The Carnival of Gamers
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Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Gamers! Here you will find the best and brightest video game bloggers from around the world! Never before has such a group been assembled to bring to you the latest insights and observations from the gaming blogosphere. We’re a diverse group here, as you’ll see from the posts but we all have one thing in common — we are passionate about video games. So let’s get right to them –
The first submission award goes to Tea Leaves with a blistering piece on the state of video game reviews, taking just about everyone to task.
Bill from Dubious Quality was at E3 and saw some themes rise above the din that is the spectacle of E3. Great “macro” view of E3 and all the trimmings.
Everbody always roots for the underdog and Adam at render gaming thinks Nintendo has assumed the role of the underdog for this generation of consoles. And like everyone who’s ever rooted for the underdog, he wants Nintendo pull the upset.
Foton says he knows better than to read gaming message boards. He claims to be aware of the dangers. Problem is, he can’t help himself. Somewhere, someday, someone could post something relevant, interesting or amusing. So far, no luck. But he can dream, can’t he?
We’ve all felt that pang of shame when we tell someone who isn’t a gamer that we love to game. But should we? Troy at Portico doesn’t think so.
Corvus gives should get a standing ovation for the defense of PC Gaming and independent PC Gaming here. Bravo, Corvus. Bravo.
Guild Wars has enthralled me lately, but Ethic is right - the pathing and instancing both leave something to be desired.
Jason wasn’t impressed with the art of i-am-8-bit and it shows.
Aggro Me asks: why look for Queen Antonia when they’ve already got Queen Heather?
Electroplankton is an enigma to me and this piece from Thomas doesn’t really clear it up but makes for a great read. I don’t think Thomas is alone in hopthing that gaming goes in this direction.
Alex at Damned Machines looks at Video Game Magazines and finds them wanting in more ways than one.
Finster does some excellent research about the Xbox 360 and the PS3 and comes to some interesting conclusions.
I’ve got mixed feelings about selling virtual game items for real life cash but Cosmik has some pretty strong feelings about it. He makes some pretty convincing arguments.
I hope your sitting, because this is a long one from Krones. He takes John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, out behind the woodshed and does all manner of unspeakable things to him. I will admit that I laughed, cried, and felt bad for humanity while reading this entry.
Joseph has seen the future and the future is the PS3. Not only will it cook you dinner and do your laundry but it will also “age”, grow up and then, as a teenager, take your keys and crash the family sedan into the neighbor’s mail box. Then you’ll get a disc read error. How about that for the future?
Mike looks at the specs of the Xbox 360 and then waxes on the future of online play, and more specifically Microsoft’s Xbox Live. I’m still not convinced I want to get nickel and dimed to death but Microsoft does have some ambitious plans and I think this will be the future of gaming.
Is GTA an RPG? Simon would like it to be. Read what happens when he tries to role play Grand Theft Auto.
Vanhemlock wonders what The Business of Teamwork is all about. Rather humorous stuff.
If danking is wrong, The One Eyed Man doesn’t want to be right.
Newcomer Ninjack compares MMORPGs to the buffet line. And now I’m hungry.
Well that wraps up the first edition of the Carnival of Gamers. It has been a lot of fun reading these entries (some of them for the first time) and it has been great to see the support from gamers to see this succeed. I look forward to future Carnivals, and we’ll have the next one in two weeks - hosted by Thomas at Mile Zero on June 9th. If you’re available and willing to host a future Carnival of Gamers, let me know!
A big thanks to everyone who participated and made this happen. If you wanted to participate but didn’t have the time to submit this go-round, please don’t miss the 2nd edition. Let’s keep this going strong!
GG everybody.
Update: Honor of honors, we have been linked by the Shigeru Miyamoto of Bloggers, Instapundit. A super huge thanks to Glenn for the linkage. (Now I await the dreaded Instalanche!)
Welcome Instapundit readers, hopefully some of you, like me, are gamers and will find some new bloggers to add to your feed readers. These guys are excellent bloggers, enjoy!
Another Update: We’ve now also been linked on games.slashdot.org. Welcome games.slashdotters, hopefully you’ll take the time to read some of the blogs here. The initial reaction over there wasn’t the most positive but others have come to the defense of the bloggers and the Carnival (thanks, Josh). I took a stab at defending the carnival as well. Hopefully people will actually read some of these pieces before they make broad, sweeping assumptions about video game bloggers.
