I’m not talking about 60 Minutes investigative reporting here (thought wouldn’t that be great?), just a follow-up on what other places report before they’re quoted out of hand.
Instead of saying “this other site is reporting that Valve is going to publish fifteen games with Activision” (or what-have-you), before you post, actually call up Doug Lombardi or Michele Nino at Activision or something and say “hey, CVG is reporting this, is it true?”
Then you can post “this other site is reporting that Valve is going to publish fifteen games with Activision. An Activision rep would neither confirm or deny the number, but says they will in fact publish several Vavle titles in the near future” (you get the idea).
I did this all the time at OGR. Oddly enough, publishers and developers were usually thrilled to assist in this kind of fact-checking. And even if they can’t actually comment, being able to say that the company refused to comment certainly puts the “news” in its proper context to the reader.
(I’m curious - everyone raise your hand if you read OGR’s news every day)
No doubt! I can understand the problem a lot of people run into though. I know I only get to update my cheesehead site in the evenings and on weekends. Or when I take a sick day at work so I can get some stuff done. I realize that’s not a valid excuse, and that if you’re going to do something then you should do it right, but that’s easier said than done.
Hell, if I could do DIY Games (plug alert!) full time, or even part time, I would be on the phone constantly. Even if it was only to call Sparky and Lars to ask what the deal is, hehe.
I thought you did an amazing job with OGR’s news – no site has done PC gaming news as well since. Kudos well deserved. What’s Paul Bannister up to these days, anyway?
I’ll raise my hand too. OGR was one of my first freelance outlets, and I was really sad to see it go under. I know Radcliffe is writing Strat Guides still, but I’ve lost touch with the rest. I always wondered why CGOnline didn’t have you do news there as well, Jason. Was the hardware siren song so strong?
I can’t take all the OGR credit - Doug Radcliffe did as much news as I did.
I haven’t spoken to Paul in years. He wasn’t invovled at all with the site in its last couple years, really. Last I heard he has some kind of IT job in NYC.
Doug Radcliffe moved to Florida when his wife got offered a killer job there. He did a bunch of strategy guides for awhile, as AFAIK, still does. I never really read strategy guides myself - gamefaqs.com is generally all I want - so I couldn’t tell you what recent ones he may have done.