The Games Press

Nicole Carpenter has been reporting on the games industry at Polygon for the last five years, where she's perhaps best known for her coverage of unions and the increasingly vital role they're playing in shaping the future of video game development.

In fact, not only has she reported on this subject diligently over the last few years, she also wrote what is perhaps the defining piece of journalism on the subject: The Rise of the Video Game Union.

"....the type of journalism we're doing impacts people's lives in really tangible ways. And, you know, whether that's somebody we're writing about who did something bad, or people who are unionizing, or people who have been laid off. And that is a huge responsibility. And so it needs a certain level of investment and dedication and sometimes sacrifice to make sure you're doing your job, treating the work you're putting out, with the respect and care and responsibility it needs."

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Grant Stoner is a freelance reporter who specializes in covering accessibility and disability across the games industry in his work.

Among other work, he writes a monthly column for IGN where he recently examined how the mass layoffs ripping through the games industry have affected disabled game workers, in particular. This is a great example of why Grant's perspective is so necessary in the games media right now, shining a spotlight on an often overlooked area of games and the people who play and make them.

"They can't afford their medications, they've had to stop procedures, some person can't afford life-saving medication that they were only able to afford because of their insurance... So often, with accessibility, we see that 'oh, these studios are great, they really care about us', but this is the reality of being disabled, especially if you're in this industry."

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Sarah Parvini was a games reporter at the LA Times until just a few months ago, having been among those who were hit by a staggering round of layoffs at the paper earlier this year. In fact, the publication is meant to have shed around 20% of its newsroom in one fell swoop. Journalism is in a rough state, folks.

In this episode you'll hear guest host Nicole Carpenter talk with Sarah about what it's like reporting on the games industry for such an established publication and how she managed to approach her stories through the lens of California and Los Angeles in order to appeal to a regional audience.

"So, the video game industry layoffs, that's not something that is unique to California, but given the nature of California's importance to the video game industry it's something that I felt like we should be covering. And, it wasn't hard to find companies, unfortunately, that had laid people off here in California. And it's only getting easier everyday, right?"

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Chelsea Reed Miller is a video editor for IGN and a spokesperson for the IGN Creators Guild, a brand spanking new union that's been officially recognized by IGN's parent company just a couple of months ago.

In today's episode, you'll hear guest host Nicole Carpenter talk to Chelsea about what that means for people working at one of the biggest publications in the games media and why it's important to think about collective action before things start falling apart, if possible.

"The best time to unionize is when things are good. You want to unionize when you love your job, so you can make sure that those things that you really love about your job are codified. So that you can make sure that those things that you love are going to stay."

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Quintin Smith is one third of People Make Games, although hopefully you already knew that. Outside of his work with us, he's also known as the co-founder of board games behemoth Shut Up & Sit Down and now, as of just a few weeks ago, he's started something brand new, exploring the world of TTRPGs. It's called Quinns Quest and it's extremely weird and good, just like Quinns.

"If you just go into a community going 'hey, I wanna understand why this is fun for you', people will tell you! People are able to explain their passions and once you know their passions, you can ask about those passions in more detail and once you've got that, you're able to understand the community. There are no weirdos."

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Stephen Totilo has been a games journalist for two decades now, making him one of the most experienced people in the field. His career spans a stint at MTV News as its first ever games reporter, nine years as Kotaku's Editor-in-Chief and until recently, he wrote a twice-weekly gaming newsletter for Axios.

Today, Stephen is looking to strike out on his own with Game File, an independent newsletter published on Substack and funded directly by his audience.

"I have concerns about a younger generation of reporters finding a footing, coming up, because we are seeing in the elimination of a lot of these jobs, lesser opportunity for people who are still trying to make a name for themselves and do it in a way that is sustainable. But, what I see in aggregate is more outlets, right now, committed to covering games than I saw several years ago."

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Nathan Grayson and Riley MacLeod have just launched a brand new, worker-owned games publication called Aftermath, along with some other ex-Kotaku staff you'll recognise. As in, today, right now! Chris grabbed them for an interview a few days ago to talk about the challenges that come with starting something fresh, crowdfunding and what being "worker-owned" really means in this context.

"You know — and everyone knows — that 2022 and 2023 have been nightmarish for games journalism, and for journalism broadly, and also for games studios. And like, what else are you going to do? Where else are you going to go? When I panic and I'm like: is this a ridiculous idea? Should I just go and get a real job where somebody else understands how the taxes work? I'm like... what is it? Where is it? It's exciting to think about, you know, now we're the job! We'll make the job."

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Patricia Hernandez is now the former Editor-in-Chief of Kotaku, having been fired from the position just a few days ago. In today's episode we're going to be talking to her about what's happened and digging into the increasingly strained relationship between Kotaku's editorial team and the company which owns the site itself, G/O Media.

"I can't really go into specifics about the reason because it does involve other staffers and their personal information, so I just want to be sensitive to that. But I will say it was a deeply G/O Media reason. It's all been pretty disappointing.

I feel like, in some ways, maybe it was for the best. I was opening my notes app and kind of scrolling through it and came across a resignation letter that I wrote literally a year ago."

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Rebekah Valentine is a Senior Reporter at IGN and an instrumental figure in the site's latest ambitions to establish itself as a true home for longform video games reporting.  She's also just been on the ground at Summer Games Fest, the potential successor to the games industry's biggest, flashiest trade show, E3.

How do the two shows compare from a reporter's perspective and will E3 ever manage a revival? We'll be asking Rebekah all about it.

"I am now two and a half years in and I'm still doing reporting! I'm kind of blown away by it. I'll freely admit that I sort of had an idea in my head of what IGN is... and it was grounded in the way that IGN had actually been. But especially if you're somebody listening to this and hasn't read IGN in several years, I would really encourage you to dip back in and look at some of the stuff we've been doing the last couple of years, because Tina really did set up a legacy of good journalism and good reporting."

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2 Player Productions is a documentary crew that's been embedded with Double Fine Productions for more than a decade now, having first come onboard in order to follow the development of Broken Age and create the Double Fine Adventure series.

However, it's their latest work that's absolutely knocked my socks off. Double Fine PsychOdyssey is, quite simply, the best video games documentary work I've ever seen. It follows the much longer development of Psychonauts 2 and is just the most vulnerable, revealing look into what it really means to create a video game. I cannot recommend it enough. Gosh. It's so good.

"There's a lot of concern about that meeting, rightfully so. It was the most intense thing we've had on camera and everybody was upset, we were upset. I thought that if we cut it out, it would do a disservice to the evolution of the studio and the way that mindsets at the studio were shaped, the way that the culture was shaped... I'd like to think it shaped the way everybody thought about crunch and what that meant, what that word even means."

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