Update #3: Now we can add Kotaku and Digg to the growing list of Carnival referrers. Thanks to Brian and Mike for the links, this has really taken off (3.2k hits as of 2:30 pm EST). I am on my way out of town but I wanted to thank everyone again and wish everyone a nice Memorial Day weekend. I’ll check back in later for a recap.
Really late update: To be listed in The TTLB ÜberCarnival I needed to add a link. That should take care of it.
The trailers are rolling into the Fairgrounds
Don’t forget The Carnival of Gamers rolls in tomorrow. If you’re still interested in participating and you haven’t submitted your link to me, please get it to me by the COB tomorrow so I can get the Carnival up before I go to bed tomorrow night.
Then you’ll give you something to get your weekend started when you read it Friday at work.
Unfortunate Star Wars Costumes
(from gamememes)
The Carnival is coming!
T-minus 3 days and counting until the First Carnival of Gamers! Don’t forget to submit your entry ASAP!
All the info can be found here!
Guild Wars
And the game? Guild Wars is beautiful. The reviews are out there, you can read all about the beauty and immersiveness from other sources. But one thing is certain - sometimes you just have to take the scenery in. I am compelled to look around and stand in awe. The scale and wonder can be breathtaking.
But of course it’s more than just beauty and lush environments. The nuts and bolts under the hood really make this a fun game to play. This review says it better than I can.
But, instead, it’s easy to think about “Guild Wars” as a carefully researched and constructed product, one that combines the pixie dust of fantasy with the sawdust of a well-crafted game.
It is indeed a well-crafted game.
So I can see myself playing Guild Wars for the foreseeable future. The Gamecube and Xbox will be neglected and gather dust but them’s the breaks. I’ve got some monsters to kill and I don’t think I’ve even scratched surface of what the game has to offer.
Come join the Carnival of Gamers!
As I mentioned last week, we’re starting the Carnival of Gamers! The inaugural edition of the CoG will be Thursday, May 26th.
I know a lot of you will be to winding down from E3 so I hope this isn’t too soon, but I assumed that by Sunday night everyone would be back in normal mode and we can get some of those great pieces submitted. If there is a consensus that this isn’t enough time we can postpone it a week.
So what do you submit? Just select one of your recent (or not so recent, doesn’t matter) blog posts you really liked and really want others to read. Submit that to me, with a little background if you want, and I’ll group all the links on one page. Then, we’ll spread the word about the Carnival. This will point everyone to our blogs and we’ll be popular and people will like us. Or at least come away with more video game knowledge then they ever wanted. This is our chance to make gamers look semi-normal, so don’t screw it up with your Pokemon fantasies.
So, if you are interested in submitting a blog post to be included in the Carnival, please email them to me at buttonmashing@gmail.com. There aren’t any real guidelines. They certainly should be about video games in one way or another but that’s about all the guidance I have. I’m all about free speech and creativity, but let’s try to avoid the obscene, profane overly profane, racist, sexist, you get the picture. Let’s just have some fun and see where this can go.
So submit away! Let’s have a great Carnival of Gamers!
Update:
A couple updates — first, as Foton pointed out, I put a guideline of nothing “profane”. What I meant is nothing over-the-top profane, like what you get in just about every game of Halo 2 on Live. With that in mind, I’ve modified the guidelines above. I mentioned to Foton that profanity and video games go hand-in-hand. Or in the case of frustrating games, controller flying out of one’s hand-in-hand. I know bloggers love their colorful use of language and I don’t want to discourage any submissions that contain words of the four-letter variety. As Ralphie (from The Christmas Story) said, swearing is an art medium like oils or clay. And while I personally don’t work with such a palette, others do with good (usually hilarious) results. So as long as it adds flavor to the meal, go right ahead.
Second — the submissions have begun to arrive, which is great! If you haven’t submitted yet, what’s holding you back?! Make sure, though, that you submit a link to your blog with the article you’d like to submit. If nothing more, it will make my life easier. (Hey, I’m lazy!). Also, I haven’t decided how I’ll handle multiple submissions. I may include both/all or I may choose one. We’ll see!
Nintendo will win this generation?
