OXM responds to the Fallout community

[Sander]

Duck and Cover is reporting that OXM editor Jon Hicks has issued a response to the controversy on their New Vegas preview.
<blockquote>[On] the subject of the “absolute travesty,” we’re well aware of the previous appearance of those factions in the original Fallout PC games. That information was originally included in the panel referring to Obsidian’s heritage, but was cut for reasons of space - and because it won’t be of interest to the majority of Xbox gamers who were introduced to the series by Fallout 3.</blockquote>Previously, the OXM article neglected to mention the links New Vegas has to the original Fallout games.

 

[Wooz]

Or to Van Buren, for that matter.

 

[Ravager69]

In other words - we don't give a shit about credibility, we just want to appeal to the people that will pay us the most. I know how this sounds, but goddamnit, there is no other way to read this.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

and because it won’t be of interest to the majority of Xbox gamers who were introduced to the series by Fallout 3.

how do they know what might pique the interest of their readers? shit, if more people actually included a few words about the real history of the game and polled everybody who read the material would there really be more people that say "i don't care" or "huh, interesting"?

 

[Dionysus]

In other words - we don't give a shit about credibility, we just want to appeal to the people that will pay us the most. I know how this sounds, but goddamnit, there is no other way to read this.

Well, he should encourage his people to write for their audience. It was a bad article for other reasons, but the author actually did an OK job here. It's important to tell them who Obsidian is, but most of them aren't going to care about games that no one will ever play (like VB), or what specific part of Fallout 2 was designed by Chris Avellone.

 

[Ausir]

He also did not respond to what the criticism was actually about - it wasn't about the factions not being mentioned as being from FO2.

 

[Sytxferryman]

Technically... he is wrong when referring to the x-box consoles and the Fallout series... Unless he means ONLY the 360. Fallout :BOS won't run on the 360, only the original so this would be the only way to interpret his words is that his target readers ONLY play the 360 and never have played anything else prior to this (presumably due to age? or living under a rock?).

EDIT:After giving it some thought I vote for under a rock

 

[Dionysus]

Technically... he is wrong when referring to the x-box consoles and the Fallout series... Unless he means ONLY the 360. Fallout :BOS won't run on the 360, only the original so this would be the only way to interpret his words is that his target readers ONLY play the 360 and never have played anything else prior to this (presumably due to age? or living under a rock?).

No, he said that most were introduced to the series with FO3. No one played FO: BoS (except some of the brave souls on this board).

 

[Sytxferryman]

No, he said that most were introduced to the series with FO3. No one played FO: BoS (except some of the brave souls on this board).

[On] the subject of the “absolute travesty,” we’re well aware of the previous appearance of those factions in the original Fallout PC games. That information was originally included in the panel referring to Obsidian’s heritage, but was cut for reasons of space - and because it won’t be of interest to the majority of Xbox gamers who were introduced to the series by Fallout 3.

Very true, most his readers. So his readers must be extremely young then which would beg to ask why he is targeting such a age with a game rated as high as Fallout (wasn't it 18+ in the UK?) among other higher age rated games.

Sure everyone knows their parents will get the kids whatever they want (electronic baby sitter of the future ) but the industry usually doesn't aim it at the kids them selves. This however is a direct statement of the opposite.

EDIT:Age reference... if BOS came out in 04 that at the minimum of 05 so about 5 years gaming maximum. My wife's son is in kindergarten and has been gaming on the console for 2 years already. Kinda makes you think back to the old cigarette ad's selling them to the kids only I don't think they every just came out directly and admitted to it like this, lol.

 

[Blackened]

There may be something real in what OXM said. If we count out Fallout: POS as a game, Fallout 3 is indeed the first of the series to get out on Xbox, therefore the only one Xbox fans played. And they won't like it if there are more RPG elements and less combat than in Fallout 3, or things like this. Though I doubt they won't like Fallout: New Vegas.

 

[Dionysus]

Very true, most his readers. So his readers must be extremely young then which would beg to ask why he is targeting such a age with a game rated as high as Fallout (wasn't it 18+ in the UK?) among other higher age rated games.

Sure everyone knows their parents will get the kids whatever they want (electronic baby sitter of the future ) but the industry usually doesn't aim it at the kids them selves. This however is a direct statement of the opposite.

EDIT:Age reference... if BOS came out in 04 that at the minimum of 05 so about 5 years gaming maximum. My wife's son is in kindergarten and has been gaming on the console for 2 years already. Kinda makes you think back to the old cigarette ad's selling them to the kids only I don't think they every just came out directly and admitted to it like this, lol.

They aren’t necessarily too young. For most PS2/360 owners, FO:BoS probably never made it into their brainbox, let alone their console. FO3 was a very high profile game.

But the age thing is an interesting issue. I don’t know the range of their demographic, but I doubt I’d find any Absolut inserts in OXM. But that’s the state of the industry. Even most parents know that MA games aren’t really mature.

 

[Sander]

Very true, most his readers. So his readers must be extremely young then which would beg to ask why he is targeting such a age with a game rated as high as Fallout (wasn't it 18+ in the UK?) among other higher age rated games.

Sure everyone knows their parents will get the kids whatever they want (electronic baby sitter of the future ) but the industry usually doesn't aim it at the kids them selves. This however is a direct statement of the opposite.

