“Part of the problem” – an open letter to Joystiq from an indie game developer

Dear Joystiq,

It’s not intelligent for us at Mode 7 to make an enemy out of anyone in the media right now, so being on your back all the time is perhaps not the best position for us to take.

You know what? I don’t care any more. I especially don’t care when you insult me directly by telling me I don’t exist, so if you push me I will push back.

Every time something about the indie gaming scene pops up in my RSS reader I’m filled with foreboding because I know for a fact that the article lurking behind the headline will be comprised of baseless speculation and misinformation. Few journalists actually bother to investigate the indie scene at all before they write about it, so in the past we’ve been treated to droolingly naive proclamations that it will save gaming; or patronising “look-at-this-lovely-version-of-Tetris” guff; or simply scorn.

And now this.

That headline is insulting to us and to your readers. It basically broadcasts an impression that you know nothing about gaming.

I’ve told you about Determinance several times through your news submission form, and through direct email. I’ve received no reply. You’re simply not interested in our game, which is your choice, but isn’t that a little hypocritical?

Now, I understand a little of what news bloggers go through – they’re essentially like normal journalists except that the time-pressure on them is even more profound. They’re forced to come up with little titbits of information several times every few hours, and then get them formatted and up on their site. In that kind of context, its unsurprising that topics are treated casually and in little depth.

But still, you’re insulting me, Joystiq? Why are you doing that?

Let’s take a look at the article to which the post refers…This would seem to be a piece about indie publishing, and your post mostly obfuscates that. There are plenty of indie developers, but very few publishers who allow indies room to breathe. Valve do, and that’s why Intro-constantly-mentioned-version, who notably won’t let a publisher fuck with their game, chose to go with them to keep that indie flag flying.

O’Brien’s article is fair enough. It doesn’t go into too much depth, contrasts the modern era with the “floppies in a bag” Golden Age, namechecks Costikyan’s Manifesto Games (a project we continue to observe with interest)…it’s all fine for a general audience, but it’s doing nothing to change the situation.

“If there’s a niche indie developers can make their own, it’s PC gaming, which accounts for about 15 percent of the domestic market.”

Yeah, damn straight – how about looking at projects which are actually aiming for that very niche?

It is possible for small indie teams to make games passionately and get them released: it’s just very very very difficult, as I’m sure you’ll realise if you’ve read some of our posts below. There’s lots of wonderful rhetoric floating out of places like Nintendo right now: “Oh, we support small developers. If anyone wants to develop for us, just get in touch.” Yeah, that’s great – get in touch with whom? The receptionist at Nintendo Towers? Oh, and by the way, before you tell me to try wandering up to their offices with a sweaty copy of our game in my palm, I’ve already done the email equivalent. Guess what? No reply.

There’s literally no door open to small indies which doesn’t make them look like a fourteen-year-old kid who’s just come up with a “really awesome” FPS where the main character is called Commander Dope. You have to fight to get serious attention from anyone: be it the press or the industry. We’ve managed to do it in a couple of small ways, and you’ll see the results of that soon, but it’s not been easy.

Now, it has to be said that the marketing on Determinance hasn’t been as extensive as I would have liked quite yet, so I will forgive O’Brien because our message hasn’t reached him, and that’s my fault. I will cut you a little a little slack, because the indie scene is a nightmare of disorganised PR, half-baked ideas and crap games.

I’ll cut you some slack, but I’m not going to forgive you easily, Joystiq, because I’ve done all I can with you Stop telling me that it’s so very hard for indie games when you yourself are part of the problem: read your fucking email – the indie community is shouting at you.

Yes, I’m sniping now, but finally, just before I pack up my scope and unscrew the legs from that little tripod thing, here’s a further sprinkling of your distinctive magic:

“One notable omission: episodic gaming. With companies like Telltale Games and Valve actively using technology to deliver their games directly to gamers and disrupt the publisher paradigm, O’Brien’s piece didn’t consider the effects of these (admittedly larger) independent developers.”

What has episodic gaming got to do with anything? That’s simply taking two contemporaneous “issues” in gaming and shoe-horning them into each other. That’s cherry-picking something you do know about, and dropping it in place to disguise something you don’t know about.

Finally, here’s a challenge and a means to redeem yourself:

We demand an apology to all the indie game developers you’ve ignored. Then we want you to use your power to help us out, give us things like this, come looking for our projects, and most importantly, answer us when we need you. Listen to us.

We know it’s hard, we know we could have made things easier for you, but at least tell us how instead of simply ignoring us and publishing lies that directly impact us.

Many journalists want to rise above merely making money from things they cover to actually being a force for good in their chosen area – if you don’t care about games, then let your readers know that so they’re sure of where you stand. If you do care, get in touch with me, cover our game right now and write a post explaining exactly how we can present our projects to you in the way you want.

Update:

Just noticed the same sentiment expressed on Kotaku, another site we’ve contacted in the past, in response to the Slate article.  Come on, people – sort it out.

I’m refusing to accept the argument that sites such as these are “not positioned as news sites” – a significant number of their readers treat them as a prime news source.  Witness the response to Joystiq liveblogging the Wii announcement and then come back and tell me it’s “not news”.

Sites like BluesNews, Eurogamer…hell, even the Sydney Morning Herald are willing to communicate with indie developers.  Great little sites like Greg May’s Truly Obscure care about their coverage and are even willing to send me over nice letters of support when I go out on a limb like this – get your act together!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 29th, 2006 at 7:09 pm and is filed under PR trials and tribulations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to ““Part of the problem” – an open letter to Joystiq from an indie game developer”

1. rich:

   § May 30th, 2006 at 12:39 am

   I didn’t even read the mentioned article. But I knew from the title alone that joystiq had cocked up bigtime.

   Let us convene here again, hopefully soon, with tales of reconciliation.

2. Jay Barnson:

   § May 31st, 2006 at 2:05 am

   I guess I didn’t read it that way.

   Maybe I just impose my own bias on things I read, but the article itself sounded like it was talking more about lack of indie distribution vectors. They acknowledge that there’s indie games out there, but we have no *good* means of getting them to the consumers.

   Yeah, there are the portals, and the upcoming Manifesto Games, and affiliate sales programs. Will this be enough? Evidently not.

   Our relationship with the press is a big problem. We’re not news. We’re not Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. We’re not Microsoft. We’re not interesting to the public except as the occasional, “look what this crazy person is doing” type article.

   We need to make ourselves known. We need to keep making waves and making news. We need to be here to stay, and we have to be *interesting*.

   Now if I can only figure out how to DO that…

3. Paul:

   § May 31st, 2006 at 4:15 pm

   
   Jay,

   I agree – that does seem to be the main thrust of the Slate article. The title is basically hyperbolic, but it still irritated me.

   I think that indie games are caught between two poles – if you’re not overtly making a “casual” game, and you’re also not trying to create Half Life 2 then distribution options are a little bit difficult.

   I think dialogue is what’s needed – I have much less of a problem with someone saying, “We don’t want to cover/publish/discuss your game for X reason” than with someone basically ignoring any contact.

4. Kyton:

   § May 31st, 2006 at 6:30 pm

   True, getting somekind of response is always better than just getting ignored.

   I know this because i went to a job interview, and the guy promised to call me nevertheless i get the place or not, and guess what…. thats almost 2 months ago, and he promised to call in a week

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