The article is dedicated to the target audience of game journalism. The author's goal is to clarify the understanding of the image of the recipient in this segment of media criticism. In the introductory part of the work, the author raises issues regarding the phenomenal characteristics of video games, the relationship between media criticism and game journalism, and game journalism and video game criticism. The main content of the article is the contextualization of facts from the history of game journalism and statistical data from surveys aimed at studying the target audience of video games in Russia. The criteria for classifying the recipients of game journalism are derived from demographic, sociocultural, and leisure-related parameters. Three main types of recipients of game journalism are identified. The key result of the research is the portrayal of the recipient of game journalism (the subculture of gamers), which serves as a basis for determining the audience's requirements for video game review texts. To obtain research results, the author conducts a literature review on the topics of video games and game journalism. The work also includes secondary data analysis and historiographic analysis. As a result of the study, three main types of recipients of game journalism are identified: hyper-casual gamers, who are not interested in understanding gaming culture, indifferent to industry news; casual gamers, who are interested in news related to video games but only in the context of new project announcements, not interested in a deep understanding of computers, game design, and the gaming industry, typically using home consoles for gaming; hardcore gamers, who are interested in video game culture in all its forms, knowledgeable about computer technologies, having a relatively clear understanding of the basics of game design, and predominantly playing on multiple gaming platforms, with one of them typically being a personal computer. The key outcome of the research is the creation of a portrait of the recipient of game journalism (gamers). This portrait serves as the basis for determining the audience's requirements for video game review texts.
Nikita Aleksandrovich Chumachenko (Sun,) studied this question.