Tue 25 Nov 2008
Nominations Please
By
Yesterday Chewing Pixels was voted one of Wired’s Top 5 Favorite Interesting Gaming Blogs, which is quite the thing.
I’m a fan of all the other recommendations that the Game|Life team makes, from Leigh’s Sexy Videogameland through to the watchdog-like Magical Wasteland, so it is an honour to be in such company.
At some point in December I‘m planning a Top 10 Pieces of Game Writing from 2008, a follow up to last year’s popular list, something I thoroughly enjoyed putting together. The Internet, for all its great strengths, can’t help but bury good writing under the deluge of the next’s day’s content and the next day’s content and so on.
As such, it’s worthwhile to stop every now and again, haul out the gems and place them on show in a new and enduring context.
Feel free to make nominations in the comments. The list will be a collection of specific pieces – reviews, articles and interviews – rather than writers or publications in general, so be as specific as you can.
In the meantime, be sure to follow some of the links to the left. These are updated every week and are all worth your time.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Because I saw it recently, the piece on Rohrer in Esquire was really great:
http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2008/future-of-video-game-design-1208
November 26th, 2008 at 1:22 am
I recommend Bill Harris on the Resident Evil 5 trailer, Michael Abbott on the problem with play and Tom Armitage on the lessons of games.
Since this is my first comment, I’ll add that I love your blog! I look forward to the final list.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:19 am
I’m glad it’s tasteless to nominate oneself, because I can’t even remember what I wrote yesterday.
I elect Mitch Krpata’s New Taxonomy of Gamers
Matthew Wasteland’s Tell Me What Art Is And I’ll Tell You What Games Are
and,
Keith Stuart’s Do Games Really Understand Innovation?
November 26th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Howdy, this is an article by a guy I’ve never heard who doesn’t even seem to be overly involved with the video game scene.
It’s also the best explanation of the Wii phenomenon I read all year.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:00 am
I assure you that no Twitter-based tit-for-tat was involved with this nomination of Leigh Alexander’s theory of “The Four-Month Bell Curve.”
It’s also hard to pick a best Hit Self-Destruct post, but, oh, let’s say “War Correspondent.”
November 26th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Another nomination for Leigh Alexander, for the tentatively titled “I Gamer”.
http://kotaku.com/5097355/i-gamer
November 26th, 2008 at 6:20 am
For your consideration, Steve Gaynor’s “Being There”.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Dan Whitehead’s Braid review. Not exactly buried on some obscure blog but, as someone outside the gaming media, I can’t help but think that some of you swine need to be reminded of what a good review looks like. This is the best I’ve read all year.
Hang on. I take that back. Souljah Boy’s is better.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Mitch Krpata’s “Sex, violence, and video games”. This is the best in-depth look at the divide between gamers and non-gamers over mature content in video games. Mitch’s article intelligently addresses both sides of the argument; yes, the critic’s dash to headlines and refusal to look beyond the surface is wrong, but so is the usual response of the gaming community.
November 27th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Everything above is fantastic, but almost all of it is pretty consolecentric… how about some PC love?
Quintin Smith’s Planetside: The 1% and Jim Rossignol’s The Great War both take a look at events within MMOs (Planetside and EVE Online, respectively), from people who were there, man. I find it hard to choose from all of Kieron Gillen’s great posts, but I think I’ll go with Steps Towards An Elitist Critic Future. Also his (very long) interview with Paul Barnett, which I would consider more of a collaboration.
November 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
In preparation for your 2009 list, how about you set up a link blog and point to everything that you find worthy throughout the year? Maybe rope in some others with similar taste?
Then I can subscribe to that feed and avoid having to dig through the torrents of up-to-the-second news to find something that’s written with care and thought.
November 28th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Dave: that’s a great idea and I think I’m going to set it up and get a team of editors together to run it. Good thinking. Now to find a url…
November 29th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
[...] Nominations Please Yesterday Chewing Pixels was voted one of Wired’s Top 5 Favorite Interesting Gaming Blogs, which is quite the thing. I’m a fan of all the other recommendations that the Game|Life team makes, from Leigh’s Sexy Videogameland through to the watchdog-like Magical Wasteland, so it is an honour … [...]
November 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I’d add a second for Quintin’s piece on PlanetSide over at RPS. It’s my favourite thing about games since Always Black’s thing about Jedi Outcast.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
A short story rather than an article, strictly speaking, but I must still fervently recommend Duncan Fyfe’s Murder Charge over at HitSelfDestruct. A fantastic piece on the culture of video game journalism.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
My favorite read of the past year:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/10/butchering-pathologic-part-1-the-body/
An epic dissection of the obscure Russian RPG, Pathologic. A fascinating game, where reading about it is more enjoyable than playing it.