N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
March 4, 2009
Kotaku reports that N'Gai Croal will exit the video game beat at Newsweek as of Friday.
The news mag, which has fallen on hard times, is re-inventing itself - and so, apparently is N'Gai. After 14 years with Newsweek, he has accepted a buyout. N'Gai explains:
I always thought I was going to do end up in movies or something else, but I kind of got sidetracked into journalism. It's one of the most amazing things that's happened to me. But when the buyout came around again, I said to myself if I don't do this now when am I going to do it?
I want to do something more creative than when you are on the journalism side of things. I think it's going to be a combination of things, I'm still in the process of figuring that out. There is some interest in me consulting on games, that's something I'm interested in as well.
I wont be doing pre-release coverage of games the way I was for Level Up and Newsweek because that can be a conflict of interest.
In other game journo news, our buddy Mike Antonucci, lately of the San Jose Mercury-News, has started a new blog, Sector Earth. Among his first posts, Mike sets the record straight concerning a controversial interview with Peter Moore on the Xbox 360 RROD fiasco.
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Posted 03/21/10 at 06:23pm
Andrew Eisen: No, I think I'll stay safe and warm in my own little world where Provolone is king and that... other cheese... doesn't exist.
Andrew Eisen: No, I think I'll stay safe and warm in my own little world where Provolone is king and that... other cheese... doesn't exist.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:22pm
JDKJ: I wish the Speaker would ask me for what purpose does the member rise.
JDKJ: I wish the Speaker would ask me for what purpose does the member rise.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:18pm
JDKJ: Provolone?! Please! Try aged Blue Stilton. Also known as Zippy Ass-Crack Cheese.
JDKJ: Provolone?! Please! Try aged Blue Stilton. Also known as Zippy Ass-Crack Cheese.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:13pm
Andrew Eisen: Nothing beats Provolone.
Andrew Eisen: Nothing beats Provolone.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:11pm
JDKJ: Betcha my cheese beats your cheese.
JDKJ: Betcha my cheese beats your cheese.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:09pm
Andrew Eisen: I don't know, I can count pretty high with my graphing calculator. It's a TI-86!
Andrew Eisen: I don't know, I can count pretty high with my graphing calculator. It's a TI-86!
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:07pm
JDKJ: There'll be more dead babies than you can count if the socialists succeed in passing that God-damned Obamacare!!
JDKJ: There'll be more dead babies than you can count if the socialists succeed in passing that God-damned Obamacare!!
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:04pm
Andrew Eisen: Hmm, top 10 child deaths in film. What a great blog post that would make! If I had a blog. And if that hadn't been done a million times before.
Andrew Eisen: Hmm, top 10 child deaths in film. What a great blog post that would make! If I had a blog. And if that hadn't been done a million times before.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:03pm
JDKJ: Whoa! It's some rotten blue cheese, too.
JDKJ: Whoa! It's some rotten blue cheese, too.
Posted 03/21/10 at 06:00pm
JDKJ: *sighs and smiles* I just cut some cheese.
JDKJ: *sighs and smiles* I just cut some cheese.
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:58pm
Andrew Eisen: Well, just so there's no confusion: implied deaths won't get you to the top of my favorite child-deaths list.
Andrew Eisen: Well, just so there's no confusion: implied deaths won't get you to the top of my favorite child-deaths list.
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:58pm
JDKJ: Most authorities hold that "cut the mustard" mutates and derives from "cut the muster."
JDKJ: Most authorities hold that "cut the mustard" mutates and derives from "cut the muster."
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:56pm
Andrew Eisen: Checked the dictionary. I guess you could cut one definition of muster.
Andrew Eisen: Checked the dictionary. I guess you could cut one definition of muster.
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:56pm
JDKJ: Don't take my word for it. Look it up yourself.
JDKJ: Don't take my word for it. Look it up yourself.
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:55pm
Andrew Eisen: Cut the muster? That wouldn't make a lot of sense. You could pass it sure but cut it?
