So for the next three weeks, I’ll be playing the big boy role as the search for a new editor continues. While looking after the big K, I’ll be donning my nicest pair of worn-in jeans, treating myself to meals with vegetables, and forcing myself to get to bed before birds chirp outside my window. And for the good of the office, I’ll probably kick the ol’ personal hygiene up a notch.
But what does this changing of the guard mean for our favourite gaming otaku site? Well, how about you decide…
I plan on continuing the regulars left here by the Goose, but there’s no reason this three week period can’t be used to try a few new things out. If they flop, we had a go. If they prove popular, maybe it’ll become a permanent fixture.
As for who our new mystery man is, we’ll tell you as soon as we know. Hopefully we’ll have that info around next week.
I’ll get the ball rolling with a new thing soon called Community Review, a post-release opportunity for people to find out what the Kotaku crowd thinks about a game.
How about you? Any ideas you’ve had hidden away that would be perfect for special K? What regulars do you like/dislike? What would you like to see on the site?
Chuloopa
September 6, 2010 at 4:03 PM
A weekly article focusing on new and old(er) Australian games, just to raise awareness on some of the great games and gaming personal that have come from this fair nation and hopefully encourage more people to spend a penny here and there to help support Aussie developers.
I’d also like to see a weekly “retro review”… something i have been wanting to do myself in the “talk amongst yourselves” thread for a while but never got around to… Maybe if it focused on abandonware/freeware games that anyone can (re)discover and have a bit of fun with.
Report PermalinkAaron Clement
September 6, 2010 at 4:18 PM
Touching on the retro nerve could be a goer – I know the “chiptune” posts from a while back were quite cool, as are the “remember this” posts. Tying that stuff into a weekly retro column would be pretty nifty!
Report PermalinkEddy
September 6, 2010 at 4:19 PM
That sounds good… Ditto with Chulo.
Report PermalinkCorey Lee
September 6, 2010 at 4:53 PM
Beat me to it with the retro review thing.
Report PermalinkQumulys
September 6, 2010 at 7:38 PM
Actually, thats a great idea Loops :) +1
Report PermalinkBish
September 6, 2010 at 4:10 PM
A weekly community podcast consisting of Chuloopa and Qumulys and a special guest. A pure half hour of the two of them just complementing each other on how attractive they look whilst the special guest tries to awkwardly steer the conversation towards games, to no avail.
Y/N?
Report PermalinkNotoriousR
September 6, 2010 at 7:34 PM
Brilliance, I say!
But in all seriousness, I would like Ask Me Stuff, Community Service Awards and Show Us Yours to still appear. For new ideas? As others have suggested, a weekly flashback article, where you put up a review of an old classic (read: anything that’s not this gen) and what it meant to you.
Perhaps take it one step further and make it a community thing, i.e. one member each week will write up a review of their favourite game or something, and then discuss what it means to them. And then plenty of people can discuss!
Report PermalinkQumulys
September 6, 2010 at 7:37 PM
Ohhhh Yeaaaaasssssshhhh!
Lol, “Loops ‘n’ Q in Review.” Has a nice ring to it. I could expand on that last sentence, but I’m trying not to scare Jung off prematuraly.
Would me a loops even be able to concentrate long enough to interview game devs??? Thats a tough call, well we may be able to pull it……. Hey looksy, ma dog is doing sumtin cute!
Report PermalinkNaytan
September 7, 2010 at 8:28 AM
That’s a Y from me.
Report PermalinkDavid Brady
September 6, 2010 at 4:11 PM
I Vote for Jung as the new Editor!
Have you put your hand up for it?
Report PermalinkJunglist
September 7, 2010 at 11:18 AM
I haven’t properly – it’d be possible time-wise to do this and 5 inch Floppy on GameArena, but there’s a conflict of interest there and it’s understandable to want the main editor of K to have 100% of his/her headspace on the job here.
Report PermalinkCorey Lee
September 6, 2010 at 4:14 PM
I’d like to suggest that Show Us Yours (where people send in pictures of their game collecction/setup) happen more often than just once a week. Or as often as there are people who have contributed photos to kotaku. I feel many here like to see each other’s setups and make appropriate comments.
Reader reviews are popular and should definitely be continued (I just sent one in :). It wouldn’t also be a bad idea to occasionally have a ‘Retro Review’ feature where we can all review classic games that may have been overlooked or simply loved by many. All within reason of course.
