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The Year in Press Releases

The inimitable GameSetWatch has released the Top 50 Press Releases of 2008. I've written a few of these in my day, and coming from someone with a PR background, they are almost never fun to write. Polishing a turd isn't rewarding, and the need for this form of communication is continually diminishing, so you gotta give it to the intrepid folks who still make a living writing these things.

I can't understand why executives still feel it necessary to churn out this garbage. Gamers, perhaps more than most audiences, are resistant to bullshit. Journalists are smart enough, and hopefully unbiased enough to parse the public releases they get. Why the fawning quotes and buzzwords while media clamors for real communication with publishers and dev studios. The gaming industry has the luxury of an audience with an insatiable appetite for news. This luxury is regularly squandered by clueless PR hacks.

A few of my favorites, after the jump:

Posted Dec 22 2008, 05:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: cole stryker, lists, gamesetwatch, press releases, public relations

Best Game Writing of 2008

Simon Parkin at the excellent Chewing Pixels has a roundup of some of the year's best game-related writing. There's some great stuff here, enought to keep me busy for the afternoon. Included is an insightful piece about the oft-reviled Luigi's Mansion, courtesy of Edge Magazine's Time Extend column. David Wong's Cracked article about the coming video game crash is both delightful and chilling. Well, I'll just leave you to it, then.

Posted Dec 19 2008, 03:30 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, journalism, writing, lists, 2008, chewing pixels

Top 5 Reasons Why 2009 Will Bring the End of Lists

Top 10 Gaming Panties

Top 10 Gaming Mustaches

Top 10 Gaming Cakes

Top 5 Games You're Better At Drunk

Top 7 Mispronounced Game Titles

Listicles. It's so easy to trash these lazy features, that generally exist as a quick and dirty way to boost traffic when there isn't much news happening. Hey, we're guilty of it too. The tubes are especially choked with lists this time of year, with everyone and their mom canonizing their picks for year-end. The above lists all received more than a thousand diggs a piece. How can we blame editors when that kind of traffic is on the line?

I might be totally wrong about this, but I hereby predict that we're going to see a lot fewer of these lists in '09.

Posted Dec 10 2008, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, journalism, lists, 2009

Indie Dev Moment: Hunted Forever

Yesterday I wrote about Time magazine's Top 10 Video Games of 2008. One of the games they listed was a free flash game that I had never heard of called Hunted Forever. I spent a little time with the game last night, and found it occupies a nice little crevice between Metanet Software's N and Pixeljam's Dino Run.

In N, the player employs all manner of gymanstics to get from one point on the map to another, collecting bits and bobs along the way. In Dino Run, the player runs from left to right as quickly as possible, avoiding obstacles as your little velociraptor attempts to escape a wall of volcanic doom.

Posted Dec 09 2008, 09:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: whatcha playing, cole stryker, lists, dino run, n, hunted forever

Time Unveils Top Ten Games of 2008

Time Magazine has unleashed their picks for the year's best video games. I was pleasantly surprised by a few of the choices. I'd like to think that it represents a subtle sea change in the way media evaluates games.

I wonder if the big game publishers will follow suit. Nah.

The list...after the jump!

Posted Dec 08 2008, 03:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, ipod, lists, 2008

Action Button Top 25 Games Ever List Up

A few weeks back I told you about Action Button's ongoing list, and now it's done. I reckon that this is the only list of its kind worth reading, because it flies in the face of everything that you've been told about video games. If nothing else, the lineup serves as an excellent introduction to some wildly underrated games, a dozen of which I've put on my "must play" spreadsheet.

Each entry is accompanied by a verbose review, which will most likely shoot off in several directions, perhaps only tangentially discussing the game in question. I've read about half, and all are compelling, despite the word counts. We're talking about people who can call a game "Love: The Videogame" with a straight face. But whatever, Tim Rogers and Co. love video games. When you're done reading through this list, you may come to the conclusion that most other reviewers hate them. Be sure to scroll through the 500+ comments that the list has inspired for some of the best open conversation on game theory that you'll find anywhere.

The full list, after the jump:

Posted Sep 05 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, action button, tim rogers, lists

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.