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March 20th, 2009
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Seems that the death of print is a popular subject these days. The end of many print publications is not in itself a bad thing. However, these organisations are one of the key bastions of journalism in the world, and no one knows who is going to fill those shoes.
A recent time magazine has an article on how a micro transaction model might be the way to save journalism (not necessarily newspapers!).
In the gaming world, journalism issues have been going on for quite some time, with the gaming mags some of the first to go the way of the dodo. For a while, large media/web sites have been a haven for gaming journalists, but now we are seeing increasing numbers of sites reduce staff numbers (e.g. 1up), and/or reduce the quality of their content (insert your hated guff gaming site here).
The reduction in article quality seems to be proportional to how advertisement driven the site is, although I am prepared to proven wrong on that. So I do worry how we are going to go, both within the gaming world, and in news in general, with web sites funded solely by advertisement revenue. There has to be multiple revenue streams for these businesses to survive in the medium and long term.
In a recent gamers with job podcast (linked here), Robert Ashley was on board chatting with the guys about the future of gaming journalism (and creative content related to gaming). He’s fairly jaded in parts, and a tad pessimistic, but it’s an excellent listen. In one part, he likens publishing content on the web as like pissing down a well… i.e. does anyone notice? 
Certainly plenty of folk are thinking about how the news media is going to evolve, and no one seems to have a functioning crystal ball!
- Scoobs
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Tags: Blogroll · Op Ed
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March 18th, 2009
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I was browsing the news the other day, this article in particular, and amazingly there was something sensible in the comments section.
One user pointed me to this article: Newspapers and thinking the unthinkable
It really is worth the somewhat lengthy read, as it helped me map out, in my mind at least, what may happen in the near feature regarding newspapers (and perhaps commercial TV as well in the future).
The main points I took away from the article are:
- that we are facing a revolution in the way news is going to be collected and distributed
- no one knows who is going to pay for journalists to collect information when news organisations disappear, or change dramatically. In the past 100 years or so, journalism and newspapers (and their control on advertising revenue) walked hand in hand – not any more.
- we really have no idea on what the future holds, or what business model is going to succeed the old news dinosaurs
My prediction, which I refuse to stand by :p , is that we will end up with a small number of subscriber based, expensive, high quality ‘newspapers’. Premium content. This is beginning to happen in the gaming world.
We’ll also end up with some key news aggregation sites on the net, that will filter the massive amount of blog, hot tips, rants etc into something that consumers can actually sort through over a coffee. They may actually print some of this stuff for subscribers. Once again, I see the gaming side of the net well ahead of the ‘game’ here.
We are also going to be in for a turbulent decade or so as people struggle to get their news ‘model’ functional and profitable… interesting times!
- Scoobs
Feel free to comment in the forums – HERE
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Tags: Op Ed
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March 16th, 2009
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The rise of the net, and all the new interactions we see hosted within it, continues to amaze me on a regular basis.
On the weekend, I got an invite to a bucks party… on the day it was occurring, and it was purely online!
A fellow member of Clan TOG was getting hitched, and since many/most of his friends are from online, they decided to hold a virtual bucks, which involved drinking, merriment and TF2 + DODs all in the one evening. No strippers, but anyone feeling odd about that can always Google.
I haven’t had so much fun in ages, the chaps had party hats for the TF2 characters, balloons, presents, and the organisers chose interesting play rules each game.
For example, we played 2fort all as scouts, baseball bats only, in low gravity! It was a bit like a chinese god/martial arts movie with people flying at each other from opposite sides of the open areas.
I’ll link one of the screens from the soon-to-be-lucky-lad’s site:
Scouts Aplenty
We also played some DODs, with restrictions on class (all mg is insane…). I drank lots of whisky as well.
I wonder if my own hell spawn will think such events normal as they grow up!
Good luck Mr Wizard!
- Scoobs
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Tags: Blogroll · PC Games
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March 14th, 2009
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Yep, it’s that time of the week again! The rise of digital distribution is really gathering pace, and the regular specials on offer from the various providers make it possible to pick up loads of good gaming, without breaking the bank.
On the PC that is
Stardock’s Impulse has a sale on this weekend (14th and 15th of March). Once again, the games listed are mainly older and/or indie games, such as Genesis Rising, Dungeon Lords CE, MotoGP 08, and Cellblock Squadrons (the latter, while a basic space shooter, is only 5 bucks! US)
Last week I picked up Sins of a Solar Empire – Entrenchment ($15 Aus), and Fences (free). Fences is an excellent application for tidying up the desktop icons, and making them all invisible with a double-click. Worth checking out if you clutter your desktop like I do.
I haven’t had time to play the Sins mini-expansion yet…
Valve also have a sale on Steam this weekend. Red Orchestra (a fairly hardcore, fairly-aged, still popular, team shooter) is $5 US. Unreal Tournament 3 can be played for free this weekend, and can be purchased for $12 US until March 22nd.
Last week I picked World of Goo on Steam for $5 US, and strongly recommend the game. It’s good fun.
Gamersgatehave Mount and Blade for $8 US. Lost Empire and Combat Mission Shock Force for $5.
Happy bargain hunting 
Oh, as always, you can post bargains in our bargains forum if you spot something we’ve missed.
- Scoobs
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Tags: Bargains · PC Games
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March 14th, 2009
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In case you didn’t know, the ex-1upshow chaps have gotten some financial backing and have put up a brand new, HD quality video. The show, called CO-OP, is mainly about their impressions of games, with a few side skits to break up the pace.
This particular version is about their impressions of Noby Noby Boy and Killzone 2, and is pretty well done. It’s nice to see them still going after the 1up debacle.
You can find other videos at their site – Area 5
I’ll get around to commenting on a variety of ‘1up-yours-replacement’ podcasts as time allows. This week was a bit of a killer at work.
- Scoobs
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Tags: Reviews · Video
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