Kyle Orland

“Hello from Disney Israel”

“I just want to see if Abraham Lincoln can beat a pirogi.”

-The inimitable Bruce Webster, in Pittsburgh

Ohio University journalism student Meghan Ventura did an interview with me on video game journalism issues. She’s posted excerpts from the event on her blog. Check it out!

In a previous life, Stephen Totilo helped create Hogan Knows Best.

Seriously.

It may seem odd to think about it now, but before he became MTV News’ first full-time video game reporter, Totilo was one of the people behind the idea for the pro-wrestler-based reality show. After his departure from the project nearly three years ago, the VH1 series was a modest hit, running from 2005 to 2007.

Despite the allure of pro-wrestler-based reality TV, Totilo wasn’t destined to let his Columbia journalism degree go to waste. He parlayed brief positions at Newsweek and Brill’s Content into freelance game reporting gigs for GameSpy, IGN and The New York Times. Now, Totilo heads up a team that covers games on the MTV’s cable networks, MTVNews.com, and MTV’s Multiplayer blog. PressSpotting talked with Totilo about his experience writing about games and what it means to be a game journalist today. Here’s some excerpts from our lengthy conversation:

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The game development website used my notes for its coverage ofthe Games for Health Conference:

• Games For Health Conference Kicks Off In Baltimore
• Neils Clark On Moving Beyond ‘Game Addiction’
• Noah Falstein On Exergaming History
• PopCap Games’ Effects on Mood and Stress
• Why You Should Care About Virtual Worlds
• XRtainment’s Medina Says Gaming Gyms Can’t Be Glorified Arcades

On April 28, the front page story on the New York Times’ Arts section wasn’t about a new Broadway play or a hot new CD or even a blockbuster summer movie. It was a balanced, 1,100-word review of Grand Theft Auto IV that described the game as a “violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun.”

The Times wasn’t alone. Kotaku’s Brian Crecente briefly returned to the Rocky Mountain News to write a major 2,000-word feature on his five days locked in a room with the game. Marc Saltzman compared it to “an interactive episode of The Sopranos” from the pages of USA Today. MSNBC noted in a subhead that it’s “a blast to play a criminal in a safe, consequence-free environment.”

As much as Grand Theft Auto IV is being hailed as a revolution in gaming, its release also seems to herald a revolution in mainstream coverage of gaming itself.

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Another Nintendo system, another Mario Kart game. This one — the appropriately if obviously titled Mario Kart Wii — is being pushed by Nintendo as a “bridge game” to move casual Wii owners past Wii Sports and into the hardcore gaming scene, so to speak. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s ever played a Mario Kart game. The series has always acted as a sort of neutral ground for gamers — a pick-up-and-play racer with hidden depth; a competitive game that lets even newcomers stay competitive; a sometimes punishing game with a bright, friendly exterior. Mario Kart Wii fits so squarely into this mold that it skirts by some potentially game-crushing pitfalls with relative panache.

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I’ve signed on with Wiley publishing to write this technical guide for non-technical people, due to be released by the 2008 holiday season. Watch this space for more details as they become available.

• Official “For Dummies” site
• Wiley Publishing

Play Magazine has always been a rather unique voice in the game journalism landscape, covering games with an unmatched passion and a focus on hardcore niche games. Since its launch in 2001, that unique voice has largely been driven by editor-in-chief Dave Halverson. Since Halverson’s promotion to publisher/editorial director at Fusion Publishing earlier this year, the day-to-day responsibilities surrounding Play have fallen to former senior editor Brady Fiechter (pictured), its new EIC.

Fiechter is already shaking things up, announcing in the May issue that readers “may not be seeing [review] scores any longer” starting next month. PressSpotting talked to Fiechter about that state of gaming and game journalism, the future of Play, and, of course, his controversial review score decision.

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Since licensed gaming seems bigger than ever these days, Gamasutra’s editors felt - somewhat flippantly - that publishers might need some help picking through the pop culture landscape for un-optioned properties that have the potential to become great games (as well as a few existing game franchises in desperate need of a comeback).

Our criteria for putting together this article - with input from all Gamasutra staffers - was a mixture of gut feeling and impassioned argument; unscientific, to be sure, but rather than functioning as a guide to the 20 and only 20 licenses that could or should be explored, it’s much more of a thought experiment into avenues many might not have considered.

Sure, judging by the history of licensed games, many of these ideas would probably be awful if they were actually made. On the other hand, there’s nothing that suggests that given the right amount of time and budget that these games couldn’t sing: just think about it.

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Our columnist tackles a few smaller game journalism issues that have popped up recently.

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