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.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
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.
Thursday, January 8, 2004
The Ombuds-news: Volume1
A question to start: Who do you complain to about an ombudsman? The answer: The OmbudsGod, of course. It seems our humble little blog has attracted his attention (It's not bad, I swear!) Thought you might be interested.
I'd also like to share a few bits of happy news with you all. It seems my ombudsmanly duties will only be increasing in the coming weeks. For one, I have taken on the position of Ombudsman for GamerFeed. Through a companion blog on their site, I will address issues specific to GamerFeed, and perhaps occasionally pertaining to the industry as a whole. In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that this is a volunteer position that I was asked to take by the GamerFeed staff. Still, to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest, I intend to mention my position at GamerFeed whenever I mention them on this blog (Feel free to yell at me if I don't)
I'm also proud to anounce that I have also been named the official ombudsman for the newly formed International Game Journalist Association. This will entail moderation of the "ombudsman" section of the forums and semi-regular posting of articles for the Association web site. It's unclear right now how the exact split of content between the IGJA and this blog will end up, but I envision posting longer, more in-depth stories on the IGJA and using this blog for shorter stories and quick links. We'll see how this plays out, but rest assured that this blog will remain updated for the forseeable future.
In smaller blog news, if you look to the sidebar on the right, you'll see I've finally updated the links and story ideas. As always, if I've forgotten anything on either list, please tell me about it.
Finally, on a personal note, I just heard yesterday that I will be starting an internship with NPR.org at the end of the month. I guess that means I should start reading their web site, eh?
It's been kind of a rebuilding week here at the Ombudsman. To all you new readers, I promise, there's usually more actual content than this. To all you longtime readers, thanks for bearing with me this week and for all your support through the months. Here's hoping the momentum just keeps on building...
I'd also like to share a few bits of happy news with you all. It seems my ombudsmanly duties will only be increasing in the coming weeks. For one, I have taken on the position of Ombudsman for GamerFeed. Through a companion blog on their site, I will address issues specific to GamerFeed, and perhaps occasionally pertaining to the industry as a whole. In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that this is a volunteer position that I was asked to take by the GamerFeed staff. Still, to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest, I intend to mention my position at GamerFeed whenever I mention them on this blog (Feel free to yell at me if I don't)
I'm also proud to anounce that I have also been named the official ombudsman for the newly formed International Game Journalist Association. This will entail moderation of the "ombudsman" section of the forums and semi-regular posting of articles for the Association web site. It's unclear right now how the exact split of content between the IGJA and this blog will end up, but I envision posting longer, more in-depth stories on the IGJA and using this blog for shorter stories and quick links. We'll see how this plays out, but rest assured that this blog will remain updated for the forseeable future.
In smaller blog news, if you look to the sidebar on the right, you'll see I've finally updated the links and story ideas. As always, if I've forgotten anything on either list, please tell me about it.
Finally, on a personal note, I just heard yesterday that I will be starting an internship with NPR.org at the end of the month. I guess that means I should start reading their web site, eh?
It's been kind of a rebuilding week here at the Ombudsman. To all you new readers, I promise, there's usually more actual content than this. To all you longtime readers, thanks for bearing with me this week and for all your support through the months. Here's hoping the momentum just keeps on building...
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
The IGJA and some numbers for you
Two small things for now:
One: If you are a regular reader of this site, you should go register as a member of the International Game Journalist Association right now! It's just getting off the ground at the moment, but it needs support from intelligent, thoughful journalists (like you fine readers) to make it a worthwhile endeavor. It's free to sign up and there are no club dues or anything, so go register and bookmark it while you're still thinking about it.
Two: To any who doubt the power of Slashdot, check out this graph of yesterday's visits to this blog (by hour). The 3,000+ visitors we got was nearly 60 times the normal daily average, and propelled the visitation numbers for so far in January higher than those for all of December. Now let's see if any of those visitors come back next week.
One: If you are a regular reader of this site, you should go register as a member of the International Game Journalist Association right now! It's just getting off the ground at the moment, but it needs support from intelligent, thoughful journalists (like you fine readers) to make it a worthwhile endeavor. It's free to sign up and there are no club dues or anything, so go register and bookmark it while you're still thinking about it.
Two: To any who doubt the power of Slashdot, check out this graph of yesterday's visits to this blog (by hour). The 3,000+ visitors we got was nearly 60 times the normal daily average, and propelled the visitation numbers for so far in January higher than those for all of December. Now let's see if any of those visitors come back next week.
Tuesday, January 6, 2004
Well, it has "mon" in the title...
First off, can anyone translate this site for me?
Secondly, I thought you all might enjoy this caption from an E3 photo gallery that I found while doing some research for a photojournalism class:
Don't forget about Pokemon. Tecmo didn't, and its fans are still as devoted as ever.
I'm pretty sure Tecmo wouldn't mind forgetting about Pokemon's fans, as most of their money goes to Nintendo, who makes Pokemon. The Monster Rancher fans in the crowd were probably excited about the big pink thing and three winged girls pictured at Tecmo's booth. And here I was thinking DVDTalk.com was a reputable source for video game information. My mistake.
Then again, look at what they said about the N-Gage. If they think it's a "real contender," who am I to argue?
Secondly, I thought you all might enjoy this caption from an E3 photo gallery that I found while doing some research for a photojournalism class:
Don't forget about Pokemon. Tecmo didn't, and its fans are still as devoted as ever.
