Jake Posted March 24, 2005 http://gillen.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_gillen_archive.html#111158640502988507 Kieron Gillen, the man responsible for the New Games Journalism "Manifesto" (or was it), has put up a bit of a "one year later" retrospective on the whole NGJ thing... I’m sorry.Really, I had no idea. A year ago today, I arrived home from a Bath bar, having spent the entire evening running through well-worn theories with some colleagues, hammer out a few thousand words and release them onto the web thinking that all it’d do is cause a little mocking from my peers in the Garricks for a week and possibly garner the displeasure some of the suits. In fact, it caused a little mocking from my peers in the Garricks for about a year, a splash of displeasure from the suits and accidentally created and named a faux-movement. Sorry. It’s all got entirely out of control. To choose an example of how perceptions and opinions have altered as it mutated in the public eye, Stuart Campbell went from saying the manifesto was the single best thing I’ve ever written the day after, to memorably describing it as “an excuse for a bunch of over-educated geeks with no communication skills to wank themselves and each other off for hours and hours and hours and hours without ever actually getting to the point”. /Despite/ the fact that Stuart actually likes a fair chunk of the writing. I was aware I was playing with fire. I didn’t think things could catch fire as much as they have, but I tried my best to create firebreaks to contain the blaze. (there's of course more where that came from here)I'm glad he's jokingly sorry for the mania and idiocy (well only half-jokingly half-sorry really) but isn't sorry for proposing the ideas and stirring the pot in the first place. While I think people have got the concept all wrong, the ideas Kieron was mulling about a year ago are still very valid issues. The fact that people decided to take up a banner and turn it into a crusade and then compounded the problem by crusading about the wrong thing is a bit retarded, but that's not Kieron's fault! Also if you're still not bored of hearing about NGJ, just the other day I spouted off about it over here in the woefully undernourished "International Game Journalists Association" website. New Games Journalism New Games Journalism New Games Journalism Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrHoatzin Posted March 24, 2005 You know, the Communist Manifesto was an awesome piece of writing, unfortunately it spawned communists. You can't blame all them people's dogma and lack of creativity, faculty, understanding on Marx. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted March 24, 2005 Thoughts: - We've been had! (ironic) - I'm at least partially guilty, though I never saw 'it' as something that should overthrow regular reviews in its entirity, only as interesting secondary articles about a game (no use having a thousand+ standard reviews about any one game, I'd rather see some anecdotal articles beside it!). - It's a nice idea we've experienced this year-long faux-revolution. In the end, it was nice while it lasted, wasn't it? - We're still the same aren't we? Not like our writing is going to change that dramatically now that everything's clear? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Intrepid Homoludens Posted March 24, 2005 When reading games journalism and writing starts doing this to me: (which can be fairly often), I usually turn to read art and architecture critisms (Clement Greenburg rocks), the film reviews of Jonathan Rosenbaum, or a couple episodes of Odyssey. Works every time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ninja Dodo Posted March 24, 2005 You know, the Communist Manifesto was an awesome piece of writing, unfortunately it spawned communists. You can't blame all them people's dogma and lack of creativity, faculty, understanding on Marx. I don't know. I think the idea that somehow this time revolution would break the cycle of hierarchical society and result in a proletarian paradise is absurd. Communism is a charming idea in theory but in practice it just spawns another aristocracy... just like capitalism. I don't think Marx had any more of a clue than Lenin or Stalin, only better intentions. Oh and as nod to staying on topic... I thought that original article was quite good. I don't even really read reviews anymore (most of them are bought by the publishers anyway). I just rely on word of mouth. Intelligent discussion about games is all the journalists have left. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
