Malik  (11/5/04)

Some people say that no news is good news...and I usually say these same people can go f%$# themselves. However, for the 5th or 6th week in a row, there is still no real news coming out. It's making me feel more reassured about my decision to postpone a Malik's Bitchings column this week in favor of working on my video and image ideas...especially since it's really hard to bitch about things when NOT A DAMNED THING is happening. As you can see, I didn't completely eliminate Malik's Bitchings for the week, but I came pretty damned close. 

No News or No Effort 

I mean, the closest to news would be that LotR:The Third Age has shipped or that Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal has shipped...big freakin' deal. I mean this is a time of year when everything is shipping. Meanwhile, instead of having actual news, all we see are celebrations at the usual geek news (or pseudo-news/entertainment) outlets about each big release. 

For example, we had the most mindless day worth of programming on G4-Tech TV last Tuesday for the release of GTA:SA. I figured that I needed something stupid and pointless to watch as I ate some food between playing GTA:SA...seriously, anyone who was hyped enough to watch a full day worth of programming dedicated to a single game that came out the night before would already be playing the game. Anyway, this was the most pointless TV I have watched in a long time as I saw the same damned trailer for SA (not even the most recent trailers, but one from about a month earlier) on every single show. Is this good programming or scheduling for even a 100+ cable network? I think not. Plus, some of the shows were obviously forced to talk about a series (GTA) in which the show's hosts knew nothing about (like with Unscrewed...one of the only decent shows on G4-Tech TV). Now they are going to do it again in less than a week for Halo 2. 

It's not like G4-Tech TV is the only group doing this type of crap. It's even seen at the more news based of organizations (like Gamespot). It's not like they are actually pandering to the same type of stupidity as G4 is doing. Rather, Gamespot is stuck with a complete lack of news to print, so they manage to write a whole news story of how a game is going gold. Then, a week and a half later, they write another full story worth of how that same damned game was shipped. Then, a few days after that, they will print another full story about how that same game is now on store shelves. Then, finally, after a week, they will say how that game is selling reasonably well. That would be 4 or more news stories for a game like Fable, GTA:SA, Ratchet and Clank 3, Halo 2, etc. Ummm...in this season of only the biggest named games coming out, I think we all know the release dates by heart, we all know that a game will ship about 1.5 to 2 weeks after going gold, and we all know that Fable, Half-Life 2, Halo 2, GTA:SA, etc, blah, blah, will see like mad. Do we honestly need 4 pages of common sense being pounded into our heads. If there is no news, then simply say so...or don't say so (if there's nothing to say, then there's no harm in shutting the f$#% up). 

Plus, while it is mainly the case that most of the news out there is focused on new releases, I still feel there something deeper that should be looked into. What it is, I don't know. I think, however, with so many new games filling the news pages on geek sites, that maybe the reporters and journalists (or whatever they want to call themselves) should try to look for the hard to find news stories. I mean if, in so many ways, it's a quiet time for news, then it means it should be less constricting to send out a few extra reporters to find something new and under the surface. 

Solution 

The first solution is simple. If you are in charge of a news site/show/whatever and you don't have news handed to you directly, then get off your ass, send out some reporters, and try to find some news. Reporting the same sad attempt at a news story four times in a 2-3 week period is sad and a little too half-assed (a good level of half-assing something requires not being so obvious about your slacker ways). And when this is done with about 10 news stories at a time, it only shows your lack of professionalism. The easiest solution for a lack of something to report about is to simply shut up. If you have nothing to say, then don't say shit. 

As for the Halo 2 Day and the GTA:SA Day ideas at G4...ok, those need to stop. Especially with the GTA:SA day, which took place the day following the release of GTA:SA (true, it was on the 26th of October, and that was the official release date, but 95% of the stores that were getting a first day shipment of SA were selling by 7 PM, or ealier, on the 25th). For one thing, anyone who cared about GTA:SA was already playing the game. For another, if you weren't playing the game, odds are you were not interested in it, and a whole day of programming based on the game you're not interested in would only turn you off from said network. Thirdly, the programming selection was a pretty lame attempt at showing a month old trailer over, and over, and over, and...I only watched a total of about 1 hour of that channel on the 26th (when I ate lunch, and I like Unscrewed and X-Play), but I managed to see that same trailer for SA about 8 times on G4 that day...EIGHT FREAKIN' TIMES. At the least, couldn't they have shown either of the two more recent videos? Could they have added some variation to their programming? Could they have not forced the hosts of shows who knew nothing of GTA from talking about this game which they cared not for? Apparently common sense is a little out of the grasps of G4. 

Conclusion 

I'm pissed off about my PC being crashed by some damned ass who thought that sending out 5 or so malwares at once would be cool...so, I'm keeping it short and sweet.  Anyway,  feel free to write me or put it on the forums, if you think you've got something to add.

Malik