he bespoke peripheral, and in particular looking at Wii Fit. It’s interesting to write for a magazine so ..er..’design’ centred, particularly because it start to question any assumptions you might have as to any shared understanding of what ‘design’ even means. Looking forward to writing more for DW, and in particular working hard to understand not so much where videogames as a whole might fit into their editorial mandate - but which facet of them. As for Wii Fit itself - it’s a really remarkable package. Catching a view of the UK television campaign a few nights ago, you see just how wonderfully considered Wii’s strategy is. 90 seconds about a balance board, with an almost incidental ‘by the way, you can purchase Wii Fit for this amazing peripheral’ tacked on the end. I’m already more excited about forthcoming balance board titles than anything else. I can’t really see me getting excited about GTA IV until there’s a Wii version where I can properly run around the city. The promise of the little beige box is really just starting to become visible.
You are currently browsing articles tagged Writing.
Tags: journalism, Writing
I’m currently crunching away on a new book, which aspires to be a (rather than ‘the’) history of the British videogame industry (incidentally - that cover is going to be changed…) As such, I’m finding myself drinking a variety of beverages with participants in this extraordinary story in an attempt to find some sort of consensus as to what *actually* happened.
Shortly after having spoken to two people about the same event however, it becomes rapidly apparent that the real core of this story is in the disparity between the recollections of the individuals involved. After starting with the best of intentions, it became clear that establishing a time-line of events that everyone could agree on was going to be impossible within my mortal life - luckily, it’s also not especially desirable. The book has been morphing in its aspirations, which at first felt like a dilution of what it was supposed to be, but rapidly became more interesting for it. Writing about nerd-culture, for a supposed audience as unforgiving as the nerd crowd are, the challenge has shifted to something altogether more interesting. Never intended to be a catalogue of release-dates, it seems to be coming to life now the focus has really shifted to the anecdotal experiences of these pasty-faced adventurers.
I thought it might be fun to give a brief run-down on some of these encounters on this site, to give a little colour to the meetings and (frankly) hopefully make you want to buy the book when it comes out. More of those soon…
Anyway - I’ve never been much of a blogger, but I thought it might be time to start doing so. Mainly because historically I’ve tended to be involved in interesting projects which have disappeared with little record of what they were or how they happened. I’ve always been at least slightly envious of folks likeKieron and his ability to keep his end up so well - so I’m kind of thinking it’s time for me to do this properly.
This is really for my benefit rather than yours, although if you enjoy it at all - then I’m delighted.
Tags: Play Britannia, Writing
I hadn’t even seen this one. My new best friend Matt Vella gives Inside Game Design four and a half-stars worth of review on the BusinessWeek site.
So says handsome, critically-sound Matt:“The Good: Useful and informative for insiders and casual readers alike. The Bad: Almost none; could use a little more analysis here and there. The Bottom Line: A brilliant romp through some of the industry’s most innovative shops. ”
Blimey.
Charismatic, confident Matt has just introduced a new area on the BusinessWeek site, the BusinessWeek Arcade - which is a collection of free indie-games. Great to see these kinds of titles getting some exposure on a site like this. Matt is brilliant. I just wish he’d spell my name right.
Tags: Inside Game Design, Writing