Time: 21:24:05 CET 12:24:05 PST 15:24:05 EST 05:24:05 Seoul 04:24:05 Beijing
NEWS
E-Sports Journalism: Quality over Quantity?
News writing in E-Sports is at a crossroads; news is coming at us faster, more frequently and in larger quantities but is the quality of the news suffering? Is quantity becoming too important when quality should be first on the agenda? Are too many writers in it for the wrong reasons?
By Lawrence Benedict 'Malystryx' Phillips
Dec 19, 2007 01:50
News writing in E-Sports is at a crossroads; news is coming at us faster, more frequently and in larger quantities but is the quality of the news suffering? Is quantity becoming too important when quality should be first on the agenda? Are too many writers in it for the wrong reasons?As Chris0 said in his excellent article “The Full Story or Not So” news writers do have a certain responsibility as well as a certain power to have a positive or negative impact on E-Sports future. To be more precise “the lack of professionalism to carry on a job through to the end will have a negative impact in the future of esports.”
I’m not too fussed about rumours, even Manchester United have a rumours section about their own team on their official website, its part and parcel of the “media” so I’m not going to delve into that. I will however comment that the amount of rumours is growing rapidly, why? Is it because there is lots of juicy gossip floating around? Not really, it’s a vain attempt to cram as much rubbish onto their front page as possible in order to look like their “on the ball” as they say. I’d prefer to read a well thought out article or replay/demo analysis than read a rumour picked up from some unknown forum user, I digress.
Am I the only one to notice that so many “news writers” seem like clones? They all write the same type of sentences, void of any personal touch just an automated robot churning out cliché after cliché.
Does it matter? Perhaps not but it is such a waste of an opportunity to improve your writing skills, most rely on proofreaders to make their news items legible instead of striving to improve themselves. People are too obsessed on imitating what others have done instead of trying to set themselves apart from the pack. I hope that when someone reads a news that they know I wrote it and not another SK writer simply by the way it is written or worded, the same for this article.
Speed has become ever more important since competition has risen in the last year or so, news items are posted within hours of the event happening instead of days later in a moment of sheer boredom. The reality is that people do not care if a writer is using Queen’s English or Fabio Capello’s, “I want news, I want it fast, does not need to be perfect”.
It would be a lie to say that NO-ONE can write, there are certain individuals who do possess the flair to take news/article writing to the next level. Although you do not need me to tell you that for some it is a pursuit of personal glory or e-fame rather than for the good of the E-Sports community.
The fact that there are so few good writers in E-Sports means that those with the talent or skill wield it as a sign of superiority instead of using it for the greater good. Its no surprise that many sites have egos, I personally congratulate or send my appreciation if a writer produces a good article instead of thinking “humph, thinks he’s good, hah, I’m going to beat him and prove I am the King, Mwahahahaha”.
Of course writers should want to be the best but when it becomes a personal battle for your personal gains you are forgetting it’s the community that you should be writing for. Many of these writers have centre stage; hundreds of people will read their articles so instead of going on a pointless crusade to use every complicated word they can find in their thesaurus why not write for the people?
Much like in any domain there are people that love what they do and others that love the money that comes with what they do. Money is scarce in news writing, don’t be fooled not even I receive money and even the legendary Carmac is hardly rolling up in a stretched limo throwing money at nearby fanboys. However for a teenager even a scent of financial gain can make them forgot about the community and write for themselves and the money they can gain.
Many people comment “oh this news is badly written” or “typo here, lol” but why not puts yourselves forward and volunteer to write articles or news?
The thing that is important is not if you can write well or not but if you have the willpower and determination to better yourself instead of being happy in mediocrity and spamming a proof-reader to make the public believe you can actually write.
As long as news writers fail to set aside their personal quest for glory, reliance on proofreaders or lack of flair & originality, E-Sports will continue at the same pace and quality of writing will go out the window.
