I was just reading this followup post relating to the Gamespot editor firing from last week, where an anonymous editor comments on the current feelings inside Gamespot right now. It’s sad. I mean money is obviously a requirement in our lives. We need it to survive. But the question is how far do we go to get it? And what are we willing to give up to get it?
I mean I’m sure all of us have seen great sites with awesome content in their infancy but then over time, something changes. Somewhere along the line, something indescribably “good” disappears to be replaced by something indescribably “bad”. And the site that you once thought was great, now only leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you try to say it.
I know many people can’t describe these things but I equate them with the culture of the site and the people within it. For example, a site may start off relaying certain cultural values, only to lose those along the way in exchange for the almighty buck. Thus initially, a site’s content may be original and engaging with a really good design style to make it easy to read and absorb the content. Over time though, the site’s content starts become stereotypical and boring in the quest to cause a reaction (i.e. recycling heated topics every few weeks) and the design becomes more and more cluttered in the effort to fit in more advertisements.
Of course, finally a point is reached where the content itself is altered to appease the advertisers. When this point is reached, the uniqueness and individuality of that site pretty much no longer exists and it just becomes a hollow blowhorn for it’s advertisers. Thus the “soul” or “mojo” as some people like to call it is lost. And when it’s lost, you’ve lost the very thing that draws the people to it in the first place. Thus once it’s gone, so are the people who once came to see and experience it.