Sarcastic Gamer

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Sarcastic Gamer
URL http://sarcasticgamer.com
Slogan "Parody, satire, opinion, and occasional facts",
"The second-to-last name in gaming journalism",
"Sarcasm > Truth",
"Striving for mediocrity in all we do."
Commercial? No
Type of site Video Gaming Blog/Podcast
Available language(s) English
Created by Jeromy "Doc" Adams
Launched June 2007
Current status Active

SarcasticGamer.com is an independent video gaming related blog and community site. A part of the GamerCast Network, a community of independent podcasters, the website focuses on parodying the latest events happening in the gaming industry. Although the website is best known for it`s satirical news articles and parodies, it also features reviews, news, opinions and rants. All articles, however, stay true to the `sarcastic` ethos of the site.[1].

The site was founded by Jeromy "Doc" Adams in early June 2007 [2], after his first parody song, "How you killed your brand", gained popularity on YouTube.[3] As a result of the success, Adams created a website to host all his future parodies.

As the popularity of the parodies (and as a consequence, the website) increased, Adams needed to find reliable writers who could help him satisfy the growing demand for new material. First to be approached was Sean "Rothbart" Workman, a trusted GamerCast Network forums member, who agreed to start preparing new articles for Sarcastic Gamer. Shortly thereafter, Matt "Volkov" Schmidt offered his help with the blog. Adrian "Lono" Cherikos, who had met with Adams on Xbox Live a few months before Sarcastic Gamer was created, started writing for the site after his debut on the Sarcastic Gamer Podcast on 13th July, 2007.

With the site traffic increasing daily towards the end of 2007, more writers were required, leading to the recruitment of Alex "SupaSlick" Shaw and Anthony "Yousty" Youst in September, along with Eric "PacManPolarBear" Ross, who joined the staff in October 2007. The latest recruits, writer Matthew "Animathias" Schramm and cartoonist Tim "MightyMutt" Hibbs joined Sarcastic Gamer in early 2008.

At first, Sarcastic Gamer was hosted by the Blogger service and consisted only of three writers; now the site is a self-hosted WordPress blog with a staff of sixteen people, including nine writers (Jeromy "Doc" Adams, David "Dave" Cothran, Sean "Rothbart" Workman, Matt "Volkov" Schmidt, Adrian "Lono" Cherikos, Alex "SupaSlick" Shaw, Anthony "Yousty" Youst, Eric "PacManPolarBear" Ross, Matthew "Animathias" Schramm), five forum moderators (Joseph "Frawlz" Frawley, Mike "Ala Douche" Sutton, Bartosz "regua" Reguła, Damien "ShockwaveLover" Horton, Leigh "viatrophy"), the cartoonist, Tim "MightyMutt" Hibbs and the webmaster, Derek "Captain DDL" Langley. The site has also seen contributions from guest contributors like "Eoco".

As the site is non-commercial, rarely does the staff take part in gaming events and gatherings. The first event the Sarcastic Gamer writers participated in was QuakeCon 2007[4], the second and last one was Kane and Lynch Community Day[5].

In early December 2007, Jeromy Adams and Adrian Cherikos were invited by Microsoft to see the forthcoming device under development by the company, Microsoft Surface[6], thanks to the video parody of the device created by Adams.[7]

Contents

[edit] Podcasts

[edit] Sarcastic Gamer Podcast

The first Sarcastic Gamer Podcast episode was released on 28th June, 2007 and was hosted by Doc, Dave - whom Jeromy Adams met in May 2007 - and Drew, who left Sarcastic Gamer after Episode 6 of the podcast. As the podcast was gaining popularity, more people joined the hosts; on 13th July 2007, along with the second podcast episode, Lono joined the staff. On 24th August 2007 Sarcastic Gamer joined the GamerCast Network, opening the show to a wider audience. On 24th September, 2007, as the 9th episode was aired, Alex Shaw became a co-host. During the 30 minute long show, the hosts discuss and argue about the recent video gaming news in an entertaining and friendly way. There have been 3 longer specials, including episodes 10, 20 (each 45-minute long) and 21 (60-minute long). As of Episode 25, Alex Shaw has not hosted, due to time constraints.
The show is referred to by the Sarcastic Gamer staff as the "Red Show", because of the site's logo and to help distinguish the different SG podcasts. The show, besides the usual podcast content, features "Sarcastic Gamer news updates" in which fake news published on the main site is read out by Paul Christie, assisted by pre-recorded clips of one of the hosts (usually Adams) performing a role in the sketch.

