Topics

1

NWR Feedback / Blast from PGC Past! : 2004 GDC Aonuma Zelda Roundtable

« on: September 30, 2014, 01:04:03 AM »

I came across the roundtable, recorded by TYP, in my old files. The article it goes with is located at http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/interview/2180/gdc-2004-eiji-aonuma-zelda-roundtable

You can download the mp3 at https://www.sendspace.com/file/v0k8im

Hopefully whoever is in charge of the archives, so to speak, will add the file to the article. If anyone has any files, etc. that went into the old PGC archives that somehow didn't make it in the transition to NWR, it'd be great if they could be posted or sent to the NWR crew to restore them.

BTW, if I could make a not-serious suggestion for a stretch goal for the upcoming NWR telethon: Get rid of Google Custom Search for the site. The problem with it is that it gives people hope that they'll find something remotely relating to what they were searching for. False hope is worse than no hope. So just get rid of it.

I searched for all the right keywords and nothing came up but a forum post linking to an invalid link from the PGC days. Even when I found the article by looking through the Interview section of the site, I decided to search by using the exact name of the article "GDC 2004 - Eiji Aonuma Zelda Roundtable" and still nothing. Maybe there's a way to add on phpBB's search functions to the site. I don't think it has improved in a decade and it's still better than Google Custom Search! So you could search the PGC archives using tech from the time the article was made! Break out the Wave Birds and we're in business!

2

NWR Forums Discord / Famicom @ 30: Jon Lindemann muses

« on: July 19, 2013, 02:42:46 AM »

Longtime listeners to RFN know that Greg Leahy started importing consoles at a young age. First the Super Famicom, then the N64, Wii, etc. What you may not know is that Lindy was import gaming before that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts Guru was even born! Let's go back shall we? Back to the summer of '83.
 
I remember it well. It was the summer before my senior year in high school. Picture Vin Diesel with hair. I was fast and furious back then, know what I mean? I was no Don Juan, but I was mack-daddyin' a little bit, I could charm the ladies, spinning records at the local album oriented punk rock disco as DJ Silk. Life was good. And like most youth at that time, the arcades were my scene. Gobbling dots, jumping barrels, inflating monsters, I could do it all. So when I heard through the flax fields that some arcade-quality consoles were coming to Japan that summer, I thought I'd get the 411.
 
At first, the Sega SG-1000 interested me. Particularly a game by this cat named Yuji Naka, Girl's Garden. But I found out the title wasn't what I thought it was, so I looked at the Family Computer, Famicom for all the cool kids. The launch games were Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye, so a ton more than what the WiiU has. I had never played Popeye, but I was told I looked like the sailor if you squinted a lot and I definitely ate a lot of spinach to keep in shape for the DJing gigs, so I thought I'd get that too.
 
When I picked up the Famicom and three games from the import shop in Toronto, I couldn't wait to play them. But there was a problem. You may be aware that I'm somewhat known for my videogaming backlog. Yuji Horii personally sent me a tear-stained congratulatory note on my completing Chrono Trigger, in part saying: "You've made an old man happy. I can die in peace now." I was touched. Well, then as now, the shelves relentlessly stared at me, trying to sap me of my will. I resolved to finish off my Fairchild Channel F backlog of games first. Mind Reader was balls-hard man! And Video Whizball made Battletoads look like a walk in the park with Kermit.
 
Well, it's getting late and the thought of traveling the 4-0-0 in the ATL in the morning makes Mr. DiamondJ want to listen to 187 albums, so I'll call it a night and update you on my Famicom adventures tomorrow. Peace out!

3

General Gaming / Nintendo Annual Reports before 2002

« on: May 18, 2013, 01:33:47 AM »

Hey all. I was wondering if anyone had/had links to any of Nintendo's annual reports from before 2002. As you can see from the link below, Nintendo has 2002-2012 available (with 2013 coming around June I believe).  I've never seen any pre-2002 reports, so I don't know if those old reports are even in English. They may be Japanese only. Thanks for any help! 
 
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/annual/index.html

4

General Gaming / Games Journalism: Quote me accurately and I'll sue!

« on: October 25, 2012, 11:33:11 AM »

 I'm mostly posting this topic so people at the NWR forums will have a chance to read the article for themselves and can form their own opinion.


Background: Eurogamer's Rab Florence wrote a column about Geoff Keighley and other games journalists who have become so friendly with games PR that they're almost indistinguishable. When quoting, he used accurate quotes, some of the journalists threatened legal action under the UK's laughable libel laws (though even under those laws, I don't see how there can be a case), Eurogamer amends the article and when that doesn't satisfy the sycophants, they take it down. And Florence will no longer write for them as a result (his own decision).


I'm sure the state of games 'journalism' isn't news to anyone who bothers to read articles/reviews on most gaming websites, but when calling the BS out for what it is can lead to all this controversy, it shows how out of hand and dishonest it has truly become. (The bolded in the article are from the journalists known to have threatened action)

There is an image doing the rounds on the internet this week. It is an image of Geoff Keighley, a Canadian games journalist, sitting dead-eyed beside a garish Halo 4 poster and a table of Mountain Dew and Doritos. It is a tragic, vulgar image. But I think that it is the most important image in games journalism today. I think we should all find it and study it. It is important.

