Didja miss me?
Sorry for the longish lack of updates, but starting classes and a new job and a snowstorm meant I didn't have much time to write about video game journalism last week. I'm back now, and hoping to work my way through some of those story ideas on a semi-regular basis.
First up, as promised, is more coverage of the Nintendo DS coverage. I feel like I've read every article about Nintendo's surprise announcement at least twice (and believe me, there are a lot of them). Instead of trying to discuss them all as a group, or discuss each one specifically, I've decided to showcase some of the best and worst in a feature I'm calling The First Annual "Nintendo DS" Awards (which probably won't become an annual event, but you never know).
To be clear, these awards focus on the initial coverage of the announcement (the first 72 hours) and not any follow-up pieces that have come in the past week or so. Feel free to post your own nominees and/or question my choices in the comments link at the bottom of the article. So without further ado:
Best Analysis
This award is actually going to be split into into two awards. For best business analysis, the award goes to The Motley Fool for Nintendo's Road Less Traveled. The article uses the anouncement to point out Nintendo's risk-taking nature to investors, then uses it as a jumping off point to talk about the confusing handheld market in general. Not too interesting to most gamers, but well suited for the Fool's audience.
For game-centered analysis, though, the award goes to GameSpot for Spot On: The Nintendo DS. The article takes us through the rumored history of the device, the announcement itself, and speculation on its future from industry analysts. What more could you ask for?
Worst Analysis
There's no need to split this one. TotalVideoGames takes it easily with their article: Nintendo DS Round-Up. After guessing wrong about the "1 GB semiconductor memory" (which they say is RAM and not software capacity), TVG makes some lazy and obvious comparisons to the Virtual Boy, cooks up some groundless concerns about battery life, and calls it a day. It's pretty obvious that this article is the product of a few minutes light thinking on the subject with no real effort at research of any kind.
Most Biased
This one was a tight race. MobileMag almost took it by inserting two paragraphs of opinion into the beginning of an otherwise fine news story. The Californian almost took it with their fairly headlined article, Nintendo DS won't match Sony's PSP, but they get off on a technicality (in that the article is technically a column and not straight news).
Sorry, but it seems like the winner here is Andrew Burnes for his mention of the DS In Other News. With no actual reporting (or even repetition of other reporting), this barely even qualifies as news. Tell ya what Andrew, call the section "My opinions on other news," then we can all be happy.
Oddest Headline
Some strong contenders here. Cubed3 gets second runner-up prize for Nintendo's New System... The Connectevision Becomes Reality! (Connectevision?). Gamespot gets first runner up for an excellent article inexplicably placed in the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! section.
But the clear winner here is Ferrago with the crytptically titled Remember the two screen Game&Watch? It's almost like they want me to go in knowing nothing about the article! Bravo Ferrago. Post-modern headlining at its best.
Oddest "What is it going to be?" Prediction
Before Nintendo's big announcement, the press had a field day speculating about what Nintendo's new system might be. A lot of the announcement stories quoted some of these old assumptions in passing. This race was really neck and neck, and GameSpot's mention of the GameBoy Enhanced, ("a portable game deck that could play both GameCube and Game Boy Advance titles") very nearly took it. Then I found this GamePro article that mentions the announcement is not "a domestic version of the iQue as previously speculated by some." I follow the news pretty closely, and I don't remember anyone speculating on a domestic version of the iQue (please correct me if I'm wrong)
Worst Speculation
When so little actual information is announced, you can expect a whole lot of rampant speculation masquerading as news. This story was no exception. The leaps of faith included IT Vibe's gigabyte of RAM (from many other sources as well), Cubed3's lack of backward compatibility (which is widely speculated but still has yet to be confirmed, to my knowledge), and MobileMag's passing assertion that the system will be "for single players only (odd, considering every other Game Boy has had the option to link to another system for multiplayer gaming)
But hands down, the speculation award goes to Gaming Horizon for pricing the system at $187 with no source. Not even a link to a disreputable web site to confirm this allegation. Are you guys just making stuff up over there? You've got to give me some sort of source on something like this! Oh, and Silent Hill 4 won't be on th GameCube. Uh, OK then.
Most Egregious Quoting from the Press Release
I think the first three paragraphs of this Globe and Mail article speak for themselves. Or, more accurately, they speak for Nintendo.
By the way: If I read one more article that says the Nintendo DS will be enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge," I will puke.
