It’s been a long time coming, but Kotaku have made a version of their site that features gaming news exclusively - Kotaku Core. Finally, a version of the site that doesn’t bombard you with irrelevant bullshit about Japan, or medical science, or whatever!
Still, our good friend Stephen Totilo appears to have absolutely no idea why people have been asking for this very thing. In the post announcing Kotaku Core, Totes writes:
Kotaku Core readers will only see stories about video games themselves. You won’t see stories about the culture surrounding video games. You’ll see more stories about products, fewer stories about people; more stories about what a game company wants to sell you next, fewer feature stories, fewer stories about crime, politics, life and death.
Right, yeah, no. Look, people weren’t complaining about the posts that looked at game culture. Those are fine. I don’t have a problem with those. It’s posts like this one about a man who died kind-of sort-of near an arcade in Japan, or this one about a man trying to hold up a Toys R Us with two plastic lightsabers, or this one about Alec Baldwin using Twitter. These posts have nothing to do with gamer culture. You’d have to have suffered serious cranial trauma to think that posts like these somehow relate to videogames.
(The first person who suggests the lightsaber thing should get a pass because there have been Star Wars games gets a free umbrellenema, which is exactly what it sounds like.)
Congratulations on finally doing the right thing, Kotaku, but a sincere, wholehearted Fuck You for entirely missing the point of why people have been asking for it.
Kotaku: “Dead Rising Creator Keiji Inafune Hurt Himself. He’ll Be Okay!”, January 10th, 2011
Take everything I said just yesterday about Bashcraft’s ongoing penchant for incredible non-news posts, and reapply it here. Again.
Also, yes, in case you were wondering, this whole “blip” and “quick bite” thing that became prevalent last year is still in the upper echelons of lazy games journalism. Don’t use what amounts to a glorified Tweet as a news article.
No, right, ‘cos… ‘cos this is obviously a promo for, like, Super Muscle Pull Panic!, or something. PS3 exclusive, I reckon. Sounds like it’ll be fun.
Christ.
Kotaku: “32-Year-Old Homeless Man Found Dead Outside Japanese Arcade”, January 4th, 2012
It is terrible that a person died, and it’s certainly even more unfortunate that they were homeless, but the sheer coincidence that their passing occurred within a mile of a Japanese videogame arcade does NOT equal an automatic, relevant post for a gaming
blogtabloid.Not only does this article have not a goddamned thing to do with gaming, the games industry or “gamer culture” (is that really even a thing anymore?), but as a commenter pointed out on this unrelated GameJournos post the other day, the one Kotaku visitor who managed the courage to speak out against this story was subsequently and swiftly met with vitriol and backlash from the readership hivemind who, no doubt, are the very reason this kind of shit is still accepted as appropriate coverage.
Were you under the delusion that Kotaku would, in any way, become less shit than it was under the watchful eye of new Editor-in-Chief, Stephen Totilo? Boy, don’t you feel embarrassed.
(OK, to be fair, it was probably misguided the think any change whatsoever would come in the first couple of weeks — it’ll likely be many months before we see any noticeable differences, if they’re coming — but still. Way to kick off the new year, Bashcraft.)
I am genuinely worried about Bashcraft’s obsession with Japanese erotica.
QUOTED FOR TRUTH: Lvl of Detail, Jad: Stepping Down? [Dec 8th 211]
THis more or less sums up the high levels of mental retardation that occurred across the field when Miyamoto told Wired he wasn’t going to retire, which everybody saw as an announcement that he’s going to retire.
Jesus. What a bunch of fucking rocket surgeons.
Headline for this Kotaku article detailing leaked footage from an apparently in-development sequel to,..
Oh, wait. No. Sorry. It’s a fan video. Bashcraft even says as much in the second paragraph of his post. Still, you can’t blame me for getting the wrong idea considering that incredibly misleading headline, can you?
Brian Ashcraft: Asking the difficult questions, and then answering them in the first sentence of his own goddamn article.
Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft: First Look at the Blue Nintendo Wii [October 10th, 2011]
Presumably there’s also no word on a European release either.
Cheers to the reader who sent this my way.
It’s difficult to take anything Kotaku has to say about Dead Island’s “Feminist Whore” thing seriously when hours ago they posted a photo gallery of Japanese women licking door knobs.
Although that may explain why their coverage of the news is limited to a “matter of fact” news post with none of their customary editorializing.
![Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft: A PS3 Controller. Busted in Half. [July 27th, 2011]
Kotaku’s idea of “breaking news”, there.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp065jtBfb1qaim7mo1_500.png)
Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft: A PS3 Controller. Busted in Half. [July 27th, 2011]
Kotaku’s idea of “breaking news”, there.
Spend any time in a major Japanese urban center and you’ll see him: the silver-haired, lab coat-wearing mascot for the Akahige Pharmacy. This ain’t your typical pharmacy. That’s okay, because Senran Kagura isn’t your typical game.
The female characters in the 3DS game have giant breasts.
—Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft: When You Need Help Getting It Up [July 4th, 2011]
Wow, a videogame with giant breasts in it? Unheard of!
There will be no more official Lara Croft girls. After having flesh-and-blood Tomb Raider spokesmodels, Eidos is ditching the fan service and focusing on creating a realistic in-game Lara Croft.
That doesn’t mean totally unofficial Lara Croft models are going anywhere! Take these two nice ladies who recently competed at the UKAPP in Bristol. UKAPP? UK Amateur Pole Performer. Pole dancing, people, pole dancing!
—Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft: Two Lara Crofts. Both Pole Dancers. [July 1st, 2011]
There’s barely a story here. This is, in fact, yet another feeble excuse for Bashcraft to once again express his “appreciation” of the female form. It’s not quite as overt as yesterday’s post devoted entirely to breasts, but still.
