Why, yes, it is rather early for the pre-show topic post to go up! How very observant of you! However, I’m afraid we have a good excuse for this blatant timeliness: The normal show schedule is being mixed around a bit this week due to some GDC scheduling issues. We’re reversing the formula this week and will be posting regular Rebel FM on Monday (tomorrow!) and Game Club on Wednesday. Crazy times! That means we need your thoughts on this week’s topic by noon PST tomorrow! And this week’s topic is: videogame news coverage.
Most of you probably know that before this whole Rebel FM thing, I was a news editor for 1UP.com. Between that position and freelancing for 1UP’s news before I was hired, I got to see the site’s coverage go through a lot of changes, got to research and write a lot of stories, and also got to do a lot of hard thinking about how and why we cover news the way we do in the gaming industry…and now I want to hear your thoughts too!
Where do you go for your videogame news coverage? Do you prefer the catch-all blog format? Or are you more likely to frequent sites that have fewer stories and may not cover everything but focus on original, well-researched material? Is there even an ideal gaming news site out there yet? What could current blogs and news sites be doing better to serve you? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll pick some of the best ones to read on air!
We’ll also be joined by two FIRST-TIME Rebel FM guests this week. I’ll keep their identities a surprise for now, but these two have a lot of experience on both the journalism and developer side of the industry and also provide a point of view that neither Arthur, Anthony, nor myself could honestly claim to have. Find out just what the hell I mean…tomorrow!
I frequent several sites. Normally, I visit 1up to get most of my main news, then branch out to places like Kotaku or Gamustra if I have heard about any interesting news stories that I think might be worthy to read. But for the most part, I only frequent blogs for interesting stories and not head lines, as some sites seem to run “hype” news posts.
Gaming news sources are constantly compromising between depth and breadth. Blog sites like Kotaku and Joystiq seem to be straight pipes that put out the info right when they find it, while 1UP updates less frequently but offers more long-form content and better-sourced articles.
Honestly, both types of site have a place in my RSS reader. As a podcaster and radio host, I gather discussion topics from both. When writing my own material I try to hit a sweet spot between the two, allowing for ample commentary.
That said, podcasts have revolutionized the way that I view the games press, and see them as the closest we’ve gotten to the “ideal” news source. I favor certain sites for their editorial voice, and podcasts offer great insight into the process behind the writing, and the personalities involved. The facts are important, but personality is what sells.
It’s definitely hard to choose these days. Before the internet became the main source of general news, we all were dependent on paper publications and television. We had time to digest the information and create rational opinions on the topic. A gaming site serves well as a hub for the latest games industry news, but it’s easy to screw something up; for example, the Bioshock 2 news that was created just from rumors on a 2K’s message boards. Any gaming site can become an ideal gaming news site, if the user wants to treat it that way.
With that said, I highly doubt that useless top 10 lists are newsworthy. (I’m looking at you, GameDaily.)
I’m a huge fan of MTV’s Multiplayer blog and the GiantBomb blog for mostly original content. I live by Gamasutra and GameDeveloper Magazine for my more serious, academic approach to design, but other than that I’m all about the podcasts for news of the world.
I go to sites in the hopes of seeing announcements or updates on new games I might like to play. I don’t care much about what analyst was offended by RE5′s racism or which console will sell more units in July. For opinions and editorial I go to Area 5′s Co-Op, this site, and sometimes to Gamers With Jobs.
On the news end I only regularly hit gametrailers.com, since it is the most likely place to show me what games will look like, and videogaming247, a catch-all that tends to catch interesting developments, like what’s happening to Dead Space as it moves to Wii or the announcement of Dante’s Inferno. My ideal site would be one chock full of video and podcasts about the games I’m interested in, but since my tastes can be so capricious, it’ll never exist.
I tend to go to sites like Giantbomb for my game news. Between that and podcasts, I tend to be well informed on what really matters.
I prefer to go to sites that post news when they feel it is important. The catch is you have to have similar interests to the writers. Luckily, I have always had similar interests to those guys.
As for podcasts, I like the conversation about things instead of it being from a single person’s perspective. It seems silly to get your news from podcasts, but it makes sense once you hear how most podcasts will read the press release or whatever it is they are talking about before the conversation even starts.
I’ve grown to respect you guys’ (and other podcasters) opinions on many things, whether I agree or not, and hearing it gives me as many sides as possible.
Although I have about 30 sites in the “Gaming” folder in my RSS feed reader, I think by now, I get a lot of news on Twitter first. At least if it’s really important news, someone will link to it before either a blog has picked it up or even before my RSS reader has updated my feeds. As I use Twitter a lot while commuting, I also get a lot of links before I come home and fire up NetNewsWire. (I also read my feeds on my phone, but I don’t like the experience as much and don’t use it as regularly)
Twitter has another advantage: real people filter out the bad stuff and only the best gets to the top, no matter what format. Be it a YouTube video, a Gamasutra article, a 1Up News Post, a Gamespolitics post linked to by Kotaku or even a forum post/comment on a story. Plus, a lot of the articles recommended are on sites that I don’t have in my feed reader. So, while Twitter is very selective, it is the perfect companion to the big news blogs in my opinion.
If these FIRST-TIMERs to RebelFM are not Jeff Green and Shawn Elliott I will be very disappointed.
I have a feeling the “What the hell I’m talking about” was a small hint at one of them being Ryan Scott.
But I’d love it if it were both Jeff and Shawn. That’d be great. But I also love Ryan so no disappointment there.
Ryan? Am I missing something or does he have developer experience? At least one of the former GFW crew will be on because Darren, Shawn and Jeff have developer experience, and maybe Sean too?
For a good long time, I went to Kotaku and Destructoid only…. they both seemed to be up to the minute on updates, but somewhere down the line, in my opinion, some D-Toid writers got a little too…opinionated on some news. While I get that it’s sometimes a writer’s style, sometimes I want the news without the sass. So then it became Kotaku and IGN.
For awhile, my problem with 1up was that they didn’t update as frequently adn that they were a sometimes a day or to late to the news.
In a hypocritical turn of events, having been a subscriber to EGM since 95, a lot of the other news I got was from the EGM crew and the stuff they dug up that no other place could get. That and when they talked shit, it sounded a lot less pretentious, and it was genuinely funny. Viva la Decapitato.
I’ve just come to realize my gripes about bias/opinion aren’t as valid, as D-Toid is primarily a blog, not a news site.
I get most of my videogame news from podcasts such as Rebel FM, CO-OP, Listen UP!, etc.
Also EDGE magazine.
