The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Its not you.
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1up.com: Past, Present, Future of 1up - big changes beginning May 21
- Thread starter chickdigger802
- Start date
Its not you.
chickdigger802
Banned
Too many youngsters with attitude flooding the market!
I still visit 1up because of their 'knowledge' on older stuff and weird correlations.
1up is like one of the few places that you'd see comparisons with me2 final boss and a boss in contra 3 for example.
RadarScope1
Member
Certainly sounds like the direction they need to take and it's true that personalities and opinion have always been the heart of the good 1UP days. The problem is so many other people and sites already do that, so it's not like this is unplowed territory (the mainstream press even covers games in this way often). And with just four people you won't get a huge variety of viewpoints. Still, I might check it out once in a while.
SuddenlyCORGIS
Neo Member
Jeremy Parish is my spirit animal. For a while I thought the 1UP staff had dwindled to just him and Bob Mackey.
Hopefully the 21st reveals six shades of awesome over there.
Hopefully the 21st reveals six shades of awesome over there.
I mean, I'm not trying to sound cynical, but what's the point of trying to try and do stuff like 1Up did, or how Giantbomb currently does? Not trying to turn this into a shit on ign/Gamespot/Kotaku thread, but it's clear that what's usually successful is either being first, or getting exclusive coverage. The clawing and fighting to post a story 30 seconds ahead is sadly what brings in more page views and dollars.
It basically just becomes easier to create run-of-the-mill templates for your previews, reviews, and news by just turning it into an almost assembly line like style of creating content. At least that's what the case seems to sadly be.
In Jeremy I trust.
No, seriously, I do. I think he is a fantastic professional and I like the idea of him going with a small team into a desperado mission to redefine the page and forget the usual labels and structures of a videogames pages. There is potential for greatness there.
I will keep a close eye on it. Best of lucks Toasty!
No, seriously, I do. I think he is a fantastic professional and I like the idea of him going with a small team into a desperado mission to redefine the page and forget the usual labels and structures of a videogames pages. There is potential for greatness there.
I will keep a close eye on it. Best of lucks Toasty!
Geez...I had no idea that 1up was only staffed by four people. Or anywhere ever close to that number. That's very impressive, but yeah, definitely sad at the same time.
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
jeremy, do you empty your own trash? if the toilet gets clogged, who is responsible for the declogging?
SatelliteOfLove
Member
I just hate that so many of the guys whose opinions I trust and respect (note I didn't necesseraly mean agree with), are now out of this industry or scattered one or maybe two per site, and are constantly getting let go. Sad, it gives me this feeling that more and more, there is no real landed criticism outside of blogs and forums such as this one, and that gives publishers more pull on what the average gamer hears.
chickdigger802
Banned
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
that's definitely how i interpret the decline in the past five years. what i perceived as the healthy, enthusiastic market for good gaming journalism and multimedia content must have been fictional--that, or it's just not being served aptly these days.
DidntKnowJack
Member
Heh. I didn't even notice my video had been linked to.
I still have a lot of the old 1up videos on DVD. Don't have 'em all, but a fair few.
I agree, but I'm going to venture to guess that we're just going through a rough period right now. My mind wants me to think that the perfect storm of bad factors have caused what has happened in what Satellite mentioned. Hopefully, in 5 years, it will look completely different.
You couldn't be more right on the fact that it feels more cookie cutter these days compared to the past. Previews feel like they're just adding a few words between bullet points, and that goes for reviews as well. I watched that video with 1Up reviewing Condemned 2, I think it was, and I just thought to myself that you just don't see that anymore. It wasn't a review that consisted of going through the numbers, and then tacking on a score at the end, but it was a bunch of people actively discussing the good and the bad of the game, what worked, and what didn't. It felt...it felt organic. It feels real. It feels like you were listening to a bunch of your friends that just happened to be really knowledgeable about games. They go in-depth, but since there are several people, it never gets bogged down in details, and it fast moving and always interesting. It's just a shame that every single review is either just gameplay footage with a guy doing a VO from a script, or a guy standing on a green screen with gameplay playing behind him, as he reads from a script. iI's just not the same.
EDIT: I just went back and realized that Condemned 2 video was a preview. A fucking preview! They put that much effort and had an awesome discussion like that in a preview! I thought they were having an in depth review of the game, and instead this is only a preview of the game...well, shit. This only proves my point. Think of previews from other sites. Usually the same deal as the reviews. A guy mumbles over some gameplay footage and kind of dances around the quality of the game, as not to give away their review score early. The quality of the video, and the fact that it is only a preview just made me even more sad that this 1Up is gone.
