Okay Geek Farm
Penny Arcade to start offering video game coverage
Ezra Quintana
There’s a shift in the tectonics plates in what is now known as “video game journalism”. People are moving, sites are being formed, and new Avenger teams are being assembled. But what does it all mean? Maybe not a lot, but as in the words of Ben Kuchera, Penny Arcade’s new editor in charge of video game coverage (for lack of a more precise title atm), “I don’t think it says much, other than the fact people are starting to really invest in good writing, as egotistical as that sounds.” It makes sense considering that the biggest sites like IGN and Gamespot attract viewers through headlines, whereas the refined gamers who enjoy editorials flock more towards sites with large editoral personalities. So what does this mean for Penny Arcade?
Penny Arcade to offer their own video game coverage as gaming editor of Opposable Thumbs for Ars Technica joins the ranks of Gabe and Tycho:
Tycho (Keith Gerald “Jerry” Holkins né Parkinson)
Writer at Penny Arcade“There’s an incredibly short list of people I trust to tell me the truth about the industry, even if I don’t always want to hear it, and Ben Kuchera is on top of that list. You may already be a reader of his at Ars Technica, where he’s been in charge of their gaming coverage for… well, ever. Until today, I guess, when I hired him.
We’re bringing him on to create industry coverage you can read without holding your nose, essentially; I want a perspective, I want a Curator for the Internet’s gaming content. In a couple words, I want something less insulting and disposable.
We used to rail about IGN in our innocence, back when we couldn’t imagine anything worse. News is pretty much busted at the moment; you may be shocked to hear it, but deadlines every twenty minutes put you on the wrong side of quality versus quantity. We have a track record of seeing broken things, and making an attempt to fix them; this is our attempt, and Ben is at the core of that. I’ve wanted something like this for awhile, and so we’ve begun to make it. Of course, you’re welcome to read it as well.
Do you want to meet Ben, figure out what his deal is? He’s running a Q&A in the forums now.”
At the moment it’s not quite apparent what sorta verbage and words we’ll see on Penny Arcade in terms of gaming coverage. According to his Q&A, Ben will do more of an editorial role, posting on specific days rather than reporting daily press releases as most sites do (us excluded, of course).
Though it seems like we’ll get more a commentary on what’s happening within the industry, different aspects of the daily happenings we usually read in an objective way simply for info. I doubt we’ll see game reviews in any shape or form, but more critique’s on game mechanics and the direction genre’s are heading, but that’s just our best guess.
What does this all mean?
I loved reading Kotaku for the opinions and un-related subject matter of some of their posts, even though many would say that the site was pretty late to some of the biggest stories already posted on other sites. But again, I was drawn to the people behind the written words — just as many will follow Kuchera as he leaves his longtime role at Ars to head over to Penny Arcade.
In my own head I like to think of game journalism the way in which media was portrayed in the 40’s; very cut throat and first to scene gets the prize. Nowadays it’s not really like that anymore. The smaller sites get the facts and then the bigger fish regurgitate those and earn the hits off their massive site. It’s a nice change of pace to see the leaders of these school of fish move over and do more editorial stuff than simply just posting for the sake of having more content on their individual sites. Just look at how The Verge has flourished after the events in which put Arianna Huffington in charge of AOL blogs. The masses who enjoyed Josh Topolsky and his crew of minions took their views with them to his new interim site, and subsequently over to The Verge.
Will we see a mass exodus from the larger sites over to more boutique and well focused blogs run by the independent? I highly doubt it. But for the best in gaming criticism I like where the trend is going, and we wish Ben the best of luck as he takes Penny Arcade into uncharted waters.