I hope you all find jobs so you can stop doing this dedicated podcast thing, I love the podcast but I think getting back more into the industry is what you guys need.
I value knowing the people making content I love are at good standing just as much as receiving good content. I love the whole podcast thing, but I know it isn’t a sustainable thing for you guys, I hope you guys get some jobs at GDC and move on from this.
Not sustainable in what terms? Financially? Yeah, we’re not currently making enough money for Rebel FM/ESG to be full-time jobs, but that’s okay. We’re doing some freelance stuff and beginning to bring a bit of ad money as well. Just because we’re not being regularly paid by some giant corporation for this show doesn’t mean it’s something we want to drop as soon as possible. Though I appreciate the concern greatly, I don’t think we’re at any risk of starving financially or being overlooked by the enthusiast press at large.
That’s great to hear, thought the podcast was paying no ad-money but it’s great to hear that you guys are making something from the podcast.
I forget that you guys are in your living room some times, also I suggest as backlog playing through Shadow of the Colossus or Oddworld Strangers Wrath. Both those games seem to be shining gems from last gen that could make for some cheap backlog even most cheapest of cheapasses could afford and have plenty of set pieces for you guys to talk about.
Shadow of the Colossus was actually our first Backlog for 1UP FM way back when, but I highly suggest going back to listen to that in the 1UP podcast archives! Stranger’s Wrath is a great idea though…except that I don’t think it’s backward compatible. :/
I would say GTA SA or Jade Empire but those were to long for a backlog segment…
insted of just talking aboiut mags and sites and shit talk aboiut the psn info bar and how shit it is and the ign insider and majors minit on 360 they suck i wanna hear what u guys think if there is even a rason for them to be there with the internet or should they do more of what qore and puls on psn r doing news wise i like pulse to be honest a atractove girl telling u shit u might not know and it olney takeing 5 minets i did the subscripshon to qore and i was let down if that was free tho would aney of us swich over from mags ans sits and blcogs and even more so podcasts and get it fright off there consols. peace!
In the past year, I’ve started working in the mainstream media (at a daily newspaper), and while production, not writing, is my main responsibility, I do write a gaming blog for the paper with a colleague. Much of my blogging fodder is generated by the Joytaku-style news aggregates: summarize a bit of news, write a bit of reaction, post the link, done. I enjoy this kind of writing, and think it has plenty of value.
What I really cherish and enjoy is the original, in-depth type of articles provided by sites like Gamasutra or Robert Ashley’s A Life Well Wasted. That’s the type of work I wish I could be doing myself, if I weren’t enslaved to the feed-the-beast production grind of a daily newspaper. (And if the paper had the funding for a full-time games section. Which it doesn’t. Which frustrates me to no end when I can’t give a legitimate local and national story — for example, the bill sponsored by Jack Thompson that passed the Utah Legislature — the full attention it deserves, due to my other responsibilities. But I digress.)
But I think there’s plenty of room for all kinds of news styles, the quick hits and the deep analysis alike. And there’s even lots more room for growth in the casual, family audience, with more sites like WhatTheyPlay.
If the Internet has proven anything, it’s that the current generation is omnivorous when it comes to consuming information, and that the best content will usually find a way to get read, regardless of its originating source, the depth of its analysis, or its intended audience. It’s a pretty egalitarian medium, and I think gamers are the same way.
There’s really no need for an “ideal” gaming news site (or print source, or podcast, or whatever), because it’s so easy these days to pick and choose what you want, and so hard for one site to cover everything that’s going on. The true “ideal” is the one that each individual forms for himself, through the aggregation of as many different sources as he pleases.
Oh, I could go on about this topic forever. Looking forward to the podcast.
love the show guys,
i listen to it on my bus ride home all the time (yes im still in high school)
depends on how i feel, some times i need a short quick coverage. Other times slow, long, more in depth story.
mostly podcasts
Mag.
EGM(before), Nintendo power(rarely), Game informer.
Podcasts –(MOST USED)
rebel fm, anything at 1up, geekbox,CO-OP(love it),bombcast
Websites
bungie.net, Eat-Sleep-Game,
Tv
G4, what else is there
(this is where people should invest)
For the longest time, it was magazines that made up my journey into video game news. PC Gamer, CGW, Computer Games and Strategy, PCXL and so on. It was the best way to get high quality, written articles that were informative.
However, once the web blew up, it was no longer necessary to buy 20 gaming mags to get all the cool angles. At that point, Blogs became my news source. Blogs like Kotaku, Joystiq, FiringSquad and others have become the best place for me to find opinionated news that seems to hit at a quicker pace then some of the big boy sites like Gamespot, 1up and IGN.
Also, the poster above that mentioned podcasts, hit something on the nose. Podcasts give me a lot of the info that I would have in a blog, but I have it on the go, via my PSP, iPod, Zune, or even a mobile phone. They give me the info, no matter what I am doing. And with their being so much variety in podcasts, you are bound to find something that fits your news taste.
I think everyone has tacitly accepted that most of the content from the major gaming news sites is identical. Sure, there’s enough exclusive content to switch it up but let’s face it; all the big sites get the same PR blasts from the same people and end up writing the same damn stories.
It’s like, remember the Play Doh Fun Factory? It was that dumb plastic toy you shoved Play Doh into and it’d extrude out a sausage-like lump in the shape of a star or rectangle or something depending on what filter you had on it? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdzhC8wVFGs) That’s kind of what I think most game news has always been. It’s not a matter of what content you want served to you, since the content is mostly homogeneous, but rather the way in which you want it served to you. Want professional? Go to Wired or Gamasutra. Like snark? Kotaku and Joystiq. Prefer stupid, puerile bullshit? N4G’s got your back.
And while I respect immensely the people that do shake it up, that actually have integrity and do real journalism (Leigh Alexander, Clive Thompson et al), at the end of the day that great content they’re producing isn’t itself going to be enough to slake the thirst of this digg-hungry, 8am-11pm Gawker news cycle that we’ve all adapted to, accepted and endorse.
Not that I’m complaining, mind.
Ironically, it was Kotaku themselves who used to have a sentence in their site header claiming that they go “beyond the press release.” (With the new Gawker site layouts, there’s no room for such descriptions.)
But the issue you mention is not just the way in which the items on the agenda are packaged, but the setting of the agenda itself. Kotaku does go beyond the press release, but the press release is still often what kick-starts the process, what raises the topic in the first place. Not telling you what to think, but what to think ABOUT. (Ah, my journalism professors would be proud of me for remembering that one.)