Something strange is happening. If you avoid the forum trolls and fanboys and talk to people that can string two sentences together, you’ll find that there’s a groundswell of optimism for the Revolution. Mike at GGA thinks this “virtual library of games” can work:
However, then Nintendo dropped the bomb for me. “Virtual console.” The ability to play 20 years of Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 first-party (and hopefully third-party) games. Wow. Wow-oh-wow. This was what caught my attention. This is what I’m excited about with Nintendo’s new console, and I doubt I’m the only one.
No, you’re definitely not the only one. This may actually be a cool idea.
Amit thinks so, too
I’d like to slip in the theory that no matter what the Revolution promises to deliver, the fact that it plays every game Nintendo’s ever released is a revolution on its own.
And it’s not just the bloggers. Talking to my buddy today and he tells me that when he heard about the ability to download old games he decided that the Revolution would be his first console purchase of the next generation. And the game he was most excited about downloading? Earthbound? No. Super Metroid? Nope. Tecmo Super Bowl. Tecmo Super “Bo Frickin’ Jackson” Bowl. I hadn’t even thought about that one. There are so many games that could be available, it just boggles the mind.
It will be interesting to see what kind of library will be available. Will it just be Nintendo titles or do they maintain publishing rights to everybody’s games? There are some A-list games that are not Nintendo’s IP so I’m interested to know if I’ll be able to download Final Fantasy III or RC Pro Am. If they release the whole library, HOLY CRAP ON A STICK, watch out. And prices? If they are a buck for run-of-the-mill titles and five to ten bucks for A-list games they will make a killing. Killing. And what if they release games that never made it over here to the states? My brain hurts thinking of the possibilities.
This is some cool stuff.
Update: I forgot to mention this earlier - buttonmashing.com was linked by the L.A. Times here. I hope the Los Angelinos enjoyed their visit and that they come back often!
Are you trying to get invited to my next Barbeque?!
Ahhh, that was my favorite unit response from Starcraft. Any way, Joystiq has a hands-on with Starcraft Ghost, a game I’ve been very interested in since it was announced, oh before the birth of my FIRST CHILD. Anyway, it sounds like a fun game, comparisons maybe to Unreal Tournament? I thought it was supposed to be stealth action, but it appears to be more of a shooter, with different units. I really like the sound of that, this one looks hot.
I love Beams … 2?!
Just found this via Spaceworlder: Moz La Punk - Your E3 Expo Source - web-log.nl
Nintendo is fooling the world this E3 show.
Seems Microsoft is the only ARG in town. I don’t have the desire to follow all the clues, just go check the site out…
Guild Wars is Mine!
I then read Kieron’s review of Guild Wars at Eurogamer (which was excellent) and salivation continued.
Well a copy of this wonderful game is in my hands. And it is with much sadness that it will not be played tonight, as it is late and I am tired. MMOGs are not to be taken lightly and should not be started on a night that precedes a work day so I will resist. Tomorrow looks bleak, as well. But I will play.
Oh yes, I will.
E3 this and that
So as you may or may not know, I am not at E3. I’m perfectly okay with that, I have no desire to be around such a nerd herd that is the Expo. But I can’t deny how exciting it would be to see the press conferences, wander the floor in awe, meet cool people and play even cooler games. Alas, such is not my lot in life. But bloggers are there en masse and I am cool with that.
I would frequent Gamespy/IGN and Gamespot for my E3 fixes in years past. Not this year. I’m sticking to my fellow bloggers for my information. Funny how that works. They know what the gamers want and are covering the Expo with aplomb.
The major 3 consoles have held there press conferences and I have mixed feelings. Sony’s and Microsoft’s presentations sounded more like pissing contests while Nintendo was low-key and focused on the games. (I tip my hat in Joystiq’s direction, they have done a bang-up job on their coverage)
Nintendo seems to be catching a lot of flak for their presentation and their direction in general (although some people seemed to have enjoyed it). After last years trash-kicking (see: Reggie-lution) the bar was set unfavorably high for them. From what I’ve read, Nintendo did just fine. They avoided the muscle flexing and were more about the games. That works for me. I’d love to see Nintendo contend this generation (and I think they will) I just wish they’d get more respect. They’re not George Lucas, for crying out loud! The Micro this is a little weird, but come on! I can play games ON, not WITH an NES controller. Cool, if it costs 39 bucks or less.
