I’ve got a new column at Edge Online. It started this morning and it’ll run every Wednesday on the site. The gist? I’ll be covering the “offbeat” beat, looking for unusual angles or strange topics. I’ll err on the side of the obscure, the strange, and the irrelevant. I’m not positioning myself as any kind of an expert. I’m opinionated, but I’m setting out not to write an opinion column, or say that “games should do this” or “games should be that,” or publish my 600-800 word thought nuggets for the world to disagree with. Rather, I’m going for a column that asks, “Hey, did you know … ?”
Looking back on the other columns and features I’ve written, the ones that I enjoyed the most were based on discovery – like covering what the music scene is like in Antarctica, or sneaking onto the Avril Lavigne eTeam. I wrote 40 columns for Pitchfork and the ones I still remember the best were the first ones, where I interviewed a burlesque dancer or internet film critic Mr. Filthy, just to find out, “Okay, what’s your deal?”
In that vein, this’ll be rooted in games – but if I talk to a comic creator or a TV personality for another interview, and I find something I can use here, I will. I’ve always wanted to do a truly multimedia column, and let’s face it, not many people consume just one or two or eight media in their daily routine. The more I can crossover, the better.
I’ll also riff on whatever I’m playing that week, or bug my friends and colleagues for their opinions. Or I’ll make fun of my four-year-old. I’ve got about eight columns in draft form, they’re all over the map, and I get a kick out of all of them.
This should be fun.
Discovery! It’s like the best thing the internet can be used for – why, oh, why haven’t I seen this angle on it before… I said it before, but I’ll say it again so it’s here in (digital) stone, I really liked the first column. If they can all be as off-beat, quirky and interesting as that you’re onto a winner.
Hello Chris. Just letting you know I’ve written a response to your Overlord II sex scene article over on Explogamer:
http://www.explogamer.com/2009/08/04/a-response-to-edges-best-sex-scene-award/
Howdy again. Response to your response here: http://www.explogamer.com/2009/08/04/a-response-to-edges-best-sex-scene-award/
Glad we can come to a consensus! My whole thing about sex in games is that it’s really more of an industry issue (well, that and public perception that mature games are still for kids). Once games are as socially “acceptable” as all other media we’ll see all kinds of content in gaming.
Thanks for the fun discussion!
Right back at ya! Good to meet and talk with you.