Thing is, those press-release-based topics are often what we gamers want to know about, or think we want to know about, and therefore they end up being the most popular, and the most lucrative. I find it interesting that it took Robert Ashley until after the 1UPocalypse to find the time, completely on his own and without support of an organization, to give us A Life Well Wasted, which provided something we didn’t know we wanted.
It’s as you say, Chris — those in-depth works of journalism can’t really exist without the quick-hit news cycle. But I don’t see them as mutually exclusive, or opposing, either. I think the mixture of press-release instant news from one source, and unique, analytical journalism from another source, is just fine. The fact that such a mixture is possible, and that each individual user can adjust the ratio to his own liking, is one of the best things about the age in which we live.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter where I get the news; I can go to just about any gaming site and get the same exact information. Much of the “news” of this industry is just a rewording of a published press release or some sort of “rumor,” and anything significant that one site doesn’t report on itself will appear later as a “x news service reported that…” story. It’s dumb, yes, but just a part of what games news reporting in this industry is: a way for publishers to get information about their games out to their customers so that the customers will eventually buy the games. This doesn’t apply to all gaming “news,” but I’d say it applies to most.
Seems like Chris above me and I have very similar opinions, and I’d like to also clarify that I don’t disrespect the people that write the news stories, I disrespect the state of the news itself.
I think you can say that about any entertainment industry. They all have PR regurgitation and once in a while insightful articles about the industry. I mean ultimately most “news” happens when publishers/developers announce something.
//SPOILER – Contains grammar and spelling mistakes
Well after the “death of print” I have a wide variety of sources for news. As I get busier I want news to be fed to me in short bit sized portions that are easy to digest. For that I usually go to Kotaku & Joystiq. For more in depth news, developer interviews and features, I visit sites like 1UP, Edge Online and GiantBomb. Then there are times where I visit personal blogs like Shawn Elliot’s for interesting pieces. I go to different sites for different reasons. I honestly don’t have ONE site I visit. Each site serves it purpose and I enjoy getting my news in different forms. My favorite medium of all is Podcasts. It may not always be timely but I love listening to unedited (usually) indepth discussions.
SUMMARY
Quick & Easy : Kotaku/Joystiq
Informative : 1UP/GiantBomb/EDGE/Gamasutra
Discussions & Indepth : NeoGaf/Podcasts/Personal Blogs
I think the problem with the major gaming sites is that there is too much information on the front page. Everything is too cluttered and it’s hard to concentrate. Although every site has that problem I gotta honestly say that 1UP is one of the worst offenders. The blog format that was recently implemented for news is a nice touch but the homepage is a mess.
Okay this post is getting a bit too long. It’s hard to put my finger on what the “ultimate” game site would be. I think in the end as long the site caters properly to its consumer no site needs to be the be all and end all solution.
Honestly I think the biggest mistake a lot of outlets make is thinking that they need to cover news. In the day of the internet and blog pages like Kotaku/Joystiq/… it is impossible to keep up with their speed, so why should I read the same information a day later on one of the big sites or a month later in any magazine?
Honestly, the people that care about the badly reasearched (deduced from a picture) that there are “Big Sisters” in the next Bioshock, will be happy with the raw blog format.
Personally I prefer less but more indepth news – the closest to that are the trillions of podcasts available at the moment. Most people play
I’ve always trusted 1up for their news coverage. I’ve found that twitter gets me the important stories first, and from people I trust. When I’m looking for news I’m not necessarily looking for opinion as well, I get that from the various podcasts that I listen to.
Both the catch all blogs (Joystiq/Kotaku) and the more focused news sites (ArsTech/Gamasutra).
But when it comes to reviews I go to a totally different source. I don’t trust the blogs for reviews, they seem too caught up in the console war. Constant flame bait ‘News Stories’ to drive page views just eliminates any credibility as unbiased source for reviews. When someone caveats reviews by mentioning the ‘Sony Defense Force’ or the ‘Xbots’ you know they are too far in the forest to see the trees. But for news their great because tthe constantly update the site.
I appreciate the long form stories that other sites provide but I think I enjoy them more when they are in magazines.
The podcast is a fascinating medium for you as journalists to define yourselves through personality and connect yourselves intimately to your listeners. To do this, we need to hear about the minute details of your gaming identity.
For example: the style in which you play games, how long you play them, favorite gaming memories, favorite genres, gaming history, etc…
Then, we as listeners can identify each of you clearly, as someone we can relate with or don’t.
Best site for gaming ‘headlines’ for me is the gaming section of Reddit as it just collects news from the entire web. But I always like hearing this news being discusses on a podcast. The podcast format allows the news to be discussed between several people in an informal way. The problem with articles (web or print) is that it’s one person’s opinion. With the podcast you automatically get different viewpoints and a better overall understanding of the topic, like the RE5 racism discussion.
I always found it funny how the amount of time I actually spent playing video games dropped precipitously once I began writing for Destructoid thirteen months ago. Accordingly, I also had much less time to browse other gaming sites, since I became so focused on producing content for Destructoid’s front page. And strangely, as tech-savvy as I am, I don’t make use of RSS feeds to keep up with my favorite gaming sites. But to be honest, I don’t find that it matters all that much.
Each day, 95% of the news in the video game world hits our tips inbox, and that runs the gamut from the huge (e.g., Madden cover athlete) to the obscure (e.g., something about that girl who likes putting cats in her mouth). At the very least, I scan all the headlines/blurbs, and I keep the interesting-looking stuff in my inbox for later viewing. I’m of the same opinion as Chris Person and J. Peters above (comments 15 and 16, respectively) — generally, I don’t think the news is all that different from site to site. Instead, what matters is how you want your news presented to you. If you’re just looking to get a basic sense of what’s going on in the industry, then check out the big sites (IGN, GameSpot, et al.) for regurgitated press releases. For a more snarky (er, opinionated) or quick-hit take, check out a blog like us or Kotaku. And if you want in-depth reporting, analysis, commentary, and perspective, then check out sites like Gamasutra and MTV Multiplayer.
If I find a story particularly intriguing or compelling, I’ll check out the latter category of websites for their take on it. But in general, I feel like I can usually stay sufficiently informed by skimming the front page of a blog, and maybe seeing what people think in the comment threads. I don’t know that there’s an “ideal” gaming site, and thanks to the internet and its democratization of the news (which Patrick Klepek discussed on your show a few episodes ago), I don’t know that there needs to be one. Just like with the news in general (i.e., non-gaming news), your view is definitely going to be skewed if you only get your reporting from one source. Back in the day, I pretty much only visited IGN — but once blogs really started to become prominent, I began to expand my horizons, so to speak. So I think it’s important to check a variety of sites.
