DailyNexus - "Wii Kart Unites Casual and Hardcore"

My latest Daily Nexus article went up today, and it was actually featured in the physical newspaper two days ago as well!

This is my second article to be promoted from an online-only column to an actual piece within the opinion section, and I was even asked to join the columnist staff for the next year. Unfortunately I won't be around UCSB to work for the Nexus, but it's nice to know that my words are appreciated.

This piece did two things I had been meaning to do for a few weeks: talk about Mario Kart and casual gamers. I had a complete article on casual gaming all edited up and ready to turn into the Nexus two weeks ago, but I restarted my computer and everything instantly vanished. Apparently my hard drive decided to die without giving me any real warning, taking the last five months of data along with it into the depths of Hard Drive Hell. Along with this completed article went my Summon Night DS preview, and a 80% piece for My Wii News on the Wii's rechargable battery problem, making for quite the depressing past two weeks.

I just got my Mac back with a fresh HDD and I'm ready to get back to blogging business. Expect a lot more from me in the next few weeks, and I'll be sure to back everything up before submitting articles and restarting computers. :(

Rant aside, the article is a goodie. I talk about the prevalence of casual gamers, the ways in which Mario Kart Wii is Nintendo's first forray into kart-driven Communism, and even namedrop Ghosts n' Goblins and the real SMB2 to show how cool I am (yeah, right). It's always nice to get printed in a real publication, so take a peek and enjoy!

Read: Daily Nexus - Wii Kart Unites Casual and Hardcore

Daily Nexus - "The Makings of a Classic"

Last week my mind came to a screeching halt when I finally sat down to start writing something for the Daily Nexus, and for some reason my mind was suddenly inundated with plumbers. Super Mario Bros. is arguably the game that changed videogaming into the industry it is today, with the whole "bringing videogames back from their premature 1983 death) thing, and I felt it was due time to talk about the importance of that monumental game. In the article I give a brief history of what games looked like in the early 80s, how things have changed, and the innovations that SMB brought to the table. I could have written twice as much in my sleep about this subject, but I think it worked well in its slightly truncated form.

See for yourself.

Read: "The Makings of a Classic"

Daily Nexus - "Hyperreality Challenges Gaming Future"

Wow, haven't updated this in a while. I'll have to do some mass posts for everything I've done and had published in the past few weeks, as it's a lot more than just a few blurbs here and there. To start with, here's my penultimate gaming column posted by the Daily Nexus, which actually found its way into the actual newspaper.

That's right! This article was actually published in the Daily Nexus, but I had no way of knowing until today when my friend told me that he enjoyed reading my article. After a bit of sleuthing, I found out that it was published in the physical Nexus newspaper on April 11th, with pictures and everything. Wow! I just wish my editor would have told me so I could have had someone pick up the article when I was out of town.

Even though it's the same as last time, you get to see the cool pictures drawn specially for the article. Either way, it makes for a good read. See for yourself.

Read: Daily Nexus - "Hyperreality Challenges Gaming Future"

Daily Nexus - Exploring the Uncanny Valley

This was something a little different. I actually wrote this almost a month ago, but due to finals week and spring break, my piece was postponed until Monday of this week. It's nice to see it finally go up, as I tried to put a little extra into it, discussing important questions about the future of videogame graphics and presentation.

I don't think we'll have to worry about being scared to death by the uncanny valley in all our videogames anytime soon, but it's a reasonable thought in the next 5-10 years. It's crazy to think how much of our lives has changed in just ten years, and how much it possibly could in ten more. Just look at this crazy mock-up of what ComputerWorld thinks our computers will be like in 15 years, and think about what people thought life would be like now, 70 years ago. Technology is some crazy stuff, and really hard to pinpoint what will be reasonably coming next. A terabyte of storage? I had 4 GB ten years ago when I got my first computer. Crazy how things change.

Anywhoo, onto the reading.

Read: Daily Nexus - Exploring the Uncanny Valley

Daily Nexus - "Game Conference Concerns"

Long time no post! School hit hard last week, so I had to respond accordingly. That didn't stop me from getting a little work done, as I was able to churn this piece out by last Thursday to have it posted by today. It's not my favorite piece so far, but I wanted to stay current so I opted to talk about conferences and GDC. I think it was an interesting enough take, but take a peek for yourself.

Read: Daily Nexus - "Game Conference Concerns"

Daily Nexus - "Giddy as a Five-Year Old"

Oh, the Daily Nexus. Sure it's fun writing for your campus newspaper and all that, but it's been a bit difficult trying to ascertain what are exactly my expectations as a columnist. While that continues to work itself out, I'll keep plugging away at my column, trying to write about something a bit more interesting than the usual messageboard drivel.

Regardless, my second piece for The Daily Nexus went up. Even though the editor changed around my text a bit, elongated my title, and completely tossed my blurb out the window, I wasn't too perturbed. I think I need to stick to a single point a little more, but the Nexus is a great way for me to just force myself to think for a few hours and see what comes out.

So see what came out:

Read: "Giddy as a Five-Year Old ["for fresh videogames"]"

Daily Nexus - "A Gamer's Paradise"

My first piece for The Daily Nexus has finally gone up! Apparently it's been up since the 24th, but I swear I've checked it multiple times since then and not seen the article up. I guess I must have been hallucinating, but I'm glad everything is finally going well with the Nexus.

I pitched the idea of a gaming column that focused more on gaming culture than straightforward reviews, even though this first one came out a bit "review-y" for my liking. There are a handful of great ideas in here I'd love to develop into a full feature, but we'll have to find out how all that goes. It's kind of fun to be an online columnist for my college's newspaper. Take a peek, if you're so inclined.

Read: "A Gamer's Paradise"