Actually, It's about Relocation in Games Journalism

[Valorian Endymion]

Good to hear that he will keep the "worth reading" while I didn´t visit or begin a very fan o GB, that was the part which I really liked.

 

Also I too find myself very rarely browse a gaming news site, because I don´t really have any favorite, but I do check around all of them depending of what I am looking for or who is writting (right now I am reading whatever Attila preview there is around). Now in the case of Kotaku I almost never direct visit there due their automatic redirect to the local Kotaku instead of US, so often I just visit there when someone post a link, which as SecretAsianMan said, it when twitter can be useful. Also I too get annoyed by the clickbait headlines that sometimes Kotaku and even Polygon do.

[pabosher]

He's away of the issue, at least.

http://patrickklepek.tumblr.com/post/107273470614/so-patrickklepek-dot-kinja-dot-com-has-just-your

My main issue is that, in his intro post for Kotaku, he mentions breaking a story - acknowledging it was first reported by another, smaller site: "Credit where it's due."

Mentioning that it exists in the nebula of the Internet is not giving it credit. Naming it and linking is giving it credit. Maybe that's just my academia showing, and we need not cite everything in real life; but to mention credit without offering any is a real slap in the face in my opinion.

[juv3nal]

My main issue is that, in his intro post for Kotaku, he mentions breaking a story - acknowledging it was first reported by another, smaller site: "Credit where it's due."

Mentioning that it exists in the nebula of the Internet is not giving it credit. Naming it and linking is giving it credit. Maybe that's just my academia showing, and we need not cite everything in real life; but to mention credit without offering any is a real slap in the face in my opinion.

 

I think it's okay in the post where he is summing up stuff he's done in the past to not link (he didn't, for instance, even link to his own article on the subject), but from what googling I was able to do in 5 mins, it looks like he didn't link in the original post either.

 

To be fair, it's kind of par for the course, and he might well have been victim of house policy to not drive traffic offsite etc. I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt because he's done a bunch to promote other writers with his 'worth reading' series on giant bomb.

[Dewar]

I believe he didn't know it at the time he posted the breaking news, and was told later by others, so that's why it's not linked in the original article at least.

[elvaq]

Wait, there are other games news sites besides RPS? Huh.

[Badfinger]

My main issue is that, in his intro post for Kotaku, he mentions breaking a story - acknowledging it was first reported by another, smaller site: "Credit where it's due."

Mentioning that it exists in the nebula of the Internet is not giving it credit. Naming it and linking is giving it credit. Maybe that's just my academia showing, and we need not cite everything in real life; but to mention credit without offering any is a real slap in the face in my opinion.

 

He mentions being "one of the first" to break the story.

 

The key point though is that he didn't see it on some other website and decide to swoop in and publish to a broader audience. He was doing actual reporting, and was getting information directly from sources. When he had enough to corroborate, he published. It just happened that he wasn't the only one that was getting that information, and someone else beat him to the byline. At the time it was thought that he had broken the story because he DIDN'T rip off another reporter. He doesn't have to credit someone else in his article for independent reporting. "Credit where it's due" is saying he wasn't first.

[JonCole]

I'm glad that industry luminary and top 90's rapper Sisqo has weighed in on the recent IGN resignations -

 

[Architecture]

I know it's being discussed elsewhere on the forums, but I am certainly bummed about AOL's decision to gut its gaming division.

 

So long, Joystiq. You were too beautiful for this ugly world.

[Valorian Endymion]

So Moviebob was fired from the Escapist... his videos where pretty much the only reasons I still visit the Escapist...

[Bjorn]

They're not going to have much left soon.

[Deadpan]

They still got episode recaps for current TV shows, in case you want to keep up but also can't be bothered to watch them. Also Robert Rath's Critical Intel column, if I'm up to date.

 

The site really hasn't been worth visiting since it axed weekly features a couple of years ago. The few good things still clinging on felt out of place there ever since.

[Ninety-Three]

Technically they also have Shamus Young's column, but I don't read the Escapist except when he links his columns from his main website.

[Gormongous]

I don't really know where else to post this, but are people aware of a freelance games critic named Nick Capozzoli? I noticed him because he had a strangely erudite Total War: Attila review on Gamespot, which was unfortunately sullied by that site's execrable editing policy, and when I googled him, I came up with his twitter, which had an intelligent deconstruction of TotalBiscuit's so-called "activism" posted just this morning. Is he someone people know or should know?

 

Okay, looking at the blog for his admittedly barebones site, he probably is. Sorry for thinking out loud!

[BadHat]

Oh, he wrote that WWWGC piece! I guess I liked him already.  

 

/follows

[twmac]

Thanks for link, have been absorbing his stuff for the last hour, while chugging Corona.

 

Hmm, does this need to go in the intoxicated thread?

[Deadpan]

Yeah, Nick's fairly well known in critical circles, he's mostly chugging out reviews these days, but he's also got a book in the works, I think, and he helped Zoya Street organize that Critical Proximity event before GDC last year.

