John Walker - Industry Analcyst

John Walker - Industry Analcyst

@botherer.bsky.social

Co-creator of Rock Paper Shotgun, currently helping out at Kotaku, and still looking for a new long-term gig. I write www.buried-treasure.org, unearthing excellent unknown indies. Please consider supporting! https://www.patreon.com/buriedtreasure

4.2K followers541 following2.1K posts

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

A thing I would really like to happen is for games critics who reviewed Rockstar games like GTA Vice City to go public about the conditions under which Rockstar would put them when playing the games. I never did one, so they're not my stories to tell. But it'd be SO GOOD if they did.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst reposted

Shayna MoooOOOooon (she/they)
@themoonis.gay

This is fucking tragic and the work of clowns. I am 100% serious about trying to acquire the Dragon Age IP, so if anyone has an inside connection, please reach out.

Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social

BREAKING: Electronic Arts is cutting 400 jobs and shutting down BioWare, the legendary development studio behind Dragon Age and Mass Effect. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.comElectronic Arts to Cut 400 Jobs, Shut Down BioWareThe next ‘Mass Effect’ will be canceled as part of the layoffs
John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

That's just devastating about BioWare. Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate II, Dragon Age: Origins... Just some of the greatest, most influential games of all time. Let alone that without them we never get Planescape Torment, Pillars of Eternity, Baldur's Gate III...

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

This PHP vulnerability story also reveals a massive vulnerability in media reporting. Clearly no one at mainstream news sites understands, so are just rewording articles from specialist tech sites that assume their audience already understands. The result is just noise.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

Goddammit it's a miserable process going through the 8000-ish demos in Next Fest (starts later today) and seeing the overwhelming use of AI in so many games. I recommend this browser plugin for making it easier to spot - github.com/seeeeew/aiwa... - but Valve REALLY needs to make it a required tag.

github.comGitHub - seeeeew/aiwarningforsteam: Browser extension to increase the visibility of AI Generated Content Disclosures in the Steam store.Browser extension to increase the visibility of AI Generated Content Disclosures in the Steam store. - seeeeew/aiwarningforsteam

John Walker - Industry Analcyst reposted

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

Here's something I want to address publicly: A few years back, I spent a bunch of time calling out some of the ickiest clickbait tactics I saw gaming sites practicing, but I did it really badly. I would fail to put the emphasis on the sites and bosses, so instead it fell on the young writers.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

Here's something I want to address publicly: A few years back, I spent a bunch of time calling out some of the ickiest clickbait tactics I saw gaming sites practicing, but I did it really badly. I would fail to put the emphasis on the sites and bosses, so instead it fell on the young writers.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

That was so cruel of me. I upset good people, young, poorly paid writers, doing the task they'd been told they had to do. I apologised directly to people at the time, but I still created a reputation that I deserved. I really regret this, and again apologise to all the decent people I upset.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

I have spent the years since doing as much as I can behind the scenes to support younger writers in the industry, fighting for better pay, organising unofficial groups so they can support each other, and mentoring the amazing talent I've seen. But I was a dick, and I'm sorry.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

Moo Yu's game is amazing, and I think "cozy" does it a disservice. It was cheeky and plucky and peculiar and smart and funny and surprising. It was also cozy and cuddly in a number of ways. Just "cozy" too often suggests something without edges, without corners.

Moo Yu (Mythmatch on Switch and Steam Now!)@oneofmoo.bsky.social

John. Some of have to try to "do a marketing" by associating ourselves with progressively meaningless buzzwords. The algorithm demands it! (I am simultaneously joking and being truthful). But also in my case, it did not work anyway. 😭

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

I have no objection to games being cozy! I love it, in fact! But it's the self-application of the term that gets me. To be cozy is an achievement, not a genre.

Jakub@koobazaur.bsky.social

We kinda fell into the cozy niche over our last few games, so I'm curious what prompted this? Too many games that aren't cozy labelling themselves as such? Or the term is too broad/subjective to be meaningful? (I've seen people claim Dark Souls is their cozy game heh)

John Walker - Industry Analcyst reposted

Scare-o-lyn Petit
@carolynmichelle.bsky.social

I'm sorry, "Metacritic bonuses" are still a thing?! They should never be a thing! If I play your game and review it and it didn't work for me and I don't think it's good, that doesn't mean the people who made it should get paid any less!

