Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Quality Game Writing of 2004

Posted by Zonk on from the more-than-stringing-sentences-together dept.

Ludonauts.com has a short piece where several intelligent observers in the field of game writing give their picks for the best game writing of 2004. The authors offer links to several quality works, including the now infamous EA Spouse blog, and the always quality Game Over column at CNN. They also refer to the trend towards the New Games Journalism, covered previously on Slashdot.

13 comments

  1. The magazine people are craving already exists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think it's funny that all these people are looking for game journalism that goes deeper into the game industry and the experience of being a gamer. The magazine has existed for a year-- SURGE--but no one seems to know about the damn magazine. Maybe they should hire someone to market it to all these whiny people???

  2. InsertCredit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Insert Credit - some of the most engaging games writing on the web. Rather than these dry, cut and paste reviews that most mainstream game rags use, they actually capture the FEELING of playing a game. Frequently, their reviews have made me interested in actually tracking down and playing the game at hand. (An excellent, long Earthbound review at Large Prime Numbers by InsertCredit's Tim Rogers, makes me want to go and pick up this 10 year old game... their review for Rez did the same, too).

    Unfortunately, the best US magazine, Next Generation, went under years ago and all we have to look forward to is SeanBaby bashing more games for 5 year old girls in EGM or PSM's yearly game character swimsuit issue. I heard Edge in the UK was a good mag, though.

    1. Re:InsertCredit... by JimmehAH · · Score: 1

      I'm so used to reading spam that I read that first link as 'Instant Credit' and nearly skipped over the whole comment.

      Edge is a good magazine; if a little dry. The UK version of PC Gamer is pretty good. They have some very interesting articles and retellings of game experiences in there most months.

    2. Re:InsertCredit... by Mitaphane · · Score: 3, Informative

      If I remember correctly the guys that use to make the UK version of Next Generation ended up becoming Edge Magazine. I'm not totally sure though, my memory is a bit hazy. But yeah, Next Generation was by far the best video gaming magazine the industry has seen. It's too bad the Imagine Media guys were a bunch idiots.

      --
      -Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
    3. Re:InsertCredit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Insert Credit is for the pretentious git who wants to know what games other pretentious gits think they should be playing, while reading articles that are three times longer than they have to be, just because the author wants to tell you about how his damn day went on the way to the store to buy the game. Fuck that. Wasting their time in that fashion makes it impossible for them to provide comprehensive coverage of more than one topic at a time, for long stretches.

      Their authors are verbose and boring, with articles that meander into the off-topic far too often. Unfortunately, they write about subject matter that is not well covered in English, so newbies and snobs flock to them. No thanks. I'll stick with the curt news style of the-magicbox, the reliability of the mmcafe, and (if hard-pressed for hardware info), Lawrence Wright's various sites if I want my news. Some of those guys may be pretentious as well, but they are certainly not as bad as the posh Insert Credit kiddy kissaten krew.

  3. My submission: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Screw 2004 games. Play Deus Ex 1 again."

    Yeah, I know, it's too late to be the best game writing of 2004, but I bet I've got a good shot at the 2005 title!

  4. Slippery Slope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I knew slashdotters rarely read the linked post, but now they're not even reading past the second word of the headlines. Geez.

  5. No offense, but... by SirBruce · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally, I think there is a lot more writing out there than these guys read, so I hardly take their opinion very seriously. However, "Bow, Nigger" was certainly one of the best pieces I read last year.

    Bruce

    1. Re:No offense, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, posts like yours (meaning, perfectly relevant and interesting but containing text that could be misconstrued if read out of proper context) demand that peopla RTFA. But that seldom happens, so here's a link to the relevant material, just in case your post is taken out of context by an itchy moderator.

      I read that article for the first time today, and I'm glad that I did. I'm not too big on online gaming (frankly, I see its appeal for others, but it doesn't appeal to me), but that article helped deepen my insights into the phenomenon quite a bit.

    2. Re:No offense, but... by Wanj00n · · Score: 1

      It's true, there are a lot of great pieces of game writing out there that didn't get mentioned. Most of the contributors are designers, though (and often with an interest in academic stuff, whether it's game studies or cog sci), and so many of the choices reflect design interests.

  6. crapola: theory and form by violently_ill · · Score: 1

    mark my words: this is the first step in the postmodernist takeover of games as a medium. all the signs are there: the name-dropping of intellectual frauds like Lacan, the emphasis on "critical analysis", the dreamy-eyed romantic vocabulary. the very same people who have polluted roughly 90% of humanities departments across the US (higher in europe) will start writing books with titles like "new games journalism: theory and application", "post-meta-neo-experiential game design", and "on the emancipation of the digital craft".

    what's sad is that many people who are justifiably dissatisfied with the quality of writing in, and about, games will be receptive to all this Games Journalism Revolution crap.

  7. Tim Rogers by PhosterPharms · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Amen AC, I love Tim Rogers' writing. If you like his reviews, you should read some of his stuff on Tokyopia. This story [tokyopia.com] is one of the best stories I have read, ever. I actually tracked down his e-mail address and wrote him a letter after I read it the first time, I liked it so much. There's a whole series, and they are definitely worth checking out, though I feel this is the strongest. Apparrently they're all from a book that he has written but can't get published... He seems like a great guy.

    Regards,

    -PhosterPharms