Currently I’m torn between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I will buy a Revolution, that much is clear. (hat tip to Kotaku for the great spec coverage and Top Of Cool has a great comparison of specs here) Now the question comes down to the other console (I don’t have the cash or desire to own all three). Halo 3 weighs heavily on the decision. The PS3 controller looks horrible in its present form but I’d like to feel it and see how well it flies when I’m tee-oh’ed. That bomerang shape may come in handy. Right now I could go either way with my 2nd console.
Of course, it comes down to the games and that’s my current beef. Outside of Gears of War, I’m not seeing anything original. What is this, Hollywood? Nevertheless, Nintendo could release a thousand Zelda games, I’d play them all and love every minute of it. I mean look at this stuff!
Wondering how the food at E3 is? Damned Machines has it covered!
I haven’t even mentioned PC games yet (which I admit that I don’t play as much as consoles) but I do love the Strategy genre and I am pumped about Age of Empires 3. Troy, at Portico, has a great list of E3 Strategy games here. I’d like to see what E3 holds in store for Guild Wars (and other MMOGs). On the shooter front, Quake 4 looks rock solid.
Something wicked this way comes…
My bloglines feed reader is virtually empty.
Something big must be happening.
Live Blogging Xbox 360
Since I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll be live blogging MTV’s Xbox Next Generation infomercial special. Looks like Kyle, Kotaku, and Joystiq will be doing so as well.
I’m not really sold on the Xbox 360 just yet. The whole MTV special just stinks of piles of Microsoft money being thrown around trying to get the ever popular 18-39 audience. I’m the list of “stars” that will be there don’t do it for me, either. The fact that Maurice Clarett is there almost prevents me from watching it all together (I’m an Ohio State fan, what can I say?). I’ll reserve judgement until after the show, but I can’t shake this feeling of deja vu.
On a side note, I’d like to see Xbox Live numbers between 9:30 - 10:00 pm EST.
Update: Okay, here we are, 9:30 and it’s go time:
Lets get the hype and hyperbole going right away! The Next Xbox will “Literally change the face of entertainment”. Phew, they start piling it on thick right way.
(Kotaku has some nice high-res images up already. Again, I’m not feeling the new design. I keep getting this nagging feeling that Microsoft is making a big mistake releasing this so early. More on that later.)
9:31 pm - Alright, so unrecognizable girl brought it out and yep, it looks just like we’ve known for a while now - ugly white and standing upright. Blech.
9:35 pm - “What do you think of the new Xbox 360?” (Elijah Wood)
“I’m looking forward to getting a free one. Hah ha!” (Li’l John? Some dude with a chalice)
9:39 pm - Alrighty then, they’ve shown the Xbox 360/Samsung commercial during the same break. The first time I saw that I thought it said “Microsoft and Samus” Heh. Madden, NFSU:MW and TW 2006 clips - are they real or simply “possible” gameplay. We’ll see. Need for Speed looked hot but Madden and Tiger Woods looked wierd.
Now we’re gonna pimp the Xbox. I thought this was about the new one.
Wireless was just confirmed - and a RING OF LIGHT. Whoa. That is hawt. Those face plates are embarassing.
The Live Marketplace - another bad idea. After watching that demonstration I had the image of MS taking money out of my pocket without me even knowing it was happening.
9:50 - Some more games - Gears of War looked good as did Qauke 4. The other brief games didn’t look interesting. So now it’s Perfect Dark time. But first let’s listen to some Gaming Pros. Zyos just called it the “Xbox 2″. I guess he didn’t get that memo. Now they’re talking about Perfect Dark Zero. 50 players at once sounds very, very tasty. Fully destructible environments. We’ll see about that. It’s been promised before. Ms. PMSgamer likes to swear a lot. That’s so gamer.
Watching the deathmatch, the controllers look small. Too small?
“Xbox 360 is gonna be amazing.” - Elijah Wood.
10:03 pm - That was over sooner than I thought it would be. A couple observations -
1.) Xbox 360 is supposed to usher in the HD era. But as Bill at DQ points out, why not broadcast the show in HD? There wouldn’t be a better way to convince us that it is, indeed, the HD era. I’m not convinced yet. I also noted that they really didn’t play up the HD aspect of the 360. Not sure why, but I didn’t notice any mentions.
