Anyone else cover Madden '08?

[Rhody31]

I went to the local GameStop for a feature (we're a weekly). Took pics, did interviews, have an idea for how to write the story, which I'll execute tomorrow.

Is anyone else covering this for a feature?

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

Re: Anyone else cover Madden '07?

Madden '07 came out last year. If you're covering this for a feature, you might want to dig deep for new ideas.

 

[Chi City 81]

Re: Anyone else cover Madden '07?

How is this sports? It's a damned video game.

 

[spnited]

Re: Anyone else cover Madden '07?

Nice for the features section...or tech section if you have one ... not for sports

 

[Rhody31]

Re: Anyone else cover Madden '07?

Sorry, I meant '08.

The video game is football, which is a sport, and when 100 people show up at midnight, I think it makes a decent feature.
We don't have a tech section - again, weekly paper - but being how this is a sports-related game, it would fit for sports.
Last time I checked, games get play in sports sections, right?

 

[Chi City 81]

Re: Anyone else cover Madden '07?

Sorry, I meant '08.

The video game is football, which is a sport, and when 100 people show up at midnight, I think it makes a decent feature.
We don't have a tech section - again, weekly paper - but being how this is a sports-related game, it would fit for sports.
Last time I checked, games get play in sports sections, right?

Not video games. But it's your section. Do what you like.

 

[Rhody31]

My feeling was this is more fun than writing a rec league feature ... although I already did one of those tonight

 

[spnited]

What Doc said.













waiting for board to crash!

 

[HejiraHenry]

You know your market better than we do, so if that works for you ... it's all good.

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

Seems more like a "Lifestyles" feature, but if your paper is that small and you think it works best in Sports, then go nuts.

 

[In Cold Blood]

I didn't cover it, but as soon as payday roles around, I'll be wasting large chunks of my off time playing it.

 

[Pilot]

I'd have used it in my weekly section, but for the first time in three months I have actual prep sports to preview and write about so I didn't even consider it.

Two or three weeks ago and I would have made it a lead package though. Ah summer, I still can't decide whether I love thee or hate thee ...

 

[Bubbler]

Apparently I was way ahead of my time when I did a feature the night Mike Ditka Power Football came out.

I'm sure someone will come on here and say they were there with a tape recorder in hand the night Mattel Football II came out though, so I can't claim pioneer status.

 

[dawgpounddiehard]

There has got to be someone in the community worthy of a feature rather than covering this non-story. Sure, guys get excited and stand out in line for Madden... it happens every year.

C'mon, there's got to be something out there you can write about other than this... especially for a feature.

 

[Kato]

I'm not into video games, and our paper does virtually nothing about them, but I remember reading a Chuck Klosterman article in Esquire where he made the case that papers should review video games like they do movies and music. Games have become that much a part of the current culture and climate. We do stories about kids and others waiting in line for the latest Star Wars and Harry Potter movies. We do stories on the end of TV series like The Sopranos and Seinfeld. We cover parties for the unveiling of the newest Harry Potter book. So why not do features on popular video games?

 

[bigpern23]

I think Kato is right about newspapers covering video games the way they do movies and music. It's a multi-billion dollar industry that hits a younger demographic. If you get those damn kids to pick up the paper for video game reviews, I bet they might even flip to a few other pages.

As far as covering the release of Madden '08, I have no problem with that being in sports. Not only is the game sports-related, most of the people who buy it are, well, sports fans. Again, nothing wrong with getting someone who might not normally pick up your paper to read it and maybe they'll start to like it.

A few years ago, I used to review the three major football games (Madden, Sega 2k-whatever, and Sony). When I'd go out and do prep stuff later on, a lot of the kids would ask me about them, which means they were reading stories other than ones about their teams. I think that's a good thing.

 

[murciélago]

I think this is a sports story. So many players, the real players, get geeked up for the new Madden and NCAA Football games each summer. I really wanted to write a story about this. It would have been a cool centerpiece because I could have made it cool.

The school I cover decided it would be an NCAA violation because the kids would be promoting a product.

Eh, their loss.

 

[aeroking]

Wow, I thought the people who were afraid of hanging an asterisk on the Bonds headlines were out of touch, but this thread really puts that to shame. Has this board been overrun by old men in their 70s who won't allow anything of interest into their newspapers?
"There has got to be someone in the community worthy of a feature rather than covering this non-story." Are you kidding me? There probably isn't a single story this month that will have as much appeal to a demographic that newspapers have completely lost.
It's that sort of close minded, backwards, and illogical thinking that drove me out of the business. Good luck finding a job when your readership dies off.
And no, I'm not 20, I'm in my 40s. I just understand that the most important aspect to being readable is finding stories people actually want to read. And yeah, some will skip right over a Madden release story. A lot more will skip over that profile of someone in the community.

 

[dawgpounddiehard]

Wow, I thought the people who were afraid of hanging an asterisk on the Bonds headlines were out of touch, but this thread really puts that to shame. Has this board been overrun by old men in their 70s who won't allow anything of interest into their newspapers?
"There has got to be someone in the community worthy of a feature rather than covering this non-story." Are you kidding me? There probably isn't a single story this month that will have as much appeal to a demographic that newspapers have completely lost.
It's that sort of close minded, backwards, and illogical thinking that drove me out of the business. Good luck finding a job when your readership dies off.
And no, I'm not 20, I'm in my 40s. I just understand that the most important aspect to being readable is finding stories people actually want to read. And yeah, some will skip right over a Madden release story. A lot more will skip over that profile of someone in the community.

Close-minded, backwards and illlogical? Why thank you.

How is this really a story? The game came out. Great. Guys stand in line. Wonderful.

I love Madden, but I, along with any demographic, would be drawn to a gripping human interest story, enterprise or profile than this trite drivel that is repeated every August.

Be innovative. Great. I'm all for that, but a story on the release of Madden that's been done over and over again for the last five or so years... c'mon, that's illogical.

 

[BillySixty]

I don't think it is an event that should be covered every year, but a feature every few years isn't the end of the world. And I think it belongs in the sports section.

The story isn't the fact that people waited in line. The story is about video games as a whole. What draws several hundred guys out to the Best Buy for eight hours to buy a game? How much do they get into the game? Do they make up their own playbooks? People that don't play probably don't know how in-depth these games can get. Do they play because they think they could do a better job of coaching their favorite team?

It's as much of a sports story as fantasy football, if not more.