Where can you find a sweeping editorial drawn from the least appropriate examples of a brand, genre or institution? Two spots in PC Magazine, apparently. The latest print issue's "Backspace" humor column is a cheap shot at bloggers: "Is blogging really the new journalism?" goes the set-up line, followed by a cymbal-crash non sequitur of thirteen mundane entries plucked from personal — not political — weblogs. Disgraced CBS anchor Dan Rather and former Senate Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott know exactly how potent the blogosphere can be. But no one on the PC staff looked into their respective dramas. Wouldn't one of the world's premier personal technology magazines be less cynical about the world's premier personal technology? Not when it means a collective competitor working in every time zone.
John Dvorak, who's enjoyable to read when he's not taking lousy aim at the White House or weblogs, betrays the limits of his legendary snap-judgment with this terminal diagnosis for the video gaming market. The Doom series doesn't define the height or breadth of the video gaming industry so much as it does the tastes of players who would happily spend their off-hours boring through sixteen thousand cubic meters of liver sausage with a dull twist drill. The latest installment, Doom 3, is as morbid, repetitive and simplistic as its predecessors: evil incarnate has crawled into this dimension and must be put down with an indiscriminate use of firearms. In pitch darkness. Unfortunately, one game is enough for Dvorak's generalization.
A better bellwether is the Xbox sci-fi action game Halo 2 by Microsoft subcontractor Bungie Software. Released last November, the sequel to Xbox's 2001 flagship product included a fairly satisfying traditional single-player campaign but exceeded nearly all expectations — including my own — with its creative twist on multiplayer gaming. As a frequent participant in "capture the flag" and other team games, I'm accompanied by friends and mutually interested players on Bungie's "party system," what's known as the "virtual couch"; set against randomly selected, equally skilled players and parties. Teams move through games just as they would an evening of intramural basketball. The appeal is akin to a sport's — the grand, worn game with nuance to last for eternity. Halo 2 hardly feels six months old, and now a new set of playing fields are being released over the next few months. The gaming business has taken thoughtful notice of Bungie's success in reinventing the online multiplayer experience. Surely Dvorak could, too. And Halo 2 is just one concept done right.
I don't expect to put PC down, but is this the sort of work one should henceforth expect from a hi-tech magazine still printed on paper?