[INTERVIEW] Jeff Gerstmann, Senior Editor, GameSpot
[Jeff Gerstmann is the Senior Editor for GameSpot, one of the big three, as they say, for video game-related journalism. He's been in the biz for a long time now and knows a thing or two about writing about games. I talked with Jeff about humor in video game journalism, podcasting and the parents who misunderstand him.]
THE GAME RAG: To start off, do you remember the first video game that you played that made you realize that video game journalism is what you wanted to be remembered for?
JEFF GERSTMANN: I'd rather be remembered as the world's greatest Pac-Man player, but I don't own enough American flag ties to be mistaken for Billy Mitchell on a regular basis.
There never really was any one game that made me want to do this for a living. I sort of fell into a magazine job not long after finishing high school. It only lasted three issues before all the higher-ups supposedly embezzled all the funding and booted us all out. At that point, it was something I had experience in and wanted to continue doing. But the thing that keeps me going in that department is that reviews provide a service. They're either guiding players towards the games they should be paying attention to or warning them to stay away from the worst games out there. Obviously it's not a perfect science. Some people just happen to really like bad games. I was way into Flicky on the Genesis, mostly because it was terrible.
TGR: It seems as if every video game site feels the need to be funny. Why do you think that is?
JG: At some point, everyone with Internet access got way into irony, or at least their own personal and incorrect definition of it. So now the Internet is slammed full of sarcastic "so bad it's good" coverage of anything you can imagine and everyone thinks they're completely hilarious. I used to only say that something was "dope" in a completely ironic fashion. Then, one day, I had said it so many times that I actually started meaning it when I said it. Seriously, that's just messed up. But anyway, I think the comedy thing is a larger issue than just video game websites. That's not to say that those pranksters over at CNN need to straighten up or something, but largely, I think plenty of people just take themselves a little less seriously these days. Either that or they're totally mopey and super-serious all the time and love to blog about how tortured they are, which is also high comedy. Blame Web 2.0 or something. As for us, I think it's only natural to want to be entertaining as well as informative. I think we strike a pretty good balance between the two these days.
TGR: Do you think that this humor causes video game news to sound less professional? Does it need to be professional?
JG: There are a lot of different ways to cover video games. Overall, how it impacts your professionalism depends on where you're trying to work in the humor. It has its place, but the main purpose of a review, for example, isn't to show off how clever a writer is. It's to deliver purchasing advice. If you start cracking wise so much that it takes away from the main purpose of the review, I think that's a problem. While I spend a good chunk of time every week thinking about things that I think our users will find funny, I certainly wouldn't want to overrun every single aspect of the site with that stuff.
TGR: Do you feel connected to the rest of journalism? Or do you feel "fringey?"
JG: We reach millions of people every month. More than many print magazines, whether they're about gaming or not. Probably more than most regional newspapers, but I can't say I've really done the math on that or anything. But yes, as we specialize in covering one specific niche, we're part of what the world affectionately calls "the enthusiast press." Considering the mainstream world doesn't necessarily want game coverage with the level of depth sites like ours provide just yet, yeah, I'd call that a fringe. I don't think you'll see USA Today running a Prey strategy guide anytime soon. But I don't take "fringe" to automatically mean that we speak to a small audience, either. It's all relative.
TGR: When I listen to the other "big site" podcasts I don't feel as connected to the presenters as I do with GameSpot's. What makes The Hot Spot so comfortable?
JG: We edit out all the parts where I threaten to punch and/or fire someone. That goes a long way. But actually, we're just a pretty tightly-knit group of people, and The HotSpot is really just a more focused version of the sorts of conversations we have all day long. We're pretty comfortable around each other, and I guess some of that comes across in the podcast. That, and we get to record it in a studio built for radio. We've got big goofy microphones and everything.
TGR: What do you think of the big video games blogs (i.e., Kotaku, Joystiq, etc.)? Have they hurt or helped your site?
JG: I had Joystiq on my Xbox Live friends list for awhile since we were both playing Geometry Wars before the 360 had hit stores and I wanted to see how the friend leaderboards were working out, but he/she/it rarely seemed to actually be online. I always find different styles of game coverage to be pretty interesting, and it's been neat to see both of those sites grow. Is that non-committal enough? I don't really know if either site has helped or hurt us. We've linked to them in news stories, they've linked to us. It's casual, baby. Can I just say that I probably have more Xbox 360 achievement points than both sites combined?
TGR: Okay, here's the situation. Your parents go away on a week's vacation and they leave the keys to the brand new Porsche. Do they mind?
JG: As much as I would really like to pick up where you left off, I think you should know that the RIAA's impending crackdown on LYRICZ WEBSITEZ such as yours is going to bring you some serious legal trouble. And I'm not going down on that ship, brother. We ain't goin' out like that, we ain't goin' out like that! We ain't goin' ouuut! Oh crap.