If you can write well submit an article to an E-Sports website, E-Sports “journalists” although sometimes they forget are only mortal and many waste their talent by not improving or inspiring readers or worse use their talent in search of acquiring “God status” among the community. YOU can make these guys work for their places and if you are already a news writer, do not be satisfied simply doing what those before you have done, strive to raise the bar and remember one thing:
Quality over quantity any day.
I’m not too fussed about rumours, even Manchester United have a rumours section about their own team on their official website, its part and parcel of the “media” so I’m not going to delve into that. I will however comment that the amount of rumours is growing rapidly, why? Is it because there is lots of juicy gossip floating around? Not really, it’s a vain attempt to cram as much rubbish onto their front page as possible in order to look like their “on the ball” as they say. I’d prefer to read a well thought out article or replay/demo analysis than read a rumour picked up from some unknown forum user, I digress.
"When I mean write I mean piece together words to make sentences and avoid using words such as “powerhouse”"
My first concern is how many news writers can actually write? When I mean write I mean piece together words to make sentences and avoid using words such as “powerhouse”, which forces my eyes to bulge every time I read it since it is so over-used it is ridiculous. Am I the only one to notice that so many “news writers” seem like clones? They all write the same type of sentences, void of any personal touch just an automated robot churning out cliché after cliché.
Does it matter? Perhaps not but it is such a waste of an opportunity to improve your writing skills, most rely on proofreaders to make their news items legible instead of striving to improve themselves. People are too obsessed on imitating what others have done instead of trying to set themselves apart from the pack. I hope that when someone reads a news that they know I wrote it and not another SK writer simply by the way it is written or worded, the same for this article.
"Unfortunately E-Sports lacks the crème de la crème in terms of writers so most websites will put up with poor ones as long as they are active and fast."
Unfortunately E-Sports lacks the crème de la crème in terms of writers so most websites will put up with poor ones as long as they are active and fast. Speed has become ever more important since competition has risen in the last year or so, news items are posted within hours of the event happening instead of days later in a moment of sheer boredom. The reality is that people do not care if a writer is using Queen’s English or Fabio Capello’s, “I want news, I want it fast, does not need to be perfect”.
It would be a lie to say that NO-ONE can write, there are certain individuals who do possess the flair to take news/article writing to the next level. Although you do not need me to tell you that for some it is a pursuit of personal glory or e-fame rather than for the good of the E-Sports community.
"The fact that there are so few good writers in E-Sports means that those with the talent or skill wield it as a sign of superiority instead of using it for the greater good"
There were a host of articles (they should tbh be called columns) written about the MYM/Estro scandal, but many were written with the aim of capitalizing on a displeased E-Sports community with the aim of acquiring personal fame. The fact that there are so few good writers in E-Sports means that those with the talent or skill wield it as a sign of superiority instead of using it for the greater good. Its no surprise that many sites have egos, I personally congratulate or send my appreciation if a writer produces a good article instead of thinking “humph, thinks he’s good, hah, I’m going to beat him and prove I am the King, Mwahahahaha”.
Of course writers should want to be the best but when it becomes a personal battle for your personal gains you are forgetting it’s the community that you should be writing for. Many of these writers have centre stage; hundreds of people will read their articles so instead of going on a pointless crusade to use every complicated word they can find in their thesaurus why not write for the people?
Much like in any domain there are people that love what they do and others that love the money that comes with what they do. Money is scarce in news writing, don’t be fooled not even I receive money and even the legendary Carmac is hardly rolling up in a stretched limo throwing money at nearby fanboys. However for a teenager even a scent of financial gain can make them forgot about the community and write for themselves and the money they can gain.
"there are writers who can barely string together coherent sentences and then there are those who could not care less about the site’s community"
There is no middle ground, there are writers who can barely string together coherent sentences and then there are those who could not care less about the site’s community as long as they are gathering fame, making some money and getting the most comments. Many people comment “oh this news is badly written” or “typo here, lol” but why not puts yourselves forward and volunteer to write articles or news?