I'm pretty sure Tecmo wouldn't mind forgetting about Pokemon's fans, as most of their money goes to Nintendo, who makes Pokemon. The Monster Rancher fans in the crowd were probably excited about the big pink thing and three winged girls pictured at Tecmo's booth. And here I was thinking DVDTalk.com was a reputable source for video game information. My mistake.
Then again, look at what they said about the N-Gage. If they think it's a "real contender," who am I to argue?
A note on the NY Post
Welcome to the ridiculous number of new visitors coming our way courtesy of a link on Slashdot Games. Hopefully some of you (especially those in the VG journalism biz) will look through the site, like what you see and become regular visitors and contributors.
A small clarification: While I do think that the NY Post column was "obviously false and irresponsible" that wasn't really the point of my post. As I said earlier, "it's not really my place on this blog to argue with opinions; it's an editorial, and the author is entitled to make whatever arguments he wants." The comparison to the Enquirer was only to show how little respect the Post gets in the mainstream journalism world. I'm flattered to be the rallying point for the pro-video-game side on this one, but in general I'm here not to give my opinions on the issues, but on the coverage of those issues.
Update: 10:26 am I found a post on the Slashdot thread that makes my point beautifully:
I live in NY - work in NYC every day. The NY Post is known as the "rag" newspaper here. No one who really puts any thought into life really takes anything it has to say seriously, except for perhaps the sports section. It is generally right-wing, blockheaded, and sensationalist wherever possible.
Well put. Also, another Slashdotter gave a stinging indictment of the press in general:
Any time they report on something I know something about, they get it wrong, sometimes really, horribly, mind-blowingly wrong. So do they only get it right when I don't know enough about the topic? Why should this be any different?
What do I have to do to get comments like these on this blog?
A small clarification: While I do think that the NY Post column was "obviously false and irresponsible" that wasn't really the point of my post. As I said earlier, "it's not really my place on this blog to argue with opinions; it's an editorial, and the author is entitled to make whatever arguments he wants." The comparison to the Enquirer was only to show how little respect the Post gets in the mainstream journalism world. I'm flattered to be the rallying point for the pro-video-game side on this one, but in general I'm here not to give my opinions on the issues, but on the coverage of those issues.
Update: 10:26 am I found a post on the Slashdot thread that makes my point beautifully:
I live in NY - work in NYC every day. The NY Post is known as the "rag" newspaper here. No one who really puts any thought into life really takes anything it has to say seriously, except for perhaps the sports section. It is generally right-wing, blockheaded, and sensationalist wherever possible.
Well put. Also, another Slashdotter gave a stinging indictment of the press in general:
Any time they report on something I know something about, they get it wrong, sometimes really, horribly, mind-blowingly wrong. So do they only get it right when I don't know enough about the topic? Why should this be any different?
What do I have to do to get comments like these on this blog?
Friday, January 2, 2004
December '03 wrap-up
Happy New Year, readers. Finals are over and the holiday craziness is behind us, so it's time to get back to the nitpicking. In an effort to play catch up, here are some short comments on a few stories I noticed in December.
- Thanks to the entire world (okay, okay, three people) for pointing me to an outrageous editorial from the New York Post's business section which urges readers to dump their Take Two stock because of the moral wasteland that is the Grand Theft Auto series. There has been much talk in forum threads about the articles comparison of playing a game to child abuse and securities fraud, and there's nothing I can really add to that discussion. Even if I could, it's not really my place on this blog to argue with opinions; it's an editorial, and the author is entitled to make whatever arguments he wants.
That being said, I don't think the article was properly classified as a business editorial. Except for a few justifications thrown in at the end, the article is rooted in the authors moral outrage rather than hard financial facts. As one Ombudsman reader put it: " the reasoning seems to spring from the authors own personal moral beliefs and not harder or more in depth research." Basing financial advice on such beliefs is pretty foolhardy, for one, and pretty irresponsible journalism for another. My theory is he used the overriding theme of a stock "analysis" as an excuse to get the editorial published somewhere in the paper.
Anyhow, I'd encourage readers not to get too worked up over this. It'd be like getting worked up about an National Enquirer story saying that video games cause AIDS. It's obviously false and irresponsible, but no one really respects the Post or the Enquirer anyway. - The New York Times had a rather large feature on the biz called "Playing Mogul" It's a long read, but definitely worth it, if just to see how our industry is perceived by the Paper of Record (TM) (R) (C) (All Rights Reserved). Chris Kohler and the commenters over at Kobun Heat (scroll down) got pretty worked up about some of the philosophy and general opinions in the article, but the only thing that really got to me was the total lack of any mention of the GameCube. Given Nintendo's history in this industry and the relative dead heat they are running with Microsoft's box worldwide, there's no real excuse for not even mentioning it. Other than that, there are no major problems that I see from a journalistic standpoint; he did a decent amount of research and presented it in a way that would appeal to a non-specialized crowd. A good base to start from if the Times wants to start taking games more seriously.
- On a lighter note, I came across this analysis of video game magazine covers in the course of some random surfing. The author takes the interesting tack of placing magazines from other sections into the "games" area of a bookstore and comparing and contrasting. I have absolutely no authority to speak on the aesthetic matters the author discusses, but I found them fascinating nonetheless.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)