That’s all from me for now.
Report PermalinkAnimality
September 6, 2010 at 6:52 PM
I second this.
Report PermalinkEzyLee
September 6, 2010 at 4:18 PM
I think a good regular community event. Instead of maybe a ‘what are you playing this weekend’
A… YOU ARE PLAYING THIS WEEKEND.
For instance, a Red Dead Redemption weekend… everyone throws in their PSN / Gamertag and get in organised Kotaku games. Just to get gaming with the community a regular thing.
I hope this makes sense…
Report PermalinkPalstran
September 6, 2010 at 4:43 PM
I think the matchmaker thing was a good idea but it sometimes is hard when it is the newest game just out or something.
Maybe just call it match maker but don’t have a specific game in mind. or make a couple of suggestions.
Could even combine what are you playing this weekend with matchmaker to make it a one stop spot to get ideas and set up meets with people.
Report PermalinkCorey Lee
September 6, 2010 at 4:51 PM
I think specifying particular games to play together is a bit difficult.
We should just simply put down our XBL/PSN/Wii friendcodes and take it from there.
Report PermalinkCapybara
September 6, 2010 at 4:25 PM
Competitions are good, so keep those going.
Make sure news posts are news or at least interesting to a lot of people.
I don’t read the wrap or comics or Good Game posts :)
20 stories all about Duke Nukem get a bit old, so I’d suggest when something’s hot, maybe lessen the amount of different stories about the same thing.
Report PermalinkJoshy206
September 6, 2010 at 4:31 PM
Junglist co-created Good Game just so you know :P
Report PermalinkBlackwater
September 6, 2010 at 6:16 PM
He also got fly-kicked off the show and replaced by tits and no M rated games.
Report PermalinkDaniel Tyler
September 6, 2010 at 4:26 PM
Well looking into my crystal ball here. I see…I see an article…Interviewing guilds from different mmo’s to share their tales or adventures or mis-adventures. Maybe they might want to request new people for the guild from there…who knows?
I also see a kotaku hosted LAN. Comeptitions or just friendly battles. Calling all the members of kotaku staff and the kotaku community to meet in glorious combat and honor…Plus a bbq wouldn’t be soo bad…Just saying
Report PermalinkJoshy206
September 6, 2010 at 4:32 PM
That’s actually a pretty cool idea. Maybe even a weekly Guild bulletin board? Hell, maybe just a weekly bulletin board where people can send in stuff relating to games :3
Report PermalinkEXC355UM
September 6, 2010 at 4:40 PM
I like the idea of Kotaku LAN parties! Maybe one day we might even see KotakuKon. :D
Report Permalinkf4cti0n
September 6, 2010 at 7:46 PM
KotakuKon would probably be the one thing that gets me back into LANs.
Report Permalink706
September 6, 2010 at 9:18 PM
It does feel like the LAN party is a dying breed. Would be cool to have a party set up by kotaku in each major city.
Report PermalinkDaniel Tyler
September 7, 2010 at 10:57 AM
Well honestly I think the community here is strong enough that it’d be a great success to hold lans. I don’t know how it is in other states but in WA we only have only LAN and it’s packed (around 300 gamers plus)
As for the guilds…I’d rather be running with people like this that raid and play in Aus than trying and only get yanks or brits who play on a different time.
Plus I’d like to see if anyone has stories like mine from their online adventures.
Report PermalinkJoshy206
September 6, 2010 at 4:29 PM
Chuloopa’s Chariot? We get him to analyse horses in various games. It would be awesome.
Anyway, more seriously, what about a “critique a classic game” segment, where you ask the community to say something good and something bad about a game that most people have played (LoZ:OoT, HL2, TF2, etc)
Report PermalinkGobbo
September 6, 2010 at 4:30 PM
A weekly photoshop challenge? Maybe not for prizes, but just for bragging rights – like that antiques roadshow thing from US kotaku that got posted on the Oz Kotaky main page thismorning…
Report PermalinkCF2K
September 6, 2010 at 4:30 PM
More competitions and retro articles are always kool. Can someone also fix the rss view so I get the whole article not just the first few lines of text?
Report PermalinkRynoZero
September 6, 2010 at 4:35 PM
how about somthing simmilar to ask slashdot http://ask.slashdot.org/ taking gaming questions submitted by the community and opening them up for discussion. like what to look for in a good surround sound system for my gaming tv or who provides good imports on overseas titles from japan for xbox/ps3.
