What the Nick Robinson incident tells us about games journalists
Over the course of this entire fiasco with Nick Robinson there has been an elephant in the room that games journalists, media, and developers have refused to address. Some of this is due to honestly not seeing it, others due to the fact that addressing this critical point would be to address the issues that gamers have been highlighting for ages, the issues that stood at the very center of GamerGate, the issue of impropriety.
Nick Robinson just released a statement in which he apologized for his behaviors, in reading this statement it becomes exceedingly clear that there was no professional standard guiding the interactions. By his own admittance Nick interacted with all people on Twitter in very much the same manner. Nick’s situation reveals the truth, that games journalists are not adhering to a professional code, and as a result of this they get into improper relationships and situations that lead to professional consequences.
Whenever the gamers would bring up that there needs to be professional conduct the idea is met with much resistance. The reasoning often used is that it is natural for people that working in the same field to form friendships, and in the game journalism industry these friendships are how business is done. However, even if this is true, that is all the more reason that the matter has to be addressed. It should not be the standard that journalists are covering games developed by personal friends with no disclosures, it should not be the standard that personal grudges color the review of a game, it should not be the standard that the personal views journalists should dictate the content of games, it should not be the standard that access is so tightly controlled by a clique and that if you are not in with this clique you are barred all access through their channels, it should not be the standard that your political leanings decide how much coverage your project gets, it should not be the standard that critics and journalists that serve at the pleasure of their audience hold them with such a pure and honest disdain that they leap at the chance to attack them, it should not be the standard that the journalists are choosing winners and losers rather than observing without interfering, and it should not be the standard that any media figure should be beyond questioning.
It is because of this murky environment that Nick Robinson saw nothing wrong with flirting with people that know him in a professional capacity and were not interested in a relationship outside of that capacity. Who knows how much coverage of interesting new games Polygon missed out on because a developer was too frightened to approach them for fear of having to ‘play ball’ with Robinson and the like. Granted, Polygon has long ago made it clear that covering video games is secondary to them. Had a standard of professional conduct been in place at Polygon Nick would have been aware of the influence he has and what type of interactions between colleagues and subjects are appropriate. As this public spectacle continues its course, the gamers that have been trying to have this conversation about what is and isn’t ethical conduct for a games journalist will take note of the irony in this situation and watch closely to see who picks up on this point and if the industry is finally ready to have the conversation that has been so long overdue.