Andrew Eisen: Cut the muster? That wouldn't make a lot of sense. You could pass it sure but cut it?
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:53pm
JDKJ: As in: "Zippy always cuts the cheese but he never cuts the muster."
JDKJ: As in: "Zippy always cuts the cheese but he never cuts the muster."
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:51pm
JDKJ: And I believe the expression is more properly "cut the muster," not "mustard." Not to be confused with "cut the cheese."
JDKJ: And I believe the expression is more properly "cut the muster," not "mustard." Not to be confused with "cut the cheese."
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:48pm
JDKJ: I kinda like the way it's left to the imagination. Like the shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho.
JDKJ: I kinda like the way it's left to the imagination. Like the shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho.
Posted 03/21/10 at 05:46pm
Andrew Eisen: A flying shoe doesn't quite cut the mustard. If it was shot like a similar scene in Bride of Chucky, Gage's death would rank a lot higher.
Andrew Eisen: A flying shoe doesn't quite cut the mustard. If it was shot like a similar scene in Bride of Chucky, Gage's death would rank a lot higher.
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Comments
This guy pisses me off. It's not like I hate all, or even most, of his stories, but that RE5 article made me so mad it turned me off of him for good. I hope he takes his time figuring out what he's going to do next.
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Internet troll > internet paladin
So you are mad at him because MTV's blog asked him his opinion and he gave it?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com
"I always thought I was going to do end up in movies or something else, but I kind of got sidetracked into journalism."
No, that's not an indication of an arrogant ass, not at all. /sarcasm
What, because he worked in a job that he didn't really want to do, but needed to make ends meet? I guess I'm arrogant too since I'm doing the same thing!
---
The Mammon Industry
Replace journalism with games and you got Dave Jaffee.
I really don't see how aiming for a different career then the one you end up with makes one arrogant.
----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
That's a damn shame. His articles were consistently interesting.
With Dean Takahashi and him out of the game journalism business, it's not a good thing.
-- http://pixelantes.blogspot.com/
We should send him a copy of Resident Evil 5 so he can actually play it, instead of just whine about it.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
I'm going defend N'Gai as a stand up guy. Everyone just knows him for his controversial Resident Evil article but he has done some great editorials and input in other games and in reviews in general. I liked what he said during the A symposium on Reviews discussion with other editors and I also enjoyed his editorials on Halo 3.
He's not that bad.
I agree. N'Gai Croal is a pretty cool guy. eh writes about games and doesn't afraid of trolls.
I'm going to play the devil's advocate too... frankly I never had a judgment on the whole RE5 thing... primarily cuz MY HERITAGE DIDN'T INVOLVE SLAVERY OR HARDCORE OPPRESSION (actually it did, but I don't really care).
Regardless, N'Gai's greatest weakness is that he always read way too much into things. Cuz frankly, RE5 MAY or MAY NOT have contained racist imagery... but IT'S FROM JAPAN!!! THEY HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA WHAT OUR CULTURE IS LIKE!?!? Does it need to be anymore complicated than that? Does it need 10 pages of diatribe to disseminate!?!? Hellz no!
and that's what he does ALL THE FREAKING TIME!!!
I agree with you that N'Gai had a habit of reading too deeply into things, but isn't it good that there's at least one critic who was looking and the deeper levels of games and gaming? You know, instead of the usual "You get to decapitate zombies, OMG it's awesome!" type of reviews you see everywhere.
I sometimes compared his reviews of games to certain movie reviewers like Roger Ebert who would sometimes deride something for it's lack of artistry when it was intentionally meant to be schlocky 'b' movie fun. There are games and movies which strive for a certain level of artistry, and are meant to be thought upon and discussed, and then there are some which are purely disposable entertainment.
If you want to see one of his more interesting in depth reviews on a game, and a very different take from almost anyone else on the game for that matter, check out his thoughts on the original Manhunt.
As often as I disagreed with his articles, he was still a good writer and a provoking reviewer and I wish him the best of luck.
