I think everyone is aware that it's no cakewalk writing for an independent game media site, and if you think otherwise, save some denial for the rest of us, would ya? Game PR people generally don't want to talk to unless they aren't getting the desired speed from bigger sites, you end up largely having to cover the costs for reviews out of your own pocket (unless you get lucky enough to win a contest for a game from time-to-time), and, unless you want to walk around largely with your computer strapped to your wrist, by the time you're able to post news everyone and their brother has already beaten you to the punch.
Independent games media is an everyday struggle for legitimacy. You have to badger PR people constantly to remind them to include you, because, realistically, there's only so many hours in the day, they're trying to cover more projects than they can handle, and wasting time with a site that gets a fraction of the hits the big guys do just isn't time efficient. Gaming events, like E3 and PAX, create weeks of e-mail trading as you try to convince the organizers that you can be more than "just some dude that likes games". And sometimes, like in the case of E3, you get denied because they don't think you generate enough traffic, only to watch every freaking person and their brother send non-journalists as contest prizes.
When you do finally get coverage, you become drown out in the sea of game sites. You attend panel, hoping to get some new, exciting information, only to find out that G4 or IGN has already bought coverage rights to live-stream the panel as it happens, meaning that they've already delivered the content to their audience before you even had a chance to make a mark in your notepad. Or you wait in line and hour to get into a panel, only to see more noteworthy and well known media personalities already sitting up front when they open the doors. Then at a public friendly event like PAX, you stand next to the public in line and answer 20 questions about your Media Pass:
"You have a Media Pass?"
"Yeah."
"What's that do for you?"
"Not a ton, otherwise I wouldn't be here in line with you."
"You can't just jump to the head of the line?"
"I dunno. Maybe, depending on who's running the booth. But then I'd have to be 'that guy', and you'd all beat me up in the parking garage."
It's a frustrating task, but it's one that we've accepted willingly. And we are everywhere. You know how easy it is to start a website, these days? From what I gather from TV commercials, Danica Patrick sells domains for less than most trips to the drive-thru. Which means literally everyone with ten bucks and a keyboard can start one, and sometimes it shows. But the chaff separates from the wheat pretty quickly (the frustration level and time commitment make for a great attrition rate), so without a ton of searching, you can probably find a good independent game site not too far out of your zip code. Since diving in, I've found a ton of quality ones, and made some friends out of some of their fellow struggling, labor-of-love, unable-to-quit-their-day-job writers.
So, why have I groused on for so long in this sycophantic pity party? To appeal to you, the readers. The big games media companies, there's no reason for them to change what they're doing--it's a "we should all be so lucky" scenario. The game developers and PR folks? Well, of course we'd love them to be a bit more open handed, but, as I mentioned earlier, they're just as understaffed as every company in the country right now (not to mention that if they were too free with the information, the enthusiast press wouldn't exist at all--take that how you will).
In the end, there's only two parties that can shift the tide: the readers, that is, you guys, and the independent games press themselves. And it's mostly OUR responsibility. We have to innovate, we have to find the gaps in the market. We need to out-think the big guys and provide the public with something they didn't even think of. And if we build it, they, uh, you will come.
So let's make a promise. Us here at HAWTwired, as well as the rest of the independent games press, will constantly twist our brain boxes inside-out trying to come up with something new and exciting for the audience, and you, said audience, will promise to not settle for one-stop-shopping game news, using a single site for all your information. Run a search for a game--search engines all list the parent domain of the stories now, so click on a domain you've never heard of. You may be pleasantly surprised.
