GamerGod - At the end of this year's GDC, you participated in panel talking about what is wrong in the industry. According to Gamespy's coverage of the event, you stated that the gaming press contributes to the problem by perpetuating the myth of what gamers want. Could you expand on that and explain in detail how we contribute to the myth?

Jason Della Rocca - In general, game media/coverage is not "sophisticated". Most magazines and web sites are run by enthusiasts with a passion for games - but in most cases, they have very little background in journalism, writing and criticism. And so, output is mostly juvenile and mostly fetishistic (ie,focus on tech, focus on graphics, focus on hard core gamers).

Game publishers listen to what the media have to say and ensure that their games will be well received by the press (regardless of the fact that the press represents only a small fraction of potential customers).

So, this leads to a vicious cycle of publishers producing games just to get a good score that is only relevant to a limited audience and thereby limiting their potential with a much broader audience that is much more interested in player experience, emotional engagement, etc. It is very hard to write about the more experiential and emotional aspects of gaming... [more]