As previously spammed, my first column for Crispy Gamer just went live: On the Bright Side: An Introduction. Here’s an excerpt.
In 2007, a fictional food critic by the name of Antone Ego aptly described mass media and its audience when he wrote: “We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.” Ego’s definition couldn’t have been wiser. Indeed, positive news has long since taken a backseat to negative reporting, with the former often compressed to a 20-second closing spot in a 30-minute telecast. The same is true of videogames, if not by more… Continue reading
I’m supposed to highlight “gaming benevolence and creative development twice monthly.” Got any ideas you’d like to see covered? What’s Nintendo doing in terms of gaming benevolence and creative development outside of the obvious?
In terms of benevolence Nintendo's definitely tried to cater to a wider audience, bring in the casual and the newbies into the world of gaming through the Wii & DS while offering all new experiences that neither the hardcore or the mainstream thought possible with games. This is thanks to their innovation or evolution of game concepts as well as new methods of input.
They're setting the stage for how we'll control games in the future using more natural means instead of complicated button presses and confusing controllers with more sticks than we've got thumbs to use them.
The casual gaming floodgates are just a "gateway drug" to get people into gaming and to let them see why the hardcore/casuals/cascore enjoy the medium so much.
Good article. I just hope you can keep up the good news biweekly.
You like "The Killers" (band)?
The bright side! How refreshing! Keep it coming, Blake, we could all use more of it!
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Love the Killers!
Good article mate, I couldn't agree more. Do you think some of the grumpiness from critics may generate from the fact that they're watching from the sidelines, instead of creating games themselves? Not all game critics want to be developers, but certainly a fair share of them do.
I find this especially true with music critics. Often times they are failed musicians themselves who still hold the narcissistic opinion that they are better than everyone else, and thus hack and slash every album that comes they're way.
Anyway, keep up the good work, looking forward to more features!
Journalism teaches to question everything, which often times leads to unnecessary cynicism. I'm still trying to find a balance…
Wasn't there a story about how some 12-year old held a bowling contest to raise money and put up his own Wii as first prize?
Gaming Benevolence… You could write about the efforts by Nintendo and Microsoft to reach out to the gaming community through sponsored events among other PR avenues. Too bad another unnamed console maker hasn't gotten the hint yet.
What sponsored events do you speak of?