Kyle Orland’s Workblog

VIDEO GAMES: Violence Begets Violence
By Camille Jackson | Staff Writer, Tolerance.org

"Most of the coverage I’ve seen has treated it as an oddity — a religious game that doesn’t forsake violence," said Kyle Orland, a freelance journalist and editor of Video Game Media Watch.

"From what I have seen, the game is not more violent than other violent games in the market, but is more violent than any religious-themed game I’ve ever seen."

(full story)

"Many of the bloggers have outside jobs — a security guard at a New Jersey casino, an 18-year veteran in the Canadian Army, an event organizer for a Buddhist foundation. They don’t claim to be journalists, because they think being a blogger, quite frankly, is better. ("It’s journalism without the rules. It’s more opinionated," says Kyle Orland, who runs the Video Game Media Watch on VGMWatch.com.) Many do it for free, and the battle to break a story about a game or score an exclusive interview with a game designer is fierce, though entirely virtual."

(full article)

"As time passes, the older generation will die out and the generation that grew up with games will realize that games didn’t cause them to become a generation of anti-social murderers and everyone will calm down. The key is to not let the older generation set the medium back with restrictions in the mean time."

(full article)

Kyle Orland moderated a spirited panel on Games Journalism with Vic Lucas of G4TV’s Electric Playground, Sam Kennedy of 1up.com, Julianne Greer of The Escapist, Matt Williamson of The Gamer’s Quarter, and Dan Morris of PC Gamer.

(part 1)

Mario has been billed as everything from a plumber to a doctor to a boxing ref to a demolition man throughout his gaming career. “I like to think of [the Mario brothers] as general contractors,” says Kyle Orland of the fansite www.smbhq.com.

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"I distinctly remember having my best friend Mason over for the pre-fast dinner on Yom Kippur 1991 (I think that was the year, anyway). I had received a Super NES and Super Mario World for my birthday a few weeks earlier, and needless to say I was totally hooked. Mason and his family arrived a few hours early, so we got some quality time with the game before dinner was served. I remember reluctantly trudging upstairs when called, and barely touching my food in between excited chatter with Mason about the amazing, state-of-the-art experience waiting for us in the basement. We pleaded to be excused after about 10 minutes of picking at our plates - our baffled parents insisted that we couldn’t be full so quickly. They eventually relented, and we spent the rest of the night conquering Twin Bridges and the first part of the Forest of Illusion. I remember being extremely hungry during the next day’s fast. It was worth it, though."

(full story)

What’s Wrong with Video Game Journalism?
By Corey Lewis

Kyle Orland, a freelance writer for print and online publications, thinks most video game reviewers tend to favour cookie-cutter sequels with new an improved graphics.

"Innovation is not often encouraged through critical praise," Orland said. "A risky experiment that still has some rough edges will get a cursory review of 8 out of 10 review, while the latest First Person Shooter or fighting game sequel gets a 10 page preview and 9 out of 10 score."

(full article) 

Gamers Wary of MTV’s Venture Into Their World
By Steven Levingston

"The MTV promo is more an attempt to make MTV cooler than making games cooler," said Kyle Orland, the 23-year-old Laurel-based editor of Video Game Media Watch, a blog that assesses how video games are portrayed in the media.

Orland also wonders if the MTV segment "Xbox 360: A Gamer’s Paradise" is not little more than a promotional pitch packaged as a news program. The segment traces several groups’ wild attempts to win a chance to use the new console before today’s official launch.

(full article)

"I don’t think (video gaming popularity) is even close to getting to a peak," said Kyle Orland, a freelance video game journalist who runs VGMwatch.com.

"As the population ages, gaming is going to continue to become more and more popular . . . At that point, what happens to the industry is up for grabs."

(full article)

Media Vulture: Game Blogs
By Colin Campbell

"When I started, it was because I was fed up with the differences between the journalism I was learning in school and the journalism I was seeing from the games press.  Back then, I had a pretty big chip on my shoulder about the whole thing. Kind of ‘me against the world of shoddy journalism’."

"In the ensuing years I feel I’ve mellowed a bit - I can see the good in the industry now too - but that outrage is still there when I see travesties like the Spike TV Video Game Awards or mainstream articles that get basic facts wrong."

(full article)