I hate broccoli/ and think it totally sucks/ Why isn't it meat?
WAY TO READ TOO MUCH INTO IT!!!! :D
I jest... :)
You have a very fair point... however, another way to say what you just said is that he's a product of a lousy system of critics, pundits, and columnist: windbags who're completely out of touch with the culture they represent.
Anyway, I guess one of the reason I always get annoyed with N'Gai... and this is perspective time here... games simply aren't sophisticated enough to be judged on an artistic level... I know about 90% of gamers would disagree with me, but we still haven't had the mona lisa of games yet...
GTCv Deimos said, March 4, 2009 at 5:58 pm -0500, "I know about 90% of gamers would disagree with me, but we still haven't had the mona lisa of games yet..."
Two words... Infinity Engine.
Does he actually review games? I can't find any reviews by him. And does he ever score games like traditional reviewrs?
---------------------------------
Internet troll > internet paladin
I looked up his interview with MTV multiplayer just now, and I found what it was that had pissed me off so much.
"It would be like saying you were going to do some sort of zombie movie that appeared to be set in Europe in the 1940’s with skinny, emaciated, Hasidic-looking people."
This statement fails on both the "stop whining about it you pussy" level and the general logic level. RE5 is not like such a movie at all. The movie he's describing is clearly focusing on the fact that Jews in concentration camps looked sort of zombie-esque. It also takes place in a very specific setting. If RE5 took place in the South in the 1820s, then he might have a point, but only if all of the zombies were black people. But it doesn't. It takes place in Africa. Africa just happens to have a lot of black people. Capcom wasn't trying to say that black people are like zombies. In fact, the inspiration for the setting came from the movie Black Hawk Down. And I can definitely see why. The hordes of insurgents in that movie reminded me of zombies too. Not because they were black, but because they were hordes.
N'Gai reacted to RE5 in the way he did because he read to much into it. He saw something that wasn't there at all, and then he made a big stink about it. So even though I agree that reading between the lines is often times important, I still think you should make sure there is anything there in the first place.
---------------------------------
Internet troll > internet paladin
How can you ever know someone's intention?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com
So if someone doesn't mean to be racists then they can't be racist?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com
Not deliberately :D
I do hope N'Gai will pop up somewhere else. While I vehemently disagreed with him on the RE5 issue he was always interesting and raised good points for debate.
I do believe it is time people stopped looking racist imagery in everything. We will only truely move beyond racism when its no longer something people thing about.
In my opinion, Capcom going "Oh we better be 100% sure we don't accidentally offend some people with this imagery" is a racist mindset. It's looking at things through the prism of race. Changing the game, or watering it down, to avoid racial issues isn't good.
At some point we have to just stop thinking about it from both sides. That will be the day when race truely doesn't matter.
I personally don't like the guy because of his comments about RE5. Japan doesn't care about our country's past and/or racial history. They know we bombed them twice. If I was them, I'd be making a game about nuking the USA. They didn't, they made a zombie game in Africa. End of story. If N'Gai found it racist, it is probably because he, like many Americans, thinks we as a country are important enough that other countries that make games should be mindful of our sensitivities. This is one reason why the rest of the world doesn't like us very much. We have a subtle sense of entitlement to everything we do and say. It is so engrained in us we don't even notice. When is the last time someone from Newsweek stood up about the portrayal of Germans in war games? Thought so. If it isn't against an American, it isn't important. Only when it bothers you, right N'Gai?
The game is set in africa so it is about depictions of africans not americans. Japan has a pretty bad track record of racist depictions of African people. Just search for it and plenty of examples come up.
N'Gai was born in Canada. He might be a US citizen now but he wasn't born one.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com
Now I'll agree to disagree with him with his comments on Resident Evil 5, however I wish him the best of luck in anything he does next.
This is sad news for me. N'Gai Croal is a sharp guy, one of the sharpest game writers we've got. It's a shame that he's going out with all the RE5 controversy. His journalism track record is about much much more than just that.