4 ms·

I'm actually very surprised this ended up here. For those who might not know Tim Rogers, him and a few other college-age gamers started a recently defunct site

by jmoiron 17y ago

I'm actually very surprised this ended up here. For those who might not know Tim Rogers, him and a few other college-age gamers started a recently defunct site called 'insert credit' around 8 or 9 years ago to try to apply Hunter S. Thompson style "New Journalism" to video game journalism. Their articles had a high incident of insight to them that was largely the result of repeated deconstruction and re-examination of the game design of various 80s-era classics. Quite often the articles (some of which read a lot like the linked article) were pretty entertaining. Bringing personal experience into the essay or game review was always the point, and Tim in particular tended to go off on completely wild tangents and write in an almost incoherent and stream of consciousness style (perhaps, "style"); from memory, in one review he pauses to go cook a burrito, then describes the burrito cooking process, before resuming what he was writing about the actual game in question. This article is pretty classic Tim Rogers: an extremely long exploration of an idea that touches on some interesting (if perhaps apocryphal) stories or facets of that idea, but may or may not have a coherent underlying vision or message.

cookiecaper 17y ago
I've always admired the writing on Insert Credit, and I'm sad to learn that they're gone now.
- thristian 17y ago
  After Insert Credit imploded, the forums moved to selectbutton.net but without any "main content" (the front-page stories are just selected forum threads). Soon afterward, Tim started up actionbutton.net to host game reviews by himself and other like-minded folks; they're generally just as good as the old Insert Credit material, and of course more up-to-date.
  - jmoiron 17y ago
    I've found actionbutton to be a step below the old reviews, perhaps for similar reasons that Tim now finds his honeymoon in Japan souring. The reviews there tend to be a lot more about being entertaining than enlightening, and their stated goal of having the average score being 1/4 stars has been thrown to the wayside. I also don't really play games anymore. There are a few potentially "important" things that I hope escapes IC and its graduates and becomes more mainstream. Reviews that explain the context of their creation, and reviews that examine the philosophy of the game design. Unfortunately these are hard, require work, and don't look any better on the glossy page. Some examples: Rogers wrote a fantastic review[1] of Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song that starts off by chronicling the entire career of its designer (Kawazu) and reviewing some of his earlier games with depth and insight. There are clear patterns evident in his early games, which are then used to give context to and explain the current game under review. The second is probably my favorite video game review, which is of Windwaker by Eric-Jon Rossel Waugh[2]. EJRW is a better and more insightful (but less colorful) writer than Rogers, but perhaps not as colorful. He made an old forum post I distinctly remember lamenting the laziness of linear game design, which is something of a cliche. When challenged for an alternative, he backed it up with a very interesting review of the use of "danger" rather than contrivances like keys or inventory items as a limit on exploration in Dragon Quest/The Legend of Zelda. As for this particular posting of Tim's, I don't really have much more to comment. Like I said in my original comment, it's classic Tim Rogers, and it's hard to explain what "classic Tim Rogers" is without just pointing people to another 15-20 articles similar in construction and content. It feels odd to write about it in a familiar tone since I was largely a lurker at IC (as I am here). [1] http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga [2] http://www.insertcredit.com/reviews/windwaker/windwaker1.html http://www.insertcredit.com/reviews/windwaker/windwaker1.htm...

by jmoiron 17y ago

cookiecaper 17y ago

I've always admired the writing on Insert Credit, and I'm sad to learn that they're gone now.

thristian 17y ago
After Insert Credit imploded, the forums moved to selectbutton.net but without any "main content" (the front-page stories are just selected forum threads). Soon afterward, Tim started up actionbutton.net to host game reviews by himself and other like-minded folks; they're generally just as good as the old Insert Credit material, and of course more up-to-date.
- jmoiron 17y ago
  I've found actionbutton to be a step below the old reviews, perhaps for similar reasons that Tim now finds his honeymoon in Japan souring. The reviews there tend to be a lot more about being entertaining than enlightening, and their stated goal of having the average score being 1/4 stars has been thrown to the wayside. I also don't really play games anymore. There are a few potentially "important" things that I hope escapes IC and its graduates and becomes more mainstream. Reviews that explain the context of their creation, and reviews that examine the philosophy of the game design. Unfortunately these are hard, require work, and don't look any better on the glossy page. Some examples: Rogers wrote a fantastic review[1] of Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song that starts off by chronicling the entire career of its designer (Kawazu) and reviewing some of his earlier games with depth and insight. There are clear patterns evident in his early games, which are then used to give context to and explain the current game under review. The second is probably my favorite video game review, which is of Windwaker by Eric-Jon Rossel Waugh[2]. EJRW is a better and more insightful (but less colorful) writer than Rogers, but perhaps not as colorful. He made an old forum post I distinctly remember lamenting the laziness of linear game design, which is something of a cliche. When challenged for an alternative, he backed it up with a very interesting review of the use of "danger" rather than contrivances like keys or inventory items as a limit on exploration in Dragon Quest/The Legend of Zelda. As for this particular posting of Tim's, I don't really have much more to comment. Like I said in my original comment, it's classic Tim Rogers, and it's hard to explain what "classic Tim Rogers" is without just pointing people to another 15-20 articles similar in construction and content. It feels odd to write about it in a familiar tone since I was largely a lurker at IC (as I am here). [1] http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga [2] http://www.insertcredit.com/reviews/windwaker/windwaker1.html http://www.insertcredit.com/reviews/windwaker/windwaker1.htm...