Kotaku@kotaku.com

Report: Gears Of War: E-Day Developers Fear For Their Jobs And Bonuses - Kotaku https://kotaku.com/gears-of-war-e-day-the-coalition-microsoft-xbox-job-losses-2000738913

kotaku.comReport: Gears Of War: E-Day Developers Fear For Their Jobs And Bonuses - KotakuWith the game due out next week, many at The Coalition appear to fear Microsoft's axe will fall on them next
John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

Ashley is one of the smartest and most engaging writers I've read in years. People should be giving her all the work.

ashley bardhan@ashleybardhan.bsky.social

is there a better word than devastated? (shattered? fly-swatted?) anyway i've been laid off. i joined gamesradar+ as a freelancer in 2023, and the site had my lifelong admiration by the time i became a senior writer in 2024. i'll miss it lmk if u need a creepy🧟‍♀️ gurl: ashleybardhan(at)gmail(dot)com

John Walker - Industry Analcyst reposted

Ctrl Alt Ego 2
@mindthunk.bsky.social

Buried Treasure changed my life - doubt I'd be working on game#2 if it weren't for the 'holds up against Prey' headline. A small contribution to keep a distinguished, artful and amusingly controversial (or controversially amusing?) video game writer type person in business, you'd be mad not to.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst@botherer.bsky.social

Tell me what you most want from Buried Treasure. What would make you more likely to give $2 or more a month to help the project of giving attention to unknown or under-known indie games? I know it's changed dev's lives, because they tell me so. I want that to keep happening. buried-treasure.org

buried-treasure.orgBuried Treasure – Reviewing the indie games everyone else missed
John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

Thinking aloud: Buried Treasure isn't getting updated as much as I want it to, largely because my other income has gone down dramatically this year and I'm trying to stay afloat. This has meant Patreon subs have gone down too. But what I want most of all is to spend more time on BT. So...

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

I cannot tell you the bravery of @chrisbratt.bsky.social and People Make Games to report on this. Extraordinary journalism.

Chris Bratt@chrisbratt.bsky.social

In recent years, the media has quietly begun to change the way in which it writes about Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard. PMG investigates how Kotick used the threat of defamation to reshape his legacy in the games business, one article at a time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKwp...

youtube.comInside Bobby Kotick's Campaign Against the PressYouTube video by People Make Games

John Walker - Industry Analcyst reposted

Richard Cobbett
@richardcobbett.bsky.social

Nighthawks! It's out! Please buy and like it! That is the best marketing slogan my tired brain can come up with right now! store.steampowered.com/app/1221950/...

store.steampowered.comSave 10% on Nighthawks on SteamThe secret is out. Vampires have been exposed to the world… and you’re one of them. Seize the night as a modern monster, stepping out of the shadows to build a thriving nightclub empire through fear, ...

John Walker - Industry Analcyst reposted

Kate Gray
@hownottodraw.bsky.social

it’s so great and normal that Steam is randomly censoring games like this for no reason, at the same time as they’re blasting “HENTAI VS FURRY FEST” banners all over the front page, which takes you straight to full-frontal nudity in one click

Dave Gilbert@wadjeteyegames.com

We are aware that Steam has classified Nighthawks as an adult game and has excluded it from searches (and delisted it entirely in certain countries). We are working on it. Valve is under the impression that this game is way sexier than it actually is.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

So I get a LOT of unsolicited email every day, hundreds of emails about games or tech or weirdly irrelevant PR splutter arriving every week. I obviously can't reply to most of it. A top tip for a thing NOT to do is follow up three or four times with an increasingly aggressive tone.

John Walker - Industry Analcyst
@botherer.bsky.social

One polite follow-up can be really effective, and distinguish a personal email from the torrent of mass-mailouts that fill my inboxes. But, you know what, if you've emailed me to offer access to an "expert opinion" for a post I wrote a week ago, you don't need to keep hassling me about that.