As my main interest concerns gaming my blog roll naturally differs a little from my fellow contributors. I guess there are few surprises here. Anyway, these are my main sources for my daily fix of gaming news.

Destructoid:
The “hardcore gaming community”, independent, straight-forward, witty and intelligent without being pretentious. Offers great feature articles, a community that is actually able to exchange interesting thoughts without adding too many insults and reviews that dare to be different not for the sake of being different.

Kotaku:
Another heavyweight: The almost-as-hardcore gaming community that basically offers the same qualities as Destructoid. Sometimes almost too much information to properly digest – which might be because they even write about game themed cakes… On the other hand there’s an Australian version which comes in pretty handy for my Ph.D. Furthermore it’s so influential that you can even attend courses about how to be editor Brian Crecente!

Screenplay:
Jason Hill’s blog at the Age are my main resource for Australia related gaming news. Offers good interviews with those involved in the (Australian) industry and keeps a close eye on policy developments. Best enjoyed in combination with Sumea, one of the main resources for Australian and New Zealand game developers. Especially insightful here: the comments.

Gamepolitics:
What GamePolitics writes about itself:
GamePolitics.com offers a clearinghouse for politically-oriented news and opinions about video games, the video game business and the way in which games relate to modern society.
What others write about GamePolitics:
“2006 Best of the Web – 100 Websites to Bookmark Now” Entertainment Weekly
Anyone interested in the future of video games might want to check out Dennis McCauley’s gamepolitics.com. The site is an all-encompassing look at existing and proposed video game legislation at the state and federal level. ArcaMax Publishing

Level Up:
Why out of all gaming blogs a Newsweek blog? N’Gai Croal pretty much gives the answer in his thoughtful “Now Who’s Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers–And Its Own Employers” piece. For those who don’t have the patience to read it (it’s almost as the long as the headline): The publishers hate the enthusiast press (press that solely covers games) which heavily relies upon advertising dollars from the very companies they’re covering. And then there’s Newsweek which is ostensibly more independent.

Watercooler Games:
Ian Bogost’s and Gonzalo Frasca’s blog about the uses of videogames in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment. As a founding partner of Persuasive Games (creators of the New York Times newsgames) author of several books on games with an agenda, professor at Georgia Tech and board member at Open Texture (an educational publisher) Bogost knows a thing or two about games and their use for political purposes. The same goes for Gonzalo Frasca, academic researcher in The Center for Computer Game Research of the university of Technology of the information (IT) of Copenhagen, Denmark and, amongst other things, author of the great “Videogames of the Oppressed“.

Honorable mention: Popurls: The meta of the meta, for the the latest buzz on the intertubes. Also teaches the very important lesson not to mess with Ron Paul supporters (who, let’s face it, is not going to make the race – probably because some big oil conspiracy prevents the impeachment of Cheney who singlehandedly organizes all the taser abuse with his iPhone. All to be illustrated in a XKCD comic. You get idea…)

-Jens

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