 

Although, critics all tend to know each other always, so maybe my perspective isn't terribly helpful there.

[Gormongous]

Yeah, Nick's fairly well known in critical circles, he's mostly chugging out reviews these days, but he's also got a book in the works, I think, and he helped Zoya Street organize that Critical Proximity event before GDC last year.

 

Although, critics all tend to know each other always, so maybe my perspective isn't terribly helpful there.

 

Yeah, but it's also good to know who critics know. I can't think of any specific examples, but I definitely feel like there have been several instances of critics in video games turning me onto some of their more talented brethren because they're better aware of the state of the discipline.

 

It almost feels unfortunate to me that Capozzoli is a regular contributor to Gamespot nowadays. I mean, for sure, it's great that he has work, but his style, which I like, is marvelously unsuited for the site. Most of his reviews that I've read, like for Total War: Attila and Civilization: Beyond Earth, are beautiful examples of New Games Journalism, shot through with features lists that I imagine are demanded by Gamespot's editorial staff. It wouldn't be hard to imagine a site that would fit him better, but who am I to say, really...

[Deadpan]

Yeah, but it's also good to know who critics know. I can't think of any specific examples, but I definitely feel like there have been several instances of critics in video games turning me onto some of their more talented brethren because they're better aware of the state of the discipline.

 

It almost feels unfortunate to me that Capozzoli is a regular contributor to Gamespot nowadays. I mean, for sure, it's great that he has work, but his style, which I like, is marvelously unsuited for the site. Most of his reviews that I've read, like for Total War: Attila and Civilization: Beyond Earth, are beautiful examples of New Games Journalism, shot through with features lists that I imagine are demanded by Gamespot's editorial staff. It wouldn't be hard to imagine a site that would fit him better, but who am I to say, really...

 

Yeah, that tends to happen when you follow the right kind of people since there's a lot of tweeting other people's work or just referencing ideas back and forth. I kind of imagine a lot of people are tired of seeing me bang the usual array of drums every so often, but sometimes you actually do get to point people towards something cool, and it's great.

 

I don't know that this weird fusion isn't ultimately for the best (genuinely, because I tend to read more alt-crit than reviews, even good ones). He seems to like being there, and it's probably for the best if Gamespot's audience is introduced to a slightly different style of criticism than they might be used to. I always felt that even though I personally prefer the heady, academic stuff that roughly twelve people in the world care about, it's very important that there are also people who do quote/unquote mundane writing really well and bring something unique to it.

[Gormongous]

I don't know that this weird fusion isn't ultimately for the best (genuinely, because I tend to read more alt-crit than reviews, even good ones). He seems to like being there, and it's probably for the best if Gamespot's audience is introduced to a slightly different style of criticism than they might be used to. I always felt that even though I personally prefer the heady, academic stuff that roughly twelve people in the world care about, it's very important that there are also people who do quote/unquote mundane writing really well and bring something unique to it.

 

That's fair. I'm just reacting based on my personal tastes, but you're right that he seems happy at Gamespot and it's not like RockPaperShotgun can employ every critic I like.

[Merus]

I imagine he'd fit in well at USGamer but that site seems like a weird backwater.

[BadHat]

Man, I read Nick's Dead Rising 3 review and made the mistake of stumbling into the comments. They're all about going against "what gamers want," presumably because he spent a few paragraphs talking about how lazily written it is... including lampooning some awful-sounding stereotypes. Never mind there's actually a pretty cogent mechanical review in there if you actually read the fucking thing, everyone gets hung up on that or the score. Apparently on the list of "what gamers don't want," making them think occupies the top spot.

[tegan]

USGamer has a lot of really talented people working for it (Jeremy Parish, Kat Bailey, KC Green...), but just never catches my eye for whatever reason.

[Deadpan]

That's fair. I'm just reacting based on my personal tastes, but you're right that he seems happy at Gamespot and it's not like RockPaperShotgun can employ every critic I like.

 

If only though! We're really mostly doing either the thing that gets us paid or writing exactly the weird stuff we want to write whether people like it or not. Although, I do tend to think of RPS more as a smarter variant of the same basic formula as Gamespot, with the other end of the spectrum being the essayistic metacriticism that's more interested in depth than timeliness.

 

(P.S.: Follow me on Twitter for regular plugs of Five out of Ten, ZEAL, The Arcade Review, Memory Insufficient, Meandrzine and anything by Jenn Frank, Lana Polansky, Mattie Brice, Soha Kareem and Cara Ellison!_{likecommentsubscribeeeee})

[pkirkner]

Yesterday, Maddy Myers announced that she's moving to The Mary Sue from Paste Games, presumably as Senior Editor. Jenn Frank will be coming back to games writing to take Maddy's place at Paste. Good news all around, in my book.

[Deadpan]

Oh yeah, talented people moving up in the world. Like Cara Ellison working on the next Dishonored.