New Games Journalism vs Old Games Journalism

It's interesting to note that although the phrase 'New Games Journalism' wasn't coined until 2004 by Kieron Gillen in a blog post of all things (considering the, let's face it, lack of widespread interest in blogs at the time), it is certainly applicable to different eras of games journalism.

Games journalism began in the same manner as most other journalism; stuffy and fact filled, focusing on the mechanics of a game and how it plays, and that's about it. By the early eighties, it had flipped to more magazine like proportions, with the majority of popular games journalism being both written and viewed by games' major market; young adults.

After that there was a downturn in games journalism across the pond, but it stayed strong in Europe, and in the nineties came the internet. Once again, a new form of journalism arose, and journal articles on gaming were like streams of consciousness on screen, written by the same people that went on to become major gaming publications like IGN and PC Gamer.

If I were to decide on a divider, I would say that New Games Journalism largely consists of what the internet has done to how people review and learn about games beyond just buying them and playing them, and Old Games Journalism is what came about along with the advent of digital gaming.

I think New Games Journalism is certainly more interesting, and to be honest I haven't read enough Old Games Journalism to give an accurate opinion on which is more useful.


Here we have an article from Electronic Games, a games journal which was popular in the early eighties and
after it shut down, rose again during the early nineties, but was eventually 'outgunned' by internet based
journalism.

New Games Journalism, or now should I say Modern Games Journalism, has been completely taken over by the internet and more visual based information. For example, many people find information on games by watching walkthroughs designed to entertain and make the viewer laugh, for example; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU5JJraK7jQ
a walkthrough of Alien: Isolation by the, I would say infamous, PewDiePie. Not to say that there aren't more
intellectual journalism based videos out there, such as this video on the top 25 Playstation 3 games of 2014 by IGN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaaEgJ_JH2c

However, considering actual conveying of information versus entertainment value, is Old Gaming Journalism more useful? Most certainly. More entertaining? Not on your life. And that's why I prefer New Games Journalism.

Design Document

Ok, so pretty much everything about the game can be found in earlier blog posts, the design document is for the final iteration of The Royal Game of Ur described in the Tweaking Ancient Games post. One of the focii for this document was the aesthetics of the game.

For the board, I decided that I would stick with the original aesthetics, only the board shape would be changed, to keep it close to its Mesopotamian roots. However, I decided that instead counters the game should be played with figurines, since despite still being a race game there was a strong battle element to it.

So, having researched the armour of the time, considering the Mesopotamian Empire had the first standing army, the colour scheme consists of brown and bronze.

The soldiers of the time, and therefore the figurines, would wear bronze caps with leather lining on the inside.


They would have worn full body leather cloaks with shield like bronze stitched into it. Unfortunately I was unable to find any pictures to illustrate this.

Their feet would most likely have been visible, but would have been covered in leather footwraps, also brown.

The gameplay was slower, which I preferred, and contained a mix of strategy and chance, which I also prefer to purely strategy or purely chance games. I think the aesthetics would show its roots well and not detract from the fact that its base mechanic describes it as a race game.

Games Britannia: Joystick Generation

The final episode in the series focuses on the transition from board games and physical games to computer games, and how society has so completely immersed itself into the internet age. Woolley comments on the drastic speed of change and how completely computer gaming has taken over the current generation (a point that I am not disputing).

There's not much for me to comment on, as Woolley focuses on the test of morality that the game Grand Theft Auto has become and how identites have become digitalised in games such as Runescape and World of Warcraft. I, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, do not like the Grand Theft Auto games or Runescape and have never played World of Warcraft.

However, I can't dispute that I have spent nearly as much time in the real world as I have in various virtual worlds, and I agree that now and in the future games will become a bastion of questions and arguments concerning vital aspects of human nature, such as morality and duty.

Pervasive Games

There are many different definitions of pervasive games, some simple, and some horrifyingly not so. To me, a pervasive game is a game who's boundaries extend beyond the lines of traditional isolated play, that is to say, the borders overlap between the game world and the real world (even the real world in a game is 'fictional' by the way).

La Decima Vittima is the perfect example of a game which blends with the physical, the real world in an interactive way rather than a passive way. While I have no doubt that my definition of a pervasive is not complete or all-encompassing, it is the most appropriate for me, its what fits in my mind, and when it comes to pervasive games, perception is everything.

To be perfectly honest, I think pervasive games such as Assassin appeal to people who aren't as focused on gaming as people such as myself, because it seems like a lot of real world effort.

La Decima Vittima

Before watching this, I wasn't aware of where the Austin Powers films gained their particular charm, and thought that they merely represented an over exaggerated conception of the 'Swinging Sixties'. However, it is clear that La Decima Vittima is the original cheesy sixties action/spying bananza.

The influence this, I believe to my generation unknown, film has had on gaming across the world is rather significant. Games which are essentially re-enactments of the story of the film have spread far and wide, becoming the much more well known game Assassin, in which people are given targets and themselves are targets. Any number of people can play and the allure is that the game is played in real life.

It's basically the most advanced version of a combination of 'It' and 'Hide and Seek' in existence today, and that is rather awesome.

Tweaking Ancient Games

So basically the task was to iterate one of the Ancient Games that we have studied. Considering my earlier observations that The Royal Game of Ur was perhaps an iteration itself, and not even necessarily the final one at that, I thought it prudent to tweak that game.

The first iteration, which was highly successful, was to alter the board so that it consisted of a stretch with the starting and finishing zones on opposite ends and sides of the board. This created a heightened feeling of conflict, the game was still a race game in essence but it certainly felt as though the player was battling the opposition to reach the goal.

However, it was felt that the game moved too fast. To alter that, the second iteration changed the function of the rosette squares; no longer did they propel the player forwards with an extra move, instead they provided a type of blockade; pieces on this square couldn't be taken.

Unfortunately, this slowed the game too dramatically, but it was felt that the idea still had potential. So, the third iteration sought to draw this potential out. To do this, the capture function was changed; usually once a piece is captured it is sent out of play and must re-enter the board at the beginning. Instead, now capturing a piece sent them back to the closest possible rosette square, providing an incentive to keep pieces free of the rosette squares yet still have them used, allowing the game to move at an acceptable pace.

After that, the final iteration was to change the movement system to include a level of strategy, so instead of the usual four sided dice, cards labelled 1 - 4 were used. Players always have three cards in hand, so they can choose which of the three cards to use to move their pieces. This worked very well, and resulted as the final iteration.

British Museum Trip

This was actually my third visit to the British Museum, I can't remember my first trip but my second was less than two years ago. At that time my focus during the trip was on the military and society of Ancient Greece, Mycenae and Rome, and while not directly related to the course, that trip certainly provided some insight into the role of ancient games.

The trip at first focused on the oldest known board game, the Royal Game of Ur (named so because it was found in Ur). Irving Finkel, the leading expert on the game, was enthusiastic and passionate as he spoke to us about the game's origins, history and role in society.

The following tour was interesting, there were lots of exhibits which suggested the influence of gaming in ancient cultures from the Mesopotamian era all the way up to medieval England.