-----Original Message-----
From: Kyle Orland [mailto:CENSORED]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 1:29 PM
To: Feedback
Subject: A message for David Smith
Dear Mr. Smith,
This is Kyle Orland of The Video Game Ombudsman (http://vgombud.blogspot.com). I sent a message similar to this one to your 1up account but have yet to receive a reply. I hope this one will reach you.
I recently got an e-mail from a reader that's finally pushed me to take a look at the redesigned 1up.com. The message is copied below and also available on his LiveJournal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/heygabe/94625.html#cutid1. I'm hoping you'll be able to offer up comments in response to his charges. If I do not hear back from you this week, I will be forced to adress Gabe's concerns without your input.
Fell free to respond to anything Gabe says, but I'm interested in the following issues that Gabe brings up in particular:
* Is writing for a blog significantly different than writing a review? Does writing for one influence style in the other?
* Are 1up's reviews designed to be controversial? To get discussion going? Is it fair to say that they include what Gabe calls "flame bait?"
* Gabe accuses 1up of becoming a cult of personality of sorts, in which the style and personality of the reviewer overshines the content of the review (and the game). Is this a fair criticism?
Thanks in advance.
-Kyle Orland
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gabe Wollenburg <CENSORED>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 19:26:14 -0500
Subject: 1up?
To: GOT IT THIS TIME, AND ANYWAY, IT'S PROBABLY ALL OVER HIS BLOG
"The carrot's on the end of a bloody long stick, to put it succinctly."
From David Smith's review of Star Ocean: Till the end of time. http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3134164&did=1
I have long disliked the writing of David Smith, but this is tertiary to the subject I wish to discuss here. Reading Smith's review made me take stock in the state of 1up.com and Video Game Journalism as a whole.
1up.com is not so much about video game journalism as it is about being host to some of the Internet's video game personalities? The sites not-so-recent relaunch, I think, suggests this, as 1up.com V.2 seems to be more like a creepy bastard child of Friendster, LiveJournal and Gamespot.
Smith is just one of many sort-of-famous Internet people who staff 1up.com, including Jeremy Parish (Toastyfrog) and Nich Maragos (Crunk). Missing from this list are the obviously insane including Eric and Chet from the defunct Old Man Murray and Tim Rogers of Insert Credit. However, Portal Of Evil alum SeanBaby suckles at the Ziff teat as one of 1up's prominent bloggers. From this we can deduce that while insanity is clearly off 1up's list, Kicking ass isn't. Rock on, Sean.
I think 1up is more about personality than about journalism. I don't think that there is anything inherently wrong with that... in fact, I think journalism could use a goodly dose of personality if it expects to remain viable to a new generation of readers. (A debate for another time.)
The point is this: If 1up reviews are going to be considered blog entries, then they should be made more obviously so. A clever phrase like Smith's mid-review rip on Tales of Symphonia's tenancy to rely on stereotypes (a "boiler explosion at the typecasting plant," Smith called
it) has a place in a blog, where a little flame bait is not only anticipated, but required, really. Outside the context of a blog, however, it doesn't make as much sense.
However, there isn't anything wrong, I think, with reporters who let a little personality shine through in their work. In this regard, I firmly believe that Journalists live and die by thier personalities. In Smith's case, I suggest someone call the coroner. Perhaps his Nippophile-centric, ad hominem, hipster tone test markets well with the l337's and other crucial demographics, I don't know. I don't like David Smith's writing. I don't know him as a person, but I would guess we wouldn't likely be friends.
This isn't a problem for me. I simply will continue to ignore Smith's work. Typically, I only read his stuff when I haven't bothered to check the byline. (And, it should be mentioned, I typically only check the byline when I want to answer the question, "What jackass wrote this?")
Where I have a problem, I guess, is when that personality drive starts to infiltrate my print media. Consider page 20 of the October 2004 EGM, where 1up-er Raychul Moore is made an Internet T&A celeb. Miss Moore, by all accounts, enjoys a good romp with Resident Evil, but has less to say about that than she does about plugging her lingerie group on Yahoo. Do we really need this in EGM? It's about as meaningful and as useful as EGM's stupid horoscopes. Instead, why not dedicate the space to something insightful to readers? If it were my ship to run, I'd make the Seanbaby section two pages or somethingbecause in Seanbaby's case, personality carries the whole show. You'd never read an EGM review of Barbie's Pleasure Cruise Advance DX otherwise, would you?
