After the horrible turn that 2014 took, maybe 2015 will be better for videogame reporting and the sites we love to read? Let’s find out!
Let’s kick this one off with Patrick Klepak’s recent move away from Giant Bomb. A lot of people thought for sure he was going to join Cards Against Humanity, but it turns out his new home is less unconventional.
It’s an honor to join Kotaku and reunite with my former boss, Stephen Totilo. We worked together at MTV years ago, and I learned much from him. I’d hoped there would be a reason to reunite someday. The stars aligned late last year, and I decided to come on board. I’ve met and hung out with many of Kotaku’s stellar writers in the past, and I’m now looking forward to calling them colleagues. It’s clear I’m joining an already talented group.
I’ve met and hung out with many of Kotaku’s stellar writers in the past, and I’m now looking forward to calling them colleagues. It’s clear I’m joining an already talented group.
Well, pack it in guys. No one’s topping that in 2015.
Why are people so deadset against pretty much every games media outlet that covers games on these boards? People dislike RPS, Kotaku, Giant Bomb and Polygon for various reasons. It just seems weird for a games board. Is it because Tom reviews games as well? I find there are room for more than one place to read news. I read them both here, and at RPS and that gives a nice broad view of games for me since I feel I’m coming to know the reviewers and what their taste runs towards.
I find Kotaku is a better than average gaming site. The only drawback to Kotaku is the mixed messages they sometimes give when they report 20 articles a week about sexy cosplayers or maid cafes, then turn around and publish articles about sexism in the game industry or what have you.
As for Polygon, I liked their long-form articles, but apparently not many other people did.
Giant Bomb is okay, but they’ve kind of double-downed on their YouTubeyness and pretty much stopped any actual “journalism” which I suspect is a big reason for Klepak leaving. He gets to go back to actually writing articles and not just doing a glorified Twitch channel for playing scary games.
Also, regarding Giant Bomb, while I appreciated their “Quick Look” videos early on, now that everyone on YoutTube is doing it, I find I have less need to watch GB do them.
I like Euro & USgamer well enough, and really enjoy Giant Bomb. RPS was enjoyable until they turned into crusaders. Polygon is extremely hit or miss for me, but I haven’t read them in long enough that I can’t remember why I gave them a miss. One of my biggest peeves with Kotaku is that they’re extremely BuzzFeed-esque in their clickbait (not that they’re the only ones who do this) headlines, and aim for a post first, verify later style of content creation. When called on it, or their articles that Telefrog mentions above, they hide behind the “we’re just a blog!” excuse, but still want to be treated as journalists.
I think Patrick is a good hire for Kotaku. Between him, Jason and Totilo that’s a good group of serious reporters as exist in the industry. Although I suspect he is expected to bring more original video content to the site.
Giant Bomb is okay, but they’ve kind of double-downed on their YouTubeyness and pretty much stopped any actual “journalism” which I suspect is a big reason for Klepak leaving.
Isnt it the case that he is consistently singled out in video comments as one who needed to go or at least stop appearing in their videos ? At least that is my experience that everyone hated him.
While I don’t think Klepek’s journalistic bent fit well with the GB focus, he was great at what he did for them, and was a unique voice on the crew (which is a good thing). I’m bummed that he’s leaving – and even more bummed that he ended up at Kotaku of all places. I don’t give them any credit at all for journalistic integrity, honesty, or, frankly, anything else. Kotaku tends to be the worst kind of click bait. The comment upthread about them pretending to be journalists and then hiding behind the “we’re just a blog” excuse is one of the most charitable comments anyone could possibly make about Kotaku.
He wasn’t really contributing much (to the site’s main direction) from Chicago though. The heart of GB is being in san fransisco, doing quick looks and unprofessional friday streams. Vinny moved out to New York, but Alex is there as well, and they have a real studio to work in.
Patrick has always been crazy about writing long thinkpieces and getting breaking news out fast. A mainly writing focused site that does do breaking news will be a perfect place to do that.
I’ll miss him, but he was already pretty much gone when he moved away to Chicago.
The answer is: they didn’t used to be. I enjoyed RPS, I followed the initial writers from Eurogamer, read pretty much every article for the first however many years. While there were many not greats ones, and some fuck ups (eg why kieron gillen got banned here), it was largely well written medium to long form games writing. Excellent article series on everything from morrowind to mount and blade to Neptunes Pride, eloquent reviews that oozed passion. And then krudster left. Quintin didnt last long. Jim started writing a lot less. Nathan left. It seemed to become indie games stuff I wasn’t interested in, occasional obligatory big game wot I think, sporadic puff games announcement pieces and John Walker’s holy crusade.
I never felt strongly for kotaku one way or the other, but in 2014 they seemed to have pretty much non stop scandals, gaffes and just plain embarrassing examples of games 'journalism" while very publicly stating that they wanted to go more buzzfeedy and less games journalism.
The trouble is that buzzfeedy stuff sells. Write an article thats called ‘10 game developers that deserve a kick in the nuts’ and you get 20x the traffic of an in-depth interview with a game developer or a profile of a studio.
Of course. My ex basically lived on buzzfeed and neither her/nor her friends could ever get enough of it. It doesn’t mean it isn’t a valid reason to dislike the style :)
Shortform is profitable (for a whole host of reasons) and popular. C’est la vie
I still enjoy GB Quick Look videos, myself. But if you haven’t tried Polygon’s Overview videos, you’re missing out. Griffin McElroy is one seriously funny dude. His recent overview of I am Bread had me in stitches. He spent the whole video talking about how he was the “king of bread” then near the end when he failed coined thw word Breadgicide, seemingly off the top of his head.
I guess you had to be there. But really, McElroy is awesome.
Edit: This prompted me to look him up. He actually runs a comedy podcast with >200 episodes, has a new podcast playing D&D which I am downloading right now, and does standup in socal. He’s actually a comedian, which explains a great deal.
I might have already asked this, but are there any good channels with non-annoying people doing quick looks? Emphasis on PC games would be nice.
Giant Bomb is okay but I hate seeing all their other crap in my YouTube feed. (One benefit of Patrick leaving.) TotalBiscuit cut way back I guess due to health issues.
Good luck with that search. As far as I can tell, most YouTube game players are doing their darnedest to one-up PewDiePie. Lots of screeching, fake outrage, forced humor, and general buffoonery. Also, the games they play are all low-budget or early access titles. Whatever they could get for free. Lots of 5 Nights at Freddy’s and Minecraft knock-offs.
In general, I’ve found the best Let’s Play videos by searching for the specific game I’m interested in, sampling a few, and settling on someone for that title.
Yeah targeted searching is easy. I just like QL and WTF Is because I can spend a few minutes watching an adult play all the new releases to quickly judge whether to dig into them more. I’m sure I’m not alone.