The thing that is important is not if you can write well or not but if you have the willpower and determination to better yourself instead of being happy in mediocrity and spamming a proof-reader to make the public believe you can actually write.
As long as news writers fail to set aside their personal quest for glory, reliance on proofreaders or lack of flair & originality, E-Sports will continue at the same pace and quality of writing will go out the window.
If you can write well submit an article to an E-Sports website, E-Sports “journalists” although sometimes they forget are only mortal and many waste their talent by not improving or inspiring readers or worse use their talent in search of acquiring “God status” among the community. YOU can make these guys work for their places and if you are already a news writer, do not be satisfied simply doing what those before you have done, strive to raise the bar and remember one thing:
Quality over quantity any day.
RELATED NEWS
136 comments
Loading comments...
-2pac
i also do alot of freelance work for free newspaper, but are the most read in our country the herald am
also do work for fingal county council newspaper on community issues.
ive also had two descriptive stories published in papers
my leaving cert english exam story i wrote was published in the irish independant.
I work proper journalistic jobs...
and i smell a large amount of sarcasm of your post.
I work hard at writing and feel i have a good grasp. Writing for e-sports is hard, because it is based on such fact and not so much opinion, its kinda shunned upon, so the best I try is some unique writing.
I would usually keep silent around all this, but i guess most of the posts have being negetive towards writers. And although I'm not known at all on the writing scene, I would hate to be labelled as a poor writter and a kid, although im 19 i can be very mature when id like to be :)
And for those reading out there, spelling mistakes dont make a shit writer :) Any publication or good esport sites have proofreader who check every article for spelling and grammer and also make suggestions to content.
But like i always say to people that read my work, feedback, positive or negetive gives writers a learning experience, to learn from mistakes and to create and fine tune their work to applease the mass.
possibly asked online once for a headset when mine was in bits :)
too much to ask ????
To start off i will only say that these are my thoughts and i dont mean to offend someone if i will and i will not check my spelling mistakes now cause it is 7am and havent had a sleep so far.
Since i am close with the e-sport and normal journalism in generall. No to be more honest more than generall since ive done my work for some online websites and since i have gained a certificate for the basic knowledge in journalism i can say that yes you can become an eSports journalist easy. Now dont attack me allready cause by saying easy i mean you can become a journalist that is doing the fast and simple newsposts and the basic interviews, or you can become the eSport journalist that is apointed to help a higher standing by gathering the needed information for him to make a great article. Yes even such positions exist. And it`s no big deal to be a left hand, cause your just gaining experience to become a better one. Some will say yes your right but that means that the left hand (the less experienced journalist/or someone apointed to help) can`t write anything and they will just copy. Can`t write? False. Are copying? Maybe, but everyone is copying someone. You have learnt your knowledge of journalism somewhere and so are these how you say "copiers". They read other newsposts and they learn from them. It is not their fault that the most of these articles, newsposts, interviers, previews and reviews have the same style of writing. maybe you shouldnt blame them, but then the people who started the eSport journalism for not having seperate writign styles? I don`t think so. Even if we would look back and say you might have some deep idea there, it wont stop most from blaming these new writers for beeing the same old boring ones who dont have the ideas for an interesting writing article or just they dont seem to find an interesting way to write. But we should stop blaming them and instead make more good articles and newsposts so they can learn.
Now after this part people will allready think okay he must be some achward guy who just doesn`t have an idea what is the main idea. Well you may think so but i will just continiue my ideas.
