I’ve been pretty busy this week with Game Developers Conference coverage. That’s a link to our hub! Go on and click it. Go on, it can’t hurt you.
GDC ’12 is the first major event we’ve tackled under 1UP’s newfangled editorial focus of “not just writing up the news.” Instead, each writer has elected to take on a different perspective — a lens through which to view the event, so to speak. Each of us is attending events and keeping appointments specifically relevant to our thesis. The we are writing about them! It’s super great. I love you all.
Anyway, here is how this shakes out for my own stuff. (I will let my collaborators speak for their respective work.) TA DAH:
- A piece about how hearing some inside perspectives on Mario 3D Land has brought me around on the game.
- A blast from 2011 noting the tenuous parallel between Keiji Inafune and Charlie Sheen.
- A sequel to a Square Enix localization history panel write-up I submitted five years ago.
- On making a sequel to Deus Ex and not sucking at it.
- And finally, the piece I’m proudest of: Unraveling the political overtones of Monday Night’s very strange EA SimCity reveal event.
What I have learned this week is that sometimes we color stories ourselves (the Mario 3D Land one in particular); sometimes we simply need to unravel the message (e.g. SimCity); and sometimes, the best story comes from simply being a conduit for someone else’s insights and reflection (the Deus Ex panel). Everyone else is still finishing off their stories, but even before it comes to its conclusion I am quite happy with the nature of our GDC coverage. I hope you have enjoyed it as well. Amen.
I’ve very much enjoyed 1UP’s coverage of GDC, it’s nice to have something beyond ‘this then this then this happened’.
Yep, 1UP is really turning into something special. I adore the new direction.
This new direction is very very interesting! Me like a lot :)
Now all you guys need is to get rid of that IGN video player ’cause it hardly ever works for me.
Good news! The IGN player is being scrapped and replaced in a matter of days. You’re welcome.
Every time you write here about 1UP’s changing direction I leave well deserved compliments, and I’ll do it again: You’re covering the same stories as other sites, but in reading multiple accounts of the same panels, I’ve found 1UP’s accounts more enlightening almost without exception, or, at the very least, worth reading. The Internet as a whole has been quite redundant this week, but I’ve been able to rely on 1UP for consistently fresh perspectives. Thanks!
But… this is the Internet, and being unilaterally positive feels completely out of place, so let me complain. (It’s a legitimate complaint, so I’m still not sure it’s right for the Internet, but it’s still better than compliments.)
Why does a Web site which so prominently asks, “Can Games Be Friendly to Women?” – it’s the very first subject on the GDC coverage page – contain a link to “Hot Girls” at the bottom of every page? Obviously, that’s UGO’s thing, and a throwback to 1UP’s less progressive days (I recall seeing 1UP job listings that asked for editors who were into hot girls and all things guys love not very long ago), but it seems incongruous with the sites new, more mature tone.
You know, those links are pretty much invisible to me since I see them so often. I bet we can have something done about that.
Wow, this is seriously good stuff. I’m gonna go spread it around Facebook – it’s all I can do to get eyes on the site!
I read a much shorter report on Moomle on Adirasang and came to the same conclusion; this is a HUGE step forward for Square’s localization strategy. It represents a complete about-face from their practices in the 90s, when, according to Richard Honeywood’s recount, the company had no localization whatsoever. In retrospect, the Moomle system, from how I understand it, seems like the obvious thing to do. “Yeah, why WOULDN’T you save all the translations in parallel with the original? DUH”
er, I meant to say “no localization strategy whatsoever”
add me to the list of those impressed with the new direction of 1up. I can honestly say it has felt like years since I’ve poured through almost every article and look forward to hearing each staffer’s unique voice. Might I recommend a new/streamlined layout to show to people that the site has evolved its style? I know its trite, but appearances and first-looks mean a lot when trying to stand out.
I’d like nothing more than a redesign, but it’s not in the cards for a while.