Report PermalinkEthan Iacobozzi
September 6, 2010 at 4:52 PM
A weekly debate of sorts. You present a gaming-related issue (whether about a specific game or not), and we debate either side of it.
Report PermalinkEzyLee
September 6, 2010 at 5:14 PM
I love a good maths debate
Report PermalinkPalstran
September 6, 2010 at 7:33 PM
I think some contentious issues would be good. But I guess you need relevant starting material. Like the recent Army base ban.
The other problem is on a lot of “Issues” we would all fall on the same side.
Which is the right side of course.
Report Permalinkhayden
September 6, 2010 at 4:55 PM
Continue the Show Us Yours thing on Thursdays. David did a poor job of it so hopefully it can be done better in the future.
Report PermalinkFatShady
September 6, 2010 at 4:59 PM
I dedicated thread where I can talk about Trials HD and tell everyone how I’m going… Who’s with me??? Also another thread where I show off all of the amazing things that happened in Backbreaker…
I am kidding of course, just that Jung may not know about my various vices.
Seriously, the matchmaker idea is good, I would however like perhaps Kommunity involvement in what the game is. Say start a post at the start of the week where we say what we’d like to play. Even if it becomes 2 or more games, then it is a place to meet up and find a game with new friends???
How about, what did Jung have for Brekky? That would be interesting.
Or what about a post called “what aren’t you playing this weekend. We all post about the games we have and the excuses of why we can’t play them. Good for us Uni students!
I will actually think about this more. I am about to go home so am just typing while I procrastinate about getting on the train for over an hour (CBD to Campbelltown)…
Report PermalinkCorey Lee
September 6, 2010 at 5:03 PM
I think you should have less (or in my opinion, none) of the daily Lunchbreak game articles.
They never attracted that much attention on Kotaku from my experience and were kinda mostly ignored.
Report PermalinkEndu
September 6, 2010 at 5:14 PM
I liked the LunchTimeWaster articles, played a lot of cool flash games thanks to those :)
Report PermalinkCorey Lee
September 6, 2010 at 5:22 PM
I played a few too but lost interest in most games after 5 mins.
Report PermalinkReckoner
September 6, 2010 at 8:43 PM
Maybe make the Lunchtime Wasters a weekly post, with a wrap of a bunch of good flash titles found.
Report PermalinkCorey Lee
September 7, 2010 at 12:05 AM
Like one of those This Week in Games posts. Not a bad idea. I could see the benefits of such an article.
Report PermalinkMark
September 6, 2010 at 5:39 PM
Don’t get rid of them! I love those mini-games. Probably the reason few people comment on them is because they spend their lunch-break playing the games instead of posting about it.
Also, I second whoever’s suggestion it was to get rid of the Good Game advertising. The show sucks big-time (unless you’re a pre-teen and don’t keep up with game releases) and I don’t get why Kotaku needs to act as a one-show TV guide for it. Few of the comments on it are ever positive either. Personally, I feel the show insults the intelligence of gamers and makes it seem that all of us are kids, and as such I think Kotaku should distance itself from the show.
Report PermalinkSteven Bogos
September 6, 2010 at 6:28 PM
I agree with this. Every once in a while there is an interesting little one, but most of the time they are just fluff. I have my DS for my lunchbreak :P
Report PermalinkPalstran
September 6, 2010 at 7:36 PM
I loved the Lunch time wasters.
I don’t get much time to hunt for good flash games anymore.
Some of them have been really amazing.
As long as they are quality they should keep coming.
I didn’t comment very often thou because I would be trying to finish the game before I went back to work.
Report PermalinkStinky
September 6, 2010 at 5:07 PM
A no holds barred flame war.
Report PermalinkJustin Robson
September 6, 2010 at 5:22 PM
I put this one to the Goose himself once, and he seemed to like the idea, but never did anything about it :’(
What I was thinking was a reader ‘retro’ review, where you pick a game from, say, the last generation or older, and review it in basically the same format as the regular reader reviews.
It’d be a good chance to go to town on a game you grew up hating (a la AVGN or Yahtzee) or to rave about your favourite older underrated games in the hope that it sparks interest in someone, and maybe the game will briefly get to see the light of day again. It could also lead to some good ol’ nostalgia related discussions.
Report PermalinkScruffy
September 6, 2010 at 6:35 PM
It’d be interesting to re-review games, to see which ones stand up to the test of time and should still be considered classics.
