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.
Comments
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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?
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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!!!
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
So if someone doesn't mean to be racists then they can't be racist?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
Not deliberately :D
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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?
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
How can you ever know someone's intention?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
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Internet troll > internet paladin
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
Does he actually review games? I can't find any reviews by him. And does he ever score games like traditional reviewrs?
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Internet troll > internet paladin
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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...
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
I agree. N'Gai Croal is a pretty cool guy. eh writes about games and doesn't afraid of trolls.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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/
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
"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
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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.
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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.
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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
Fangamer
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
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
Re: N'Gai Croal Leaving Newsweek
So you are mad at him because MTV's blog asked him his opinion and he gave it?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com