Game-Revolution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Game Revolution (often abbreviated GR) is a popular online gaming magazine created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the often-updated website has been attributed by multiple gaming resources for its amusing reviews and talented writing team. Cameo writing appearances include Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theatre and Scott Ramsoomair of VG Cats, both popular video game webcomics. Usual updates for the site are common for gaming websites; reviews, previews, a gaming download area, gaming 'cheats' page, and a merchandise store. The site has also come to feature other items such as a comics section, screenshots, and videos section. As of November, the Game Revolution site has been given a new look and sports a new look along with a few new features. Their Features pages have included multiple amusing articles satirizing Jack Thompson, E³, the hype surrounding the next-generation consoles, and the heavily debated Video game controversy.
Game Revolution also has a popular forum known as Gamepost, as well as a live chat room for general gaming discussion (or just about anything else).
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[edit] Company history
Net Revolution, Inc., a California corporation was founded in April, 1996 by Duke Ferris as a holding company and as publisher of the Game Revolution website. Ferris served as president of the company until it was acquired in 2005 by Bolt Media, Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
[edit] Style of reviews
One of the site's most acclaimed attributes are their style of reviews, often blatantly insulting the game and developers of the game itself. Game Revolution, through their roughly two-page reviews come to a summary in the American A-F Grading system. To their credit, Game Revolution claims rightly that they have never given an "A+", and their "A" is awarded to very few, very select games. Such games include Metroid Prime for the GameCube, Grand Theft Auto III for the PlayStation 2, and Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox. On the opposite side of the spectrum, when faced with games they consider to be terrible, the site's reviewers often choose to make the actual reading of the review humorous. For example, when reviewing Survivor: The Interactive Game, multiple drop-down boxes that serve no logical purpose were added to poke fun at the game. To this day, the writers for Game-Revolution insist that The Crow: City of Angels is the worst game they have ever seen.
[edit] GR Mailbag
Game Revolution also has a GR Mailbag (previously "Moron Mailbag"), a way of showing their personal responses to the numerous hate-mail they receive. However, the mail answered is not just limited to hate-mail, and may often include junk mail, mail they consider stupid, or even mail from intelligent persons. Almost every response Game Revolution makes is humorous in nature, usually poking fun at the sender or the stupidity of the sent e-mail's contents. The Mailbag is updated the least out of the site's content, which the creators' like to point out in the rare occasions they do get to update.
[edit] Jack Thompson controversy
Sometime in August 2005, Jack Thompson contacted the Lou Kerner of Game Revolution and requested he remove an offensive AIM buddy icon from an affiliate site of Game Revolution known as Bolt.com. Kerner complied and had the offending icon removed immediately. However, Thompson saw the removal as an admission of guilt and contacted the NYPD to have Kerner arrested. However, no such action was taken. Duke Ferris, another employee of the site, wrote an article on the matter and humorously pointed out the ridiculousness of the entire situation. To drive home this point, he even chose to present a primitively drawn image which had Thompson being devoured by a crocodile, and then challenged Thompson to go ahead and have him arrested. It is unknown if Thompson responded to the article.
[edit] Article regarding video game violence and youth violence
Perhaps Game Revolution's most revered article was Duke Ferris's composition regarding the current public controversy with video games and its connection with violent youth. Ferris openly criticized the matter, and offered several bits of data to prove that there is no discernable connection between two. In fact, he points out that this year's youth has been the least violent in several years, yet political figures and the media have made it a point to make the issue seem the exact opposite. As with the style of the site, the article can be considered humorous in nature. The original article can be found here.
