I guess it’s finally time for me to level up.

It
was the summer of ’99 when I convinced my then editor to send me on a
tour of the U.S. videogame industry. When I finally returned three
weeks later, my head was still spinning. I felt as though I’d seen the
future of entertainment. It was then that I made it my mission to put
NEWSWEEK’s coverage of this growing medium on the map. I did that in
print, with cover stories on the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 2
and the spread of online gaming. I did it online, with the debut of the
blog N’Gai Croal’s Level Up. I did it on television, with appearances
on MSNBC and CNN. You all watched me push, prod, praise, scold, discuss
and debate videogames across multiple media, both mainstream and
enthusiast. That’s because my editors were prescient enough to let me
apply my talents and establish my reach beyond the magazine, from
co-blogging with MTV News to writing a monthly column for Edge and
more. For this, I say to them all, thank you.

Having achieved all
of this, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I’ve accomplished
what I set out to do ten years ago. And now it’s time for me to take
that decade’s worth of accumulated knowledge and do something else with
it. After Friday March 6th, my passions will take me beyond the world
of journalism. I’ll be wearing many hats on this new journey: videogame
design consultant, media strategist, consumer technology reporter,
columnist, blogger and, as always, provocateur. You’ll be able to keep
track of my various adventures at ngaicroal.com, and feel free to reach
out to me via email at ncroalbiz@gmail.com. It’s been a pleasure
conversing with all of you, and I look forward to continuing our
dialogue in the years to come.

Cheers,

N’Gai …(read more)
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Are
reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another
purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames?
Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference
between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when
the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and
reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games,
small games, indie games and user-generated games?

These
questions
and more were on the mind of N’Gai Croal, John Davison and
Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their
conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and
reporters for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below
for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include
Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash;
Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media;
Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and
Evolving the Review. The participants are as follows:

Participants

• Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
• Harry Allen, Media Assassin
• Robert Ashley, freelancer
• Tom Chick, freelancer
• N’Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
• John Davison, What They Play
• Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
• Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
• Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
• Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
• Stephen Totilo, MTV News

The
topic for Round 1, which will be published here in installments over
the next several days, is Review Scores. Previously, we published Part I, Part II
and Part III; today, we conclude the Review Scores portion of our
symposium with Part IV. To read today’s section in its entirety, click
on the link below.

…(read more)
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Are
reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another
purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames?
Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference
between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when
the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and
reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games,
small games, indie games and user-generated games?

These
questions and more were on the mind of N’Gai Croal, John Davison and
Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their
conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and
journalists for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below
for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include
Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash;
Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media;
Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and
Evolving the Review. The participants are as follows:

Participants

• Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
• Harry Allen, Media Assassin
• Robert Ashley, freelancer
• Tom Chick, freelancer
• N’Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
• John Davison, What They Play
• Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
• Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
• Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
• Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
• Stephen Totilo, MTV News

The
topic for Round 1, which will be published here in installments over
the next several days, is Review Scores. Yesterday we published Part I. Today we continue with Part II; to read this section in its entirety, click on the link below.

…(read more)
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Are
reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another
purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames?
Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference
between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when
the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and
reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games,
small games, indie games and user-generated games?

These
questions
and more were on the mind of N’Gai Croal, John Davison and
Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their
conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and
reporters for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below
for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include
Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash;
Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media;
Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and
Evolving the Review. The participants are as follows:

Participants

• Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
• Harry Allen, Media Assassin
• Robert Ashley, freelancer
• Tom Chick, freelancer
• N’Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
• John Davison, What They Play
• Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
• Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
• Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
• Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
• Stephen Totilo, MTV News

The
topic for Round 1, which will be published here in installments over
the next several days, is Review Scores. Last week we published Part I and Part II; now we continue with Part III. To read today’s section in its entirety, click on the link below.

…(read more)
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Are
reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another
purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames?
Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference
between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when
the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and
reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games,
small games, indie games and user-generated games?

These
questions and more were on the mind of N’Gai Croal, John Davison and
Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their
conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and
journalists for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below
for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include
Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash;
Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media;
Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and
Evolving the Review. The participants are as follows:

• Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
• Harry Allen, Media Assassin
• Robert Ashley, freelancer
• Tom Chick, freelancer
• N’Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
• John Davison, What They Play
• Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
• Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
• Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
• Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
• Stephen Totilo, MTV News

The topic for Round 1, which will be published here in installments over the next several days, is Review Scores. To read Part I in its entirety, click on the link below.

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Yesterday, the stock price of Take-Two Interactive fell
after the company announced a fourth quarter loss of $15 million (up
from a loss off $7.1 million a year ago) even though its revenue of
$323 million (up from $293 million a year earlier) was greater than
expected. What’s interesting is that in early November, according to Bloomberg, Zelnick all but declared Take-Two
recession-proof, stating “With entertainment products, if there’s
something you must have, typically consumers are going to buy it….So
far, we’re not seeing any negative influence of the overall economy on
sales of our titles.” Yesterday, however, Zelnick was siging a
different tune. “We too are influenced by a very difficult set of
economic conditions and the world looks a lot worse than it did just a
couple of months ago,” he admitted.

