knockknock.biz luggage tags. Photo courtesy of justinph.

I guess it's finally time for me to level up.

It was the summer of '99 when I convinced my then editor to send me on a tour of the U.S. videogame industry. When I finally returned three weeks later, my head was still spinning. I felt as though I'd seen the future of entertainment. It was then that I made it my mission to put NEWSWEEK's coverage of this growing medium on the map. I did that in print, with cover stories on the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 2 and the spread of online gaming. I did it online, with the debut of the blog N'Gai Croal's Level Up. I did it on television, with appearances on MSNBC and CNN. You all watched me push, prod, praise, scold, discuss and debate videogames across multiple media, both mainstream and enthusiast. That's because my editors were prescient enough to let me apply my talents and establish my reach beyond the magazine, from co-blogging with MTV News to writing a monthly column for Edge and more. For this, I say to them all, thank you.

Having achieved all of this, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I've accomplished what I set out to do ten years ago. And now it's time for me to take that decade’s worth of accumulated knowledge and do something else with it. After Friday March 6th, my passions will take me beyond the world of journalism. I’ll be wearing many hats on this new journey: videogame design consultant, media strategist, consumer technology reporter, columnist, blogger and, as always, provocateur. You’ll be able to keep track of my various adventures at ngaicroal.com, and feel free to reach out to me via email at ncroalbiz@gmail.com. It’s been a pleasure conversing with all of you, and I look forward to continuing our dialogue in the years to come.

Cheers,

 Rockstar promotional party for Grand Theft Auto IV at Cielo in New York City 

In the run-up to the Launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar Games hosted a series of intimate parties at a variety of New York City hot spots. Dubbed "Rockstar Games Presents Music From Grand Theft Auto IV," the events were pitched to us via email by Rockstar PR director Darlan Monterisi as "a rare series of intimate events representing the eclectic musical soundtrack for the upcoming epic crime drama. Each event (listed below) provides an authentic, engaging experience for you to not only experience the sounds of GTA IV first-hand in their organic format, but also an opportunity for one-on-one face time with the artists themselves and select members of the Rockstar Games team." Following a hands-on session with the game's multiplayer back in March (lovingly described in an April post by Kotaku head honcho Brian Crecente), we were given a copy of this flyer...

To read the rest of this installment of Page 110, click on the link below. 

AOL's Robin Yang, Level Up's N'Gai Croal and Harmonix's John Drake play Rock Band

Our Twitter post of yesterday--"Playing Rock Band's Judas Priest album DLC at MTV's offices. Devil horns!"--pretty much said it all. MTV had originally planned to host journalists last Friday to play the first complete album available for download in its Rock Band videogame, Judas Priest's "Screaming For Vengeance," but it was cancelled at the last minute and moved to Monday. We arrived at 1633 Broadway shortly after 5:00 PM, at which point MTV publicist and skilled Rock Band guitarist Jeff Castaneda escorted us up to the room they call The Lab. Others in the room included MTV Games producer Marc Nesbitt and MTV flack Mariana Agathoklis, Harmonix PR guy John Drake and AOL GameDaily's Robin Yang, whose slender frame belied a zest for rock that would soon be unleashed. (MTV News' Stephen Totilo, displaying a stunning disinterest in corporate synergy, was nowhere to be found.)

Before we took the stage, we ribbed Castaneda for the absence of liquor and other stimulants. "Harmonix just went eight times platinum with the downloadable content--and we've seen the bonus schedule," we said. "So where's the Jim Beam? Where's the Cristal?" Castaneda laughed and volunteered to make a beer run. But we declined, because in truth, rock is the only sustenance we need. With Yang on lead guitar, Drake on vocals, ourselves on drums and a fourth, whose name escapes us, on bass, we kicked things of with "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." From there, we went into "Pain and Pleasure,"--a track whose deceptive simplicity concealed a drumbeat that initially caught us off guard before we recovered and settled into a stone cold groove--followed by the hand-wrecking challenge of "The Hellion" and "Electric Eye." Thankfully, our bandmates were there on two occasions to rescue us from the abyss.

