The Gamer's Quarter

dhex · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 2:31 pm Post subject: look who's coming to dinner

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/magazines/pc-gamer-seeking-ngj-102778.php

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Excellent! It is catching on... in the wrong county. I understand that the UK already has good magazines...

Mister Toups · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 6:11 pm Post subject:

There's also this. I might apply.
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where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

That's a pretty good opportunity right there Toups, you should go for it. I suddenly feel very inexperienced.

dhex · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 6:54 pm Post subject:

go toups go!

they don't seem to care much about clips, so it's all good. i would not recommend sending them a 5,000 word thumbsucker, interesting though they may be.

Szczepaniak · . Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 770

Damn, the first one is for PC games, which I dont do.
And the second, I take it is a US based mag? They say they want freelancers living in Japan.... do you also suppose they want freelancers living in France?....

Nah, Im only jesting. I'm snowed under as it is, but it's ALWAYS good to see vacancies popping up in this bloatedly insular and isolated industry.

Ganbatte-kudasai Toups-san!
Let us know how you do.

Mister Toups · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 6:29 am Post subject:

Yeah. I'm wondering what exactly I should send them for portfolio material.

I'm currently working on a piece about in-flight entertainment on international airplanes for LargePrimeNumbers.com. Maybe that will do.
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where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

dhex · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 7:40 am Post subject:

send them 3 or 4 (no more) pieces with a spread of writing types. one about in flight games would be very good. maybe a very stripped down version of the re4 article. something on silent hill, again edited down. i woudn't go over 700 words for anything you submit. but contact them first and see what they say.

it might be a web feature they're doing, in which case you could write 30000 gazillion words.

speaking of which, editors...the web needs more editors. everyone writes too fucking long.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Mister Toups · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 1:44 pm Post subject:

I don't plan on ever stopping contributing to the GQ. I like to sow my wild oats, is all.
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where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Mister Toups · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 3:12 pm Post subject:

Psh. I never miss a hidden message!
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where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

dhex · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 10:05 am Post subject:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/10/news_6123723.html

dhex · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 10:07 am Post subject:

doublepost extravaganza:

http://vgombud.blogspot.com/2005/05/annotated-e3-swag.html

or why "video games journalism" is a fucking joke.

http://vgombud.blogspot.com/2005/05/pre3-preparation.html

holy shit that's even more sad. at least the pr folk are being straightforward.

you know, on the one hand i'd like to work for a game company in the publicity department. it seems like a rather light and airy post, rather than having to deal with reporters and the DOH and dead babies and whatnot. (or losing dead babies, as metropolitan hospital recently did...)

on the other hand, how does one hide their contempt for a legion of comic book guys?

dhex · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 9:21 am Post subject:

http://www.maragos.org/index.php?p=26

interesting, though the comments field made me want to die.

SuperWes · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 12:12 pm Post subject:

This is really freaking cool.

I actually kind of understand the editorial staff's decision to not print the review if the review and score don't fit the goals of the magazine, but I'm not sure they should have just edited some extra stuff in and threw up a better numer. Regardless of their decision, I'm all for him fighting it, and even more surprised with the results. Good show!

-Wes
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dhex · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 1:15 pm Post subject:

at the very least they should have taken his name off the piece. it is kind of interesting that they responded as they did. i wonder why.

internal politics? blog feedback? the vague notion that being a cockwhore for a game company is an affront to human decency and the values of secular humanism, capitalism and the Enlightenment in general?

Persona-sama · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 3:03 pm Post subject:

SuperWes · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 3:32 pm Post subject:

I sincerely doubt that Nintendo's badgering had anything to do with it. It's just that with a game like Donkey Konga 2 the music choice is going to play a major role in anyone's enjoyment of it. Gamespy was probably going for a review a little closer to the IGN review (cringe). The IGN reviewer continuously reiterates that the game itself is fine, but the music just ain't his thing and gives it a high score. The Gamespy reviewer very likely said, "This music is balls" and just gave it a low score. They can't print that if they want to portray the notion of subjectivity so they probably just altered the score and added a few lines of text. I'm with dhex, they should have just taken his name off of it and called it a day.

Who am I responding to? Who knows!

-Wes
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dhex · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 7:24 am Post subject:

fear of nintendo's badgering, perhaps.

frankly, i think most fandom exist in some sort of weird BDSM spectrum. it's not that they don't realize they're pets; they just don't care. it's part and parcel of their schtick.

personae: i jest, of course. no one gives a fuck about that stuff anymore.

edit: at the risk of being condescending, i realize i'm being completely unfair. it's like expecting MTV to hold iteslf to being anything other than what it is. and much of the complaining on the guy's comment site (the dude who wrote the review) are the words of people who have never had to make a commercial decision about an otherwise "creative" venture. those decisions are hard; but 'turfing your writers and not even dropping the by, that's just fucking weak.

but again, it's what they do. it's what they're there for. advertising. a useful service, no doubt, seeing as people buy, subscribe, etc.