Best Overall Article
Count on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to perform well on its home turf. Their story, Nintendo working on dual-screen portable, gives the available information without going overboard with speculation, and puts the announcement in the context of the PSP and the rest of Nintendo's line-up without droning on. A nice, succinct article.
Worst Overall Article
This one wasn't that tough. Gaming Horizon's coverage is just a mess, both grammatically and factually. Besides providing no important information outside of the system specs and no analysis of related news, the article includes seemingly baseless assumptions such as "[the system is] aiming for older gamers" and "the company already has a few un-named titles in development." I actually feel less informed now that I've read this article.
Most Surprisingly Good Coverage
What's this? The New York Post actually has something worth reading? They actually talk to analysts and Nintendo representative to get the whole story? Color me amazed.
Most Unnecessary Joke Image
I'm sure this MS Paint mockup of a two-screen system (linked from this article) seems hillarious to the guys at IGN, but it's really not that funny. Nintendo hasn't released a picture yet. Get over it.
IGN also gets runner up for the image at the upper-right of this intro page, tastefully captioned "The Nintendo WTF..." Smooth guys. Real smooth.
All right, that's it. Time to put this whole mess behind us and prepare for the next big announcement. Feel free to leave your comments below, I'd love to hear what you guys thought of the coverage.
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Syndicated Incorporated
For those of you just too busy to check the site every five minutes, The VG Ombudsman now has an Atom Enabled news feed . Point your news aggregator to the link on the right side of the page to keep up with this blog's always frequent updates (like this one!)
Five bonus points to anyone who recognized the title of this post as a "Weird Al" song.
Five bonus points to anyone who recognized the title of this post as a "Weird Al" song.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Complete your collection!
A Quick Question
Can anyone tell me, with any degree of certainty, what "semiconductor memory of up to 1 Gigabit" actually means? As a comptuer science major, I know what all the component words mean, but I don't know what the entire phrase means in relation to the Nintendo DS. I've seen various sources saying it's the cartridge capacity, the system memory, the system RAM, the CPU bandwidth, and more. Does anyone know what the heck is going on?!
Full coverage of the Nintendo DS coverage coming as soon as I get some time (hopefully sooner than later)
Full coverage of the Nintendo DS coverage coming as soon as I get some time (hopefully sooner than later)
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Hint hint!
(Thanks to Ombudsman reader Jason Karney for pointing me to this article.)
Do you remember back in elementary school that there was this kid that always seemed to know everything about everything? He would come up to you at recess some day and tell you about how his cousin in Japan just got "Super Mario 15" but it was super-secret so he couldn't tell you anything about it. I know there were a few such kids in my school. I figure every school had at least one in the '80s.
Anyway, as I grew up, I found myself talking to these kids less and less. As I met other kids that actually had intelligent things to say about video games, I found I didn't miss the vague hints and often-false gossip that these kids brought to the playground.
Well, if you ever do find yourself missing those kids, rest assured that you can always turn to IGN.
I say this because of an IGN PS2 article I recently found entitled "Sega Hints at Big Things." According to this unsigned article, the author has heard from "sources in Japan" that Sega has "some big guns up its sleeve":
First up are three new titles. First is an adventure game with a world view that's never before been seen. Next is an RPG that Sega hopes to turn into a series. Finally, there are plans for a game based off a movie that's from a studio receiving lots of attention from Hollywood. These three games will be unveiled at a game show -- either E3 or the Tokyo Game Show.
Does this sound a little familiar? Let me translate it into the universal language of "breathless elementary school playground gossip."
"Yeah so I heard from my friend who lives in Japan that Sega is gonna make some new games and there's gonna be this one that's kind of like The Legend of Zelda but it's going to be totally new and different and everything and then they're gonna make this role-playing game that's going to become like this whole series but it's super-secret so no one knows anything about it yet and then they're gonna make a game based on a cool new movie but I can't tell you which movie because my friend from Japan said he SUPER-SWORE to keep it secret and if he told anyone they'd kill him in his sleep and he didn't even tell me and I'm like his best friend and they're going to show these games at a big video game show but my friend said he couldn't remember which one! Isn't that cool! Let's go play on the jungle gym!"
The IGN article might have better grammar and punctuation, but the actual content is pretty much the same in both. (Except for the jungle gym part).
The article goes on with more useless tidbits of things to come, but it's not worth reprinting here. Suffice it to say that information like this wouldn't even cut it on the elementary school playground, and I have no idea why anyone thought it would cut it as an article for a professional site like IGN.