Here's the Condemned 2 video preview for anyone who cares.
ClosingADoor
Member
These are just way cheaper to produce. If people watch that just as much, why pay for three or four guys to discuss a game instead of one. Sad but true.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Less likely to anger the viewer, and also going deep tends to be for naught as most are looking for a score or hype only, not details on cleverness or landmark interest in some title that hasn't got the hype train a chuggin'.
Back in the day, the people at 1up were genuinely concerned about the quality of video game journalism (if there is such a thing). Listening to those podcasts and hearing everyone voice their concerns made me hopeful that we were headed for better days.
Now that group has split in a million different directions. Many of them jumped ship for development houses. And I'd argue that gaming journalism is as bad now as it has been over the past years. I'm not asking for a truly ground-breaking approach to writing about games -- the main concern is simply putting together a staff of writers who take their jobs seriously and are true professionals.
It's the easiest thing in the world to throw up a a few dozen "Top 10" lists and suck dick for the occasional exclusive. Gaming journalism has to get away from that. It doesn't help that there's almost no one in the industry who is a good writer. That's the first step -- hire people who are both knowledgeable about games and skilled with a pen. Then we can worry about how the term "video game journalism" is an oxymoron.
Now that group has split in a million different directions. Many of them jumped ship for development houses. And I'd argue that gaming journalism is as bad now as it has been over the past years. I'm not asking for a truly ground-breaking approach to writing about games -- the main concern is simply putting together a staff of writers who take their jobs seriously and are true professionals.
It's the easiest thing in the world to throw up a a few dozen "Top 10" lists and suck dick for the occasional exclusive. Gaming journalism has to get away from that. It doesn't help that there's almost no one in the industry who is a good writer. That's the first step -- hire people who are both knowledgeable about games and skilled with a pen. Then we can worry about how the term "video game journalism" is an oxymoron.
VisionaryQuest0
Member
Here's a little "where are they now" info:
Luke Smith= Community Manager at Bungie
Shane Bettenhausen= Now works at Sony Entertainment
John Davison= VP of CBS Interactive
Garnett Lee= Editorial Director of Gameshack
Sean Malloy= At Blizzard
Shawn Elliot= At Irrational Games
Jeff Green= At Pop Cap Games
Ryan Scott= Freelancer, podcasts over at Geekbox.net
Mark MacDonald= At 8-4, Inc in Japan
Luke moved up to Game Designer from Community Manager. Seems most of them end up doing so, like Sean.
So I check to see if there's a new Oddcast and... god dammit. It's over! I love this fucking podcast. It has provided me with many laughs over the past couple years or so. Honestly, it was a nice contrast to all the OMG SO SERIOUS gaming podcasts (and, really, podcasts in general) out there. I hope they can get together and bring it back in some other way in the future. Games, movies, life in general... it was always just a fun podcast to listen to no matter what the topic was.
Looks like 1Up is turning into a shell of its former self like so many gaming sites before it. It's rough out there. At least we still have Giant Bomb.
Anyway, thanks for The Oddcast, 1up (and more specifically, Tina, obviously). *salute*
Looks like 1Up is turning into a shell of its former self like so many gaming sites before it. It's rough out there. At least we still have Giant Bomb.
Anyway, thanks for The Oddcast, 1up (and more specifically, Tina, obviously). *salute*
The podcasts from 1UP are probably the only ones I followed regurlarly. They were diverse, funny, interesting. Shame it has come to this.
Regarding the editorial, I think the "let's wait a while and give our own impressions" is their best chance to survive and remain an interesting site. I actually prefer that kind of papers. I wish them to succeed.
Regarding the editorial, I think the "let's wait a while and give our own impressions" is their best chance to survive and remain an interesting site. I actually prefer that kind of papers. I wish them to succeed.
Ivan A Nguyen
Member
So... Did anything happen? It's the 21st.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I'm trying to find something about this, but I can't? And nothing about it on the latest podcast.
pretty sure they do video game ads now
Boss Man
Member
Wow, that COD2 launch title. If only they knew the monster it was going to become.
So they just do hypothetical speculation? Thats all there is to the 'big changes'?
Reminds me of old marvel comics in the 90s.
Check the thread again. They're doing weekly themes, 'what if' was for this past week.
pauljeremiah
Gold Member
brings back a lot of memories, it was just when I started chatting to people online about games, it is pretty weird that Garnett was 1UP's PC Editor. Though watching the episode was like catching up with some old friends that you never see any more.