The Gaming Press Is A Sorry Tool For Wokescolds

The gaming press has become less concerned with reviewing the fun and value of games and more preoccupied with pushing a political agenda. This increasingly popular trend is stunting the enjoyment of players worldwide. Recent examples include an article in The Gamer condemning a video game for casting a white man in Africa and an IGN piece complaining that a game inspired by medieval Europe was not progressive enough to reflect a modern-day San Francisco. The clickbait headline featuring the claim that the “Zelda” character Link is a gay icon has further undermined the credibility of gaming journalists. This obsession with activism is making gaming worse, and serious analysis is what gamers deserve.

Although gaming journalism has already been in trouble since 2014 with Gamergate, wherein a female developer had a sexual relationship with a journalist who wrote a positive review without disclosing this fact, the articles that come out from major publications today are obsessed with enforcing their “right” type of politics. The gaming press has become another tool in the “wokescold’s” arsenal, replacing unbiased reviews with leftist talking points. Gamers crave authenticity in reviews and not politically motivated opinions.

For instance, the “Hogwarts Legacy” is a game that has been unfairly criticized by journalists due to the personal opinions of its author, J.K. Rowling, on trans issues. No description was given about the game itself in articles such as “Hogwarts Legacy Made Us Ignore Transphobia, So What’s Next?” from The Gamer or “Why I’m not buying the Harry Potter game: Hogwarts Legacy is tainted by J.K. Rowling’s transphobic views” from Polygon. Such pieces just accuse Rowling of bigotry, and journalists do not review the game’s creative merits.

The gaming press must recognize that its job is to review and analyze video games, not to promote their personal political beliefs. The political obsession of journalists is replacing good gaming journalism with activism, distorting the representation of what should be an enjoyable pastime.