To read the rest of Page 110's dispatch on rocking out at The Lab with MTV, click on the link below.

 The 1957 classic "The Sweet Smell of Success," courtesy of Film Forum 

For a while now, we've been meaning to find a proper home for some of the on-scene reportage that characterized Level Up's carefree infancy, when we would belly up to the VIP bar with Kaz Hirai and Sir Howard Stringer inside the Sony Style store on New York's Madison Avenue. Or firing a pump-action shotgun (the Serbu Super Shorty, if you must know) with Crytek founder Cevat Yerli at The Gun Store in Las Vegas. Or consuming steak and wine at the Morton's Steakhouse in downtown Los Angeles with Microsoft's own James "J" Allard, culminating in our infamous wager. Or playing Madden NFL 07 against Miss May 1998 Deanna Brooks--and losing--at the South Seas Hotel in Miami's South Beach during the runup to last year's Super Bowl. You know, the lighter side of being a videogame journalist.

So today, we're taking the wraps off of Page 110, our sometimes wry, sometimes breathless, but always observant occasional feature on the people, places and things we get to see as part of our job. The title has a double meaning; it's both an in-joke for the truly geeky and a reference to the pop cultural gap between the prominence of boldfaced names who appear on Page Six and those who can't get arrested there despite their stature in the world of videogames. The US Weeklys and the Gawkers of the world may not care about this stuff, but we do, and hopefully you will as well. Enjoy.

 Infogrames president Phil Harrison (upper left) and CEO David Gardner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in NYC 

The rumors, it seems, were true. Former head of Playstation's worldwide studios Phil Harrison has indeed joined Infogrames--the parent company of Atari--as its president, reporting to newly-minted CEO David Gardner. We got our first sighting of Harrison in his new role this morning when he took the floor to say a few words before Atari's press event for the survival-horror game Alone in the Dark. (We hope that's not a metaphor for the herculean task that lies ahead for Harrison and company in restoring Atari to its former stature.)

"As you may know, I had a different job [two Fridays ago]," Harrison told the crowd of journalists, who greeted him with applause. He went on to say that while he had very much enjoyed his long tenure with Sony, what got him excited was the future of videogames, which in his opinion lies in connected communities of networked gamers. "David and I have been talking about this for a long time," Harrison added, which could suggest that he and Gardner had been talking about him making the move to Infogrames prior to the January announcement of Gardner's appointment as CEO.

Before Harrison took the stage, we chatted briefly while waiting for the event to begin. We congratulated him on his new position, and asked him what sort of feedback he'd received once the announcement had been made official. The ever-wily Harrison demurred, saying that he'd been on a plane and hadn't been able to see the reaction, before turning the question back on us. We told him that we hadn't seen much in the way of informed reaction, but that the fanboys seemed confused by his decision to jump ship from Sony to Infogrames. "That's understandable," Harrison replied, smiling a knowing Mona Lisa smile as he spoke. You might say, what's he got to grin? If all goes well, Level Up may soon be in a position to know, so stay tuned.

 Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg and reggaeton producer Nely

All work and no play makes the Level Up staff very dull boys indeed. So when we got word that our favorite Xbox kingpin Aaron "B.I.G. VIP" Greenberg was rolling through NYC, we agreed to jump in for a Friday night of debauchery good-natured fun. We kicked things off at an after work cocktail party at the offices of Kinetix Integrated Communications, a lifestyle marketing company that both Microsoft's Zune and Xbox divisions are employing to reach out to urban and Latino communities. According to Greenberg, the group product manager for Xbox 360's Live and lifestyle programs, a number of key influencers and media in the urban and Latino markets are still playing videogames on their PlayStation 2s. To remedy that situation, he spent the latter half of last week being driven from meeting to meeting in an SUV, taking Xbox 360 Elites out of the back of the vehicle and dropping them off with late-adopting gamers like a big city Santa Claus.

