February 2012
1 post
The Price of Whitney Houston
I read a tweet this morning that has bothered me all day. On iTunes (UK) the price of Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits has been increased from 5 pounds to 8 pounds. The person who tweeted this used one sarcastic word to sum up his feelings - “classy”.
Thinking on whoever decided to hike the price of this dead woman’s work I settle upon a man in his late 20s; ambitious, not without ability but...
January 2012
1 post
25 Tips for the Young Games Journalist
Last year I became the proud recipient of a Games Media Legend Award. It was also my 25th year since I began working in games journalism. So I felt the weird urge to write 25 tips for the young games journalist, based almost entirely on the mistakes I’ve made over the last two and and a half decades, and which I continue to make. I hope these are useful. You can send me feedback via...
November 2011
1 post
IGN Game Business Podcast - Previously Game Theory →
September 2011
2 posts
What is ‘News-worthy’?
You rarely hear the word ‘worthy’ any more? It’s stuffy. It smacks of snobbery. Today, it’s mostly used sarcastically, to describe someone who aspires to elitism. ‘Worthies’ are self-important people. Whatever good they do, they do mostly for their own good.
But in the news business, you hear it every day.
“Is this news-worthy?” It’s a question raised for two reasons.
Firstly it asks if the...
July 2011
11 posts
Google Plus First Impressions
PROS
1) I’m a Google fiend - docs, calendar, gmail - so it’s nice to have this as part of the package.
2) The Circles are GREAT. I love the idea that I’ll be able to talk socially about super-specific things (fave TV show, football, kids stuff) with small groups of friends and not bother everyone else.
3) The privacy settings seem better than Facebook’s. I feel safer. I...
Why I Really Like 'Bounce'
I rarely read inspirational self-improvement books because you can usually get the author’s gist from the back-blurb. Too often, these books bore me to tears by page 75. Hardly inspiring.
Bounce, by Matthew Syed is something else. A former table-tennis star and successful games journalist, he’s fascinated by what makes people good at things. Turns out that it’s mostly those good...
Top 100 Modern Games →
Spending my day engrossed in this list. Can’t believe how many of these I’ve played, especially among the top entries.
