Got Features?

Hi, you don't know me, but my name is Joe Dodson, and I'm the new Gamespot features editor. Since this is kind of an introduction, I'll tell you a bit about myself: I like elaborate hoaxes, dangerous reptiles, and winning. My turn-offs include: Alarm clocks, wet floors, harmless reptiles, and ankle socks (especially when combined with wet floors).

Now that we're all friends, let me tell you why I'm here, presumptuously posting in your forum. What I want to know is...what do you want? Specifically, in terms of reading material for your procrastinating pleasure.

What types of pieces do you wish you could find on Gamespot? What do you like to read elsewhere? What interests you about video games that is not covered in news, reviews, or previews? Let me know, and I'll do my best to hook you up.

No one takes kindly to noobs in any forum, anywhere. You could make a first post in a knitting forum and get flamed by otherwise sweet, old ladies.

That isn't the point.

I want to write things you'll want to read. If you have thoughts, share them, and I'll do my best to turn them into a bunch of good features.

This might not count as a feature, but I'd like to see more news reports on rumors, and rumblings within the industry. I've always respected that Gamespot doesn't report on news items until they are confirmed to be true... however being an avid forum poster on this site, and NeoGAF, I usually end up hearing the news days before you guys post it. It would be nice to see you guys run with stories earlier, even if it means putting up disclaimers that the news isn't confirmed, or printing a retraction every once in a while. I really like the Gamespot community, but for me, none of the major gaming sites are keeping up with the speed of the gaming forums and blogs.

Welcome to the forums!

You know, the first thing that came to mind was Wired Magazine's fascinating The Road to Ruin: How Grand Theft Auto Hit the Skids article. Reading about the inner-workings of a game company, its highs and lows is something that I find extremely interesting. It doesn't have to be a big, elusive company like Rockstar. I'd love to read about Valve, Relic, Monolith, Firaxis...I realize such insight into game companies may be very hard to come by, but hey - you asked. :wink:

I would love if Gamespot did more things like Escapist Magazine. Game post mortems, interviews with developers about their thoughts on things beyond just their own game or their job, articles about why gamers do or dont do things, pros and cons of game advertisement, how will the future of MMO's be different in 10 years? and so many others.

The Escapist Magzine is so different from other game sites because they dont talk about just games - but about gaming. What gaming is, isnt, should be, shouldn't be, and why.

I would love if Gamespot did more things like Escapist Magazine. Game post mortems, interviews with developers about their thoughts on things beyond just their own game or their job, articles about why gamers do or dont do things, pros and cons of game advertisement, how will the future of MMO's be different in 10 years? and so many others.

The Escapist Magzine is so different from other game sites because they dont talk about just games - but about gaming. What gaming is, isnt, should be, shouldn't be, and why.

XaosII

That sounds pretty cool. I'll have to check those guys out.

I would love if Gamespot did more things like Escapist Magazine. Game post mortems, interviews with developers about their thoughts on things beyond just their own game or their job, articles about why gamers do or dont do things, pros and cons of game advertisement, how will the future of MMO's be different in 10 years? and so many others.

The Escapist Magzine is so different from other game sites because they dont talk about just games - but about gaming. What gaming is, isnt, should be, shouldn't be, and why.XaosII

Good call. The Escapist does some great stuff.

That sounds pretty cool. I'll have to check those guys out. rragnaar

Heres a random article from their previous "issue" about Zombie games, whats the appeal, their history, and why they work.

I personally find articles like those more interesting than watching someone else play games, graphical comparisons, and staff soapbox. While i dont mind the soapbox, i personally would rather hear a developer on a soapbox with some unfiltered PR speaking his mind - because thats something you dont hear everyday.

Welcome to the forums and GS!....:)...But as rragnaar said....I want to read more rumors.

I want to see more coverage of 8 and 16-bit games! (Only kidding! I think my topic has those covered!)

