Dialogue Tree: Albatross
In this episode of Dialogue Tree, Eric Brasure interviews Ben Abraham, co-founder of Critical Distance and ex-curator of This Week in Videogame Blogging. In this interview, Ben discusses founding Critical Distance, the curation process, inclusivity, transparency, the pressure to write quickly about new games and a whole lot more.
(Originally broadcast July 23, 2012 through Second Quest.)
Contents
02:00 “We had this conversation in an IRC chat room over a few weeks...”
03:10 “No one really had the... temerity, I guess, to put their hand up.”
05:50 “[Michael Abbott] was only really able to do that because he was on sabbatical for a year.”
09:50 “Some kind of institutional support has been really key in the really prolific game critics...”
14:50 “I mean, it blew my mind.”
15:50 “It can be really isolating, I think, just toiling away, writing stuff and having it be read by almost nobody...”
17:55 “...because it meant that whenever anyone disagreed with me it became quite personal.”
20:30 “I got really, really sick of it. I'll be completely honest, I never want to do another one ever again.”
22:45 “We've had our share of controversies over the years.”
23:30 “It looked just like another dudebro club.”
30:50 “We love linking to new pieces about old games.”
38:00 “...a lot of critics who have picked up the tools and started playing with them...”
41:20 “It's really interesting that a sports site has included lots of videogames writing as well.”
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References
- Featured music: Bearsuit - "Hey Charlie, Hey Chuck"
- Critical Distance
- Michael Abbott's The Brainy Gamer
- Eric Brasure talks to Michael Abbott (Dialogue Tree)
- Michael Walbridge's The Game Anthropologist (GameSetWatch)
- Nightmare Mode
- Eric Swain on Critical Distance transparency (cites rejection of an Electron Dance article)
- Robert Yang (Radiator)
- Jim Rossignol's game development studio Big Robot
- "The Lester Bangs of Video Games" Chuck Klosterman, Esquire 2006
- Grantland
You can subscribe directly to Dialogue Tree via iTunes or RSS. Eric also maintains a web site called Charles Wallace on Camazotz and a zany Star Trek podcast, recorded with Richard Goodness, called Trekabout.
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