This is part of what’s wrong with games journalism

To use a phrase most gamers would be familiar with, it’s shit like this.

No, I’m not bothered by the prospect of Texas-based Retro Studios developing a Zelda game. Quite the contrary (The Metroid Prime trilogy is one of my favorite sets of games). What bothers me about this article posted on The Escapist yesterday is that the second- third- fourth- fifth- sixth-hand “report” implies that Nintendo’s outsourcing of one of its most popular franchises isn’t just possible; it’s imminent.

The Escapist article is so incredibly far down this digital game of telephone that you have to click five direct links, one of which was derived from a discussion forum, in order to get to the Spanish original. As Game Reactor reports, somebody asked Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto if Retro would be asked to develop a new Zelda given the growing complexity of the games. His answer was more of a “yeah, they’re probably qualified to do it,” whereas headlines elsewhere assert the possibility with more certainty.

Polygon is here, but why am I so excited?

Well, that escalated quickly.

Less than one year after reports of big names in the video game news industry leaving their respective companies surfaced, Polygon has arrived. I remember the day I learned Brian Crecente of Kotaku was stepping away from the site entirely after handing the reins to Stephen Totilo, founder of MTV’s Multiplayer games blog.

Knowing the man had been in the journalism game for awhile — I’ve followed his career since the days he wrote for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News while managing Kotaku at the same time — it was evident something was afoot. That something was a news site that sought to remedy most everything I bemoaned about journalism in general and games journalism specifically.

During my time writing for DualShockers I was increasingly disenchanted by the daily routine of hunting for news that simultaneously appeared on dozens, if not hundreds, of similarly themed sites and blogs. The sheer breadth of content with which you’re bombarded every day is exhausting. And that’s just on the reader side. I can’t tell you what it feels like to be faced with an overabundance of project updates yet a dearth of meaningful news. Everyone’s getting the same press release about the next Madden developer diary, but is it really worth posting something that’s already been published by 12 other sites?

The never-ending debate: ethics, online privacy and Reddit

Who is Violentacrez?

Because of Gawker’s Adrian Chen, the world no longer ponders the answer to that question. And by “the world,” I really mean Reddit and anyone who cares to pay even remote attention to Internet personalities. For those of you who don’t fall into either camp — and I don’t blame you if you don’t — here’s a bit of background:

Violentacrez, known in his offline life as Michael Brutsch, was one of the most high profile users on Reddit, a site that quite accurately claims itself “the front page of the Internet” and is likely the origin of whatever cute cat photo you stumbled across this morning. The site’s primary mechanic is simple: Users submit content, whether it be text, photo or video, and if other users — known collectively as Redditors — like that content, they “upvote” it. Collect enough upvotes and your post makes it to the site’s main page, which sees some of, if not the, highest traffic on the Internet.