The news wasn’t all bad, however. For the entire fiscal year,
Take-Two is projecting a profit. And the best news of all was that the
core staff of the studio that’s primarily responsible for those
profits–Rockstar Games’ Dan Houser, Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and
unnamed others–has signed new contracts with Take-Two through the year
2012. More interesting, however, than the fact that the new deal would
be “primarily based on a profit sharing agreement,” was the following
paragraph:

In addition, Take-Two has agreed to
fund the future development of certain new intellectual property to be
owned by a newly formed company controlled by key Rockstar Games team
members and published exclusively by Take-Two.

In
other words, the Housers and their inner circle retain creative control
of the franchises they’ve created, including Grand Theft Auto. They
received a rich new deal. And they will also be able to create
brand-new franchises for a separate company that they control–note
that the release doesn’t specify who owns the company, so Take-Two
could have a stake in it–with those new games being funded and
distributed by Take-Two. We were impressed when Bungie got to keep its
name upon departing from Microsoft during the Flight of the Killer B’s,
but this strikes us as a far better and shrewder deal, with the Housers
and company having the best of both worlds: they get to strike out on
their own without ceding control of the house that they built.

For further analysis, we turned to Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter. Here’s what he had to say:

To read our Q&A with Pachter, click on the link below.

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Stephen Totilo, MTV News: To
save us the embarrassment of not having deeply discussed 2008′s biggest
gaming newsmaker, I must add that [Wii Fit] served a number of
interesting roles. It presented to average people the idea that playing
a game could be good for you, it convinced some gaming executives that
fitness gaming is the next trend that must be followed, and it expanded
the currently unlabeled category of Self-Help Video Games that
Nintendo’s brain-workout Brain Age software opened up in 2006 (and
which may someday force gaming-sales charters to give self-help games
their own list, the way the New York Times had to in 1983).

Chris Suellentrop, New York Times: Stephen
is saying that video games are a Fourth Medium, then, something truly
new under the sun. (Maybe this is just a different way of saying that
games are an Eighth Art Form, as Dennis Dyack says.) I often think
that’s right. But it also helps explain my long face, as Stephen puts
it. Don’t I have the right to expect something more from this marvelous
new medium? Something more wondrous than beautifully and impeccably
crafted worlds filled with enemies for me to kill?

What I want is a game with the elegant gameplay and level design of
Gears of War 2 but with the story of The Force Unleashed. But I want it
told in a manner like Braid—or even You Have To Burn the Rope—meaning,
a telling of the tale that is consistent with the promise and the
mechanics of this Fourth Medium (or Eighth Art Form).

I haven’t played this game yet. Have any of you?

Seth Schiesel, New York Times: [W]ith every passing year I grow deeper in my conviction that the most
interesting and meaningful games are massively multiplayer online games
in which you have thousands of people in emergent, persistent
communities with their own politics, their own tribes. In a massively
multiplayer game, every day is different because people are always
different. As I’ve played through dozens of games this year for my job,
it has been so vital to maintain a gaming home base, a center of
gravity with a group of people that I can just hang out and play with.
I’ve found that most of this year in Eve Online,
the hard-core science-fiction MMO that continues to grow. Eve is the
kind of game in which the group of people you play with is the most
important part of the experience. These are the people I’m on IRC with
even when I’m playing something else, and it is that sense of
community, of getting to know people from around the world just a
little bit, that is the most valuable thing in gaming for me, and it is
something that other media usually fail to provide.

N’Gai Croal, Newsweek: [I]n just 24 months, Nintendo has blown past
its rivals and continues to do so even though the 360 is now $50
cheaper than the Wii’s suggested retail price. To put this
Nintendominance in perspective, for the month of November, Wii (2.04
million) outsold Xbox 360 (836,000), PlayStation Portable (421,000),
Playstation 3 (378,000), and PlayStation 2 (206,000) combined….

Yes,
the data show that the video-game industry’s revenues continue to rise.
But how sustainable is that when development budgets are tilted toward
360, PS3, and high-end PCs and away from the market-leading Wii and
low-end PCs. If a remake of Resident Evil 4 sold extremely well on the
Wii, surely there was an opportunity for Dead Space. The liberating
sense of movement in Mirror’s Edge could have translated well to the
Wiimote and nunchuk. But because EA built those games for the
top-of-the-line machines, the Wii wasn’t even a possibility. So with
Nintendo as top dog, I think it’s time for publishers to throw it a
much bigger bone by leading development on Wii, then up-porting the
games to the more powerful systems, which should result in a larger
addressable audience.

Share your thoughts with us in the comments below

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