Overly Positive

I know, I know – I’ve probably given way too much love to The Escapist already, but hey, what’s a little bit more of a boost for something you honestly like?

Today’s weekly issue of the Escapist has come out “old school” style – as a downloadable pdf with full color designs, articles, and all the good stuff you’d come to miss in print video game mags.

It’s kind of odd to see that downloadable pdfs is considered “old school” in a way, but it’s accurate considering how video game journalism has progressed. Back when The Escapist launched in 2005, video game magazines that were in print were still enjoying a moderate to dominant force in terms of internet presence. Blogging was in its infancy, and the major game sites were just getting going with the kinds of things that you could find sitting on a magazine rack. In this respect, The Escapist’s style and approach fit the times. A designed approach meant to draw the eye and a magazine that took advantage of the instantaneous nature of the Web seemed to be a marriage worth having.

The evolution of reporting on interactive media such as games has changed as the times have changed for seeking news. These days, the near-real time nature of news and the ability to report on it from anywhere means that print media and designs take a back seat to raw information, and the tidbits of data that fans ravenously seek for their favorite titles. In that respect, the Escapist changed too, moving to not just textual presentation in a fairly visual but simple shell but also in other forms of media, from videos to browser games, and more.

It’s hard to tell where the reporting and news is going to go today. I personally think that the future lies in blogging type sites, even if they are as minimally visited as mine. Blogging and opinion writing has gained a certain kind of steam in the past couple years, mostly because of the rather unfettered nature of posting (most bloggers wouldn’t consider themselves journalists and therefore are not bound by their coda) and the immense gateway it provides the common man. Writing about your thoughts, and your feelings about various subjects, whether it’s being bright and sunny about geekery like me or raving in the darkest corners of the ‘Net like others, there is always the potential for a built-in audience that will understand and appreciate what you write. It’s a good time for the industries like gaming that ultimately benefit from the free press.

Go get that PDF, folks – it’s definitely a good read, as is many of the things on The Escapist website.