What I value most in a gaming website, though, is longer-form original content (editorials, reactions, features, etc.). To me, that’s what separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the internet. It’s why I originally bought an IGN Insider subscription way back when (I know, I know), and it’s what first attracted me to Destructoid nearly two and a half years ago. Again, the essence of the news doesn’t really change all that much, so what keeps me coming back to a particular site is its writing team. Stephen Totilo’s investigative reporting is why I visit MTV Multiplayer, and I always love to see the latest Destructoid piece from Jim Sterling or Anthony Burch. As always, it comes down to the quality of the writing.
As for what I’d like to see my favorite sites do better, one major area is rumors — and by that, I mean, ignoring the majority of them. Not that I’m in love with Patrick or anything, but again, it’s something he pointed out (this time on his own blog): a couple of weeks ago, a number of sites (including ours) posted the now-infamous purported BioShock 2 details, which came from a post on NeoGAF. The discussion across the web became so frenzied that both 2K and Game Informer came out and essentially debunked the rumors. Sure, it was hilarious to see the comment thread, where Dtoid readers got all in a tizzy, but eventually, everyone had to update their posts saying that they’d been duped. The downside to the blogosphere is that it seems to engender a culture that values speed over, y’know, journalism — and in the mad dash to be first, people seem to not want to bother with things like fact checking. But why? Sure, if the rumor turns out to be true, then somebody beat you to the punch. But the price for posting (sometimes obviously) false information — and of course, I’m not saying that anyone knowingly does that — is far greater, if you ask me.
If you’re reading this sentence, and you read the entirety of my rambling above, I salute you.
I don’t see why somebody has to choose between quick and easy to digest blog format, and the more thoughtful news posts. Kotaku recently has been running various ‘features’ I guess you could call them, which delve deeply into things about gaming as a medium. Things like the piece on maturity in gaming comes to mind, posted just a few days ago. And by reading Kotaku, the experience I have with PCGamer, GameInformer, and formerly EGM and GFW Mag doesn’t diminish my enjoyment.
For the delivery of news though I enjoy the Kotaku/Joystiq(which I also frequent) format. It’s easy to find, it updates often with up to the date news, and when there isn’t news there is usually some form of entertainment to be had. I also check a few regular non-news focuses gaming sites, and if they happen to have an interesting headline story I’ll give it a look, Gamespot, 1up, IGN occasionally that all HAVE news, but aren’t usually my primary source.
While I still check Kotaku, Shacknews, &c fairly regularly, I find it difficult to process the torrent of largely inconsequential information these all-encompassing blogs post without a filter of some sort. Were I a wealthy man, I would employ a young manservant just to prioritize and summarize the salient events on the major blogs every evening — my own personal Digg. I would also force him to wear a fez cap.
Do I really need to know what Sony’s assistant vice president of marketing in Slovenia has to say about Killzone 2 preorders? Who keeps asking these PR people for interviews? How many boilerplate responses do we need to hear every week about firmware updates?
Then why do I at least scan the quotes before moving onto the next asinine story? I wish I knew.
I’m much more interested in feature writing — the GameSetLink roundup Simon Carliss does every few days over at Gamasutra’s GameSetWatch blog is a godsend — and while writers as talented as Leigh Alexander, LB Jeffries, Michael Abbot, Steven Totillo &c are engaging with games in a valuable way, their writing is more holistic, or scholarly, than it is journalistic.
I’m sure we all remember Chuck Klostermann asking, “where is the Lester Bangs of videogame writing?” in some magazine column. While not as dumb as Saul Bellow’s infamous “Who is the Proust of the Zulus?” quip, it is still a profoundly dumb statement. Games journalism does not need to ape the New Journalism of the 50′s, 60′s, and 70′s to escape the rehashed press release being the dominate form of “news”; games journalism does, however, need more people like Dean Takahashi, journalists with the access and the time to follow a project from start to finish, and the wherewithal to get a book deal out of an endeavor like that.
I feel obligated to hit the catch-all blogs to keep up with happenings in the industry, but what really excites me are thoughtful and well-written original articles on smaller blogs. I love in-depth analysis on a game or games in general.
Since the cutbacks at 1up, I tend to listen to gaming podcasts for my news, reviews and options. I do visit GiantBomb.com more then any other gaming site (except eat-sleep-game.com of course). I am drawn to personalities more then the sites themselves this is why I love Rebel FM and the Giant Bombcast. When I first got (back) into gaming, my number 1 site of choice was Gamespot. This was about 5 years ago, now it would be lucky if I visited Gamespot once a month (my patronage went when Jeff and Ryan “left”). I was a little late to 1up.com and only started going there on a regular basis about 18 months ago. Needless to say, this is not my favorite site anymore. I still like Listen Up with Garrnet but to me the site just isn’t the same anymore.
I also buy a few gaming magazines, EDGE & Hyper (an Australian gaming mag) and sometimes GamesTM as I still like to have something physical to read. I also rely on shows like Co-Op and Gametrailers TV. Just reading words on a page/screen doesn’t hold the same weight as seeing/listening to gamers talk about games. As I don’t have a huge number of gaming friends ( I work in a financial corporation which is sadly not a haven for gamers) I sometime think of the Rebel FM and Co-Op guys as friends don’t happen to know personally (sad, i know).
I sometime wish for a ‘all-in-one’ site that I can go to get all my gaming info but that site already ‘did’ exist (1up).
*** My perfect (what-if) site, eat-sleep-game and Co-Op join forces with GiantBomb.com. I know this will never happen but it’s a nice thought.
Shit, I should have read it through before posting. In the first sentence I meant opinions, not options.
I don’t think there’s anything sad about thinking of the podcasters you listen to as your friends as long as you recognize that it’s only a thought and not reality.
I find myself in a position similar to the one you described and I imagine that many others share similar feelings. For people doing the 9-5 it’s hard to spend a lot of free time commenting on forums. Listening to podcasts allows us to vicariously have those game conversations we’d like to be involved in but might not be able to get in ‘real life’.
So, I say there’s nothing wrong at all with thinking of these guys as your friends. There are a million podcasts out there and only a limited amount of time to listen to them. Choosing whom to give your time to should be based on how you identify with the personalities and discussions on the show. I listen to RebelFM because they seem like cool guys that I’d like to shoot rockets at.
