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Contact info:
stephen dot totilo
at mtvnmix dot com |
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I know you've all already done a Peter Moore and tattooed my new blog URL to your favorite limb. That's multiplayer.mtv.com, in case you have trouble reading it upside down or in the mirror.
But that doesn't mean stephentotilo.com can't host some of the fun. See, occasionally they let me dabble in the non-MTV world. Sometimes. Like a year and a half ago when I checked with my editor to see if I could write a story about journalism in the virtual world for the Columbia Journalism Review.
They said yes!
And after a long bout of reporting (always tough to recover from), I managed to write a big feature for CJR about the history of reporting on and in Second Life. The piece is an intimidating length. You'd think it was a letter for Vs. Mode. So let me whet the appetite with an excerpt. This is Second Life Herald founder Peter Ludlow talking:
“I think when we’re at our best is when we’re right on the edge, when people aren’t really sure if we’re playing a reporter or if we’re being serious reporters. And people hate that. They want to know. ‘What are you doing? Are you being serious or pretending? Let us know.’ The answer is we’re not going to let you know. We’re trying to transcend that boundary.”
Do you want to read about someone who used to role-play reporter for two different virtual publications? Or see what "Second Life"'s most fervent reporters have to say about the backlash against their virtual world? Maybe you want to know how well virtual reporting pays? Check the piece. I'm proud of it.
And with that, this blog may go quiet for another month. Sorry folks! |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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While I'd love for you all to check out the latest Title Hunt post at my still-new MTV blog, the main thing I want to draw your attention to is the multi-part video series I'm running all week of our tour of Richard Garriott's house. Never did I think that anyone who makes games for a living lived like this. This is one you're going to want to watch.
Part One
Part Two
I'll publish two or three more clips of the tour over the course of the rest of the week. You'll want to watch the one in the dungeon, which I think I'll publish on Wednesday. |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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Google still picks up this blog better than my brand new one, so I'm posting another update about my and N'Gai Croal's ongoing e-mail exchange about "Manhunt 2." Today's installment includes a description of the wildest moment we saw in the game, something that may adjust your impressions of what this game is all about and what the appropriate reaction to it should/could be. Please take a look. |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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Today's a good day to check out my new Multiplayer blog. I launched the first round of an in-depth e-mail debate with N'Gai Croal about "Manhunt 2." If you've heard about the game and want a well-informed take on what's actually in it and what it's like to experience if for a full afternoon, head over to Multiplayer. |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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ST.com readers,
I haven't decided what to do with this site, but I would like to tell you about a post that I'm pretty excited about over on my new blog. I've started what I hope will be a weekly feature called Title Hunt. It's my attempt to enlist the gaming community to help spot welcome innovations in game development, both major and minor. For example, in this first one I'm looking for evidence of biographical video games, games that rip off non-boulder parts of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and a few other things.
The key to making this work is to build up a roster of people who will help spot these things and add comments. If you're up for it, please head to the link above. I'd love for you to also post suggestions of new things to add to the list. Thanks! |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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How better to celebrate the 200th post of this blog than to ask you to never come back. Oh, I could never write such a thing and actually mean it, but I think I can make all of your lives just a little simpler:
As of today I've got a fully functioning blog over at MTV!
Over the coming days and weeks I will shape it up into my new main base of MTV journalistic operations. It will be a one-stop-shopping repository for all my MTV work, sort of like this blog has been, but with most of the content actually on the page (meaning it will present readers with far fewer tease posts and far more posts with the content I want you to read).
For example, if you go to multiplayer.mtv.com you'll find two posts: one introducing the revised blog and one chronicling my Week Without Video Games (my honeymoon), replete with photos of zip-lining adventure travel and a view fit for "Star Wars." The blog also includes all of my old Multiplayer entries from when I was a single man and writing them as standalone articles.
I will launch quite a few new article concepts that I think you'll find interesting. I'll also use the new blog to link to all of my MTV News reported articles (meaning stuff that isn't just me talking about what I think about games). And -- get this 22nd-century innovation -- you can RSS the blog.
All of which might make you wonder why you should ever come to this site again. Well, I'm not sure. It will chronicle my non-MTV work, such as there is any. And... what else? Does it make sense to keep mentioning my MTV work here? Should I shift the focus of this blog to something else? Do you want me to start recommending good comics and talk about my colorful Karate class? I don't know, and I'm happy to field any suggestions.
In the meantime, please check out the new Multiplayer blog. Bear in mind that we're considering it in Beta until we get everything running. It will evolve. |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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Patient readers, I am back from my honeymoon but not ready to go back into full updating mode just yet. Blame Odin Sphere which has been occupying my PS3 playtime for the last 24 hours (yes, it's a PS2 game, but I'm not playing it on that -- and speaking of playing PS2 games on PS3, does anyone know how to transfer a PS2 save off of a PS3 onto a memory card? I can only go from memory cards to PS3 and not the other way around).
