ScottishGames.biz

Want To Write About Games?

Ready-Up, the online games community and website is looking for a new staff writer.  The applicant must be willing and able to blog, review, attend press events and generally get their hands all inky in the pursuit excellence in writing about games...

This is a definite opportunity for anyone with an interest in the art, culture - and playing of games.  Of course, it's also handy to want to know more about where games come from.  If you're a huge Keiron Gillan fan, weep quietly as you think about Stuart Campbell, have passionate arguments in the pub about whether Brooker or Blyth were better writers for Zone, or generally bore the back teeth out of non-gaming friends with your opinions on the titles they recently wasted money on; then you really should think about this.

If you know you have what it takes - if you can prove that you're capable of stringing many words together in enjoyable and useful ways, then pop by the Ready-Up site and let them know.

The full job description and benefits are outlined after the jump.

Award Winning Journalist Dave Cook Answers Questions On Winning Award...

We caught up with Dave Cook, the recipient of the Games Media Awards 'Best Regional Columnist' trophy on his return to Scotland after last week's glittering ceremony.  He was good enough to answer a few questions we had come up with spontaneously, on the spot as it were.  We were going to ask all sorts of fanboy questions about the awards and famous games-type people (did you touch Peter Molyneux?  No?  How about Tony Mott?) but decided against it at the last minute.  Instead we asked his award-winning opinion on the state of the games sector in Scotland (I know, I know, it's like we're obsessed or something...)

1.  The games market has become increasingly mainstream over the last 12-18 months thanks to things like WiiSports, Wii Fit, the casual market, etc. Do you think newspapers reflecting this growing market, or game still side-lined as curiosities?

The Wii really has changed things. I mean, many gaming articles in newspapers are fun, quirky consumer-based pieces talking about how quickly the DS sells out at Christmas or 'hey look, Gordon Brown..playing Wii sports..how bloody outrageous!'. No, I think overall, game coverage in newspapers has a long way to go and editors really need to understand just how much pull and influence the industry has on other entertainment formats. On the other hand, some have it spot on. The Guardian tech blog is a particularly good example of how to do a good, credible gaming article in a newspaper.

2.  What are the advantages of writing for a newspaper, as opposed to a specialist magazine?

Being freelance I'll have to say the agenda, most definitely. Writing games pieces for a newspaper, there's no one to tell me what games to review, it's entirely up to me. I don't have to sift through the torrent of naff titles staff writers have to play. However, if you want to talk disadvantages, well then there are more of those than plus sides I guess, but in some cases this is understandable, given the shift in readerships from paper format to online news. Many publications lack the budget or space to afford a game section, but they will have to eventually to keep up with the ever-rising popularity of gaming. I'm just glad to be where I am now before the big change hopefully comes and gaming articles appear regularly in papers. Ask me again when that happens.

3.  Apart from the shiny award and the opportunity to use the phrase 'award winning' on your CV/blog, what's significant to you, Dave Cook, award-winning journalist, about winning the award?

This will sound really daft, but I think the fact that the awards even exist is nothing short of amazing. That someone, somewhere actually feels the need to applaud the consistently impressive quality of writing coming out of the industry. I think that is a significant milestone in itself and lends the gaming press a great deal of credibility. Personally though, having it on the CV and being recognised by my peers is pretty sweet too.

4.  Why do games still receive so little attention in the wider Scottish media, despite the industry being such a significant part of the overall economy (and arguably media/arts scenes)?

I'd like to use the easy 'get-out clause' answer of 'stigma' but I think we're past that now, thanks to the kind of people buying games (families, older gamers etc.) When I really think about it, there is no 'good' reason, but I think the Scottish industry has an air of modesty about it, we simply don't give ourselves enough credit at times. Without this sort of excitement turning editor's heads, we'll still be that country hiding in the background, coming up with the goods but not really celebrating it. We're famous for GTA and Crackdown, but if you ask a punter on the street to name another big game from Scotland, they'd most likely draw a blank. Dynamo won a BAFTA for Championship Manager Mobile, which is an incredible achievement for such a small team. Now, search for all three of these games on Google and see which ones get most hits. Media everywhere, not just in Scotland, should keep their eyes on Dundee, as more kids grow up with computers and go through uni courses up there and participate in Dare to Be Digital, we'll really see some ace work coming out of Scotland.

5.  What is the most significant or exciting thing coming up in the Scottish industry according to Dave Cook, award-winning Scottish games journalist?

The easy answer would be to say Realtime World's APB wouldn't it? But, i'd actually like to see Yann Seznec's Wiiloopmachine getting a WiiWare release as I'm really looking forward to the new version he's got in the works, complete with full music studio. It's going to re-invent music creation on consoles, Nintendo, if you're reading this, stop rolling around in your piles of money and sign the guy up!