Do you remember back in elementary school that there was this kid that always seemed to know everything about everything? He would come up to you at recess some day and tell you about how his cousin in Japan just got "Super Mario 15" but it was super-secret so he couldn't tell you anything about it. I know there were a few such kids in my school. I figure every school had at least one in the '80s.
Anyway, as I grew up, I found myself talking to these kids less and less. As I met other kids that actually had intelligent things to say about video games, I found I didn't miss the vague hints and often-false gossip that these kids brought to the playground.
Well, if you ever do find yourself missing those kids, rest assured that you can always turn to IGN.
I say this because of an IGN PS2 article I recently found entitled "Sega Hints at Big Things." According to this unsigned article, the author has heard from "sources in Japan" that Sega has "some big guns up its sleeve":
First up are three new titles. First is an adventure game with a world view that's never before been seen. Next is an RPG that Sega hopes to turn into a series. Finally, there are plans for a game based off a movie that's from a studio receiving lots of attention from Hollywood. These three games will be unveiled at a game show -- either E3 or the Tokyo Game Show.
Does this sound a little familiar? Let me translate it into the universal language of "breathless elementary school playground gossip."
"Yeah so I heard from my friend who lives in Japan that Sega is gonna make some new games and there's gonna be this one that's kind of like The Legend of Zelda but it's going to be totally new and different and everything and then they're gonna make this role-playing game that's going to become like this whole series but it's super-secret so no one knows anything about it yet and then they're gonna make a game based on a cool new movie but I can't tell you which movie because my friend from Japan said he SUPER-SWORE to keep it secret and if he told anyone they'd kill him in his sleep and he didn't even tell me and I'm like his best friend and they're going to show these games at a big video game show but my friend said he couldn't remember which one! Isn't that cool! Let's go play on the jungle gym!"
The IGN article might have better grammar and punctuation, but the actual content is pretty much the same in both. (Except for the jungle gym part).
The article goes on with more useless tidbits of things to come, but it's not worth reprinting here. Suffice it to say that information like this wouldn't even cut it on the elementary school playground, and I have no idea why anyone thought it would cut it as an article for a professional site like IGN.
Monday, January 12, 2004
GTA: Montpelier is looking less and less likely
(Thanks to Ombudsman reader Greg Sewart, formerly of Ziff Davis Publishing, for starting me out on this story)
Everyone who thinks the suffix for the next Grand Theft Auto game will be "Sin City" please raise your hand.
All right, now everyone who thinks it will be "San Andreas," please raise your hands.
OK, put your hands down. Now everyone who's absolutely, positively sure about their answer, please raise your hand.
Unless you are the Rockstar Games president Sam Houser, you probably shouldn't have your hand up right now. And even if you are, I wouldn't be surprised if your hand were down.
Sure, you can point to an Amazon UK page listing the "Sin City" title, as IGN did, or you can cite any number of "hints" and trademark registrations as SA-source.com did, but this doesn't mean you know what the name is going to be. Even implying that you do without an official confirmation from Rockstar or Take-Two is irresponsible.
IGN and SA-Source are certainly not alone in speculating about the next GTA title's title, but they are among the worst for grasping at straws to "confirm" their respective theories before they have any right to.
IGN perhaps deserves a special "waffling award" for first saying that the "Sin City" title was confirmed in an IGN XBox story, then modifying an IGN PS2 post to say that it was hinted at, then posting an update to the original IGN XBox post saying the whole thing was some sort of April Fool's joke, then jumping on the San Andreas bandwagon, and most recently admitting that a myriad assortment of trademark registrations mean that they really have no idea what the name will be. IGN gets some credit back for mentioning attempts to contact Rockstar in each post, but loses it all again for countless cases of baseless speculation and misleading headlines. I think an out of context quote from their final article sums it up best:
without using too much brainpower we knew that the series would continue moving from town to town, both exciting and smart.