I almost think that would be getting too out of hand if Co-Op, Rebel Crew and Giantbomb joined forces. Ok, so I hated that Jeff was fired over Kane and Lynch, I hate that the Rebel and Co-Op crew were fired from 1up, but my thoughts on this have settled at; I think that these groups going out on their own…geekbox included(I think they are still mulling around their direction), but otherwise, all of these groups have done great things on their own…even better IMO than what they did with the larger corporations which they were confined in earlier…
I totally agree with both your replies. I think I am still a little pissed at the 1up breakup but realize that we wouldn’t have eat-sleep-game, Co-op and The Geekbox if this didn’t happen. My concern is now for the individuals and the fact that most of them are doing what they do now for the love of it. I really hope they can all keep doing what they love and get paid for it. I have so much respect for all these guys as I wouldn’t like to be in a situation where you don’t have a steady pay check coming in. I’m sure a lot of people would agree that all you have to do is say the word and I will be happy to pay for the great content you guys are producing. Maybe a paid ‘Gold access’ to the web site where you get additional stuff. I don’t know. I just don’t want you guys to stop.
There are some reasons why I go to the blog sites (Kotaku, Joystiq) for news. That’s because they are the first to get news. 1UP, IGN, and Gamespot don’t get the latest news as fast as the blog / scoop sites do.
But what these blog sites don’t do well is original content. I kept going back to 1UP because of The1UPShow and the many different podcasts and to EscapistMagazine because of Zero Punctuation. The original content is what keeps readers coming back to the site, not the “up to the second” news.
I read most news on either Joystiq or Big Download (for PC news). Also, the majority of the podcasts I listen to supplement the news with discussion.
Kotaku has too many posts that I am not interested in. Joystiq: 25.2 posts per day. Kotaku: 44 posts per day. (according to google reader)
Joystiq in particular could be doing more to customize the blog to the reader. Since they transferred all the “fanboy” sites onto the main blog, they should allow readers to create a central feed which combines more console specific news with the general news.
The blogs are where I go for the news, podcasts are for discussion.
There is sufficient space for many different types of news sites that cater both to niches and the general enthusiast audience. While I might 1UP, Shacknews, or Kotaku in my RSS reader for a summary of current events and releases in the industry, I look to other sites for coverage of specific genres or a niche perspective. The smaller, more concentrated focus of sites like Massively or WhatTheyPlay, serve both to filter what they present but also allow for greater depth on what they do focus on. Still others, like Gamasutra or CrispyGamer, are an outlet for industry news and longer format criticism. I don’t think there is an ideal gaming news site or way to approach gaming journalism, especially as the web further fragments audiences into smaller and smaller niches. There will always be a place for the “Walter Cronkite” approach of aggregate news but I do fear that the business model of the web, advertising, will not be enough to sustain investigative journalism and longer format criticism.
How is the $1000/month looking now? Although I take it gun battles between police and suspects is rare? otherwise I think you would have to be nuts living in that area.
There are reasons to live in Oakland other than rent prices. The area we live in is actually pretty safe, moreso than many nicer neighborhoods in San Francisco proper. That being said, this isn’t really the place for that kind of discussion.
I personally go to as many sites as i can and read and listen to whatever i can. Sites like 1up and gamespot have a good format for the websites stories. N4G is perfect if you want to follow links about what your interested in. Also I was just wondering about that killzone 2 clan, my psn is kevinep331 plz add me cuz i play alot.
I’ve noticed that I gravitate towards blogs such as Kotaku for the most recent news, but when I’m after more detailed information or original content I prefer sites such as 1UP and podcasts. I find that blog sites have very shallow coverage as opposed to the more opinions and research done by people such as yourselves for articles. Original content is also best done by people who consistently write about games in ways other than a headline and a link.
I suppose if a site managed to combine these two elements it would be my preferred news source, but as it is I find 1UP slower to update with the exception of special events such as E3.
Blogs like Joystiq are fine but I don’t have the same level of trust I would for the likes of 1UP or EDGE Online and gamesindustry.biz.
I stopped reading kotaku a while back because of some stuff they had posted but I keep the 1UP news blog as my hope page. I get a lot of stuff from there. I think the experiment a wile pack where cheep as gamer made up the whole thing about the mini Xbox 360 and got a lot of big blogs to post it shows some of them will post anything and you have to watch what you read.
On the up side Blogs are often quicker to update.
I consume about 95% of my gaming news through Google Reader, where I aggregate RSS feeds for about 10 different gaming blogs. That way I can get the “catch-all” news from sites like Joystiq and Kotaku, as well as the more obscure stuff from sites like Rock, Paper, Shotgun all in one place.
I tend to scan through the blogs like joystiq and kotaku while I’m at work looking at the headlines mostly unless something catches my eye. They tend to have the information in quick digestable bites which works out for me when I really should be working and not reading about video games. Podcast have also become a huge source of information, plus I like the fact that you get multiple opinions on games and news. Being an older gamer (I’m 31) I’m pretty set in my gaming ways so I tend to read stories on games I know I’ll enjoy and use podcast to find out info on games that are outside my confort zone (Like CIV IV).
I would enjoy less Video Game News Coverage. I enjoy knowing some things about the games coming out, but it feels as if its gotten to that point where you know too much before the game has even hit the shelves.
Purely my opinion of course…
I get my news mostly from the 1up news feed, they usually cover the big stuff, seriously I dont need a news post for every confirmed release date or rumor (although WoW patches dont need news coverage, but that’s an industry problem). Kotaku is just unmanageable. I tend to digest features and the like better through podcasts.
I dont read previews. At this point there are enough old games to keep me satiated. These days I pay more attention to reviews, half the time I don’t know anything about a game until it’s come out (Dennis Dyack would be proud).
What we really need to do if game journalism is to become some sort of respectable media is stop talking so goddamned much about sales numbers and NPDs. Arguing over who will fail once a month DOES NOT ENCOURAGE CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT THE GAMES WE PLAY AND PROVIDES BAIT FOR THE DEVOLVED RAMBLINGS OF MESSAGE BOARD MORONS.
That’s right, I’m calling you out Garnet Lee. Fuck the NPDs.
Success in terms of sales drive forward new games. Critical thinking is not on the mind of the man who gives out the money to make the games.
If the NPD’s were gone, new developers would find it more difficult to find out which games are selling, and therefore which games to make/not make.
And besides, the only podcast that I listen to which goes into such detail on the NPD’s is Lee’s ListenUP. Bitcast, Giant Bomb and all those other barely touch them. Go listen to those ones if you loath the NPDs as much as you say.
I’ve never really thought about it, but I don’t really go to any news sites or blogs for game news. It’s all become podcasts for me. I have 12 game podcasts on iTunes, so nearly everyday I have someone’s opinion about the latest news in my ear.
Unlike writing, podcasts don’t try to hide bias. It’s always just people talking about what they think. A vast amount of podcasts allows me to hear all sides.