2.) Even though it was still MTV, the production value was well done. While I asked Spike TV for two hours they stole from me last year, MTV kept it short and relatively sweet. Spike TV could take some advice from MTV how to host a Video Game show. I didn’t notice any gratuitous cleavage shots (except during the deathmatch which was too bad) or any celebrities trying to act like gamers. Well played, MTV.
Well, that was actually anti-climactic. I’m still interested in the next generation of consoles, including the Xbox. Things looked great. But like I said earlier, there’s still that nagging feeling that I can’t shake. With the marketplace, the ugly design (with a ring of light!), and the “HD era” things feel gimmicky. I know Microsoft knows what they’re doing, so I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Update #2: Here are some of the other bloggers talking about the Xbox 360 - Damned Machines, SmashBOT, Video Games Ombudsman, Dubious Quality, Joystiq, Nomad Gamer, Listen Up, Sports Gamer, Arena of Ideas, Also Coin Operated, and others, I’m sure. The consesus seems to be MTV sucks, the Xbox 360 didn’t impress, and everyone will still be buying one. Mission Accomplished.
The Carnival of Gamers
Recently, I’ve been mulling over starting something that has been popular among other “genre” bloggers, the Carnival. What is a Carnival? I’ll quote the description of the popular Carnival of the Vanities (from a recent edition of said Carnival):
The COTV is showcase of blog posts which have been submitted by their authors as an example of their best work. Each week a host is selected to compile these posts and present them to the blogosphere so that people who may not have known about them will get a chance to read them. It is a great opportunity to expand your horizons beyond the normal heavy hitters.
There are a bunch of interesting Carnivals out there, including the ever important Cat and Dog Carnivals! If cat bloggers can have their own Carnival, so can Video Game Bloggers! I think this would be a great way to expose your readers to other players that also blog about video games. I think video game blogs are on the cusp of something big here.
With that in mind, I propose the Carnival of Gamers. (That’s the working title, it can change if someone has a better moniker) I would host the first couple of Carnivals, since I have a vested interest in seeing this succeed. I’m not sure if weekly or bi-weekly would be the best format, but that would work itself out. Anyone interested in participating would submit their selected entry to me, by way of blog comments or email to “buttonmashing at gmail dot com”. Everyone that submitted entries would be included (barring any inappropriate content, my discretion) and I reserve the right to present the entries as I see fit. I would add commentary as needed but I would want the entries to speak for themselves. This is about bloggers and their writing, not my lame attempts at pithy remarks.
So before I/we start this, I want to gauge interest in this endeavor. If you have a blog about video games, would you be interested in participating? Would you link/submit/host the Carnival? Would you be thick-skinned enough to take the occasional bit of criticism that may pop up, over time? How often to do you think we should have the Carnival? Can fanboys get along? Do you have a better name for it? Should we call it the Carnival of the Fanboys?
So please, link to this post, comment, send me an email, whatever, if you think this might be something that we “non-existent” gaming bloggers can do.
Update 5/11/05 - 8:28pm: There has been a pretty good response to the idea of having a Carnival. Many have responded, both to participating and to helping out/hosting. Everyone seems pretty optimistic. Thomas mentioned (in the comments) that some Carnivals have the host choose the posts to highlight, but I like the format of the Carnival of the Vanities with the participants submitting their own posts, so I think that will be the format we go with.
I’m planning on holding the first Carnival of Gamers Thursday, May 26th. I think bi-weekly will be an appropriate frequency. Thomas has volunteered to host, so he’ll host the next Carnival June 9th. We’ll set up a schedule with other hosts after that. I’ll set up a submission page next week and we’ll start accepting submissions then. Everyone is welcome to submit, and I’d really like it if we had some submissions from bloggers who aren’t obsessed with games as much as we are. Look here for more information soon.
Update 2:Go here for submission instructions.
Live Xbox 360 shot!
I don’t care for it, but maybe you will - Engadget brings us a Live Xbox 360 shot!. It can look ugly as long as it delivers the goods, namely Halo 3. The white color will certainly stick out next to the black components of my home theater but that’s not a big deal for me. Standing up isn’t my thing, either, but I doubt it will have to stand as such.
Is this the real deal? Who cares, in less than a week we’ll have the MTV unveiling (which I’ll probably live blog) and we can say goodbye to all the rumors and hearsay.
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