Some people might think it's pretty pretentious for me to declare myself an ombudsman for an entire industry that didn't ask for any help or give me any endorsement. Those people would be right.
A real ombudsman acts as a reader representative, handling complaints and trying to find satisfactory solutions. It's a full time job that involves monitoring the news for accuracy and balance.
What I do occasionally resembles this, but most often it's not even close. A large majority of my posts represent my opinion and only my opinion. As the subtitle of this blog suggests, it's mainly a videogame journalims review. Sometimes this means reviewing for accuracy, but most of the time it's simply reviewing for quality.
Why am I not more like a real ombudsman? Part of it is access. Since I don't actually work for any of these organizations I'm writing about, they don't have to answer my questions or the questions of my readers. Another reason is time. I have a full-time job and a budding freelance career and a life outside of this blog, so I don't always have as much time as I'd like to cover every angle of some of these stories. If either of these seem like a cop out, that's probably because they are, to an extent.
So if I've just admitted I'm not really an ombudsman, why the name? To tell you the truth, when I started this thing over a year ago, I just thought it was a cool, slightly relevant name for a videogame journalism blog. By the time I realized that readers were taking it as a pretentious misrepresentation, I had too much invested in the name to just change it on the spot. (This also explains why Video Game is two words in the title when I now consider it only one word in most writing. This might change, though).
So the name will stay, for now. I am thinking of a new subtitle, though. The Video Game Ombudsman: Not really an ombudsman. Whaddya think?
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Nah, forget the detractors. The fact is that at the moment the games indsutry is too comfy and in a rut to even entertain the throught of a real ombudsman. They like the current PR trend of releasing redundant press quotes and gearing up hype by sending screens and nice write-ups to fansites and magazines. But there is no active culture of criticism directed towards the gaming industry - something that blogs like yours are helping to change.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, your type of journalism and blogging is the closest damn thing we'll have to an ombudsman for a years to come sitll.
He makes a good point. If you're as close as we've got to an ombudsman then you ARE the ombudsman. It's like if I declared myself President of my basement. No, my basement isn't a sovereign nation, and I don't do ALL the duties of a commander, but I don't see anybody else standing down there when I play "Hail to the Chief" on my turn table. So who's gonna argue?
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Justin McElroy
Hey--you can be the Ombudsman as long as you want! Just don't go tearing videogames into two words!
ReplyDelete-- David
was quite sure what an ombudsman was, so I looked it up.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the American Heritage Dictionary Third Edition an om*buds*man is one who investigates complaints, as from consumers, and mediates grievances and disputes.
I've only been reading your blogg for a couple of months now, but I believe some of your work comes close to that definition.
Thank you all for the kind words. I appreciate it more than you probably know. But I still think it's necessary to differentiate this blog from the job of a real news ombudsman in some way.
ReplyDelete