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Gaming Skill Matters To Gaming In The Same Way Reading Is Necessary To Understand Literature

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Since Doom was released recently, various reviews and impressions have been given. One of these in particular has caused a fair few raised eyebrows; as it seems in the case of Polygon that one of their staff can’t even play the game properly. However, there are calls from some quarters of the press that this is preferable, as gaming skill has no bearing on gaming as a medium. The reality though is that gaming skill is entirely necessary.

Overlooking the obvious fact that if you are writing about or even making games for a living then having at least a competent level of gaming skill is necessary, much in the same way being able to read is important if you want to comprehend literature.

The real issue here is that there are those that don’t want to acknowledge that gaming skill is a valid form of expertise. There are reasons as to why this situation has come about but it’s mainly to do with how the games industry is now currently structured.

In a political sense, if gaming expertise were to be openly acknowledged as being useful to the medium then most people in publishing would be out of a job.

In development this differs slightly, as you need to be able to play games before you can make them, otherwise you would simply make unplayable games. However, there is still a political dynamic at play; in that what is more relevant to game development, the technical backend that facilitates the game’s existence or how it plays?

From an end user perspective, it’s obvious that “how it plays” is what matters here but in some cases the technical side of things can hold the game hostage so to speak, though thankfully this is becoming increasingly rare as rising budgets can’t tolerate these kinds of shenanigans.

Anyway, being able to play games properly is something that is required to not only analyze but also create games.

The publishing side of things is what intersects directly with the gaming press though, as publishers are the gatekeepers to the content that the press needs to survive. This relationship births the argument that being able to play games is not necessary if you want to appraise them, as the gatekeepers can't play games themselves.

This also feeds into the whole self-loathing towards gaming instilled by the movie industry, something I have previously talked about at great length.

Again, the thing that everyone seems to overlook here is that this judgment on gaming skill is not one the press, publishers or even developers ever get to make. The only people that can say what matters to gaming are those that buy and play them. They are the people that spend their time and money on something they care about and enjoy.

If the press cannot keep up with the necessary gaming skills required to play games, then they can’t represent those that play them, as there will be a clear disconnect. The sad thing here is that this disconnect has already occurred, something that Penny Arcade has already called out, as now reviewers can't even seem to play games properly (shown below).

Being able to play games in the first place is the foundation that gaming is based on, trying to run away from that simple fact will and in some ways already has caused huge problems within the medium as a whole.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.

Read my Forbes blog here.