It seems strange to me that a magazine that intends to discuss the finer points of digital interactivity is taking the print route, but nevertheless it has piqued my interest. Killscreen, reports Wired Magazine, intends to deliver "literary minded games writing," and help debunk the stereotype (that I don't exactly agree exists) that gamers don't read.To its credit, Killscreen looks to have a fairly glamorous line-up of writers, boasting contributors from The New Yorker, GQ, The Daily Show, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, The Colbert Report, The Onion and Paste. Their focus will be to discuss and dissect what games mean culturally and what it means individually to be a gamer; Killscreen aims to be "what early Rolling Stone was to rock n' roll or Wired was to tech" for the ongoing entertainment shift towards gaming today.
Not to detract from the noble ambitions of the project, but it does seem rather presumptuous to ask gamers to drop $20 on this star-studded think-tank when videogame analysis is in no short supply uh, everywhere, on the internet. Gamasutra's servers seem powered on insight and debate alone, and they're just one outlet. Killscreen's writers are, however, writing to address the exact kinds of questions I'd like to see answered, so I'm rooting for them to do well.
Here's hoping the first issue (no release date yet) is a success, and we can be privy to the birth of a lovely little literary gaming magazine.
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