Sunday hits, accompanied by the Papers, as compiled by the good-ship RPS. The idea is that we publish a list of things we consider worth sitting back and reading, while avoiding linking to classic early noughties summer-pop-glories. No, really.
- Lara Crigger over at 1UP writes about videogame story - and specifically related to the – er – somewhat novel choices for the WGA best writing of 2008 awards. Why (and, indeed, what?) Dead Head Fred and no Portal or Bioshock? Apparently you have to be part of the WGA new media caucus. Relevant quote from Ken Levine. “I’d never even heard of it…I don’t even know where to start to get involved.”
- Leigh Alexander takes the “It’s only a game!” argument to task over at Kotaku. Leigh does show it’s a particularly hypocritic stance from anyone who has ever expressed any indignation about how games are perceived in pop culture. And talking about outright hypocrisy…
- Parasitic internet comedian disses parasitic internet comedians? Yahtzee’s Webcomic rant blew up amusingly. Clearly, he’s smart enough to aware of the irony of what he’s doing and turns it into gags but – y’know – the shield of irony isn’t actually impenetrable. Also: Fish and fucking barrels, man.
- That said, CTRL-ALT-DEL is nob. I mean, obv.
- Oh yeah – while we’re being mean. IGN Exclusive: Squids are not animals.
- Away from oddly un-RPS-like petty bitching – does the shield of irony work for everyone? – POINT/COUNTERPOINT: Robert Passarella is impressed by VGChartz. Simon Carless examines VGChartz’s methodology and finds it somewhat lacking. RPS is: Unimpressed by the “z” in “Chartz”.
- Richard Cobbett finally gets around to hitting level seventy in World of Warcraft. He wins! He also shares his thoughts about the strange and odd ride with strange and odd people.
- Michael Walbridge talks to assorted games writer trying to find a scene name. I just tell him the one he shouldn’t call it. For God’s sake, not that.
- Phoenix – If I feel better. Made of lovely and bubbles.
Failed.
Related Stories:
(Parasite’s something that’s lobbed at journos a lot. Rather than argue against it, I’d rather appropriate it as a badge of pride.)
KG
“Oddly, and almost certainly irrelevantly, I remember running across a group of Creationists* who had a bizarre definition of “life” which excluded squid.
How do people get these things so badly wrong?”
Well, when your whole worldview depends on you denying reality, you get pretty good at coming up with rationalisations for stupid shit.
I don’t understand these “not a reviewer” comments about Zero Punctuation. Clearly he is under unique constraints, particularly a pressure to be funny-above-all-else. Yet his best videos (Condemned, BioShock, Silent Hill Origins) feature not just consistent humor but humor fed by intelligent criticism. I’m not sure the series would have lasted so long were it as simple as making fun of new games for the hell of it.
I have vague memories of, somewhere in my high school days, someone saying “That’s not an animal, it’s an insect!”
(Parasite’s something that’s lobbed at journos a lot. Rather than argue against it, I’d rather appropriate it as a badge of pride.)
I would experiment to test this theory, but I fear “Sinister Tosser” would not go down well with the hypothetical ladies.
Delayed Response Post!
I would say journalist are not parasitic but commensalistic. (How do you spell that?)
All that ’shield of irony’ talk was a bit overinflated, wasn’t it? One tiny jab late in the piece which he acknowledges as being somewhat hypocritical doesn’t detract from the barrage of painful truth beforehand. I don’t think much of Yahtzee as a reviewer, but this one was a corker.
(although that new intro’s shit, innit; hoh!)