Actually, one small idea I had for a feature:

Non-Disclosure Agreement Games Disclosed! I want to see behind the veil of the videogame industry to see what they THOUGHT would be big enough to try and keep under wraps at first, and then, what ultimately happened to those games...? Did they live up to their NDA's or were the NDA's JUST to start the hype machine? What was supposed to be the next big thing that just quietly flopped... These enigmas drive the marketing and publicity of games, and I know: the current one's can't be discussed now... but learning about PAST ones would be cool!

Welcome to the forums. I'd love to see features including (but not limited to) editorials, retrospectives, sort of a special feature section, so to speak. SteelAttack

Totally, we move on too fast sometimes, it would be interesting to take a look back on some games after the initial hype has died down.

I would also like to see a Mailbag Feature. We used to run Burning Questions, but Alex Navarro knows more about that than I do. I'll have to see what input he has.

Regarding NDA games and the hits they didn't turn into, a broader topic might be industry blunders and follies. Lord knows there are plenty every year.

Regarding the escapist, they're not a bad source of feature fodder, though they get a little boring. In fact, I just woke up from a feature they wrote about the importance of lighting in video games. Point taken, though, and appreciated. You want features that focus on interesting characters, companies, and technologies. I will do my best to deliver.

Keep em coming, I'm writing these down.

Some sort of direct Q and A, similar to IGN's mailbag. getyeryayasout

I like that idea as well.

Thank you for coming on here like this. I read the Wired GTA feature in a hospital waiting room, and actually went out there after I saw the doctor to finish it. Rockstar is hard to get any info on.

But if you want a real reply, well, GameSpot lost its smartest editor, some recent reviews leave much to be desired, but well-written pieces are always met with enthusiasm around here. Geoff Keighley's Half-Life 2 feature, for example. Are you as smart as Greg Kasavin or Geoff Keighley?

There was a great feature there where Greg K. did interviews about all sorts of things with developers that only lasted a few episodes before he left. That seemed promising.

I wouldn't mind seeing a sort of video round table discussion with topics presented by the users. I know the hotspot kind of does that but not quite IMO.

Also violence, lots and lots of violence.

Oh and welcome.

Are you as smart as Greg Kasavin or Geoff Keighley?

appleater

No, but I am better looking.

I'll mention the first impressions idea to the review team, because that's more their department than mine. I thinkit soundsgood, but there's always more to these things than meets the eye.

I like the mods/modders idea. I will definitely pursue that.

The interactive idea is also a good one, and I've been tossing around a couplenotions on that front. However, that might be something better handled by the community team. Did you have anything in particular in mind?

[QUOTE="appleater"]

Are you as smart as Greg Kasavin or Geoff Keighley?

J_Dodson

No, but I am better looking.

Lol. I don't think that looking better than them issuch a difficult feat. :P

J, why don't you stick this thread for a while? It will give it enough time to get a nice number of posts without having to drag it back from the grave every time it drops from the first couple of pages.

You know what? Maybe a clas-sic game "revisited" feature wouldn't be a bad idea after all!

There are certain games that stand the test of time and others that just DON'T...

What it is about those games and why they are timeless. That would be cool.

(Tetris. Chrono Trigger. Super Metroid. Games like those!)

Joe Dodson? I know I've heard that name before. Or seen it. Whatever. :) Tell me more about your Realian parents. I'm intrigued.

So I guess what you could do is pretty much what Carrie used to do. You know, being a girl and all that.

Aside from that, I've got nothing. My brain has failed.

Hey Joe, welcome to the community :)

I also would like to see the return of Burning Questions, but maybe with more editors rather than just Alex. I'm not saying I don't like Alex, I just suspect that at least part of the reason he stopped writing it was because it took too much work for him alone.

I'd also like to see a Soapbox-like feature for user reviews and/or video reviews. If you look in the sticky section of this forum (General Games Discussion), you'll see a feature called ReviewSpotting, but that's completly user-run. Soapbox entries actually get featured on the home page of the site, and I'd love to see that kind of treatment for user reviews and videos as well. Some user videos get featured on the main forums page (on the right side) but the system still pales in comparrison to that of the editorial Soapbox.

