It isn't always sunshine and kittens in the Ask Massively inbox. One of the things that keeps a columnist honest is fair criticism, which is not the same as pretty much anything you will ever find of a server community message board. Which brings us to this week's question (of sorts).
So, my partially sarcastic question boils down to this: is Massively being paid to be biased against World of Warcraft and for other MMOs? Could you try criticising other MMOs more thoroughly in addition to World of Warcraft? Fairness makes for crappy reading, and bad advice.
-Me, Myself, and I(rate)
I could sit here all day long and issue stock denials of some of the claims made in this email, but to an extent, he has a point. No, we're not paid to be biased against World of Warcraft, nor are we paid to write favorable things about other MMO's and gloss over a new game's flaws. That doesn't mean that the bias doesn't exist. There is, however, a good reason for such bias.
One of the principal tenets of journalism is objectivity, and in an ideal world it is something that every writer should strive to achieve. However, I'm not a professional journalist, nor am I trying to be one. I am a gamer. I enjoy playing games, writing about games, and even in some circumstances developing games. I have the same biases and preferences that anyone else has. In order to do my job as a columnist well, I try to subdue those biases as best I can in order to present information from a unique perspective in a somewhat entertaining manner.
Why do so many of us, and not just the writers on this site, seem to want new games to succeed a little too much? Why do we find it so easy to criticize the most popular game in PC gaming history? I can't quite speak for everyone else, but from my perspective, Blizzard is far easier to pick on than other game companies. While some folks at Blizzard are "friends of friends", I don't have any personal attachments to any of their developers or community people, which might make harsher criticisms more difficult.
I also know, to borrow a very colorful phrase from my grandparents, that anything I say about World of Warcraft will be heard like a "fart in a whirlwind". They're the biggest game on the block and I don't have the kind of voice that it would take to tarnish their reputation in any way. For the record, I think Blizzard has the most amazing portfolio of successful games that I've ever seen. Between Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and even The Lost Vikings, everything they touch seems to turn to gold. That doesn't exactly make it easier to not use them as an occasional target.
That said, I will always try to do my best to be fair in my criticisms, and judicious in my praise of games as I happen to come across them. I certainly hope that people who read my column think enough of me to call me on some of my more egregious offenses against objectivity. If you have a question or would like to take me to task on something, stop by our tip line or drop us a line at ask AT massively DOT com.
