LONG BLOG
So. 1UP.
First blog post at Dtoid. Shame it couldn't have been more positive.
----
Here's the truth:
I love Dtoid as much as the next guy, but 1UP is and always has been the best in the business. Not everything they've put out has elevated the discussion, but the vast majority of it has. Even the stuff that wasn't very stimulating intellectually has still been written in clear, focused prose by people who are not just passionate about games, but legitimately excellent writers. These people have defined and refined the vocabulary of games criticism for damn near a quarter-century, and they have done it with panache to spare.
UGO seems to have come in and shat all over that proud history. Even more insulting, they have done this while praising 1UP's "authentic voice" and "tenured writers."
Really, UGO? You just kicked every one of those "tenured writers" you value so much in the balls with spiked boots, and those people WERE that "authentic voice."
I will be interested to see what 1UP.com becomes, but I greatly doubt that the standard set by these fine people will ever be matched by any others, let alone surpassed. 1UP as it was no longer exists. Perhaps others under the UGO umbrella will do fine things with the brand, and perhaps they will even do great things. All is certainly not lost, and change is, on balance, a good thing.
But the real 1UP is gone, and it's never coming back as it was. We shall see what transpires in the days ahead, but today is, without exaggeration, the end of a golden era in games journalism, and we should all mourn, because that era is never coming back.
Let us all take a moment to pray for those let go, and to wish them godspeed as they do new and exciting things in the months ahead. Because the present is - and there's no other phrase that fits here - monumentally shitty.
That, at least, is how it seems to me on this bleak January day.
Any thoughts?
----
Here's the truth:
I love Dtoid as much as the next guy, but 1UP is and always has been the best in the business. Not everything they've put out has elevated the discussion, but the vast majority of it has. Even the stuff that wasn't very stimulating intellectually has still been written in clear, focused prose by people who are not just passionate about games, but legitimately excellent writers. These people have defined and refined the vocabulary of games criticism for damn near a quarter-century, and they have done it with panache to spare.
UGO seems to have come in and shat all over that proud history. Even more insulting, they have done this while praising 1UP's "authentic voice" and "tenured writers."
Really, UGO? You just kicked every one of those "tenured writers" you value so much in the balls with spiked boots, and those people WERE that "authentic voice."
I will be interested to see what 1UP.com becomes, but I greatly doubt that the standard set by these fine people will ever be matched by any others, let alone surpassed. 1UP as it was no longer exists. Perhaps others under the UGO umbrella will do fine things with the brand, and perhaps they will even do great things. All is certainly not lost, and change is, on balance, a good thing.
But the real 1UP is gone, and it's never coming back as it was. We shall see what transpires in the days ahead, but today is, without exaggeration, the end of a golden era in games journalism, and we should all mourn, because that era is never coming back.
Let us all take a moment to pray for those let go, and to wish them godspeed as they do new and exciting things in the months ahead. Because the present is - and there's no other phrase that fits here - monumentally shitty.
That, at least, is how it seems to me on this bleak January day.
Any thoughts?
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About Ffordesoonone of us since 9:29 PM on 09.02.2008
No fancy long-winded horseshit here. That's for the blog itself. :P
I'm a writer. I write stuff. Sometimes that means an act of bloggery, other times it means a story, and it occasionally means a long-winded essay about pretentious bullshit. When I blog or write pretentiously about video games, the resultant brain leakage will go here.
Also, I'm fond of cursing. You can decide for yourself whether or not that means this blog is "suggested for mature readers." Me, I don't think it's particularly mature or immature to curse. I think it's simply another mode of expression. I don't like to rely too heavily on it, though, so please do point out excessive cursing in the comments. Tends to dilute the point, you know?
So, you know, read it, don't read it. I don't particularly care.
(But comment if you do read, please! I'm an attention whore, like all writers! ;) )
Cheers.
(Best-of lists and other standard Dtoid accessories forthcoming.)
I'm a writer. I write stuff. Sometimes that means an act of bloggery, other times it means a story, and it occasionally means a long-winded essay about pretentious bullshit. When I blog or write pretentiously about video games, the resultant brain leakage will go here.
Also, I'm fond of cursing. You can decide for yourself whether or not that means this blog is "suggested for mature readers." Me, I don't think it's particularly mature or immature to curse. I think it's simply another mode of expression. I don't like to rely too heavily on it, though, so please do point out excessive cursing in the comments. Tends to dilute the point, you know?
So, you know, read it, don't read it. I don't particularly care.
(But comment if you do read, please! I'm an attention whore, like all writers! ;) )
Cheers.
(Best-of lists and other standard Dtoid accessories forthcoming.)