Report PermalinkSteven Bogos
September 6, 2010 at 10:33 PM
I tried to do something similar to this a while ago, I submitted a ‘re-review’ of TF2 when the Engineer update came out, having a look at what has worked and what hasn’t over it’s 3 year lifespam.
I’d actually like to see more of these – especially with multi player gamers.
What’s League of Legends like now that it’s in season 1? What’s the latest patch of WoW like? What is Unreal Tournament 3 like these days, what with the ‘black edition’ update and such?
Not so much ‘retro reviews’ as ‘retrospectives,’ a look at big name games a couple of years after their prime, especially if they’ve recently received new content. It seems kind of unfair that you can only review games when they launch, games change, usually for the better.
Report Permalinkoggob
September 7, 2010 at 9:01 AM
Perhaps similar to that, or tied in with…
“Late To The Party reviews”
So while the Retro reviews will count, if someone for whatever reasons never got around to playing Game X when it first came out, but finally after many years later did, write about their experiences with the game.
Than everyone else can join in and recount their memories also.
Report PermalinkAidan Dullard
September 6, 2010 at 6:05 PM
Moar competitions, even with minor prizes – keeps people sticking around and viewing the site.
Apart from that, at the moment I’m loving the feature articles on gaming topics that present more than just news stories. The one last week on why bullets aren’t rendered in shooters was a great example of good gaming writing.
Report PermalinkViral
September 6, 2010 at 6:08 PM
Looking for an editor?
Look no further.
Hit me up with an e-mail.
Report PermalinkDaniel Green
September 6, 2010 at 6:12 PM
Maybe a community for sale and want to buy thing where we can put in requests or for sales on any video game paraphernalia we want to buy or rid ourselves of? I know there’s a few games I’m after for my collection/s and occassionally the odd one that is ok but I’ll never play again?
Report PermalinkWhat y’all think?
Corey Lee
September 6, 2010 at 6:49 PM
PALGN’s Game Exchange already does such a thing and recently, they’ve had a lot of problems with scammers masquerading as stupid newbies.
There’d be legal implications too as Allure Media would not want to have themselves liable for any screw-up transactions (of which there will be).
Also, Kotaku AU is a blog and not a forum so it’d be a pain in the ass having to click back to the original post where such transactions would take place.
It’s a welcome suggestion but I feel more problematic than its worth.
Report PermalinkLochie Wilson
September 6, 2010 at 6:32 PM
Give me a job
Report PermalinkSteven Bogos
September 6, 2010 at 6:33 PM
I’m a big fan of the Devil’s Advocate posts on games.on.net, in particular, the discussions of the community that ensue. It would be cool if we had a ‘debate’ segment, where Kotakuites could have a CIVIL discussion on the latest gaming controversies.
I know that debate often happens in the comments regardless, but the arguments often get lost as more stuff gets posted. I’d prefer it if we had a debate topic that was promoted daily like the ‘Talk amongst yourselves’ segment
Report PermalinkSteven Bogos
September 6, 2010 at 6:35 PM
PS: I’m guessing there’s no shortage of editor applicants… but if you guys ever need an intern…
Report PermalinkStinky
September 6, 2010 at 6:36 PM
Morning pr0nz.
Report PermalinkJames Mac
September 6, 2010 at 11:13 PM
+1
Report Permalinkspockyface
September 6, 2010 at 7:18 PM
Kotaku Matchmaker YES see previous comments
What Are You Playing This Weekend? MAYBE
Talk Amongst Yourselves YES, a forum would be good though
Lunchtimewaster YES, but less often. Less quantity, more quality.
The Week In Games YES
Censor Watch YES
Ask Me Stuff YES – perhaps special guests?
Kotaku’s Community Service Award YES
Report PermalinkRemember This YES
Caption This! YES
Tell Us Dammit YES
Andrew
September 6, 2010 at 7:24 PM
I’ve got a few ideas.
Some sites let users write in with a 150 – 200 word snippet of whatever is bothering them that week, they pick the 15 best and make that a weekly posting. It’s a nice way to hear some other opinions on everyday gaming topics.
I know a lot of Kotaku readers would like to contribute more to this site. How about once a week having a post that is user submitted content? Maybe an editorial, fan made vid or Photoshop picture? I know Wildgoose posted my Australians in video games thing a while back, and in know a lot of other people would love to see their stuff on Kotaku.
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