The way it is is now, I'd much rather write an editorial than a review (even though I'm a better review writer) because I get about 100x more exposure that way. It's a shame. Some reviews are featured on the main page, but apparently they're picked randomly instead of being hand-picked by the staff like the Soapbox entries.

Other than that, I'd just like to see more interaction with the staff again. If I remember correctly there was a feature called Freeplay a while back that was kind of like a staff blog that focused on different stuff around the industry. I really enjoyed it, but I guess there had to be a reason it was discontinued. Maybe it didn't get enough hits?

I'm not sure if you're the guy to ask on this one, but I'd also like to see users able to use the little badges and demerits in user reviews as well. That'd be really dope, and I can't think of a good reason why we can't use those already. Unless GameSpot doesn't really care about user reviews much, which is entirely possible, seeing as user reviews get almost no exposure.

Lastly, I'd also like to see the feature duxup was talking about come back. I think it was called "Designer Diaries". It wasn't necessarily interviews with people that made current games, just important people around the industry.

Anyway, I think it's really cool that you're asking us what we want -- that's already a great sign of things to come :). Overall, GameSpot's features are already really helpful and interesting to read, so the advent of them getting even more attention is really exciting.

I've seen many other magazines do something, Newsweek, Game Informer, etc. They all have this.

A "Numbers" section. Perhaps some interesting tidbits about how many things were done in this game, or some other random nothings about development, number of NPCs, etc.

I'd imagine it would be hard to make into a "Feature" that appears regularly, but something interesting. Stuff that is completely factual, to something completely inane like "67% of Gamespot Editors prefer Smuckers Jam over the leading competitor".

If not, how about a trivia thing (that's not necessarily done live broadcast)? People try doing that here in this forum, but as I understand, it's against the rules, seeing as it's not necessarily discussion.

If I have any better ideas, I'd let you know. Thanks for asking how to make this a better place.

The Classic games revisited thing is always a good idea, but I think instead of looking back on what games have stood the test of time until now, it might be interesting to predict which games will stand the test of time into the future, like when our alien overlords return to earth. What will we be playing then?

I will definitely try to bring back some form of Burning Questions, but with a different spin. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them. If you don't, don't worry, I have some good ideas on this topic.

Regarding a User Review spotlight - Yes, that is more the community department's, uh, department than it is mine. However, I'm interested in working with them to coordinate features with contests, with the winner/results being the featured content.

What contests would you like to see?

The problem with staff blogs is that we're all so busy with things we *have* to do, it's hard to set time aside to do things with no set deadlines.

As far as a Designer Diaries feature, it can be difficult to find people who say things that are downright interesting. There are a few, and I'll see what I can do on this front. But to be honest with you, gaming panels can be really boring. I wouldn't want to subject you to one unless I was certain it would be insightful and really entertaining.

There's a magazine out there (I forget which) that does a short "Then and Now" section in which they re-review old games. Knowing GameSpot's review guidelines fairly well, I think this would be a cool, useful feature here as well, especially for the games that were once high-profile.

As a former editor for the aforementioned ReviewSpotting feature, I can tell you first hand that the users on this site pour their hearts and souls into their contributions, and they totally deserve more recognition where user reviews and videos are concerned. SoapBox editorials often see in excess of 100 responses, and that's awesome. Other noteworthy contributions should get as much lovin'.

I also second the return of "Burning Questions." Please, let us badger you.

EDIT: Predicting which games will stand the test of time idea: approved

I predict that in 300 years, when our alien overlords return to Earth, ET will still be remembered as being total crap. :)

Sounds cool. I approve.

All of the Designer Diaries I listened to were really interesting. Have all the possibilities been exhausted? I doubt that.