Some podcasts are well researched with the voices well informed while one or two are a few guys simply talking with little background knowledge. It’s annoying, sure, when they butcher every single name or completely misunderstand a news story, but it’s always good to hear every side before formulating your own opinion on an issue, and that includes the uniformed hoo-ees.
I used to use 1up as a catch all. All of the writers that I respected, and whose opinions I valued worked there. It started dwindling long before the layoffs, but for every Shawn and Luke we lost, we got an Anthony, Patrick, and Phil to replace them. Guys like Shawn, Luke, and especially Jeff Green could never fully be replaced, but you gentlemen were talented writers that had tastes in media similar to my own, and so I grew to value your opinions as well. Now a days I bounce around different blogs and sites for some of my news, but most of it comes from podcasts. I enjoy the long form conversations about games a podcast provides, and though I would, and have, read conversations such as these, the excellent and under-rated Tom vs. Bruce columns come to mind, it doesn’t seem that there are any sites interested in doing that these days. (Maybe we could get an “Anthony vs. Arthur” column on eat-sleep-game? That idea is free.) I would like to see a site with the quality of a GFW:The Magazine that encompasses all of gaming with a network of good podcasts for every day of the work week. I might even be persuaded to pay a monthly or even yearly subscription for such a site, providing the content lives up to that found in GFW. Not gonna happen I know, but still. How awesome would that be?
As Thirty Nine people have pointed out before me, the issue that faces videogame ‘journalism’ is the same one that seems to face any niche hobby, be it comic books or Magic cards or any of the movie web sites, which is that it happens so rarely. Instead we have a deluge of PR regurgitation, company lines, and link-baiting opinion pieces disguised as news.
I don’t know, if all you’re interested in is what games are coming out, or which system outsold which, then yeah, the videogame news world has you covered. Once you wade out past the shallows though, you’re out-of-luck.
Like I said though, video games aren’t alone in this. All of the nerd press seems afflicted by this particular malaise. To quote Scott Pilgrim author Bryan Lee O’Malley: “the comics internet is all toe-the-line big two wags OR wacky gonzo reviewers; nothing in-between.” And the movie websites are all too afraid of losing access to the next superhero movie screenings to do anything other than post each others inane casting rumours in a constant ouroboros of idiocy.
The real issue (and it only took me four paragraphs to get here!) seems to be ACCESS: access to the corporations that own the games, access to the content (interviews, demos, preview bulds) that the gaming press need to stay ahead. How do you manage journalistic integrity when at the end of the day you need to go back to Electronic Arts and ask them for preview builds for next week’s features?
Honestly I mainly just use the news feed on 1up.com still. Sometimes I’ll find some news on gamespot or IGN that 1up didn’t have first, but for the most part I like to stay away from forums. Never understood the appeal of them really.
I like how Screwattack.com has their Hard News bit now, but I wish they were able to get their news a little faster. I always see it first on 1up so there’s never a point to watching a news show later.
I get my gaming news mainly from Joystiq but I follow a variety of websites. I don’t have a problem with Joystiq and I think that they competently report the news in a timely manner without becoming whatever Kotaku is. However, I also enjoy reading thoughtful pieces at ars technica, Gamasutra, MTV Multiplayer and of course, eat-sleep-game.
For me, along with watching shows like GTTV, Co-op, and Bonus Round while also listening to many podcasts, I feel that I get a balanced, varied, and entertaining perspective of the current state of the gaming world.
Personaly I am subscribed to th Joystick and Kotaku RSS feeds, Which seems to pretty much grab every headline i might care about. I also use other sites such as 1up,the escapist etc. almost exclusively for features, and of course rebel FM. I’ll also quite often follow a link from the Penny Arcade post to a story that might have slipped under my radar otherwise.
I also buy Edge magazine once a month but mostly for the Features and reviews etc. and not for news.
My primary complaint about the most video games news is there is to much focus on “the console wars” which as a fan of games and not microsoft/Nintendo/Sony I could not care less about. I would also like to see alot more mature feature content on particular aspects of gaming, less top ten lists and generally a lot less sentatialism.
It depends heavily on what type of information I’m seeking. If I just want headlines and industry news, then I tend to go to Joystiq. I tend to skip over any ‘impressions’ or reviews on these type of feeds unless it’s a game I’m very interested in.
If I’m looking for reviews on a game, I go through a review aggregator like MetaCritic or GameRankings. I only go directly to the source if I want more in-depth coverage, or if the review tag-line doesn’t quite mesh with the number score they gave a game. Going to an actual review site has become significantly more rare for me.
As far as what I’d like to see done differently: a lot of blogs seem to be increasingly more churlish, or almost falling over themselves to set up a one-liner at the end of every post. I prefer news bits to be more to the point and less about trying to get me to laugh. I understand being a writer for a site like Joystiq or Kotaku must feel a little monotonous–hence the word play–but most of the time it just illicits a roll of the eyes. Of course, keeping a neutral alignment is important for sites that strive to cover all consoles. I know this sounds very dry boring, but I want my news to be quick and easily digested.
Do you believe the only cure for this indignation is to wait until our generation fills the roles of newscasters, politicians, etc.?
Education, Marc. Too many people look up to the news reporters and polititions looking for guidance. They don’t take the time to learn things for themselves. If we educate the educators properly, then they can spread it to the masses and gaming will have less of the ‘chidish’ image and more of the varied image, like film media.
I think that a blog-like site w/in depth coverage is ideal. I have a lot of music writer friends who used to complain incessantly about the blog format who eventually accepted the change and utilized it to their advantage. The great thing about this time period is that nothing is set in stone making it ideal for a site utilize this time period to create the a workable standard.
I get most of my content through Joystiq and Kotaku, with the occational story from IGN. I’ve been trying to listen to Giant Bomb lately, but I don’t like their podcast as much as this one, CagCast, or Joystiq Podcast (Which I listen to all three when they come out). I think I tend to know everything there is to know about a certain game and tend to know too much sometimes. Once you know everything its hard to be surprised, but I guess it will always be a surprise the first time. Love the podcast guys, hope you keep at it for a long time.
Kotaku and Gamepolitics for me. CVG if I have the patience for their crazy layout.
I feel that a good online news site, regardless of whether it’s about world events, gaming or even gardening, has to work like a newspaper. If it doesn’t have an enticing headline or isn’t related to what I like/want to learn about, I skip it. I have a friend who does read every article on the bbc.co.uk website, and her justification for it is that she needs to know about because the actions of the world supposedly affect her actions on her own life.