At Kinetix's Manhattan offices, we witnessed Greenberg dispensing post-holiday cheer to an influencer of particular note: reggaeton producer Nely "El Arma Secreta," the mastermind behind such hits as Wisin Y Yandel's "Rakata" and R. Kelly's "Burn It Up." The charming twentysomething studio wizard was pleased as punch to receive his Xbox 360 Elite. Why? All the better to put the hurt on opponents in his current favorite game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur--tooling around the city after 11:30 PM trying to find a suitable restaurant for late night dining; Greenberg hollaticking with his Miami crew via cell phone; the de rigueur bottle service (Belvedere, of course) that accompanied the breaking of bread at Pop Burger in the Meatpacking district--but it was clear from our night on the town that Microsoft is sparing no expense in its broad-based pursuit of console dominance.

 1UP Network editorial director Dan Hsu

Two weeks ago, Ziff-Davis' 1UP Network, which publishes the magazines EGM, Games For Windows: The Official Magazine and 1UP.com announced that it had reorganized its editorial group around three silos--Videogames, PC Games and Video--spanning both print and online. Simultaneously, the company revealed that its review scale would shift from its familiar ten point scale to letter grades, a la Entertainment Weekly. To get a better understanding of the changes that were afoot, we pinged 1UP Network editorial director Dan "Shoe" Hsu with a few questions over email, which he graciously took time to answer--but only after he finished closing the next issue of EGM. Now that's dedication. Here's what Hsu had to say.

What were the main reasons behind the recently announced reorganization of the 1UP Network? When do they go into effect?

We integrated the print and online teams because we recognized this is the direction that media's going. It's no longer just about print or just about online; it's about both. This reorganization lets us tackle our editorial duties more efficiently, because all our editors are constantly working in both print and online. We really think our readers will notice and appreciate this move, too, because it will translate into better, more well-rounded coverage from us.

Presumably, Jeff Green, who was just named the 1UP Network's editor-in-chief for PC games, will remain the editor-in-chief of Games For Windows magazine. But the press release wasn't clear about whether Jeff's 1UP Network counterpart for videogames, James Mielke, will also be the editor-in-chief of the corresponding magazine, EGM. Is Mielke now in charge of EGM, or are you still the editor-in-chief?

Jeff Green is the editor-in-chief, PC games, so he's running Games For Windows: The Official Magazine as well as the PC coverage on our online properties. James Mielke is Jeff's videogame/console counterpart, so yup, he's the editor-in-chief of EGM (as well as the console side of our online sites). I'm now full-time editorial director for the 1UP Network.

Over the past few years, video has moved from the periphery to the center of Ziff-Davis videogame coverage. You've also got a number of popular and/or influential podcasts, like 1UP Yours and the Games For Windows podcast. What plans do you have going forward for video and audio under this new management structure?

 The 1UP Yours crew: (left to right) Bryan Intihar, Shane Bettenhausen, Andrew Pfister, Garnett Lee and Shawn Elliott

Last Thursday, the staff of Level Up made a guest appearance on the Ziff-Davis podcast 1UP Yours. Though the lineup has changed a number of times since hitting its stride--so long, Luke! Farewell, John! Happy trails, Mark!--it has nevertheless remained our videogame podcast of choice; its Friday afternoon availability confirming the onset of weekend freedom. On last week's show, topics included:

• --The cult hit No More Heroes (not all it's cracked up to be, according to Shawn Elliott)
• --Army of Two (noticeably improved, with a cool new multiplayer co-op mode, says Garnett Lee)
• --The Club (better than some of the reviews would indicate, swears Level Up)
• --The January NPD sales figures (we'll wait to see if PS3's victory over Xbox 360 represents a blip or a trend, says the entire panel)
• --Some interesting tidbits about Xbox boss Don Mattrick and his right hand man John Schappert, who's delivering a GDC keynote this week 

