Kyle Orland’s Workblog

Magazine publishers say that readers want longer features and in-depth articles as a counterpoint to the short, bloglike pieces they find online. But Kyle Orland, a freelance journalist who writes a media coverage column for Gamedaily.com, wondered if that strategy was working, saying that when a large feature is published, it doesn’t get read.

“Attention spans are just getting so small that readers don’t know what they want,” Mr. Orland said.

(full article)

NPR’s News & Notes 

The Electronics Entertainment Expo is underway, and gaming industry heavyweights are showing off some brand new technology and software.

Pro gamers and expo attendees Ralph Cooper and Kyle Orland are co-hosts of the NPR podcast, Press Start.

(Listen) 

Kevin, Rebecca Swanner and Kyle Orland talk about how this year’s E3 is different from years past.

(Watch Video)

Kevin, Kyle Orland and Steve Butts juxtapose the finer points of single player and multiplayer games.

(Watch Video)

Used Video Games Keep Some Retailers Afloat
by Kyle Kennedy

Kyle Orland, a Maryland-based freelance gaming journalist, said the secondhand games industry may become even more crowded while publishers find ways to supplement the existing model with their own. He pointed to services like Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade and the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console, which already offer discounted classic games via direct download.

But Orland also suggests that the new and used sides of the industry may be necessary to ensure each other’s success.

"I know a lot of people complain that it’s significantly eating into new game sales. You hear it most from publishers, and sometimes you hear it from developers that their game would have sold better but people waited to buy it used," said Orland, co-author of "The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual." "But the fact that you can buy a new game, beat it, and sell it back for $20, I think that adds value to the new game sales, and it’s not taken into account more often."

(full article)

(Download MP3)

I talk about the newly revealed PlayStation Home on G4’s Attack of the Show.

(video clip)

Tonight on The Loop, our experts Kyle Orland from Joystiq.com and Garnett Lee from 1up.com will talk about PlayStation Home and what it means for the future of the PS3.

(more) 

Getting Serious About Video Games
By Jennifer Guerra

So great that Seggerman says in two to three years, even the big boys - like Sony and Microsoft - will get in on the serious games scene as well. But video game expert Kyle Orland isn’t so sure about that:

"The problem," says Orland, "is that the consumer market still sees games as entertainment. Having a real serious game, thought provoking game that is not primarily about fun but about examining a deeper issue…getting a game like that with mass appeal will be tough."

Tough, but not impossible. All it would take, Orland says, is one break out game…one serious game that becomes more popular than just among the academic crowd. What that game will be or when it will happen, he can’t say for sure. I guess in the meantime, there’s always Oregon Trail.

(full story)

Replaying Tragedy
By David Arey

Kyle Orland, a videogame journalist who writes for the videogame blog Joystiq.com and is a co-host of "Press Start," a show on National Public Radio, said despite the game’s disturbing nature, it has social value.

"It helped me make sense of this senseless tragedy that was very hard to piece together when I was younger," Orland said. "So I think if there’s anything else that really speaks to this game as art, I don’t know what it is."

(full article)