[edit] Hump-day Update

As of January 23, 2008, the Sarcastic Gamer podcast had become a twice weekly podcast. Released weekly on a Wednesday, the "Hump-Day Update" was introduced to help the hosts deal with the weekly flood of gaming information. Usually a 10-15 minute overview of the events taking place in the video game world, the so-called "Orange Show" is hosted by Doc, Dave, and Lono, and is famous for its "predictions". Also, the "Super Duper Tuesday Stock Value Ticker", an audio recording of the occasional Tuesday feature on the blog by Matt "Volkov" Schmitt, which presents news in a satirical, stock-ticker style.

[edit] Sarcastic Gamer Playstation Podcast (SGPSP)

A recent addition to the Sarcastic Gamer family, the Playstation Podcast was launched in May 2008, becoming the third show in the Sarcastic Gamer Podcast lineup. About the same length as it's parent (30-40 min), the so-called "Blue Show" is hosted by Sean "Rothbart" Workman, Eric "PacManPolarBear" Ross, and Joseph "Frawlz" Frawley, and deals with matters relating to Sony, and its gaming range.

[edit] Features

[edit] Parody songs

As it is primarily a parody and satire site, Sarcastic Gamer`s parody songs form an important part of it's appeal. At present, there are ten songs, including "How you killed your brand", "Halo 3 hoedown", "Hey Mr. Thompson", "This Second Life" and "Ring of fire", as well as the video parodies, namely the Microsoft Surface and Wii Fit spoofs. They have been published on many other gaming[8] and non-gaming blogs and websites[9] as well as aired on gaming TV show, G4TV. This publicity has resulted in the parodies being downloaded and/or streamed more than 6 million times. The majority of them were written and sung by Jeromy Adams.

[edit] Broken News, Rothbart's Rants

Until recently, the so called "broken news" were only published on Fridays, during the "Fiction Friday" events. Now, they are entwined with the real news and other articles, but are visibly marked not to be mistaken for truth. They, along with the rants of one of the writers, Sean Workman, are common sights within the blog. All important gaming related news and events are covered (and often parodied) in the articles, making Sarcastic Gamer a reliable game information source.

[edit] The Top 100 Gaming Moments of 2007

Throughout December 2007, Sarcastic Gamer's staff posted a list of the hundred most important gaming moments of the year 2007, including game releases, important quotes, significant company mergers and breakups, and SarcasticGamer.com related events.[10]

[edit] Boycott

On March 29, 2008,[11] Sarcastic Gamer called for a boycott of the game Battlefield: Bad Company due to news that consumers would be forced to pay for additional weapons, which, though already complete (and included on the game disc), were to remain locked until the user paid a fee to access them. The general consensus of the hosts was that this was an attempt by EA to test public receptiveness to downloadable content of this sort.

Many websites from around the world got involved in or mentioned the boycott[12] making it very popular among gamers and eventually reaching IGN[13] which contacted Electronic Arts, the publisher of the game, causing it to finally cease the idea of paid weapons[14].

As a result of this, on 9th April 2008 Sarcastic Gamer announced[15] that the goal of the boycott had been achieved and the boycott was lifted.

[edit] Forums

[Insert technical information, length of existence, vital stats, and forum mods here] The Sarcacastic Gamer forum community forms an integral part of both the main site, and the podcast. The competitions run by the site, while announced in the podcasts, can only be entered by registered users, and only forum members can post and reply to threads.

[edit] First Birthday

A major event on the Sarcastic Gamer calendar, the first birthday of the site will be celebrated around the world on Saturday, June 14th, with parties planned in various American cities - namely Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA - as well as London and Ottawa[16]. There will also be online celebrations held on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network in various time zones.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Various reviews, including the New Tee Vee one and the ones at Xbox 360 Fanboy, strongly support this opinion.
  2. ^ [1] the first SarcasticGamer.com article, written on 11th June, 2007
  3. ^ The fan-created video for the song has been viewed 3,518,909 times as of 9th May 2008, and won the "Top Favorites (All Time)" and "Most Discussed (All Time)" YouTube honours.
  4. ^ See the SarcasticGamer.com relation.
  5. ^ Relation and interviews on the podcast.
  6. ^ [2] The SarcasticGamer.com relation.
  7. ^ YouTube - Microsoft Surface Parody
  8. ^ Xbox 360 Fanboy, Kotaku, Joystiq among others.
  9. ^ Engadet, Gizmodo and TechCrunch among others.
  10. ^ The Top 100 Gaming Moments of 2007
  11. ^ BF:BC’s DLC is just plain BS. Boycott this game. | Sarcastic Gamer
  12. ^ Including Xbox 360 Fanboy, Joystiq, N4G, PS3 Fanboy, G4TV and many more.
  13. ^ IGN: Battlefield: Bad Company Boycott
  14. ^ IGN: We Want Free Weapons!
  15. ^ BREAKING NEWS: Boycott Successful? | Sarcastic Gamer
  16. ^ The Sarcastic Gamer Forums section regarding the birthday parties

[edit] External links