We're approaching holiday zero hour, and that means parties and presents this weekend. Plus we're supposed to get hell of snow this weekend, so I may end up being housebound. Fine by me -- I'll take any excuse to get back to the Capitol Wasteland.
-I was just tickled to get an honorable mention in part 1 of Simon Parkin's roundup of the best games writing of 2008, for the "Sex, violence, and video games" piece. Thanks to him for the acknowledgment, and also to whoever nominated the story in the first place.
-Of the many great "year in review" pieces to come along, Iroquois Pliskin's "The Year of Being There" is one of the best I've read. It's true: this year's games took us to some amazing places, and many tried hard to stretch the possibilities of interactive settings. But there were definitely some growing pains involved.
-Also worthy: RPS's take on Far Cry 2. Jim Rossignol and Kieron Gillen both have excellent takes on the game. This seems like a game that's going to stick with people for a long time, despite its flaws.
-Shoe argues against reviewers trading or selling promo copies of games. This is something that feels wrong to me, too, but I could never figure out exactly why. Shoe doesn't really answer the question, either. He seems to take it as a given. For myself, I don't attempt to profit unduly from the free goods I receive once I'm finished with them -- I don't sell them for cash, and I often give them to friends who would enjoy them -- but I don't see any problem with trading stuff in for other work-related items. For example, I just traded in some games for Prince of Persia, which I'm reviewing, and Fallout and Yakuza, both of which I wanted to play before putting together a top 10. Still feels kind of dirty, but... why?
-Even though I'm a newcomer to Fallout 3, I'm glad to see that others are still writing some good stuff about it. Check out Tom Cross's column at GSW, CrashT's at Groping the Elephant, and Travis Megill's at The Autumnal City.
-Hardcasual's posts about David Schwimmer's WoW chatlogs really made me laugh.
3 comments:
Isn't it obvious why it feels dirty for a journalist to trade in or sell a game you received for free? Because then the game changes from something you need to do your job to something from which you are personally benefitting. What's the difference between that and the publisher cutting you a check, which is obviously wrong? Not much, in my book.
I can't believe EGM allowed it for so long. No, wait. I can.
Post a Comment