 Mass Effect, developed by BioWare and published by Microsoft

Ever since we first saw the train wreck that was Fox's coverage of its hyped up "SeXbox" controversy surrounding a love scene in the RPG Mass Effect--redeemed only by Gametrailers TV host Geoff Keighley's withering rebuttal--followed by Electronic Arts vice president Jeff Brown's forceful defense of his company's studio, we've had a nagging question in the back of our minds: why didn't BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk or Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson lead the charge on behalf of their artistic creation? Yes, Keighley and Brown did a more-than-admirable job cutting through the ignorance and explaining the facts, much to the joy of videogame enthusiasts tired of seeing their medium of choice dragged through the mud. But at the end of the day, Keighley is a journalist, and Brown is a publicist. Shouldn't the artists be the ones issuing a full-throated, unrelenting defense of their art?

There are certainly some game developers who wouldn't be able to make a strong case for their work under the hot lights in a TV studio; live television can be a white-knuckle exercise that isn't for everyone. But in our experience, the BioWare founders in particular are not only whip-smart, but highly prepared. When we moderated a panel at the 2007 Game Developers Conference on "Early Lessons In Digital Distribution," not only did Muzyka turn up with a sheaf of documents that he periodically referred to throughout the discussion, he also took copious notes as other panelists spoke, then proceeded to deliver focused, penetrating remarks when it came his turn to speak. Surely he or one of his colleagues could have faced off against the self-admittedly uninformed child expert Cooper Lawrence on Fox News; penned a point-by-point rebuttal in lieu of EA's Brown; or published a statement and/or video response on the Mass Effect community site, rather than the single quote from Muzyka that appeared in the New York Times.

We asked Muzyka about this during last night's D.I.C.E. Summit cocktail party.

 Director Gore Verbinski and Level Up's N'Gai Croal, backstage at the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit

The Level Up staff is back in the city of sin for this year's D.I.C.E. Summit, described on its fact sheet as "a high-level interactive entertainment conference that brings together the top video game designers and developers from around the world and business leaders from all the major publishers to discuss the state of the industry, its trends and the future." We've always particularly liked this conference for its small scale (there's just a single track, so it's possible to see all of the presentations) and its corresponding intimacy (hanging out just outside the conference auditorium is a who's who of videogame luminaries, each generally both personable and accessible). The sessions can be hit (we still remember Marc Ecko's 2005 talk, which began as bad standup before quickly evolving into a terrifically inspired presentation) or miss (we're trying to remember the bad ones, but we must have blocked them from memory), which is more noticeable in a single-track conference, but we've never failed to get something valuable out of attending.

This year's keynote speaker, "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Gore Verbinski, gave a prepared talk that was inspiring and occasionally poetic, if somewhat light on game-specific content. Verbinski made it clear, however, that a non-stop series of movies had kept him away from games for a number of years, so we'll forgive him as he slowly works his way through such modern classics as BioShock and Halo 3. Less forgivable is his critique of another game--thatgamecompany's flOw--telling us during the post-keynote Q&A (moderated by the Level Up staff) that while he enjoyed it, he found his attention wandering because there wasn't enough action. Gore, Gore, Gore. Can''t you see that flOw is one of the most violent games ever released? Don't let the soothing soundscapes and hypnotic visuals fool you--it's a kill-or-be-killed game where you eat eat everything in sight, including, on occasion, creatures of your own species. If flOw were a movie, it would undoubtedly be rated NC-17 for "relentless undersea mayhem." Hmm. That sounds like something we'd like to see. And since Verbinski and thatgamecompany are both represented by Creative Artists Agency...well, maybe this pipe dream is an example of the "madness" that Verbinski says the game industry needs more of.

