Video Games Writing Trash Bin #2
It’s been two months since I wrote the first one of these, and I’ve gathered some more embarrassing headline screenshots during that time. So I thought I’d share some of the various trash Google has served up to me leading up to the big Not-E3 season of games.
The Different Flavors of Trash Worthy Headlines
The “Unnecessary Explanation” Which can frequently be seen whenever there’s something new and relevant. It could even be about something as old as The Lord of The Rings.
The “Un(common) Occurrence” This is usually when there’s a popular game that almost any bit of news will generate some website traffic, even if the thing being reported on happens to almost every single person who plays said game.
The “Unprofessional” which is when a member of the games media who ought to know better just drums up some incredibly dumb shit that comes off as either reductive or just outright rude towards game developers, or fans, or even their peers in some cases.
The “Obvious Fact” is usually when someone who writes about video games for a living decides that they’ll state a pretty obvious, or common fact about a video game, but try to spin it in such a way as to spark drama.
The “Premature Analysis” in which an inspiring armchair analysist will attempt to piece together crumbs of information about upcoming games in a manner that might lead a less informer reader into believing that the author has any idea what they’re talking about.
The “Short Story” is when an author attempts to condense the events of the article in question into the headline of the story, and usually results in a small paragraph that confuses more than it actually informs.
These are just a few examples of the types of headlines I’ll see Google recommend to me on a daily basis. In addition to these, you’ll sometimes (often times) find an entire video games news outlet dedicated to clogging up the internet, and one of the biggest names around for that kind of skullduggery is none other than Kotaku.
Today I just wanted to provide a few examples of how modern Kotaku has attempted to spin the chair around backwards and take a seat in an attempt to better relate to today’s youth.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find these attempts at humor, along with the terminology used with them to be extremely unprofessional and just kind of “cringe” in an attempt to pander to an audience of young people. I have no idea how effective this tactic has been for them, as everyone I see in the circles I run in thinks that site is a hot bag of trash. But who knows?
As an added bonus. To close out this installment of Video Games Writing Trash Bin, I present to you “The Short King”.