Bringing it back to video game news, I feel that this point can be expressed for us here. If a person reads everything they may find that a new type of game may interest them, or if you are like me and only read what you want you get just that: what you want.
Like ya’ll said, it’s a fine line.
For news purposes, I follow Joystiq on Twitter. This way, I don’t have to visit the website everyday, I can just flip through the tweets to see if a headline interests me. I also enjoy gamesradar for their feature pieces, such as “The Worst Parts of Awesome Games” or “Worst Sequels to Awesome Games.” Although not technically news, they interest me more than straight up news stories.
The only kind of news-writing I’ve ever done was generic blogging for volunteer-based websites. As a result of not having been taught to write, I basically re-worded press releases. Now that I’ve had experience writing, I want to do more stuff like the MTV Multiplayer crew, whose news stories double as features. It’s great to see original content like that, and opinions on news is always good.
That said, many blogs apply a deliberately asshole-ish attitude to every bit of news, and that drives me nuts. Another thing I can’t stand is punchy headlines like “MLB 09 slides home into retail shelves” or “Need for Speed Shift shifting to stores in late 09.”
I’m lazy. I hear things by proxy, or head to Colony of Gamers or Game Trailers. I’m a bad game fan. Then again, I used to read EGM and GFW, so maybe the loss will force me online more often soon.
I tend to get my gaming news from websites, blogs, and podcasts alike. Through google reader I get daily updates from kotaku and joystiq. When I feel like I can stomach slow load times and getting overwhelmed with ads, I’ll visit IGN and Gamespot. I get World of Warcraft updates and what not from numerous sites dealing with various topics. It is also common for me to regularly check the websites of developers who are making a game I’m interested in. When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was being developed I had an unhealthy obsession with checking the Charlie Oscar Delta website for information.
As for podcasts I’m a fan of the 1up podcasts, Gamestop’s Hotspot, and of course, Eat Sleep Game.
And by Gamestop, I really mean GameSPOT. Gamestop doesn’t have podcasts, do they? I hope not. They would be dreadful.
i have a bunch of gaming news feeds from all over the internet that i read… and by reading, i mean i read the title of the story, look at the picture and read the first paragraph of the story.
i find most gaming news if full of fluff and slanted personal opinions. sure, most people want to know someone’s personal opinion on a game, but i hold off on all judging until i get to personally play it. all i want to know is what genre of game it is and who made and what other games they made (basically, the same way i look for other movies). to find new games, i just talk with my friends and see what they are playing.
NEOGAF
and podcasts
I don’t really seek out gaming news from a particular site. Instead, i use my social network (mainly twitter at this point) to have content delivered to me. If someone takes the time to post a link, it’s usually worth reading.
To get up to date breaking news I watch my twitter feed. I have enough people subscribed to that when some news breaks I see the updates. It is usually faster than some of the aggregate sites. I would suggest that people add some of the news sites on twitter, because they usually update their feeds faster than posting the full stories.
For news sites I like to check places like Kotaku Gizmodo, Slashdot, and Digg. These aggregate sites help filter out the good stuff, so you don’t have to check RSS feeds all the time. People give Kotaku a hard time, and I feel it is somewhat unwarranted. Kotaku, for all its faults, has really good news coverage. You can argue about some of their policies and their worth as a journalistic site, but they do have all the news quick and dirty. People seem to expect hard-hitting journalism from a quick news site, which is unrealistic. They want long reviews, interviews and opinion pieces. If I want to read longer opinion pieces or full length features there are plenty of good websites. (1up, Rock Paper Shotgun, Gamasutra, etc…)
(But then again, since I am not in the gaming press, I am not entitled to an opinion
I usually get my news from blogs (namely Kotaku), but I usually wait until a larger website (such as a Gamespot or a 1up) to really get my hopes up at good news, or spirit crushed at bad news. I prefer the way that larger sites run their news by (usually) waiting for stories to be confirmed before jumping on them. Bloggers are usually paid by the post, so they can sometimes scrape the bottom of the barrel for a story. I also like receiving news on podcasts, as you get an opinion and they will usually flat out say whether they think the story is legit. The podcast I am subscribed to are; Listen Up, CAGcast, Giant Bombcast, The Hotspot, and of course Rebel FM.
if you do news you should call it “PHIL me in”
or “the PHILter”
or,
no thats it
I get mine almost exclusively through podcasts. Getting to know the different ‘personalities’ helps you judge if your interested in what they are putting out there. I prefer to digest my gaming news aurally. I just don’t have time to read it all online.
I get my news from Kotaku’s RSS feed, and also 1up since I have a blog there. But nine days out of ten I delete all the unread posts in Kotaku since they post every five minutes and I can’t seem to ever catch up.
see also
http://grumpygamer.com/8707523
written (geeze) four years ago now, and not a thing has changed
I get my news from a lot of places. Much of it is redundant, but I think that helps me to filter out the bullshit. If I just followed N4G’s RSS, all I’d get is bullshit, for example. But since I follow several other blogs and sites (not Kotaku), I get various points of view.
I also listen to half a dozen gaming-related podcasts each week.
I have Kotaku has my homepage.
Video game news is so minimal most of the time, so the big sites never cover the small things that actually matter to me. For instance a Grand Theft Auto focused website had information of new features for GTA4 prior to release, and it had all loads of information that none of the major publications did.
I think there’s a forum or website out there for every game that people want to hear news about. As for “jack of all trades” folks like Kotaku or Joystiq, it’s rarely fact checked, but if something horrible happens then when I listen to 4Guys1Up or GiantBombcast they’ll usually have a segment dedicated to ridiculing their error.
Not to mention most of the news works like “If it happens it’s true, if it doesn’t, it wasn’t.” Something like “Assassin’s Creed will take place in Venice,” sounds plausible, but we won’t really know until the game comes out. So what’s the point of fact checking the validity of the story?
I use 1UP, IGN, Gamespot, GiantBomb, Gamasutra and Kotaku for my gaming news. Even though all these websites usually have the same news from day to day, I find it interesting to read the same news topics from different writer’s POVs. I also really love people talking about games and gaming news ala Rebel FM, ListenUP, BombCast, etc…. News whether it be gaming or not will always have a means of reaching an audience and I’m just very grateful that I am able to access so much of it. Peace Rebels!
So uh how bout that new episode. its 8:50 and still hasnt come out…
a combination of Joystiq for up to the minute coverage keeps me in the loop.
and Edge online plus a long list of podcasts for more thoughtful and in depth coverage.
and game trailers for reviews because i agree with their method of breaking up the reviews in to clear, predefined categorizes.