 Geoff Keighley is often described as an industry leader. A games expert. He is one of the most prominent games journalists in the world. And there he sits, right there, beside a table of snacks. He will be sitting there forever, in our minds. That's what he is now. And in a sense, it is what he always was. As Executive Producer of the mindless, horrifying spectacle that is the Spike TV Video Game Awards he oversees the delivery of a televisual table full of junk, an entire festival of cultural Doritos.

 How many games journalists are sitting beside that table?

 Recently, the Games Media Awards rolled around again, and games journos turned up to a thing to party with their friends in games PR. Games PR people and games journos voted for their favourite friends, and friends gave awards to friends, and everyone had a good night out. Eurogamer won an award. Kieron Gillen was named an industry legend (and if anyone is a legend in games writing, he is) but he deserves a better platform for recognition than those GMAs. The GMAs shouldn't exist. By rights, that room should be full of people who feel uncomfortable in each other's company. PR people should be looking at games journos and thinking, "That person makes my job very challenging." Why are they all best buddies? What the hell is going on?

Whenever you criticise the GMAs, as I've done in the past, you face the accusation of being "bitter". I've removed myself from those accusations somewhat by consistently making it clear that I'm not a games journalist. I'm a writer who regularly writes about games, that's all. And I've been happy for people who have been nominated for GMAs in the past, because I've known how much they wanted to be accepted by that circle. There is nothing wrong with wanting to belong, or wanting to be recognised by your peers. But it's important to ask yourself who your peers are, and exactly what it is you feel a need to belong to.

Just today, as I sat down to write this piece, I saw that there were games journalists winning PS3s on Twitter. There was a competition at those GMAs - tweet about our game and win a PS3. One of those stupid, crass things. And some games journos took part. All piling in, opening a sharing bag of Doritos, tweeting the hashtag as instructed. And today the winners were announced. Then a whole big argument happened, and other people who claim to be journalists claimed to see nothing wrong with what those so-called journalists had done. I think the winners are now giving away their PS3s, but it's too late. It's too late. Let me show you an example.

One games journalist, Lauren Wainwright, tweeted: "Urm... Trion were giving away PS3s to journalists at the GMAs. Not sure why that's a bad thing?"

 Now, a few tweets earlier, she also tweeted this: "Lara header, two TR pix in the gallery and a very subtle TR background. #obsessed @tombraider pic.twitter.com/VOWDSavZ"

 And instantly I am suspicious. I am suspicious of this journalist's apparent love for Tomb Raider. I am asking myself whether she's in the pocket of the Tomb Raider PR team. I'm sure she isn't, but the doubt is there. After all, she sees nothing wrong with journalists promoting a game to win a PS3, right?

 Another journalist, one of the winners of the PS3 competition, tweeted this at disgusted RPS writer John Walker: "It was a hashtag, not an advert. Get off the pedestal." Now, this was Dave Cook, a guy I've met before. A good guy, as far as I could tell. But I don't believe for one second that Dave doesn't understand that in this time of social media madness a hashtag is just as powerful as an advert. Either he's on the defensive or he doesn't get what being a journalist is actually about.

I want to make a confession. I stalk games journalists. It's something I've always done. I keep an eye on people. I have a mental list of games journos who are the very worst of the bunch. The ones who are at every PR launch event, the ones who tweet about all the freebies they get. I am fascinated by them. I won't name them here, because it's a horrible thing to do, but I'm sure some of you will know who they are. I'm fascinated by these creatures because they are living one of the most strange existences - they are playing at being a thing that they don't understand. And if they don't understand it, how can they love it? And if they don't love it, why are they playing at being it?
 This club, this weird club of pals and buddies that make up a fair proportion of games media, needs to be broken up somehow. They have a powerful bond, though - held together by the pressures of playing to the same audience. Games publishers and games press sources are all trying to keep you happy, and it's much easier to do that if they work together. Publishers are well aware that some of you go crazy if a new AAA title gets a crappy review score on a website, and they use that knowledge to keep the boat from rocking. Everyone has a nice easy ride if the review scores stay decent and the content of the games are never challenged. Websites get their exclusives. Ad revenue keeps rolling in. The information is controlled. Everyone stays friendly. It's a steady flow of Mountain Dew pouring from the hills of the money men, down through the fingers of the weary journos, down into your mouths. At some point you will have to stop drinking that stuff and demand something better.

 Standards are important. They are hard to live up to, sure, but that's the point of them. The trouble with games journalism is that there are no standards. We expect to see Geoff Keighley sitting beside a table of s***. We expect to see the flurry of excitement when the GMAs get announced, instead of a chuckle and a roll of the eyes. We expect to see our games journos failing to get what journalistic integrity means. The brilliant writers, like John Walker for example, don't get the credit they deserve simply because they don't play the game. Indeed, John Walker gets told to get off his pedestal because he has high standards and is pointing out a worrying problem.

 Geoff Keighley, meanwhile, is sitting beside a table of snacks. A table of delicious Doritos and refreshing Mountain Dew. He is, as you'll see on Wikipedia, "only one of two journalists, the other being 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace, profiled in the Harvard Business School press book 'Geeks and Geezers' by noted leadership expert Warren Bennis." Geoff Keighley is important. He is a leader in his field. He once said, "There's such a lack of investigative journalism. I wish I had more time to do more, sort of, investigation." And yet there he sits, glassy-eyed, beside a table heaving with sickly Doritos and Mountain Dew.

 It's an important image. Study it.