Best stuff on the Net: Dev's Play feat. John Romero

There's no doubt that one of the father's of DOOM is probably one of the most respected figures in the gaming industry, at least back in the day.  There's something to be said about a small team that essentially revolutionizes an entire genre.  It's even more fascinating to hear some of the stories behind the creation of the game itself, level and game design, especially if you're a fan of the game itself. It's a multi-part series that is absolutely worth your time if you have fond memories of space marines fighting demons from hell.

Best Stuff on the Net: Errant Signal

I'm a fan of just about every video that Chris Franklin has put out, but his most recent analysis of Watch_Dogs hits home particularly well.  Aiden Pearce is probably the least compelling video game protagonist in recent history, and the game itself is symptomatic of a lot of things wrong with Ubisoft, or even game development in general from a certain perspective.  If you held out on this game, you aren't missing much.

Best Stuff on the Net: Does Twitch Plays Pokemon Give You Hope for Humanity?

Idea Channel is easily one of my favorite thing that PBS has turned out in a long time, always topical, clever, and opinionated, it's a great place to go for, well, ideas.  This week they tackle some of the greater implications of Twitch beating Pokemon Red.  There's some lofty ideas that are pretty interesting born from a bunch of people on the internet collaboratively playing a portable video game from the 1990's.

If you enjoy this kind of format, you'll probably get a kick out of the rest of Idea Channel's random thoughts.

Best Stuff on the Net: JP Kellams from PlatinumGames speaks at IEA

Polygon had this linked at the bottom of an article talking about the potential of moving Bayonetta 2 from the WiiU to other consoles, and how it's exclusivity came to be.  That's all nice and dandy for a headline, but this hour and a half presentation by JP Kellams, a creative producer at Platinum Games, has lots of really cool info.  If you've got any desire to see what it's like for a foreigner over in the Japanese game industry, advice on how to break in yourself, or just how the sausage is made, this is absolutely worth a view / listen.

Presentation starts at 10:21

Best Stuff on the Net: The Press, The Players, The Publishers and The Games

I always look forward to Giant Bomb's "Worth Reading" column posted by Patrick Klepek (or 'Scoops' if your feeling fancy), partly for showing me around parts of the net that I miss during the week, partly because his summarizing of articles saves me some time.  This week he's managed to link a really cool video that deals with a general history of the gaming press, and some of the problems that still continue today with games writing.  It's a long video, essentially a classroom lecture, but I highly recommended it to anybody who has aspirations of becoming a game's journalist.

The video itself has a lot of interesting points put forth that I couldn't help but think about:

-It's fascinating to think that the gaming press at large is partially responsible for holding back the medium itself as being taken seriously as art.  If writing were to reflect less on a product review and more on what experiences it invokes, how would gaming and the press look today?

-It's quite daunting to think about what a vicious cycle the modern day gaming press currently resides in: tens of thousands amateur writers (such as myself and this site for example) ready to replace the old guard from magazines and websites.  At the same time, this kind of enthusiasm has paved the way for many novel independent content creators all over the net.

-It may be a false dichotomy, but in my mind, fanboy-ish and narrow optimism such as Nintendo Power and cynical snark such as Seanbaby exist on a spectrum.  Each have their advantages and flaws.  While in the end I do believe that being informative trumps most other goals when it comes to journalism, where does the balance lie between the two?  Should journalist continue to be hopeful and optimistic of unreleased products or should we be critical of everything around us for the sake of humor or even improvement in the industry as a whole?

I find it an interesting issue even today with some games.  Take a look here at polygon's recent interview with Eidos Montreal for their new Thief game.  Apparently Chris Plante was originally scheduled to do the interview but was flat-out denied by Eidos due to a negative profile he compiled from an earlier look at the game.  Brian Crecente instead conducted the interview, albeit without the questions being changed.  To me this stands as an incredible example of the relation between game manufacturers as the press, being born much out of press that was perhaps to speculative and favorable in the past (and still continuing into today.  Colonial Marines anybody?)

Make sure to check out Giant Bomb's Worth Reading column every Friday

Best Stuff on the Net - Ken Levine BAFTA Q&A

For everybody excited about the upcoming BioShock Infinite, you won't want to miss this.  Over the course of nearly 2 hours, Levine details the process of how the team at Irrational Games came to realizing Elizabeth, as well as details of his own personal history.  Fascinating stuff.