More accurately, you can blame MTV for the delay in my return to form. That's because my promised "significant changes" (see previous post) are brewing faster than expected: I may have an actual, functioning blog on MTV's site in just a matter of weeks -- maybe even days -- and I've got some grand plans about how to kick it off.
While I focus on that, this blog's going to be in a little bit of flux. In fact, I'm not sure what type of content I'm going to continue to post on this one, and I'll be turning to you fine folk for suggestions on how/if you'd like me to continue things here.
So stay tuned for the next version of my MTV News work, which I'll be able to explain more clearly in just a few days, I hope. It'll all be good, I'm sure of it! |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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If you read this blog regularly, you know why I won't be around for the next week or so. I'm heading to the jungles of Belize with a special someone, but will be back writing about video games on June 14th.
Expect new updates then as well as some positive, significant changes to the coverage I provide all of you. Now go do something fun. Rest assured I will! |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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About a week ago I turned to you, the video-game-minded readers of my blog, for help. I told you I was getting married and wanted to name the tables at my wedding after video game characters. And I said I was open to suggestions... as long as those suggestions weren't too nerdy.
Readers of this blog and of Kotaku (they of "Stephen Totilo's Big Nerd Wedding" headlines) provided a pile of names.
Some people had splendid suggestions, while others suggested names from "Final Fantasy" games.
Some offered helpful tips (One Kotaku reader: "Dude.. don't do it. This will just be a card in her rolodex of guilt."). Others advised me to make Miis of every guest or include a sound chip of video game music at every table. I'm guessing those people haven't planned a wedding recently.
One man e-mailed me from London to see if I'd be interested in having my wedding filmed for a documentary. I said no, because, we're not having a video-game-themed wedding! This table thing will be just about the only video game touch.
OK. So what table names did we pick?
Some were no-brainers. Hyrule works because it's "Zelda" and I like those games. City 17 had to be in, especially when I decided it would be funny to sit several of our elderly guests there. They'll have no idea! Nor will my and my future wife's parents have a clue the significance of their sitting at Raccoon City. Oh, the comedy.
I thought Omaha Beach was a funny suggestion. (ST.com reader: "Every WW2 game has it. Why not your wedding?"). But I didn't want to give some guests flashbacks. I had floated Sim City in my initial post, but I decided it was too well known. It would give away the gimmick in a way that less famous place names like Melee Island and Outer Heaven would not.
I liked the idea of having game place names that made a mild joke at the expense of the people at the table (or at the game their table was inspired by). For instance, one Kotaku reader wrote this of a Hotel Dusk table: "it can be the table where everyone falls asleep after reading a lot of text and doing next to nothing for 15 hours." Good thinking!
Kind of along those lines, we're going to have a table called San Andreas, and, boy am I tempted to serve a certain warm beverage there. I guarantee no one there would get the joke, which, in my world, makes it funnier. "Would anyone care for some dessert? Some hot coffee?" I'm chortling already.
I actually did a full list of 21 table names without consulting my future wife (her name protected from you folks). And yes, eagle eyed readers, that's 21 tables, one more than the 20 I thought we needed. I guess some people in town invited themselves along or something. So I made this list of 21. Then I showed them to my future wife. She laughed at some, asked if there were any good names from the few games she really likes, like "SSX" and "Prince of Persia" and then -- shock! -- told me some of the names I picked were too tame. She didn't like Daventry (too British), Hyllis (not funny enough), or Hogan's Alley (too flat). I overruled her on the last one, but we did dig back to find some new names. Credit her, ladies and gentleman, for pushing me to approve such gems as Castle Wolfenstein and Oblongata Islaind.
All right then. Here are the 21:
1 - Hyrule
2 - Hotel Dusk
3 - San Andreas
4 - Raccoon City
5 - The Library ("Halo")
6 - City 17
7 - 8-4
8 - Rubacava
9 - Bullworth
10 - Green Hill Zone
11 - Hogan's Alley
12 - Vault 13
13 - Rainbow Road
14 - Melee Island
15 - Big Shell
16 - Pillar of Autumn
17 - Castle Wolfenstein
18 - Outer Heaven
19 - River City
20 - Brinstar
21 - Lake Oblongata
Thank you, one and all, for your suggestions! |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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I'm supposed to be on vacation now, but I couldn't leave people hanging. So here is the third and final round of my "Halo 3" exchange with N'Gai Croal.
This one was my favorite, because I was able to work in extended references to "Perfect Dark", "God Hand", and the fly I killed while writing the piece. Enjoy! |
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| Posted by Stephen Totilo at | | | |
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