To be honest I get my videogame news from blogs like Joystiq. Even though they may be less researched as news from sites like 1up of IGN they offer the quick bite size news I have the time for. I guess its because I have a short attention span because I read Joystiq which is already A.D.D. friendly but I don’t even read the articles there usually I just read the titles and it gives me all the info I need (for example if they post an announcement of a game there is no more info that I need except for the title). I still like to go to sites like 1up and IGN for reviews and features but I for news I think those sights are to slow for me.
what food do you guys eat while playing videogames? I don’t eat chips because i’ll get crap on my controller, so I stick to crackers like Cheese-nips.
I really just use RSS. I’ve got feeds to around 20 sites, and that’s just in my gaming feeds folder.
A Firefox app I have called “Brief” keeps a constant flow of news from everywhere coming in as long as I have Firefox open.
This has destroyed any loyalty I may have had for any one site as far as news goes. A lot of sites get news that most others don’t, and some sites might beat others to the punch. I also like to get multiple views on a story.
I usually visit 1up for gaming news. I’m not sure if this would be considered a catch all, but the reason I like it is that when I visit it I don’t feel overloaded. I’m not sure if this is because of the nature of the site, or if it’s the layout that leads to the relaxed feeling of visiting, but out of all the sites I’ve visited it seems the least intimidating. I usually just check out any articles that immediately grab me and then if the topic is really interesting I’ll google it and click on a result from a site who I’ve gone to in the past (usually Kotaku, Joystiq, maybe ign).
PS. I have a cat named max. He’s the bomb. Discuss.
I forgot to include that the bulk of my video game information is received from podcasts, like your guys’, listenup, whattheyplay, and sometimes the geekbox, but they aren’t so much about video games. Epic video game news is usually slipped into conversation between the speakers and I immediately run to my computer to google it. It works out pretty well.
I personally use 1up.com, g4tv, and ign.com to get my gaming news. I use 1up.com boards to blog on because their blogger community comments are very good. Of course you get the normal dumb comments but overall its great.
It drive for around 2 hours a day too and from work. All my information is delivery through podcast. Mainly Your, Bombcast and 1Up. If something interesting is said i will normally look it up in my free time. Sometimes I wish that that between Rebel, 1up and Bomb would talk to each other so that I don’t get the conversation doubled up on discussion ie RE5 and Racism in games which I heard 3 time over the 3 podcast. I do realize that not everyone listens to all of them but is hard to skip past while driving 100km ph.
You guys do a great job
Daniel
Brisbane Australia
actually most if not all of my gaming news comes from traditional podcasts, and video podcast.
most of them being from rebelfm, 1up, little bit of g4, and thank you gaming gods for comin up w/ co-op i tried watching the videogame portions of the totally rad show but half the time they dont seem like they are as informed as the rebelfm 1up and area5 crews.
i also just stumbled across the seslers soapbox video podcast, really gave me soo much more respect toward sessler, who i originally thought to be a commercial tool (*no offence)
Kotaku is my number 1 visited site. They are updated more so than any other. They suck with features. I think IGN excels in that department. I also like reading blogs from many users on 1up. Some people have interesting blogs with different perspectives.
I get the majority of my gaming news from podcasts. I listen to probably 3 or 4 dedicated 1 to 2 hour podcasts a week, I get a lot of information from them, from reviews and previews to general gaming news. Yeah I have Joystiq and Kotaku on my RSS reader, but I really only read the headlines there.
I get most of mine from N4G, whilst its a bit of a hype generater, it certainly gives you quick and easy acess to all sorts of gaming news across the net.It means I can acess lots of news without having to search all over the net!
What I have noticed about it though is that it is quite fanboyish towards PS3, as a PS3 owner myself a lotta the time I’m not over bothered but sometimes i just cringe when i read the comments and see some fanboy statement with something like 50 agrees…
I get my news primarily from Kotaku, as they don’t miss much. I follow Joystiq and GiantBomb on Twitter to catch anything else.
I’m also interested in longer features, as well as than up-to-the-minute blogging. The Australian version of Kotaku runs an excellent feature called The Sunday Supplement, in which the editor recounts his favourite articles of the week. It features places like Offworld, Rock Paper Shotgun, Gamasutra, GameSetWatch, The Escapist – sites I visit on occasion, generally when an interesting article is brought up in discussion. Oh, and chewingpixels.com. Always good.
Really though, I rely on podcasts. I listen to both Podcast Beyond and Three Red Lights from IGN; From the Bleachers (sports from GameSpot) and The HotSpot (also the OzSpot, on occasion); Giant Bombcast; 1UP FM and Good Grief; The Brainy Gamer Podcast; Downloadable Content; The Bungie Studios Podcast; and, of course, Rebel FM.
Oh, and I generally use Metacritic as a gateway to reviews.
Really, I think more sites (you guys included) should do a Sunday Supplement of sorts. It’s hard just to find a good article amidst the… blogs. And if I’m missing out on any good podcasts, let me know!
You should check out the gamers with jobs podcast. One of my favorites.
For some reason I’ve never regularly read any game site, at least not in the same way I read an Engadget or even personal blogs (Jeff Green, Phil Plait, etc.). I rely almost entirely on podcasts to get my game news and, in general, it works out for me. I may not get the a complete look at what’s going on day to day in the game community, but I generally get a well rounded idea of what’s going on week to week. In addition, podcasts allow me to get my news passively while I’m driving to work or just playing video games.
If Arthur was having problems keeping Robert Ashley on topic I’d like to see him try to keep Shawn Elliott from ranting. Here’s hoping that he’s gonna Skype in.
Iv Fallen to the blog format and twitter source for my info. But I keep going to big sites like IGN or 1Up for the big in depth stuff like reviews or previews, although Iv since learned that certain podcasts are particularly good for news as with dev blogs like Bethesda blog.
All in all I stay informed by rss, blogs and then big reviews and in depth looks is on sites but thats only when it realy intrests me. I like to stay informed on the industry so pods are also the mosts played thing on my ipod, from Indies like yourselfs or devs pods like top secret Capcoms pod.
Im for multi tasking and multi format.
Love the show keep it up.
love the show guys,
i listen to it on my bus ride home all the time (yes im still in high school)
depends on how i feel, some times i need a short quick coverage. Other times slow, long, more in depth story.
mostly podcasts
Mag.
EGM(before), Nintendo power(rarely), Game informer.
Podcasts –(MOST USED)
rebel fm, anything at 1up, geekbox,CO-OP(love it),bombcast
Websites
bungie.net, Eat-Sleep-Game,
Tv
G4, what else is there
(this is where people should invest)