This is a question I started thinking about after reading today’s post by Gabe on their front page.
Okay, beyond the fact that it seems pretty cheeky to pester Bioware to allow him to publicize his “impressions” about the game after first promising not to and getting a special exemption from their no-media rule, it seems hard to argue that Penny Arcade isn’t part of the gaming media. They’re not a dedicated review site of course, but they definitely strike me as an influential commentary site.
Unlike other webcomics, their newsposts are an essential part of their site. Those posts often include praise and criticism of various games, and I’d suggest that their opinions are every bit as influential as a review on Gamespot or the like.
But on the other hand, I guess it could be argued that the only real difference between PA and any gamer’s blog is the size of the audience.
I couldn’t figure out the exact blog entry you were discussing and I’m far from a Penny Arcade regular but, when you have your own gaming expo garnering some 70,000 attendees, I think you’re more safely considered “media” than “just a gaming blog”.
I would submit that they actually have two conventions PAX east and PAX west both with about 60K + attendees.
Chronos, if you read the linked post by gabe it is pretty clear that media is being used in the sense that they work for a game review website or gaming magazine not some guy that posts often on his blog.
It is really difficult to make the case that they are not media in pretty much the same way that games spot is media and some random blog with low readership is not.
I don’t know anything about anything, but I think a couple things are relevant.
It’s hard to find their reviews of games. Compare a google search for:
penny arcade review of witcher 2 (or whatever game)
versus a google search for:
ign review of witcher 2
Also, go the ign website and see if you can browse around and find a list of their reviews, and sort it by best to worst.
Then do the same with penny arcade’s website…
I’m not saying they don’t have influence and don’t review games, or that they’re not “media”. But they’re far from a gaming review website, and that may factor into why Bioware is letting them beta test a game they won’t let the “media” beta test.
Sounds to me like Gabe knew he was full of shit when said they weren’t “media.”. It wasn’t a serious argument, just his way if wheedling a beta pass for the game.
That just means that, as reviewers, they’re poorly organized. But a large chunk of their content comes from commentary on video games and the people who play them.