Before I say anything about the story he wrote, and it's snowball effect on the video game world, I will simply say that I believe Chuck Klosterman is a genius. His books and articles are insightful, hilarious, intelligent, and thought provoking, often all at the same time. He's a senior editor at Spin Magazine, a columnist for Esquire and ESPN the Magazine, and has written for countless other publications. You would do yourself good to go read some of his work, or all of it for that matter.
Now that I'm done kissing his ass, I'll tell you the real story. Last month Klosterman wrote an article for Esquire titled The Lester Bangs of Video Games. The intent of the article was to discuss why there isn't a truly transcendent video game critic writing about video games for the masses, or any real writing in that direction. It's a fascinating read even for non-video gamers. To say that the reaction was mixed would be irresponsible, it was a torrent of applause and death threats, and everything in between. Klosterman even did an interview with Gamespot.com on his piece after the initial response hit.
My take is that he's exactly right. Understandably there are a few parts of his article that are a little off the mark, but on the whole he is exactly right. Video game critics and columnists as they exist today are more often than not product reviewers. They are stating their opinions on the merits of a particular game to help gamers decide if they should purchase said game. Beyond that there's the ocean of bloggers who are reporting on the voluminous amounts of news and random factoids that the game world produces daily. The unifying characteristic that brings all of these people together is that they are all gamers. They speak the language of video games in a world where that language is still pretty foreign.
You see despite video games reaching the amazing levels of "mainstream" popularity that they are currently at, there are still a staggering number of people who simply don't get it. Millions of people have never touched a video game (or at least haven't touched one since Atari). How many people do you think live in this country who've never watched TV, seen a movie, or listened to music? Basically we don't have a common agreement that video game are even capable of being engaging forms of artistic expression for both creator and player, and until that happens, we can't really take video gaming to the next level. The thing I'm struggling with, is whether this Lester Bangs of video games will usher in this new period, of if it will have to arrive before s/he can exist.
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