Do Any of These People Actually Know What The Daily Sport is?
In a frantic search for breasts, far too many gaming sites have decided to publish on their websites pictures of women in underwear, with some strenuous and barely repeatable link to, shock horror, videogames. Just another day in the videogame press though, right? Except each has cited the Daily Sport as their source for this Watergate-level story.
But do you think any of them actually know what type of publication the Daily Sport is? Look on Wikipedia. It is, bluntly, a porn sheet. It prints headlines with the word ‘œsnatch’ in them and features naked women in the front pages of their ‘œnewspaper’. It is, as Kotaku themselves put it, a “smut rag”. So smutty they just had to reprint it all.
Now either these popular gaming bloggers are fucking idiots and cannot check that their sources are porn mags, or they simply don’t care and are happy to publish them anyway. Each circumstance makes them look on similar standing as the Daily Sport. Which I’m sure you’ll agree is an utterly fantastic place to be.
But fuck them for a moment. If they want to wallow around in their own filth, let’s let them. How does this make gamers look? For years gamers have been portrayed as fapping nerds with no social skills, an image that we’ve all tried to dispel because it’s just not true. But imagine an outsider coming in and looking at the top 10 gaming blogs. What would they see? Tits, innuendo and self-loving writers and commenters filling the pages of these sites, and some even have the audacity to call themselves journalists.
What does that say about gamers? The average gamer is in his thirties, but if you read these sites you’d expect them all to be horny 12 year olds; writers included. Why do publications, and the people who read them, continue to add to that stereotype that we all hate? Oh right! Because women are attractive and we’re all just led solely by our dicks.
But who cares, right? They publish porn because it gets hits and makes them money, a lot more money than Nukezilla makes. So it’s fine! You can publish porn, source from a porn mag and all sit there masturbating to yourselves and roll around in your hard earned cash. Fuck it, it’s only videogames!
“For years gamers have been portrayed as fapping nerds with no social skills, an image that we’ve all tried to dispel because it’s just not true. But imagine an outsider coming in and looking at the top 10 gaming blogs. What would they see?”
Depressing, isn’t it?
I wonder if that stigma will ever be shaken-off.
Is it wrong that I fapped to this article?
Bravo Sam for this wonderful article, looks like Nukezilla will have a… very good year.
*puts on sunglasses*
I think every Brit who saw these articles smiled at least a little, like it was some national in-joke.
Also, why the new WordPress login screen? I totally didn’t let Firefox autofill my password for the old NG login page and forget it.
I view my gaming news via Google Reader, so the constant barrage of porn as gaming news is a source of shame and occasional embarrassed explaining. Well said, Sam.
Reminds me of my paper-boy days, when at the age of about 11, I’d go round houses in the morning delivering pornography like this, and Communist newspapers. Fun times.
@stridechicken: Thank God for the Internet, huh?
@darkwhitehair: Oh dear…
And this is exactly why Nukezilla has become my first port of call for videogame news. I can’t last scrolling down a single page of any other site without at least one pathetic excuse for a news article showing up with some half-naked woman sprawled across the header or a cheap pop for hits via flamebaiting.
Still, KNICKTENDO is a cracker of a pun.
I prefer my sites to be a bit more micromodestsoft when it comes to their titillation. But that’s probably because I don’t get the “joke” or something.
@wardrox: Yeah, it’s all “ironic” porn. Pfft, we’re just not clever enough to see all that parody.
What always gets me is how the blogs will shit on the tabloids when they behave in much the same way.
and two stories underneath this you have “Velvet ARSEassin – Wardrox creeps around a Nazi outpost in nothing but a skimpy nightie.” ho ho etc.
@mike cupcake: It’s long been my opinion that putting the word “arse” in a title is very different to putting a picture of an arse in a news section.
Also, if you were to listen to the podcast, to which that is the title of, it would become clear as to the naming. I’m put off by the use of sex in the game Velvet Assassin, Gavin’s comment about me wearing “nothing but a skimpy nightie” is a reference to the game’s over use of sex (the main character is dark and powerful, yet goes into modes where she’s wearing very little for no good reason). It’s meant strictly as irony and humour, rather than as a legitimate means to get that post views :)