The Media is the Message
In 2002, EverQuest appeared in the mainstream media, not because anyone
was trying to say that the massively multi-player online game was
interesting or innovative, but because a 21 year old man shot himself
while EQ ran on his computer screen. This weeK Mercurie, our columnist,
takes a look at the media's propensity for grabbing hold of a
sensational angle and ruthlessly shaking it. Do MMOs, and video games
in general, deserve to be vilified?
All of this leads to a question that I am sure many gamers
have asked themselves over the years, particularly following Woolley's
death: Why does the mainstream media so often wish to portray MMOs in a
bad light? I am also sure that many of us have come to the same
conclusion--plain old-fashioned sensationalism. Even before William
Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer turned it into an art form,
publishers had learned that sensationalism was a useful tool in selling
papers.
Are video games unfairly portrayed in the media? Do you see this
changing in the near future?
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