I'd love to see you guys continue Adam's Developer for a Day contest, and a review contest would also be super cool (even cooler in my opinion). GameSpot also held a contest a while back where users had to make a video describing why THEY deserved to go to E3. Users then got to vote on entries and the best one got a free trip to E3 and got to even sit in on GameSpot's stage show. Contests like that are really exciting. I read somewhere that the most successfull websites are the ones that let users add content, and encouring that content with a contests sounds like a good idea to me.

Basically, I don't have any really concrete ideas, but I'd love to see more focus on user reviews and user videos. If GameSpot could somehow highlight the people that are making great content already, and encourage all the other people to make better content, that'd be really cool.

I'd love to see you guys continue Adam's Developer for a Day contest, and a review contest would also be super cool (even cooler in my opinion).

Korubi

Developer for a Day is Adam's personal project. GameSpot's involvement extends to having certain staff members volunteer as judges, and showcase the fourth contest.

[QUOTE="Korubi"]

I'd love to see you guys continue Adam's Developer for a Day contest, and a review contest would also be super cool (even cooler in my opinion).

Oilers99

Developer for a Day is Adam's personal project. GameSpot's involvement extends to having certain staff members volunteer as judges, and showcase the fourth contest.

But Adam doesn't work for GameSpot anymore, and users can't hold contests. So I'm asking if GameSpot themselves can continue it :)

[QUOTE="Oilers99"][QUOTE="Korubi"]

I'd love to see you guys continue Adam's Developer for a Day contest, and a review contest would also be super cool (even cooler in my opinion).

Korubi

Developer for a Day is Adam's personal project. GameSpot's involvement extends to having certain staff members volunteer as judges, and showcase the fourth contest.

But Adam doesn't work for GameSpot anymore, and users can't hold contests. So I'm asking if GameSpot themselves can continue it :)

Well, Adam held it as a contest before he became a GameSpot employee, so I don't see why he shouldn't be able to do so again now that he's left. Maybe he'll have to get permission or something, but given that it's a forum tradition, I'd be shocked not to see it again in some form. He might pass the contest on to someone else, though, depending on his plans.

Actual columns. Soapbox doesn't cut it. Gamespotting and Freeplay were good. I guess since the site seems to be so focused on the video end, the written word is quickly being lost here.

I agree with everyone in that this site needs to put a little more focus on the history of video games. We are so caught up in the games on the release calendar that we forget how much this industry's been through. I can see a new feature in which editors get together to share their experience with a franchise, including general talk of how it evolved, favorite moments, whats expected to come, etc. I can imagine this becoming relatively interactive if users get to set the topics of the discussion by asking questions. It can be a great feature before the next installment in a popular series comes out. If thats too much effort, retrospectives would be great too.

How about community editorial topics for the soapbox? Pose a topic to the gamespot community and then we will try to write our opinion of it in our blogs. Pick the best answers to be featured on the site.

Oilers makes a great point too, there could be more content on the developers themselves. How about a feature that details the life and works of popular developers (The list of possible prospects is not small either, profiles of Miyamoto, Kojima, Sakurai, Mizuguchi, Meier, Wright, Shafer, Mikami, Sakaguchi, etc. would all make very interesting reads), or, to make it even broader, include non-developers too (composers, CEOs, etc.).

What about an editorial contest (maybe within Soap Box) where you give users a topic to write about and then post the best entries? You could get some pretty interesting pieces that way.

Edit -- I totally read over the fact that Crimson just suggested this! I agree with it then :)

What about an editorial contest (maybe within Soap Box) where you give users a topic to write about and then post the best entries? You could get some pretty interesting pieces that way.

Edit -- I totally read over the fact that Crimson just suggested this! I agree with it then :)

Korubi

Great minds think alike. :P

This isn't really such a big deal, but I'd like to see the "Poll of the Day" updated more frequently. Sometimes days go by before a new question is posted.shufu7-11

i agree

I'd like to see more retrospectives and more opinion in general, be it the readers' opinion in article form or the writers' own. Info, critique and hype are good enough, but it's the opinion that makes the difference for me.