 Qwizdom Q2 Remote

Writing about games as frequently as we do has certainly made the staff of Level Up open to the applications of videogames in a variety of areas. That said, there's nothing like a story about games being used in the educational arena to get our knees jerking furiously in protest. The latest such article to trigger our inner curmudgeon is a New York Times story titled "Students Click, and a Quiz Becomes a Game," about the proliferation of game show-style clickers as a teaching aid throughout U.S. schools.

The games had begun. In a darkened classroom at Great Neck South High School on a recent afternoon, the Advanced Placement physics students sped through a pop quiz, furiously pressing keys on hand-held clickers. A projection screen tracked their responses in real time, showing who knew what through an animated display of spaceships--individually numbered for each student--that blasted off or fell by the wayside with each right or wrong answer.

The students were not competing for grades (it was only a practice quiz), but they certainly acted as if they were.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” yelled a boy from the back of the class. “What’s the next question?” The Great Neck district has been introducing the clickers in an effort to liven up traditional classroom teaching with a more interactive approach. After a successful test at one of its high schools, Great Neck expanded the technology to other schools.

To read the rest of this post, click on the link below.

We've often complained about the generation gap that divides those who understand videogames as a medium and those who, in ways large and small, dismiss them. But is it possible that this gap has become, for some of us, a security blanket, an article of faith? What would happen to those of us in our mid-thirties and above if our parents, grandparents, bosses, religious leaders, politicians, all wanted to play as regularly as we do?

The spur for this brief-but-heartfelt reflection is a just-published AP story titled "Youth Vs. Adults In Gadget Wars" about gadgets like mobile phones, social networks like Facebook and the culture clash that can emerge as young and old meet on these playing fields. The article begins with an anecdote about a college freshman and his grandmother communicating via IM and pointing out correctly that "Long gone are the days when the average, middle-aged adult did well to simply work a computer. Now those same adults have Gmail, upload videos on YouTube, and sport the latest high-tech gadgets." Then it continues with:

Nowhere are the technological turf wars more apparent than on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, which went from being student-oriented to allowing adults outside the college ranks to join.

Gary Rudman, a California-based youth market researcher, has heard the complaints. He regularly interviews young people who think it's "creepy" when an older person — we're talking someone they know — asks to join their social network as a "friend." It means, among other things, that they can view each others' profiles and what they and their friends post.

"It would be like a 40-year-old attending the prom or a frat party," Rudman says. "It just doesn't work."

It's a particular quandary for image-conscious teens, says Eric Kuhn, a junior at Hamilton College in upstate New York, who's blogged about the etiquette of social networking.

He accepted his mom's invitation to be Facebook friends and has, in turn, become online friends with other adults she knows. But so far, he says, his 16-year-old sister has declined to add their mom "because she thinks it is not cool."

From a gaming perspective, would it be cool with you if your boss wanted to join your Rock Band band and bless the mic with his or her vocal stylings on a nightly basis? What about if your grandparents asked to cowboy up with your Halo clan and help you re-finish the fight? Or if your parents had their heart set on your World of Warcraft party?

We've long been fans of the site The Smoking Gun, with its troves of mug shots, celebrity riders and other documents of the famous and infamous behaving badly. So it might seem a bit strange for us to accuse these purveyors of sensationalism of being, well, sensationalistic, but that's what we're going to do. A few minutes ago, while scanning the list of stories on The Drudge Report, we came across the following headline "Online shooting game lets kids target presidential candidates..." Intrigued, we clicked on the link, which brought us to The Smoking Gun and the headline "Hey Kids, Shoot Your Favorite Candidate!
Clinton, Obama pace gunners in "Presidential Paintball" online game." The site went on to describe the game as follows:

For the aspiring young assassin, a popular online games site offers kids the opportunity to assume the identity of a leading presidential contender and then shoot their political opponents in a series of armed confrontations in the White House. While the ammo is paintball, the game on the hugely popular miniclip.com site allows kids to train a rifle scope on six presidential aspirants and squeeze off a hail of shots (which are accompanied with a rat-a-tat sound). The game, "Presidential Paintball," features six candidates in the crosshairs: Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; John Edwards; Mitt Romney; John McCain; and Rudy Giuliani (it seems the game was developed before the ascension of Mike Huckabee). If a candidate wins a head-to-head confrontation, he/she advances to a new shootout, which occurs in various White House settings, including outside the Oval Office. When a candidate gets blown away, bloodlessly, a screen appears noting that they have been "eliminated," not killed. To better direct a fusillade, young gunmen can use their computer's mouse to place a crosshairs on a candidate's head or body. Of course, the imagery of Obama and Clinton, both of whom have been the target of threats and receive Secret Service protection, being targeted in such a manner-by children, no less-might be seen as troubling in some quarters.

Sounds disgusting, doesn't it? Well, we clicked on the link for Presidential Paintball, selected Barack Obama--the candidate and the Level Up staff are both fans of Omar Little on "The Wire," so perhaps our mutual gangsta might give us an edge--and fired up the game.

The Halo 3 Steaktacular! Medal

In hindsight, this bet was doomed almost from the beginning. Just one day after we announced our wager with Microsoft games platform strategist Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud about whether or not Sony would announce a $399 PS3 SKU before Thanksgiving--he said yes, we said no--we got a call from one of our best non-Sony sources. Our source informed us that the Playstation group had placed an order for a large number of 40 gigabyte hard drives, making it very likely that a $399 SKU would ship in advance of Black Friday. Whoops.

Our gleeful anticipation of that succulent steak dinner--made even more theoretically delicious by the thought of winning yet another bet with a Microsoft employee--was instantly transformed. First into the bitter taste of hubris, then, over the weeks that followed--each bringing with it more and more signs that Vrignaud would ultimately be proven correct--a multi-course meal that we'll refer to as The Five Stages of Grief. Now that we are far enough into the final stage--acceptance--we can finally say publicly and without reservation: Andre, you were right and we were wrong.

Furthermore, there's no need to for you to launch a Steak Watch count-up clock on your blog; having carefully studied the psychology of welching, we'd rather avoid the mental damage that can ensue from proceeding down that path. So at the earliest mutually convenient occasion, we will sit, and tasty cuts of gloriously charred beef will be consumed in honor of both the $399 PS3 and your superior foresight and wisdom. And please, don't even think about reaching for the check. This one's on us.

For comic book fans, movie buffs and videogame lovers, there are few things as exciting or as risky as the team-up. From Marvel Team-Up to World's Finest, Freddie Vs. Jason to Aliens Vs. Predator, Marvel Vs. Capcom to Rise of the Imperfects (dare we add Vs. Mode and Monday Morning Quarterback to the roll call?), the team-up has had a rich history. To that list, you can add the back pages of Edge, where the Western world's most respected videogame magazine is now featuring a monthly column penned by the staff of this humble blog.

A few explanations are in order. There's no interesting backstory as to how this came about: we were asked to contribute; we secured permission from our editors; we accepted the assignment. The column itself is named "Playing in the Dark," after the title of Toni Morrison's 1993 collection of essays on "Whiteness and the Literary Imagination"; as for the subtitle "...because people refuse to see," we took that from the prologue to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." The more we push ourselves to write critically about games, the more we realize that we still don't know, or have trouble articulating, about how games work. Our column's title and subtitle both reflect this confusion and signal our intention to keep grappling with the challenge of making sense of this developing medium; to answer not the question of "Are videogames art?" but rather "What kind of art are videogames?"

We can't help but point out the post-colonial irony in our appointment to the U.K. publication, seeing as our parents hail from Guyana and we ourselves from Canada, both former British subjects. And while England's imperial ambitions, thankfully, are not what they once were, this stateside addition to the magazine's roster should mean that the sun will never set on Edge's empire. We thank editor Tony Mott for the opportunity, and we hope that you'll take a look at what we've got to say in the pages of his magazine.