Introduction

For hardcore fans of video and PC games, there are no shortages of ways to get info on current and upcoming titles. There are the major web sites like Gamespot, IGN, Gamespy and 1Up.com and there are the smaller sites (like FiringSquad) that serve more specialized fans. There are the blog sites that try to gather info from other outlets in an entertaining fashion. And now there are a growing number of podcasts and videocasts, both professional and amateur, which are getting more are more attention every day.

The truth is, however, there are still a huge amount of people that have little to no experience playing games, at least not the ones that hardcore fans are attracted to. While there are exceptions, from The Sims to Doom to the Grand Theft Auto series to World of Warcraft that have captured mass attention and sales, it has to be said that there are still a lot of people who not only have not played any video or PC games but don’t quite understand why it has grown into an entertainment industry that now rivals movies, music and TV for attention.

For those people, checking out a hardcore gaming site might not be the right introduction to the industry and its culture. A lot of them, however, can read more and more about the video and PC game industry in their local paper or their favorite national magazine or their mainstream news web site. These mainstream news outlets are paying more and more attention to the industry and the people who write for these publications frequently get info on upcoming games and news that even the hardcore game web sites have to wait for.

FiringSquad decided to contact journalists from a variety of well known national mainstream news outlets to get their opinions on covering the game industry from their perspective. Overall, we found that they are all making a bigger push to cover the industry and that could affect how video and PC games are perceived in the mass media in the future (there is one rather large exception to this trend, however, which we will get to later). We received responses from journalists from The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post newspapers, along with Time and Entertainment Weekly magazines and the CNN web site. FiringSquad also contacted reporters who have covered the video and PC game industry from The Wall Street Journal but those journalists declined our offer to participate in this article.