1 / 16

An oral history of game criticism blogging, from 2007-now

An oral history of game criticism blogging, from 2007-now. Aka some old boring stuff about blogs or something idk. Three Eras. “Golden Era” (07-08) Community expansion era (09-12) Modern era (13-present). “Golden Era” (07-08).

maina
Télécharger la présentation

An oral history of game criticism blogging, from 2007-now

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. An oral history of game criticism blogging, from 2007-now Aka some old boring stuff about blogs or something idk

  2. Three Eras • “Golden Era” (07-08) • Community expansion era (09-12) • Modern era (13-present)

  3. “Golden Era” (07-08) • A twitter convo b/w Michael Abbot & Steve Gaynor first proposed this as a “golden era” • It was the period of (the first) Modern Warfare; Bioshock; Far Cry 2; Fallout 3 (Fantastic era for games!!) • Game criticism was blog & blog comment based

  4. Community Expansion Era (09-12) • Twitter became massively important (arguably where that all important “conversation” about games happens) • Massive increase in number of blogs/writers/people • Critical Distance was an important hub

  5. Modern Era (13-now) • Diversification of topics and participants • The rise of long form (Killing is Harmless, etc.) • Paid zines/Mags • Patreon

  6. A partial history… • This is my history, as I saw it, other accounts necessary, important and very valid. • Sites that pre-date this account: • Old Man Murray • Insert Credits • Charlie Brooker’s stuff (?)

  7. The beginning (‘07-‘08) • August 07 • The Brainy Gamer: Michael Abbott • Drama prof @ Wabash college, on sabattical • daily posts • lengthy comment thread convos • a ‘chat box’ on the site that opened an IM with Michael. V personal site.

  8. Pre-twitter (’07-‘08) • Lots of us were leaving long comments, having convos in thread • “The conversation” really did take place on blogs and in blog comments (with all the problems that entails) • Finding our own voice online • Very US and Australian based community (UK sites were centered around RPS instead mainly? I think?)

  9. The Brainysphere(‘07-‘08) • Kotaku’s Maggie Green: • Did as much for TBG & community as Abbott did, sending important early Kotaku traffic. • Even Ian Bogost appreciated her links!! • A really cool series on the early “big names” – Michael Walbridge’s “Game Anthropologist” column for GSW (Interviewed: Michael Abbott, N’GaiCroal, Kieron Gillen, Leigh Alexander, Chris Dahlen, Mitch Krpata) elaborated the conneciton & shared affinities b/w these core blogs

  10. The Brainysphere(‘07-‘08) • Given the name “The Brainysphere” by Dan Golding: approx. 50 blogs, list at start of 2009 • All the initial Critical Distance volunteers were from TBG community, reg. commenters/readers, bloggers inspired by Abbott.

  11. Effects of The Brainy Gamer (‘07-‘08) • Inspired people to start their own blog (I had one – SLRC!) • Inspired the kinds of posts people made and the kinds of blogs they were. • Methods still undefined; it felt like NGJ-esque was still “risky” could “fail” at any time. • Specialist perspective: SLRC was a music/sound and games blog. Golding’s was games and geography. Dan Bruno was games and music/transcription. &tc. • Also very mostly white dudes =(

  12. The community expansion (’09-‘12) • Started around the time Critical Distance was formed at start of 09 • CD began as a response to the sense of increasing volume and number of blogs and work being done: felt like community needed organising • Influx of new bloggers “reinventing the wheel”: everyone was posting about “Are games art?”, wanted to get the convo to move forward instead. • Golding linked to 51 blogs in “The Brainysphere” at start of ‘09, would have doubled by start of 2010

  13. The community expansion (’09-‘12) • Twitter became mega important, and the place where “it” happened (the magical “conversation”) • Lot of cool ppl joined in this period – established a lot of us speakers (and myself; ppl only know me b/c of C-D) • C-D was a fairly important hub site

  14. The community expansion (’09-‘12) • KillScreen – started as place to publish in print “the brainysphere”; community development • The Border House started – in part as response to the perceived failure of C-D to do more for diversity, partly to just do more diverse games criticism • Most ppl here probably are familiar with most of the history of this period

  15. The Modern Era (‘13-present) • Kicked off by Brendan Keogh’s Killing is Harmless • Changed the perception that it was impossible to do really long form criticism • Changed the perception that it wasn’t possible to get paid for games criticism • “did pretty well financial-wise” – BrendunKeugh (whatever “pretty well” means!)

  16. The Modern Era (‘13-present) • After KiH we saw: • Rowan Kaiser’s Mass Effect boooooook • 300 page Warioland analysis • Five out of Ten mag • Arcade Review • Self-published zines • And the all important Patreon

More Related