We then asked Andrew Eaton, the editor of Dave's weekly column in the Scotsman for his reaction to Dave Cook - award-winning journalist...

"I'm delighted that Dave's talents have been recognised in the Games Media Awards. His column can sometimes feel slightly hidden away, in the back of our Saturday culture magazine, Critique, but this shows that people are paying attention to his writing. The huge popularity of gaming - and its influence on the rest of culture, from cinema to theatre - makes it an important thing to cover. It's good to see our coverage acknowledged."

So, it's all good.  Now go buy Saturday's Scotsman and in the meantime, check out Square-Go and Ready-Up for the latest games news, previews, reviews and in-depth analysis type stuff.

SG's Dave Cook Wins 'Best Regional Columnist' In Games Media Awards

OK, so he's only written one piece for us, but we're claiming him anyway.  Dave Cook, the gentleman behind the Saturday games column in the Scotsman, won the 'Best Regional Columnist' Award at last night's Game Media Awards ('the only major game awards which doesn't have it's own website...')

And this, mark you, from a chap who also writes for Square-Go, Ready Up, Heat, People's Friend, Razzle and Build The Solar System partwork collection.

Well done, Dave.  It's well deserved.  We salute your ability, your skill, your hard work, dedication and the fact you obviously nipped into the loo to take the above pic with your cameraphone.  Always thinking about the story...

We can only hope and pray that the Scotsman realise what talent they have in you and increase your word count from the current 14, up to something covering, say, four pages.

There were a few other sundry awards handed out too...

Games Media Legend; Sponsored by Atari: Steve Jarratt

Games Magazine: Edge

Games Website: Eurogamer

Games Broadcast: Games Night on X-League.TV

Specialist Games Writer, Print: Tom Francis, PC Gamer

Specialist Games Writer, Online: Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer

Rising Star; Sponsored by Rising Star Games: Simon Miller, X360

Mainstream Magazine Games Writer; Sponsored by Ubisoft: Simon Munk, FHM

National Newspaper, Best Games Coverage: The Guardian

Regional Games Columnist: Dave Cook

Support Your Local Games Press

As part of Intent Media's plan to fill up the otherwise empty awards scene, the 2008 Games Media Awards are underway.  Voting is open and nominations have been made.  Our very own Dave Cook - writer for Square Go, The Skinny and occasionally SG.biz - has been nominated as the best 'regional' columnist (though we prefer to think of Scotland as more of a 'province' or perhaps a 'protectorate' than say, a country...)

Voting is as simple as sending an e-mail to Intent.

You can read the full list of categories and nominees here.

You can even vote for your favourite games mag and other journalistic types in there too.

Vote now.  Vote Dave! (he's the funny looking one with the moustache in the picture above).

Next Gen Edge Ration

If you're even passingly familiar with the games media, you will have come across Edge, the UK's shiny, design-driven and expert games magazine.  You may also have come across the online games site Next Generation.

Once upon a time, dear readers, the two were both printed magazines, both produced by Future, only Edge came out in the UK and Next Gen in North America.

Through a series of hilarious escapades and goings-on, the print version of Next Gen disappeared and was replaced by the popular website.  Edge continued to inform, influence and intertain, but despite a vocal and dedicated online community, had no real web presence.

Now however, there has been a glorious coming together and Next-Gen.Biz is now Edge Online; edited (local link alert) by Colin Campbell.

So you have your Edge guarantee of quality and vision, along with Next Gen's speedy, web-savvy online experience.  Everyone should now be happy.  We've already left glowing comments and applied for numerous jobs on the site and we'd recommend you do the same...

NOTE: We hereby claim all rights and entitlements to the pun in the headline, as the best overall summary of the story.

How To Do Games Journalism #3

This story stumped us quite frankly.  Variety - the journal of wannabes, luvvies and rapacious agents - reports that Sid Meier's Civilisation IV is racist because it features 'colonization'.

"But goddamit, am I the only one who think it's morally disturbing to make a game that celebrates COLONIZATION?"

The problem is that it's set in the real world, so you as the player, pop across from the old world to the new and then set about creating colonies (see, not just a clever name...)  This means that the game "is not only about colonization, but celebrates it by having the player control the people doing the colonizing."

All colonisation, he reminds us, is an essentially racist process.  As one people takes over territory from another.

Thankfully we have the wonderful example of the film industry, which would never rewrite history or treat conflict lightly and turn it into mere entertainment.