Thanks for your time and consideration,
Gabriel D. W. Wollenburg
From: Kyle Orland [mailto:CENSORED]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 1:29 PM
To: Feedback
Subject: A message for David Smith
Dear Mr. Smith,
This is Kyle Orland of The Video Game Ombudsman (http://vgombud.blogspot.com). I sent a message similar to this one to your 1up account but have yet to receive a reply. I hope this one will reach you.
I recently got an e-mail from a reader that's finally pushed me to take a look at the redesigned 1up.com. The message is copied below and also available on his LiveJournal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/heygabe/94625.html#cutid1. I'm hoping you'll be able to offer up comments in response to his charges. If I do not hear back from you this week, I will be forced to adress Gabe's concerns without your input.
Fell free to respond to anything Gabe says, but I'm interested in the following issues that Gabe brings up in particular:
* Is writing for a blog significantly different than writing a review? Does writing for one influence style in the other?
* Are 1up's reviews designed to be controversial? To get discussion going? Is it fair to say that they include what Gabe calls "flame bait?"
* Gabe accuses 1up of becoming a cult of personality of sorts, in which the style and personality of the reviewer overshines the content of the review (and the game). Is this a fair criticism?
Thanks in advance.
-Kyle Orland
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gabe Wollenburg <CENSORED>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 19:26:14 -0500
Subject: 1up?
To: GOT IT THIS TIME, AND ANYWAY, IT'S PROBABLY ALL OVER HIS BLOG
"The carrot's on the end of a bloody long stick, to put it succinctly."
From David Smith's review of Star Ocean: Till the end of time. http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3134164&did=1
I have long disliked the writing of David Smith, but this is tertiary to the subject I wish to discuss here. Reading Smith's review made me take stock in the state of 1up.com and Video Game Journalism as a whole.
1up.com is not so much about video game journalism as it is about being host to some of the Internet's video game personalities? The sites not-so-recent relaunch, I think, suggests this, as 1up.com V.2 seems to be more like a creepy bastard child of Friendster, LiveJournal and Gamespot.
Smith is just one of many sort-of-famous Internet people who staff 1up.com, including Jeremy Parish (Toastyfrog) and Nich Maragos (Crunk). Missing from this list are the obviously insane including Eric and Chet from the defunct Old Man Murray and Tim Rogers of Insert Credit. However, Portal Of Evil alum SeanBaby suckles at the Ziff teat as one of 1up's prominent bloggers. From this we can deduce that while insanity is clearly off 1up's list, Kicking ass isn't. Rock on, Sean.
I think 1up is more about personality than about journalism. I don't think that there is anything inherently wrong with that... in fact, I think journalism could use a goodly dose of personality if it expects to remain viable to a new generation of readers. (A debate for another time.)
The point is this: If 1up reviews are going to be considered blog entries, then they should be made more obviously so. A clever phrase like Smith's mid-review rip on Tales of Symphonia's tenancy to rely on stereotypes (a "boiler explosion at the typecasting plant," Smith called
it) has a place in a blog, where a little flame bait is not only anticipated, but required, really. Outside the context of a blog, however, it doesn't make as much sense.
However, there isn't anything wrong, I think, with reporters who let a little personality shine through in their work. In this regard, I firmly believe that Journalists live and die by thier personalities. In Smith's case, I suggest someone call the coroner. Perhaps his Nippophile-centric, ad hominem, hipster tone test markets well with the l337's and other crucial demographics, I don't know. I don't like David Smith's writing. I don't know him as a person, but I would guess we wouldn't likely be friends.
This isn't a problem for me. I simply will continue to ignore Smith's work. Typically, I only read his stuff when I haven't bothered to check the byline. (And, it should be mentioned, I typically only check the byline when I want to answer the question, "What jackass wrote this?")
Where I have a problem, I guess, is when that personality drive starts to infiltrate my print media. Consider page 20 of the October 2004 EGM, where 1up-er Raychul Moore is made an Internet T&A celeb. Miss Moore, by all accounts, enjoys a good romp with Resident Evil, but has less to say about that than she does about plugging her lingerie group on Yahoo. Do we really need this in EGM? It's about as meaningful and as useful as EGM's stupid horoscopes. Instead, why not dedicate the space to something insightful to readers? If it were my ship to run, I'd make the Seanbaby section two pages or somethingbecause in Seanbaby's case, personality carries the whole show. You'd never read an EGM review of Barbie's Pleasure Cruise Advance DX otherwise, would you?
Thanks for your time and consideration,
Gabriel D. W. Wollenburg
