I was listening to the radio the other day, a man whose name I forget was on NPR, and he was discussing the effect that the Internet has had on local newspapers. He concluded to say that the Internet has had local and national news outlets build an internet page along side their print publications, being that if they don’t, the availability of news over the internet could decrease the number of readers for that newspaper or magazine. Although there may be sites such GameTab.com, which help in the process of finding news concerning the videogame industry, nevertheless, I find reading the news difficult as is.

GameTab.com I find, to be the best place to read up on gaming news, because of its flexibility to present the top news of multiple sites of your choosing. However, although I enjoy reading news articles at Gamespot and 1up, their sites take the longest to load, on account of all the images and ads that come with simply reading the article. I’ll typically print the articles, as to avoid seeing all the ads and background images associated with every article.

Having to visit multiple sites, wait through longer-than-usual load times, and avoiding animated ads isn’t what I’d rather be doing if such news was available in print. And yet, it would seem that the Internet is our only option when national and local newspapers don’t run game articles, except for the occasional AP articles, which are overshadowed by market reports and stock reviews in the business sections of the paper. In addition, the price of most gaming magazines, especially when only printed on a monthly basis, doesn’t help the overall situation.

Aside finding news concerning gaming, I find it difficult to find credible, or professional sources. The Internet is abound with sites such as Joystiq and others, written like blog entries, only containing a dozen or so lines, links to other news sites, and wording that reflects a personal tone of voice, rather than a neutral, professional tone. It’s not only these sites I avoid reading, it’s also forums (such as Evil Avatar) that feature a news section, where they provide links to articles from one site or another (not their own sources, as most of the time they don’t their own) and leave the topics open for anyone to drop their own opinions in.

I can understand when people want to hear a grass-roots opinion on something, because they may find it to be something they can relate to better than the professional (and sometimes conspiratorial) voices of larger budgeted sites, however, I think there still needs to be a healthy respect for hearing from credible sources, and official statements than the average person, as they may not always be right, or balanced in what they say, which doesn’t help in viewing things as they should perhaps be seen in at times.

I don’t want to say there are certain sites people should only visit, because it’s visiting the sites that we want, especially ones that make us laugh or those we agree with that make the internet a great alternative to print news. I simply wish that reading gaming news wasn’t such a chore. I hope that eventually, giving out videogame news won’t be seen as something to simply make money off of with the ads surrounding most sites, and something that can be taken more seriously in today’s world, avoiding distracting headlines and images, or using internet communities to stir controversy, suspicion, or simply divisive debate.