If Variety's games reporter seriously thinks that taking an episode of history and turning it into entertainment is bad form, then it immediately eliminates any and every movie, game or television programme (and most fiction) based on war, conflict, strife, oppression, or indeed any aspect of history or human interaction.

Would it be better if it was set in space, or a fictional universe?  If not, then he's stating that there are issues which should not be addressed in games. 

This raises a very interesting point and actually asks a serious question about how games address topics which are relevant to the real world.  Unfortunately, this is lost in the usual assumption that games cannot (and in a wider sense) should not address any sort of sensitive issue and simply glorify the violence and wickedness of any given situation.

While this sort of reporting is to be expected from the tabloid media, a dedicated games reporter might be expected to actually examine the game in question.  Sadly indignation and moral outrage beat careful research every time and make for far more exciting headlines.

Or perhaps he just wants to be taken seriously as a social commentator.

[Image from Valve, since Half Life is about Earth being colonized - accidentally or not - by nasty aliens and should therefore be criticized too. So there]

In Praise Of Videogames - Guardian Editorial

Proof, if more proof were needed, that the games business is making some fairly significant advances within the mainstream media (yesterday's Sun notwithstanding).

The Guardian carried an editorial yesterday which mentioned the Darling brothers being honoured, as well as the problems developers are facing in the UK. 

While it's arguable that the 'migrating in swarms' comment is hyperbolic, it's a testament to the industry overall that the paper actually mentioned this within it's regular comment column.

[It makes the Scottish media's 'ostrich strategy' look increasingly ill-thought out.]

Here's the full text:

Britain's video games industry received a tribute with the award of CBEs to David and Richard Darling in the Queen's birthday honours list. The two brothers built Codemasters - responsible for such hits as Colin McRae Rally and Sensible Soccer - into a global force. Although they sold out last year, their company is one of the reasons Britain's video games industry is among the strongest in the world, despite most of it having being taken over by foreign firms. News of the honours coincided with Grand Theft Auto, also developed in the UK, retaining its No 1 slot in the US charts for the second month running. This helped the US games market, including consoles, to a 37% sales increase over a year ago, a potent symbol of resilience. The Darling brothers will be grateful for their CBEs, but would have been even more delighted if recognition had taken a tangible form. The UK games sector is facing an exodus of talent to other countries offering tax incentives, particularly Canada. If companies relocating to Quebec can claim tax credits of up to 30% of payroll costs, small wonder they are migrating in swarms. The industry is lobbying the government to invest in a UK success story to prevent the exodus and secure it for the future. But subsidising industry is too "old Labour" for this government. Instead it is planning to complain to the World Trade Organisation, a procedure that could take years. By then, if no action is taken, it could look more like a case of Grand Theft Industry.

Sometimes It Takes A Scotsman...

To bring some much needed sanity to the whole GTA IV debate.

Friday afternoon recommendation: Zero Punctuation

Instead of the usual Friday afternoon japes and history lessons, we thought that this week we would instead point our valued and intelligent readers towards a site which you may not have come across before.

SG.biz doesn't carry reviews on a regular basis.  There are now well over a dozen sites you can visit for plain, old fashioned games reviews.  So even though it would mean getting free copies and have PR people fawning and taking us for lunch, we didn't think reviews would add a whole lot to our blend of news, analysis and opinion.

However, there is a man who does review stuff, whom you should probably check out.  His name's Yahtzee (or Ben Croshaw to his chums).  He runs a weekly review in the Escapist Magazine.  Which is a bit like Edge, but electronic and American.

Yahtzee however is British and based in Australia.  This gives him a certain advantage when it comes to reviews as he has the appropriate levels of cynicism, bitterness and a certain subtlety which you need to be a top flight reviewer.  Also, as it's online, there's scope for the occasional blasphemy or curse word, which ensures the reviews are as provocative as they are informative.

Since it's Internets-based, you can send Yahtzee messages and e-mails suggesting new games for him to review, or indeed challenging his opinions on your favourite games. 

If you've not seen any Zero Punctuation reviews before, we'd recommend you go and check them out.

GTAIV Discussion On Radio Scotland

Radio Scotland is holding a phone in debate on the content and ethics of violent videogames, focusing on our newly released chum, GTAIV.

So far, so reasonable.  Though the guy on right now claims games were created to desensitize the military...?!

Listen in here.

UPDATE: A bit of a mixed bag really.  Every gamer who called in sensible, level-headed and sane.  The rest of the callers ranged from the traditional (terrible, ruining society, poor children), to the irresponsible (my 8 year old plays it and it makes him aggressive.  I dinnae agree with it, but what can you do?), through to the downright bizarre (games were created to desensitize the military / Scottish parents will use this game to make their children 'hard men').

Ho hum...