So proud… *sniff*
My sister: someone brought a super nintendo and had mario kart
My sister: i killed it
Me: LOL
My sister: no one wanted to play me after a while
Me: i am so proud of you
Time Out New York Kids: Video Game Gift Guide
I wrote a video game gift guide for Time Out New York Kids‘ December issue. See how many games with the words “Hero” and “Band” I unintentionally put in there.
Techland.com: Sex and ‘The Saboteur’ Interview
Up on Techland, I have a Q&A with The Saboteur lead designer Tom French on how nudity is used in the game, why they went with the decision to release in-game nudity as DLC and why he thinks mature content in games isn’t accepted by the mainstream.
Read the full interview here.
Discover Magazine: Hot Tech Feature
For Discover magazine’s December issue, I wrote and researched about video games, gadgets and cars for their year-end “Hot Tech” section.
Check out the article here (or online) to read about the Darth Vader toaster, Tony Hawk RIDE, Your Shape, Project Natal, Wii MotionPlus, the PS3’s motion controllers, hybrid and electric cars and more.
Joining Time Inc.’s Techland…
It’s been a crazy few weeks for me with my temp copywriting job (now complete), Thanksgiving at my mom’s in Florida, a few big game releases and a wedding for two great friends. And in addition to my regular writing at Game|Life, StreetLevel, Massively and ToyFare, I started contributing to Time Inc.’s new gadget and gaming site Techland, which launched November 16th. I’m writing primarily about video games, but also whatever my geeky heart desires.
The launch of the site got a lot of press, and I’m really excited to be working alongside Peter Ha, Lev Grossman, Steven James Snyder, Matt Selman and a few others. I even got my own illustrated profile picture, which was done by a pro — much better than the stick figure I originally drew.
Now I’m busy getting gift guides, top 2009 lists and top decade lists ready for my respective publications. I’ll try to update here more often, but if I don’t, blame Torchlight, Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins.
You can check out what I’ve done so far on Techland below. (more…)
Wired.com: ‘World of Warcraft’ Anniversary Interview with Rob Pardo, Ken Levine
World of Warcraft turns five years old today, and I got Blizzard executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo, who was originally one of the lead designers of the game, to reminisce about how the world’s most popular massively multiplayer game began.
And just because I could, I also got 2k Boston’s Ken Levine, of BioShock fame, to discuss his love for the title. “Any project where you need to sell people on a space in a videogame, you can learn something from World of Warcraft,” he said.
Read the rest of the article here.
StreetLevel.com: Kidrobot’s Munnyworld Exhibit
Designer toy retailer Kidrobot held their Munnyworld exhibit in New York over the weekend, so I couldn’t resist dropping by to check it out. It featured the artwork of over 60 artists on 20-inch vinyl toys, and I brought a photographer (thanks, Jesse!) to take some beauty shots in case you couldn’t make it.
It’s hard to pick a favorite but I think I’m going to have to go with the one by MAD. Check ‘em all out here.
StreetLevel.com: Frank Kozik Interview
Frank Kozik is one of my all-time favorite toy designers. He’s done a ton of toys since he quit the music biz (he says over 800 in the last eight years), and despite the economic downturn, collectors are still coughing up cash for his highly coveted collectibles. I recently got to interview him in-person at Harley-Davidson’s “Art of Rebellion” show, which featured a bike he completely customized with his artwork. During the interview, when we were talking about the politics of the art-toy scene, he compared making designer toys to writing for porno mags:
“(Designer toys) have their niche, but the thing is that I also do fine art. I don’t want to churn out a million rabbit (toys), that would be easy. But I like to see what I can do. And of course, like anybody, I crave higher status all the time. So for me, as an independent outsider artist, to consistently sell out editions of bronze (statues), it’s kind of a big deal to me. You’re a journalist, right? It’s like, hey, you want a Pulitzer? You’d like to be published on a regular basis. But you can write a million articles for porno mags and make a ton of money — but there’s no respect.”
Kozik also talked about what inspired his recent solo exhibit and how he manages to still sell toys in this crappy economy.
Read the entire interview here.
Wired.com: Miyamoto Roundtable Transcript
Last week, I was able to attend a roundtable session in New York with legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Answering questions from a small group of journalists, Mr. Miyamoto talked about why the upcoming game New Super Mario Bros. Wii doesn’t include online multiplayer, whether its helpful Super Guide system could be applied to the next Wii Zelda game and the possibility of user-generated Mario levels. One of my favorite quotes from the session is when he responded to my question about why Princess Peach isn’t a playable character in the game. Mr. Miyamoto said:
“Well, originally I thought it would be nice to have Princess Peach in there as a playable character, but in fact, the Toad characters have a physique that’s a little bit closer to Mario and Luigi. And in particular if we had one character out of the four that wore a dress, we would have to have a special programming to handle how the skirt is handled in the gameplay (laughs). And that’s the only reason that Princess Peach is not there. Of course, if we had Wario in there, we’d have to program him to fart.”
That seemed a little fishy to me, and I tried to ask why she couldn’t wear pants or shorts, but it was the end of the session. Anyway, the full transcript of the event is here. It’s a really long article, but it’s an interesting read for Nintendo fans.
ToyFare #148: ‘Titan Maximum’ Interview
In ToyFare, I talked to the creators of Adult Swim’s new stop-motion animated TV show Titan Maximum, which is like Robot Chicken meets Voltron.
Check it out here.