Ok so New Year, new thread. And this is more information related than about a piece of games journalism, but it sure makes any games history journalism easier; Mobygames is Back!
http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,182637/
Huzzah! Thank God! etc. What a nice Xmas/New Year gift to gamers.
Ben Kuchera, formerly of The PA Report, is now at Polygon.
Please welcome @BenKuchera, the new Senior Editor, Opinion at Polygon.
His first article at Polygon: Unfinished, unfair and brutally difficult: What developers should steal from DayZ - Polygon
Appropriate.
That is some hilarious juxtaposition there.
“We regret to announce that @BenKuchera has had to leave his new post as Reviews Editor at Polygon in order to spend more time with his family before they are brutally raped and murdered by assassins hired by our wonderful sponsors, EA, makers of GOTY-winning titles like Battlefield 4 and SimCity.”
“Also, something something Gerstman.”
Excellent article from a 3rd party developer on the problems they ran across developing for the WiiU: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-secret-developers-wii-u-the-inside-story
The takeaway: Nintendo blew the architecture, Nintendo has no idea how to foster 3rd party development, Nintendo remains clueless about online.
Good thing they have the 3DS sales humming, but even its online features stink. Their store is awful compared to the Vita’s, it (incorrectly, I think) gives the impression that no more than a handful of decent digital-only games are for sale, and that if you aren’t into buying retail releases for full price, you should just move along.
The RPS team is growing.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun Appoints Former PC Gamer Editor Graham Smith As Managing Editor
EARTH – January 16, 2014 – Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the planet’s best PC gaming site, today announces the appointment of Graham Smith as its Managing Editor.
Graham Smith, formerly editor of PC Gamer, is joining RPS to head up a new initiative: to see whether it’s possible to combine their world-renowned PC games journalism with something he calls “organisation”. With this, he claims, the site will only further improve the quality of its coverage.
“I’m thrilled to be joining RPS,” says Smith. “I’ve long admired the work the site has been doing in producing funny and critical writing about PC games, and it’s going to be a pleasure to help them manage and grow the site in the years to come. It’s also going to be an exciting challenge to stop referring to the website as ‘the enemy’.”
Rock, Paper, Shotgun was launched in 2007 by Kieron Gillen, Jim Rossignol, Alec Meer and John Walker. Since then it has gone on to become one of the leading voices in games journalism, pioneering great writing and unhindered opinion. Independently owned, and always operated without external investment, it provides an independent, distinctive voice in the milieu, free of corporate interference or shareholder collywobbling.
With additional full time writers Nathan Grayson and Adam Smith, and an array of the best freelancers in the business, RPS is enormously enjoyed and respected by both gamers and the gaming industry.
“Graham has always been passionate about two crucial things: great writing and PC games,” says RPS co-director John Walker. “His time at the helm of PC Gamer saw it recapture much of its glory days, with a new emphasis on indie games and fun, and we’re completely thrilled to have him continue that at RPS. Plus, he does things like make Google Spreadsheets and have us remember to look at them. It’s weird, but it seems to help.”
Hasn’t he been part of RPS for ages? I remember when he joined and there was a sudden increase in ‘news’ style articles that I couldn’t keep up with.
edit: I was thinking of Craig Pearson. I used to confuse them when they were at PCG as well.
No room for the ladies though ;)
Another dong occupying another position of power. Clearly something in the industry has to change!
I might have missed this being covered somewhere else around here, but it is about game journalism (well blogging):
‘Why Rampant Sales are Bad for Players’:
Oh god. Thank you for posting this up because it was so sad to see such a great site go to the dogs. Phew.
It’s always confused me when all these kickstarters and early access games don’t use the Minecraft style pricing option. Why would I pay more now for the PROMISE of a game, rather than waiting and paying less for the actual game?!
ps: RPS ‘replied’ to this.
The game (Castle Doctrine) looks interesting though, but I might wait for a sale…
Oh snap!
This is an ingenious way to generate buzz for his game. Later on he can always change his stance by putting it on sale by saying that he was wrong. In the meantime by making this post and having it go viral, he’ll either get sales via the free media exposure or through pity effect from some people.
I don’t know what this guy’s major was in college, but it sure wasn’t Econ.
(“I’ll charge a low price to the customers with inelastic demand, and a high price to those with elastic demand. If it worked for Minecraft it’s guaranteed to work for me!”)
Only way to know if he is right, is to wait for its official release and revisit his situation after 6 months, or should he be given a year in order to fully gauge his theory?
Well i part agree with him, i believe rampant sales are hurting the gamer. But my concern is more a ‘moral fibre’ one, rather than financial. I think looking at the amount of money Steams sales have generated you really are pushing against the flow if going for a financial argument. Off course it may all be a marketing thing as Kildar mentioned?
