I wrote a long diary piece for RPS about Shogun: Total War – Fall of the Samurai. They published the first three parts (one, two and three) but I never finished the fourth piece, as I couldn’t finish the campaign, so it just faded out. Here it is, finished at last.
This isn’t science fiction but it feels like it. A white-haired old woman comes in. “About 70 of them,” she says “we’ll come back.” She leaves. The number ticks up, the beeper beeps twice. Most of the room just sits there. It’s hard to remember, but most people are used to just doing nothing. Just
My small section of the internet is getting a little hotter these days; games journalism has always had its corrupt elements, but the combination of low-level “broken window” freebies corruption and the rarer (because of the expense) top-end “bought editorial” corruption, means that more and more well-meaning journalists are having to learn how to do…
The end of last year was the lowest point of my life so far (and it was almost entirely my fault, sorry M), but set this year up perfectly for a single golden question; could I survive and thrive as a freelance writer? The braggadocio-saturated answer was, thankfully, ‘yes, you cowardly arse; why didn’t you…
The Controversial Bit: yesterday morning, I posted on Twitter the following: Hypothesis; people who write for free are using their secure financial situation as an unfair advantage. Any antitheses? I got plenty.
To the tune of: The Durutti Column – Trust The Art Not The Artist Fuck provenance. The joy of many modern critics seems to lie in the attribution of intention to the auteur, or at least cause to the auteur, focusing on the backstory more than the object of study; the importance of something is
Games journalism isn’t that clear. Some people don’t think it’s journalism, and they think that using the word ‘journalism’ in combination with games is bad for communication, as it weakens the acuity of the language, and especially bad for journalism, as it associates journalism with something distasteful. It’s something I’ve heard repeatedly over the years,…
(This post to the tune of…) Professional statistics-mangler Professor Cliff Arnell is conquering the news again today, for his yearly profile-raiser about this being the most depressing day of the year. As Ben Goldacre has pointed out, he was paid to produce this research by Porter Novelli, a PR firm, who pitched the idea and date
At the start, chance happenings – two good brains happening on each other, meeting by renown and word of mouth. Nothing else, no writing. Then, with writing, papyrus passing from palaces of the kings as edicts, the only minds that were known. Then writing widens, concepts are allowed and others than the kings have raw