Call me clairvoyant, but I found it pretty clear that you weren't using too much brainpower in writing those articles.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is SA-source.com, which has been unwavering in its support of the "San Andreas" title theory. Too bad this unwavering support tends to ignore crucial facts. For instance, they use the headline "Next GTA Confirmed (GTA: San Andreas) for an article that quotes a Rockstar spokesperson as saying, "It has not been named." They breathlessly report that the San Andreas trademark has been registered while neglecting to mention that almost a dozen other potential names were also registered. Then there are the countless "hints" about the San Andreas name like this one (which appears here unedited, I assure you):
In vice City there’s a Criminal Rating called 'SA Goon 1000 1004', well the obvious thing you would notice in that is that 'SA' could easily stand for 'San Andreas'. But if you look even closer, you'll notice that if you add the numbers in the rating together, you get 2004! Rockstar has already confirmed the release date of the next gta game, but this just adds an even bigger hint toward the name of the next gta game! So 'SA Goon 1000 1004' must stand for 'San Andreas Goon 2004'!
I think you guys might be looking a just a little too hard there. Put down the controller and get some sleep. Seriously.
My advice on this matter to all video game news outlets in general and these two in particular is to just hold your horses. I know everyone is excited about the prospect of another Grand Theft Auto game, but this doesn't mean you should overstate the little bits of concrete information you do have about it. Simply present the information you do have in a straightforward manner, and make it very clear that these are just pieces of a complex guessing game at this point. Be very very careful about using works like "confirmation" and "certainty," because they can come back to hurt you when it turns out you weren't so certain.
Everyone who thinks the suffix for the next Grand Theft Auto game will be "Sin City" please raise your hand.
All right, now everyone who thinks it will be "San Andreas," please raise your hands.
OK, put your hands down. Now everyone who's absolutely, positively sure about their answer, please raise your hand.
Unless you are the Rockstar Games president Sam Houser, you probably shouldn't have your hand up right now. And even if you are, I wouldn't be surprised if your hand were down.
Sure, you can point to an Amazon UK page listing the "Sin City" title, as IGN did, or you can cite any number of "hints" and trademark registrations as SA-source.com did, but this doesn't mean you know what the name is going to be. Even implying that you do without an official confirmation from Rockstar or Take-Two is irresponsible.
IGN and SA-Source are certainly not alone in speculating about the next GTA title's title, but they are among the worst for grasping at straws to "confirm" their respective theories before they have any right to.
IGN perhaps deserves a special "waffling award" for first saying that the "Sin City" title was confirmed in an IGN XBox story, then modifying an IGN PS2 post to say that it was hinted at, then posting an update to the original IGN XBox post saying the whole thing was some sort of April Fool's joke, then jumping on the San Andreas bandwagon, and most recently admitting that a myriad assortment of trademark registrations mean that they really have no idea what the name will be. IGN gets some credit back for mentioning attempts to contact Rockstar in each post, but loses it all again for countless cases of baseless speculation and misleading headlines. I think an out of context quote from their final article sums it up best:
without using too much brainpower we knew that the series would continue moving from town to town, both exciting and smart.
Call me clairvoyant, but I found it pretty clear that you weren't using too much brainpower in writing those articles.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is SA-source.com, which has been unwavering in its support of the "San Andreas" title theory. Too bad this unwavering support tends to ignore crucial facts. For instance, they use the headline "Next GTA Confirmed (GTA: San Andreas) for an article that quotes a Rockstar spokesperson as saying, "It has not been named." They breathlessly report that the San Andreas trademark has been registered while neglecting to mention that almost a dozen other potential names were also registered. Then there are the countless "hints" about the San Andreas name like this one (which appears here unedited, I assure you):
In vice City there’s a Criminal Rating called 'SA Goon 1000 1004', well the obvious thing you would notice in that is that 'SA' could easily stand for 'San Andreas'. But if you look even closer, you'll notice that if you add the numbers in the rating together, you get 2004! Rockstar has already confirmed the release date of the next gta game, but this just adds an even bigger hint toward the name of the next gta game! So 'SA Goon 1000 1004' must stand for 'San Andreas Goon 2004'!
I think you guys might be looking a just a little too hard there. Put down the controller and get some sleep. Seriously.
My advice on this matter to all video game news outlets in general and these two in particular is to just hold your horses. I know everyone is excited about the prospect of another Grand Theft Auto game, but this doesn't mean you should overstate the little bits of concrete information you do have about it. Simply present the information you do have in a straightforward manner, and make it very clear that these are just pieces of a complex guessing game at this point. Be very very careful about using works like "confirmation" and "certainty," because they can come back to hurt you when it turns out you weren't so certain.
It could be worse...
To all those who think devoting an entire blog to video game journalism is ludicrous, consider that I could be writing about the New England Sports Media in my free time.
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