jmoiron.net

I am virtually surrounded by this chuck klosterman article. People who know me well know that I am never really interested in one thing for very long, and that my interests almost always run deep. Such is the case with virtually all of the things I write about, and it just so happens that video games.

People like tim rogers and eric john-rossel waugh et al have sorta changed or shaped or molded the way I think about video games by writing honestly (or in tim's case extremely dishonestly) about the way they feel about video games. It was a concious attempt to apply gonzo journalism to games journalism in an attempt to create a "New Games Journalism" (where the New refers to the New Journalism of Thompson et al.) I've been reading about and playing video games for quite some time now; made what was virtually a pilgrimage to the mecca of gaming, and have even written about them from time to time.

Many of the articles I read now are by people that I know, pretend to know, or at least stalk on forums. Maybe they're no Bangs or Thompson, but they get it a lot more often than most of the mainstream do. What it is like to be a video game player, to devote yourself entirely to that sector of entertainment.

The klosterman article was referenced everywhere I turned. Eventually, someone over at Pitchfork wrote an article that basically said "Today is about technology, and technology is not sexy like drugs are." This article was somewhat of a direct answer to klosterman, and somewhat not. It eventually got linked to by slashdot, where someone linked the exile as an example of New Journalism. I remembered reading pretty much everything Dolan wrote about 10 or 12 months ago, but decided to go back there and check out some stuff from Ames and Taibbi. Then tonight, reading amit's blog, I see a reference to the war nerd.

When does it end? My video games, politics, music and even friends are all tied up in this thing. It was just odd.

Also, I'm an arrogant linux nerd.