EDIT:Age reference... if BOS came out in 04 that at the minimum of 05 so about 5 years gaming maximum. My wife's son is in kindergarten and has been gaming on the console for 2 years already. Kinda makes you think back to the old cigarette ad's selling them to the kids only I don't think they every just came out directly and admitted to it like this, lol.

Fallout is now over 11 years old, you don't need to be extremely young to not have played that game. And Tactics and BoS weren't really popular and hardly the introduction to the franchise for many people.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Sure everyone knows their parents will get the kids whatever they want (electronic baby sitter of the future ) but the industry usually doesn't aim it at the kids them selves. This however is a direct statement of the opposite.

Actually the industry loves targeting the teens and tweens age group because it's a major cash cow. ESRB "doesn't allow" a game to be marketed on it's rating or, if I remember correctly, it's mature content but it happens all of the time and I've never seen it enforced (Fallout 3 repeatedly stating during development that they were targeting a Mature rating is doing just that). Gaming journalism particularly goes after this group, which is really more of a subset of the "AWESOME!" gamers group (I really don't know of any better way to label them) which does include people who are adults. I also think that a lot of it comes from the shift to an increasingly mainstream audience and in doing so, has become more like MTV and Douche Monthly to suit their tastes and/or appeal to them.

 

[DemonNick]

I'm gonna go ahead and say that targeting the AWESOME! demographic is really nothing new for Fallout. 1 and 2 both went after teens and dumb college students by hyping the gory death animations and the 'edgy' shit you could do.

Don't NMA readers usually go after Bethesda for clamping down on the sex, edgy violence and and ubiquity of drug addiction in the first two games?

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

I'm gonna go ahead and say that targeting the AWESOME! demographic is really nothing new for Fallout. 1 and 2 both went after teens and dumb college students by hyping the gory death animations and the 'edgy' shit you could do.

Yeah I do remember reviews and marketing for FO2 specifically touting the kewl shit you could do (get married, pimp your spouse etc.)

But it can't be denied that FO1 and 2 had a very solid underlying PnP based RPG system at it's core. Fallout's whole raison d'etre was the emulation of old school pen and paper RPGing. Now, that's not a great selling point to the general public so it's pretty obvious why they pushed the sex drugs and violence i it's setting over it's PnP fidelity.

Now compare that to Bethesda on the other hand, when you strip away the shiny graphics, Hollywood voice actors and kewl shit all you've got left is a mediocre FPS.

Marketing stuff like "choice vs. consequence" and "pen and paper based" do not carry the same sexy cache with the general gaming public that OMFG CApt Picard! does.

This is also OXM turning a blind eye if they mistakenly or arrogantly beleive that people are fans of a platform over a game, a genre, a designer or a series. My first consoles were Atari, Intellivision, Coleco. I didn't get married to them.

It's OXM people. It's an advertisement masquerading as journalism with the intent of pandering to the konsole kiddies. I wouldn't expect much better from them. Would you give much credence to a Coca-Cola Official Magazine or a Official Taco Bell Monthly?
They are shills.


Where the fuck is Rosh when you need him?

 

[toyboat]

In other words - we don't give a shit about credibility, we just want to appeal to the people that will pay us the most. I know how this sounds, but goddamnit, there is no other way to read this.

This is why I support NPR.

News on videogames are only a means of marketing a product.

 

[cogar66]

<blockquote>[On] the subject of the “absolute travesty,” we’re well aware of the previous appearance of those factions in the original Fallout PC games. That information was originally included in the panel referring to Obsidian’s heritage, but was cut for reasons of space - and because it won’t be of interest to the majority of Xbox gamers who were introduced to the series by Fallout 3.</blockquote>

What bullshit, I played Fallout 3 and loved it and it was the first Fallout game I ever played, after playing the first and second I was a little disappointed in 3 afterward, I can say from experience that I would've loved to know that these factions were in the originals and the history of the originals, I know because I sought them out.

 

[Ausir]

Funny that they cut it "for reasons of space", yet wasted space on reassuring their readers that there won't be any ties to the original games.

 

[cogar66]

Sure everyone knows their parents will get the kids whatever they want (electronic baby sitter of the future ) but the industry usually doesn't aim it at the kids them selves. This however is a direct statement of the opposite.

Actually the industry loves targeting the teens and tweens age group because it's a major cash cow. ESRB "doesn't allow" a game to be marketed on it's rating or, if I remember correctly, it's mature content but it happens all of the time and I've never seen it enforced (Fallout 3 repeatedly stating during development that they were targeting a Mature rating is doing just that). Gaming journalism particularly goes after this group, which is really more of a subset of the "AWESOME!" gamers group (I really don't know of any better way to label them) which does include people who are adults. I also think that a lot of it comes from the shift to an increasingly mainstream audience and in doing so, has become more like MTV and Douche Monthly to suit their tastes and/or appeal to them.

The average video game player is a player of at least 23 years of age, at least in the UK. In the US the average player is 33 years old. http://www.theaveragegamer.com/averagegamers/

 

[aenemic]

don't they realize that deciding what their readers should and should not be interested in is a problem in itself? good journalism covers all bases.

besides, maybe I'm just dumb, but his respons didn't actually seem to touch the subject of the original quote at all. I'd like to hear him justify the reasong behind that quote.