America have Pulitzer winners on staff or similar accolades, and they're still shutting down, barely making ends meet or forced into laying them off. It is not an industry that has been kind to job prospects and security or incomes as of late (I know, I have experience in J-School). Hell, I've been reading anecdotes of former reporters forced into careers as electricians or plumbing, (not to degrade the trades) not even the traditional route selling out into PR or general communications, because the pay rise was just that substantial.
The concept of the traditional journalist doing long-form work or deep immersion features isn't dead and buried yet, but I just can't see it really thriving outside of the institutional gatekeepers who can afford it or have the reputation for it.
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would agree that in depth journalism as a widespread profession is dying out... quite possibly to become either passion projects, as you mentioned, or even something for rich people to patronize-- bloomberg, bezos, etc.
one thing that hasnt been pointed out so far is the erosion of trust in traditional media outlets, even in sports, for one reason or another...
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A one hour long video is the equivalent of a five minutes read. I hate this trend.
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Storytelling will never die, it just changes medium.
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On January 23 2020 05:45 Fleetfeet wrote:
Storytelling will never die, it just changes medium.
The next Pulitzer will go to a tictocker
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To use the cliché, we live in an age of information and digitalisation. One thing I've certainly noticed and I note that you have as well, is that there's always so much information out there. Which is why we take breaks from social media and the Internet now and again. As someone who's really been trying to grind long reads and stuff on top of the naturally long reads in my studies, there are times when a five minutes video conveys a lot more information than a 20-page article.
Granted, something like two to three thousand words would only be four or five pages tops, but I would contend that we are living in an age where people just don't read much.
Bit of a cynical view as well, so feel free to disagree, but I think that the general esports audience is more attuned to video and audio than text. They wouldn't want to read over watch. We both know this, as in-depth as our interviews may get, they never get more views than a short two minutes video interview asking a player what their favourite hero, chocolate, teammate, and colour is. I don't know if it's more human or not, but people, or at least I do, feel that there just isn't enough time to read anymore, and I still read a lot more than I realise I actually do.
Now, whether or not we're part of a dying breed, I think is something that is up in the air. In terms of esports journalism, more likely than not. The target audience, again cynically speaking, is more inclined towards clickbait and listicles and the whole kitchen sink of content that I'd gladly put into my food waste bin. It's easy to consume and there may actually be one or two decent points in them, but the proportion is absurdly undesirable to those like us. Hell, this is demonstrated in the undying popularity of tabloids like The Sun, Daily Mail, and National Enquirer, and other outlets like BuzzFeed. It's an unfortunate situation but I think we simply have to adapt to the times. I, for one, am very glad that this website and community remains standing while continuing a less-than-savoury model in respect of what I would call "the general esports audience".
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Honestly speaking most people into video games are not into the nitty gritty details. There's nothing astounding about the gameplay that touches you on an invested level.
At least, video game magazines of old were able to introduce new and exciting games.
If i were talking to your friend i'd tell them that i want to read stuff like that for myself, but it would never ever work.
There's no money. It's far more in effort for the writing staff than they will ever get in clicks. It's not sustainable.
Frankly speaking, what your friend is asking for is something even more high-quality than the TL editorials of old, but for multiple esports. All it would ever take is for some internet derp to crash in and talk mad uninformed garbage about any article they disagree with. Along with that, the average joe who is interested in the writing not become any better at the game they are reading about.
What really is it all for?
While the whole thing is incredibly ambitious and worthy of having, the vast majority of people don't want it. In fact, they'd probably rather fuck off to reddit to shitpost instead.
There's a certain level of jealousy to game-reporting from the reader to its writer because of the nature of the game being played in many different ways. It's very difficult to have an opinion that will end up resonating with the general 2k population. i just hate the parroting of negativity today. It kills the momentum of anything worthwhile, and a lot of the time it is because the matter at hand is imperfect and is very complicated in nature.
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On January 25 2020 22:30 nanaoei wrote:
Honestly speaking most people into video games are not into the nitty gritty details. There's nothing astounding about the gameplay that touches you on an invested level.
At least, video game magazines of old were able to introduce new and exciting games.
If i were talking to your friend i'd tell them that i want to read stuff like that for myself, but it would never ever work.
There's no money. It's far more in effort for the writing staff than they will ever get in clicks. It's not sustainable.
Frankly speaking, what your friend is asking for is something even more high-quality than the TL editorials of old, but for multiple esports. All it would ever take is for some internet derp to crash in and talk mad uninformed garbage about any article they disagree with. Along with that, the average joe who is interested in the writing not become any better at the game they are reading about.
What really is it all for?
While the whole thing is incredibly ambitious and worthy of having, the vast majority of people don't want it. In fact, they'd probably rather fuck off to reddit to shitpost instead.
There's a certain level of jealousy to game-reporting from the reader to its writer because of the nature of the game being played in many different ways. It's very difficult to have an opinion that will end up resonating with the general 2k population. i just hate the parroting of negativity today. It kills the momentum of anything worthwhile, and a lot of the time it is because the matter at hand is imperfect and is very complicated in nature.
articles are not necessarily about gameplay, but esports storylines and perspectives
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Johto4934 Posts
On January 25 2020 21:49 Maverick_2009 wrote:
there are times when a five minutes video conveys a lot more information than a 20-page article.
My big issue with this idea is that often times when I'm looking for information, I'm not necessarily interested in all the information that is possibly available to me. A quick CTRL + F can do wonders in text, but for video we don't have anything equivalent.
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On February 04 2020 23:20 FO-nTTaX wrote:Show nested quote +On January 25 2020 21:49 Maverick_2009 wrote:
there are times when a five minutes video conveys a lot more information than a 20-page article. My big issue with this idea is that often times when I'm looking for information, I'm not necessarily interested in all the information that is possibly available to me. A quick CTRL + F can do wonders in text, but for video we don't have anything equivalent.
I get what you mean, but I can't fully relate. Ctrl + F rarely helps me out due to density and videos don't tend to do well either. For more niche topics though, visualisation through succinct explanations in a video does a much better job than extensive articles, and a five minute video can get a concept across to me more easily.
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EPT
