Editorial Principles
From Styleguide
"Videogame" or "video game" – one word or two? It all depends on whom you ask, which continent you live on, and which media outlet you work for. And it's not the kind of debate that anyone will resolve soon.
But someone had to make a choice and draw a proverbial line in the sand. So that's what we did, because that's what journalists and editors have to do every day – make tough decisions.We hope this guide will save you the trouble of agonizing over minutiae and let you spend more time actually writing.
Whether or not you agree with our choices, you should know that we were guided by one general principle: Journalism is about clear, concise communication. More specifically, we tried to consider the following criteria in making our decisions, listed below in order of importance:
- Ease of comprehension for a general audience.
- Common usage and accuracy.
- Convenience, with respect to writer use/remembrance.
- Official styling, as preferred by game developers and publishers.
Note that this guide was designed with mainstream readers in mind. Publications that specialize in videogames and/or technical matters will likely want to append it with individual in-house rules that suit their more specialized audiences. Terms that might be familiar to an avid gaming audience but not to a mainstream, non-enthusiast readership are labeled as jargon.
