The list highlighted gaming's "important accomplishments of the last year (give or take)... in the categories of art, design, programming, business, and evangelism."
I.E. 2009.
Portal came out in 2007.
Singstar first came out in 2004.
Mirror's Edge came out in 2008.
Heavenly Sword came out in 2007.
Overlord came out in 2007.
Papermint isn't bad, but it's basically a 3D social network like IMVU and I'm not sure that's one of the most important accomplishments of 2009.
Margaret Robertson is a major talent and she deserves praise for her work in the field, but did she develop any games in 2009?
Alice wrote "The reason women aren't currently making up 50% of every field is not an intellectual issue, but a cultural issue." Could it just be a chronological issue, this time around?
Everybody knows that women have contributed massively to the game industry since its inception. Seeing GD's top-50 list for 2009 and accusing it of chauvinism simply because the best women in the business were in the midst of dev cycles during that year seems a little unfair to both GD and the women involved.
DISCLOSURE NOTE: I occasionally translate interviews with Japanese game developers for GD.
I've been freelance translating (mainly in games still) for ten years now, full-time for the past two.
Everything Daniel says is correct. I'd like to reinforce a few things, though:
- If you constantly rely on the dictionary when translating, that's a good sign that you don't know enough of the source language to write decent target text yet.
- That said, in this business, the most important thing that you're capable of writing correct, readable English. That's more important than being a good translator, in many ways. It's not as common anymore, but many Japanese console games have wonderful translations but still read like Chinese furniture construction manuals because nobody on the project could write English decently.
- Actually, never mind, I lied up there. The most important thing in the business is respecting deadlines. If you have to miss one, at least provide a decent reason. If you simply disappear, that's a great way to no longer have a career in translation.
I personally love working 100% freelance. The way I can work anywhere I want to is especially awesome, since I like traveling a lot -- I've been on a large game project since November, and I've contributed work to it from Connecticut, Washington DC, a Motel 6 in Georgia, San Jose, Dallas, the shores of Lake Tahoe, and (in a couple days) New York City. To say the least, this beats an office cube.
However, succeeding at this takes a special kind of personality and a dictatorial approach to personal finance. The work is feast-or-famine by nature, and when it comes, you better make time for it or else you are refusing money. I often find that work-wise I'm either free as a bird or I'm working 10-hour days without weekends in order to stay on schedule.
Also, as a freelancer, taxes are horrible. :(
If it means the difference between an E10+ rating and a T rating, 99 out of 100 publishers would make that change.
(And such things often do make the difference, yes.)
If it means the difference between an E10+ rating and a T rating, 99 out of 100 publishers would make that change.
(And such things often do make the difference, yes.)
Here, lemme summarize:
- I am in the "negotiation phase" of culture shock.
Attention Kotaku:
[www.makeshiftmiracle.com]
How to create word balloons quickly and easily in Photoshop. No skill required.
Comparing the circulation of Edge to Famitsu seems pretty unfair to me. It's like insinuating that Cahiers du cinéma is a failure because its circulation is much lower than Entertainment Weekly.
@Kobun: "Too bad the magazine tanked in quality once Flynt's publishing company bought it out."
LFP owned VG&CE from the beginning.
@urfe: You forget that Working Designs releases tended to have about a half year of delays back in the day between "going gold" and actually getting manufactured.
I reviewed Arc the Lad Collection for GamePro back in the day and we got it so early that yes, in fact, I did have time to play through the entire thing.
The thing that always happens with old game consoles (and I suppose a lot of other collectible hobbies) is that after a while, the only really passionate people left already have 99.99% of a complete set and are willing to pay absolutely anything for those last half-dozen or so they need.
That's why, for example, most games on 8-bit consoles are lucky if they break $5 on eBay but the rarest NES games like Stadium Events are climbing up into the thousands without breaking a sweat. Those half-dozen collectors need them, and that's their big outlay for the year, so they bid big or go home. #atari2600
This joke was funnier back when EGM did an article about it.
In 1999.
GamePro has been the butt of jokes from core gamers since 1994 or so, but -- even though it competes with Play for the fewest number of pages per month -- it manages to be unique enough that it's still around.
Plus, its website has always been oddly successful even though, again, hardcore folks almost never think to look at it.
Still, it's in the difficult position of having a really well-known brand name, yet needing to do something really new in order to survive in the marketplace -- competing with itself, in a way. That's not at all an enviable task and it's one that requires someone of Davisonian caliber to tackle.
@twinturbo2: Why? That sort of thing was attractive back to readers when the average reader was middle-school age. That hasn't been true for nearly a decade now.
Very fine overview.
Very hum'rous to see Ian Livingstone, head of a company that co-engineered Gerstmanngate and was more recently accused of unethical manipulation of UK mags in order to secure high Batman: Arkham Asylum scores, talking about reviewers not "reviewing games properly."
A fine overview of modern games media.
Very hum'rous to see Ian Livingstone, president of the company responsible for Gerstmanngate and more recently accused of striking unethical review-score bargains with UK mags for Batman: Arkham Asylum, criticizing reviewers for "not reviewing something properly."
Not Dragon Quest, which outsells Pokemon with every release?
Isn't it Kotaku's responsibility as game journalists to read All of the game magazines for news and coverage purposes? It strikes me as the least you could do, even if the magazines are shite.
Case in point: Official Xbox Magazine mentioned that Guitar Hero 5 would have avatar support two weeks before it was anywhere online.
Dear Famitsu,
How about an honest review of a Square Enix, Nintendo and/or Capcom game for a change?
Yrs,
Kevin Gifford