Second thing what i wanted to discus is the payment. Now some say "none will work for free cause they don't have the motivation" and others will say "Thats not true there are some people who will work for free for their joy" But then there are people who know or just think they know that it is in the middle of them. Now you will say hey there is no point in any of those sentences, but before you say that let me finish this part and explain what i ment was. You are right when you say that Quality will be only if you get payed, cause people dont want or just dont have so much time to spend to write an article. Infact I havent seen or just have seen that many articles made by people who you say have no writing skills. Everyone who has atempted to make an article either doesnt publish it cause he indeed didnt find any way to write it or has succeeded in writing a readable one. Now you will say you are stupid cause there are bilions of such articles that I can`t read cause too many grammar mistakes or i don`t see any facts or main ideas in them. Then i have to ask, are you actually interested in the topic he is writing about? Are you actually willing to read a 1-5 page (Online website pages, mostly depend on the size) long article? Are you sure you have knowledge in the scene that the article is about? Talking abotu having the knowledge about the scene what are you reading about does actually matter. if you will say no it doesnt matter, every article should be writen so that everyone understands what is it about, or where are the main ideas. Then im afraid you are wrong. Take an example on normal newspapers and their articles, especially if you would open a newspaper which has articles about economics or geology. Or any other sphere you dont have a clue about. Or havent had the interest. I doubt that you will find the main ideas. So what i ment was that even these people who dont have the time or dont have the motivation can be a writers. And on the other hand the journalists, newsposters or name them how ever you want, who get the salary or some bonuses ofcourse will make a more quality work, cause it is a job allready. Ofcourse there is a volounteer job, but in this sphere it isnt the same as for helping injured animals or so. And if you have a job which means you work for a reward you have the motivation, responsibility and obligation to make a quality work. And it is true that only the good ones get paid and that everyone should try their best and write good articles to get a chance to get paid. But then you dont go to work for a newspaper for free and show that your a good writer and hope that someday you will get paid. Or do you?... As i thought no. If people want good articles and newsposts with some added opinions from the newswriter himself or just some fun facts or something even in the simple "Team transfer posts" then websites shouldnt recruit beginners or people who havent ever made an article or worked somewhere. Atleast not those websites who are beeing visited a lot per day. Wont mae such websites but people who have an idea will know what websites are these. And just let these newcomers to start working for the lesser known ones. Or just let them learn journalism in some courses or school.
"You are right when you say that Quality will be only if you get payed, cause people dont want or just dont have so much time to spend to write an article". I do not think so, I personally would not write some shitty news or article simply thinking "oh well im not getting paid", if I do something I want to do it well.
I doubt there are newsposters out there deliberately not trying their best to make quality news but TBH websites are more interested in paying for fast and up to date news even if the quality is not of the highest standard than for lengthy articles.
"it wont stop most from blaming these new writers for beeing the same old boring ones who dont have the ideas for an interesting writing article or just they dont seem to find an interesting way to write. But we should stop blaming them and instead make more good articles and newsposts so they can learn."
You can maybe teach people to write, but you can not teach them to have good ideas.
Istvan said why would people who have the knowledge to join and make newsposts for like less than 4000 euros or the same and why would a website want a 3 day later newspost with a good newspost and so on. Well these two cannot be compared together since in 1 world you may get the news about NHL games which are played at night or Political things which are happening in evenings just in the next morning in a newspaper (ofcourse you can by watching tv or reading in an website) but with still the newspaper article will be way better than the website one in the same evening, cause the newspaper journalist will have the night to think over it whiel the website journalist needs to post it right away with his current thoughts and so on, which maybe leads for a less widened vocabulary. And the words he used. And while in e-Sports you only use the online version of newspaper which is gaming websites.
Another major thing which i see here is that some think that the best newsposters for English speaking websites can only be the citizens of a country which has the English language as the main mother language. I object, or i just have to say I disagree. Ofcourse if you want to use the sci-fi words which probably hafl the readers havent even heard in their life, yeah you have to be such a person. but if you want to have an article which you would enjoy to read, you just need a journalist (i start to love using journalist instead of newsposter hehe) who knows avarage English language, okay maybe a bit more than avarage. But in my opinion 6-7 years should be enough, if you have learned it for more than 10 years then it is more then enough to make an article which would be fun to read. Cause an article doesnt need to have sci-fi words but it has to have a journalist who just knows what he is doing and has nothing to do with the English knowledge in that high postion. So saying Carmac cant be the best or is less proffesional than the american one (forgot the name) is bull crap. It is 100% not cause of the language. Untill you write something for a science magazine. So yes this aprt shows that to have a good article you need a good journalist and i think the same way, but i still 110% think the same way for the previous aprts i posted.
