Let’s be frank, Common Sense Gaming isn’t a great name. However, the idea behind the name is one I stick by to this very day: “If you want to know about video games, don’t ask a doctor, a farmer, or a journalist about them, turn to other gamers. It’s just common sense.” The name and mantra of this website is more than a convenient way to cast shade on the weakest generation of “video game journalists” the world has ever seen. When I reached out to people to help provide content for this site, I reached out to those who were gamers first and writers second, and it shows.

Some of our articles are incredibly rough, and I have no delusions that any article on this site will ever be nominated for some award in journalistic excellence, but that’s fine. As long readers can understand that we’re actual gamers and can feel our passion for games in spite of some typos here, or grammatical errors there, then this site is already better than ones that post about how Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, a remaster of children’s games from the 90’s, is now Dark Souls.

Mainstream game journalism rags have almost all gone one of two routes:

1) Unabashed shilling, either for the works of their authors’ indie friends, or the advertisers and publishers that pay for sponsored articles.

2) Being the low hanging fruit that connected, wannabe writers  try to use as a stepladder, farming clicks by telling people how Persona 5 failed them because a straight teenage boy doesn’t want to put it in his male friend, all while hoping to one day make it big on buzzfeed.

Considering the state of modern game “journalism,” is there any wonder why I, and a growing population around the world, are adding the quotation marks and losing all respect for these people as professionals?

Respect isn’t a right, something anyone is entitled to for existing, it’s earned through hard work and effort. When it comes to video games, that should mean familiarizing yourself with the subject matter and developing some gaming proficiency. Not posting video of some jack*ss that has no idea how to use two analog sticks at once and calling it a preview of DOOM, or crying because the gaming community believes professionals in the gaming media should meet a minimum skill requirement, one that’s necessary to show off the skill-based game at hand.

You can almost pinpoint the moment this game journalist realizes you can use the left and right sticks at the same time.

If gamers wanted clueless people to talk at them about video games, they’d ask their f**king grandparents what they think about Nier: Automata.

And how many times have gamers just wanted reviews or information on the games they like, only to be bombarded with politicized BS that’s entirely unrelated to their interests? It doesn’t matter whether or not you like Bayonetta’s sexuality; how does she handle? Most intelligent human beings don’t care that Breath of the Wild makes a visual gag about drag queens, or that you stupidly think the fabulous Gerudo culture pastiche is somehow problematic; is the game fun? Absolutely no one cares about your pretentious conversations with people that are just as uninteresting as you; just tell us about Rockband 4 you douchey f*ck.

That string of garbage is why I asked gamers to write for CSG. Though our articles are rough, we’ll never throw the gaming community under a bus because we were found lacking. We’ll never paint gamers in a negative light because a vocal minority of the community acts like a bag of soggy d*cks. We’ll never think less of gamers as people because they like polygonal titties or want to play Call of Duty. We’ll never call for a game or genre we don’t like to be pulled because it isn’t to our tastes. We’re open to everyone and want to cover the information that’s relevant to gamers and the games we play, not push an agenda.

I love video games, and I want to focus on them. That’s why I’ve worked hard to remove politics and culture war squabbles from this site instead of turning a tidy profit on the clicks such things generate. If you’re tired of reading about horrible people doing horrible things, or stupid people saying stupid things, and just want to read and talk about video games, then we’re here for you.

 

 

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