No, Seriously, I've Gone Legit

By: One of my favourite industry bloggers, Matthew Wasteland.
Posted On: Magical Wasteland, February 10, 2009

What is in this article: Concise condemnation of the game industry's embarrassing preoccupation with obtaining cultural legitimacy. Incensed by a "facile" Gamasutra article on the issue, Wasteland argues (correctly) that "consternation of the why-don't-they-respect-us variety" is a product of the industry's own insecurities rather than any actual disdain on the part of society. Legitimacy, he says, is not earned by grovelling at the feet of a perceived cultural elite. After all,

Nobody convened a symposium or wrote an article for an industry trade magazine about how to get rock and roll accepted as a legitimate form of artistic expression; a rock star becomes one partially because he doesn't explicitly seek the approval of the wider mass of culture about him. And now here we are, sitting on a new medium often portrayed as dangerous and subversive, and we're wondering how we can get away from that, like we're afraid of the barely perceptible frown on our dentist neighbor’s face when we tell him what we do for a living.

Regular OctoPodcast listeners might recall that Patrick and I said much the same thing while discussing MTV Multiplayer's 'coverage' of the Obama inauguration. Not to sound smug, but it's gratifying to know that someone whose work I respect agrees with us on this. We're not alone!

What is not in this article: Good will. Matthew Wasteland is often a very snarky man, and in this instance, his snark borders on outright nastiness. This is not a complaint. As you can probably guess, I'm a big fan of caustic commentary, especially when it's as clever as this:

[The author] blithely instructs developers to “take your games seriously,” as if nobody does! I'm tempted to suggest in turn that if one writes for a publication, even one as small as Gamasutra, one ought to take that seriously, too.

Goddamn. That is some serious SNAP right there. Almost makes you feel sorry for the schlub on the receiving end.

Other notable articles by the same author: Pretty much everything on Magical Wasteland is worth a read. Personal favourites include this analysis of Final Fantasy Tactics, this bit on technical writing in games journalism, and this biting deconstruction of Cliffy B's profile piece in The New Yorker. But again, it's all good, and you'd do well to read it all if you haven't already.

Come back next week for another Good Bit of games writing. And in the meantime, if you have any Good Bits of your own that you think warrant our attention, go ahead and link us up. Doesn't matter if you're the author or not – just so long as it's good.

Thanks to Bitterly Books for providing me with the format I needed to make this column a regular thing. Also, thanks again to Bitterly Books for being an informative and hilarious blog about books. And finally, thanks to you for clicking on one of those links. Your support of awesome book blogs is much appreciated!