And probably currently the last small part cause ive spent some amount of time into this allready and cause i havent sleeped yet and i have probably forgot 99 things i wanted to add I will say that, journalists will always need proofreaders and will rely on them not to have a single mistake, cause it is human to be wrong or have a mistake. And it is Inhuman to think otherwise. Also writers will loose their motivation if people will flame directly to them not their work. And sometimes it is giid ti have critics, cause what doesnt kill you will make you only stronger. i am sure i will get some reply on this and then i will have again somethign to say! Oh joy oh fun! :)
Sincerly yours fellow journalist Raivo
what an epic ending isnt it?
I don't think anyone claimed that unless I missed something, if we're looking at the "Main" E-Sports websites Gotfrag/MYM/SK/Readmore the amount of English news writers is VERY low, perhaps 4-5 "Englishmen" between them.
Most Englishmen prefer to be the heckler than write their own articles, its much safer :D The fact the UK gaming scene is more console based is perhaps why are so few british E-Sports writers.
You don't need to "write something for a science magazine" to know how to write, you can read a newspaper/book/article or even watch a film etc.. :D Big words do not make an article.
He contradicted his own point when he began referring to 'sci-fi' words.
I would claim that it's very rare for a writer whose first language isn't English, to be able to write in English at the same level as someone it is. Yet it might only be the latter who notice the difference - so on sites like these with a broader european audience, it probably doesn't matter as much. I'm willing to admit that unless I had lived in a Foreign-language speaking country for about 10 years or so, I wouldn't be able to come close to matching their quality.
"The reality is that people do not care if a writer is using Queen’s English or Fabio Capello’s, “I want news, I want it fast, does not need to be perfect”."
And this is so true about the esport news industry. Only a small percent of esport followers actually read and write in perfect English anyway, as to most of them, English is their second language. So the readers don't really care how well news is written, or if it contains clichéd adjectives like "powerhouse" or phrases like "WE'RE DOWN TO A ONE ON ONE SITUATION!". To them, they just want the news - and they want it fast. So it's going to be in the website's best interests to do what the community wants, and keep dishing out news article after news article..
But then onto the writers themselves...I guess a certain degree of self evaluation should be used by everyone. But the kind of writing required by esport journalists, and journalists in general is very much different to what you will learn in school - even in English schools, let alone foreign ones! ...there are whole degrees on journalistic writing for god's sake!
All that is needed when writing a news piece is to write a fairly well written article, describing the subject of the news in a simple, yet fashionable manner, outlining the various names, dates and facts linked to the piece, and adding some text from a source. And all of this in a very short time period, to get it up on the site and ready for users to read. This is probably not hard, even for people who can't fluently write English, and the content itself doesn't need to contain an endless number of ridiculous words from a thesaurus that over half the readers won't understand; just simple English will do, in my opinion..
Nice article though!
Sentences like this are why i just straight up do not believe you.
Can one of you end this? Either DOC send links through to newspaper work he's done, or the copy files he sent to the newspapers, or Zechs just stop caring :-)...it's nearly christmas!
How wrong I was :( The interviews have been so bad that I wanted to cut my eyes out from reading them. Gotfrag for me although very far from perfect atleast attempts to write interesting well written articles that make you think and question them. imo you should employ the 16 year old fan bois to update the scores instantly and employ two or three top quality writers to post proper news.
What a great article, Maly. A perfect motivation for me to work harder in 2008. :)
Hopefully this will change in the upcoming year and more articles (and unique ones at that) will be created by the writers. There is enough talent out there amongst the editorial staff of most websites, they just need to change their focus on providing new and interesting stories for their readers.
by the way, nice read maly,