Shouting Into A Vacuum

[Leigh Alexander]

I spend way too much time, and way too many words, on my blog posts sometimes, so I thought I'd try pointing out a couple of my "favorite" new pieces here to share with my peers -- because I'm sure many of you can relate to the occasional, distinct sensation that some of the things you concentrate your effort on the most intently are precisely those pieces that slip through the cracks.

I recently wasted spent a lot of my free time presenting the issue of cross-media convergence -- the case in favor, and the case against. If you like that sort of thing, check it out!

The Case In Favor
The Case Against

And if you really like that sort of thing, I'd really like to have somewhere to put such things (i.e, things that aren't my column or my industry work) other than "in the cracks." Preferably somewhere that pays me, so kindly let me know if you're into once-in-a-while freelance reviews and features with a consumer focus. And you pay writers. And you don't hit them in the face, because that's kind of a dealbreaker.

My name is Leigh Alexander, and I approved this shameless self-promotion.

[William Bell]

It's shameless self promotion if you want to call it that. That shouting into a vacuum feeling your talking about haunts me everyday. Sometimes I wonder if everyone of my readers is a figment of my imagination. Crazy thoughts, I guess.

One of my latest is about: innovation regarding Burnout Paradise. There's a bit of self promotion for me. Now you shouldn't feel so alone.

[Pat 'iTZKooPA' Mulhern]

Oh man, I love the bumper pic for the 'Case in Favor' rant. I am not an editor so I can't help you out with the whole getting paid thing, but your shameless self promotion is quality although that isn't unusual for you.

We should just start a whole site of random game-journo ranting so we all have a central place to rant...Oh wait that is basically what this is isn't it? Now we just need to trick convince Ning to pay all of us.

[William Bell]

"Now we just need to trick convince Ning to pay all of us."

Good luck with that one.

[Sean Hollister]

Was turning around the idea of "shouting into a vacuum" in my head a little bit, thinking about what Pat said about getting paid, a little bit about the posts made here on the VGN compare to the greater games journalism sphere, and then it hit me:

Well-written and thought-out debate, discussion and discourse are incredibly engaging.

For us, here among our peers, it's an amazing alternative to regular blogging, since a dedicated, intelligent audience is not only all but guaranteed, but may even respond with their own opinions, which in turn generate an even stronger draw for those of us starved for audience attention...

But for the reader, it's something new, something special that you can't find anywhere else on the web -- game journalists voicing these engaging opinions and penning debates that would neither make it to print in their pure, unadulterated form, nor for that matter make it to the writer's own blog for fear of shouting into that very vacuum.

We probably don't even think of our posts here as "editorial content," but here in this place we produce and no doubt will continue producing quite a bit of it. Anyone read the Croal vs. Totilo Letters? Perhaps debate should be a greater part of overall games journalism... and perhaps we can harness our ongoing discussions to help that happen a la the Letters.

Any thoughts?

[Jason Dobson]

We love ya Leigh. :P That is good stuff. I know I've begun spinning my wheels on my new blog as well, mainly because after putting down etoychest.org I've been getting the itch to create again.

[Brendon Lindsey]

Oh man, that IS pretty shameless... =P

Some good points, though. Another fun "How did gaming get involved in this?" event: recently at a small meeting with the Portland hockey team, they introduced and then let people interview their players by using Second Life avatars. I guess it's a case of "whatever it takes to make people be interested in hockey int he US!"?

[Timothy Pecoraro]

Leigh your probably one of the best writers about video games that I've ever read. As far as getting paid. I'm not either so I can't help you there. But I have to say that most of the time the cream rises to the top. In this case girl, you are pure cream. Don't worry, I'm sure a good paying gig is out there for you. BTW, love the stuff you did for GamesetWatch on Harvest Moon.
Thanks for all your hard work....

[Leigh Alexander]

Oh, thank you so much for the support, everyone! Means a ton.