The Escapist Magazine Launches

A new online gaming mag has launched with an impressive array of contributors. Entitled The Escapist, the magazine appears to be going for gamer culture and commentary, as opposed to specific product information. Jennifer Buckendorff goes into what it means to be a gamer in Gamer Like Me, Kieron Gillen comments on the scapegoating of the games industry in Culture Wargames, and Tycho Brahe talks acceptance in The Mainstream is Coming! The Mainstream is Coming!. From Buckendorff's article: "Am I a gamer? I review video games for various sources, including a major metropolitan newspaper. In May, I made the rounds of E3 for ten hours a day. I have a carefully selected games library, and my adoration of GTA dates back to the London expansion pack, when I used a double-decker bus to evil ends. I grew up in the arcades, standing on tiptoes to feed quarters into the slots. I give game recommendations to friends and acquaintances as if I were reading their tea leaves. But, in the opinion of some, I am not a gamer."

Comments

Re:The assimilation

[Golias]

I've been through this with my music (punk) and my hobbies (skateboarding and tagging) before, and it's no fun at all.

Poser.

The Sex Pistols and Ramones did not suddenly stop being cool just because Hot Topic started selling black fishnets and plaid to 14-year old girls who listen to Greenday on their iPods.

Punk rock, to the (very) limited extent that it was ever cool at all, was cool because it embraced the idea of not giving a fuck what other people thought of you. If you were embarrased that valley girls were now aping the style which you so were aping first, you completely missed the entire point. It sounds to me like are every bit a phoney as the members of Offspring which you are so quick to dismiss.

You want to be a true punk? A true non-conformist? Go downtown with a boom-box and listen to Britney Spears in a public square. Not her new simi-sexy "Toxic" stuff... her old "Hit me baby" crap that everybody is fucking sick to death of. Crank it up. Sing along. Dance to it. Naked.

Then you will be truly worthy of the awe and adulation of your co-workers at Starbucks. You can show off the inexplicable tatoos of Heinz Ketuchup bottles and Teletubbies which you got ON YOUR FACE while in jail for lewd behavior.

Until you are ready to go that far to break the mold and be a real bat-shit loco non-conformist, shut the fuck up and accept the fact that you are no better (or worse) than those kids at the mall who you seem to think are ruining it all for you.