Discursions on Noteworthy Topics

The Score: Bashcraft, Boy Reporter

Mediaite, a new website that features an "influence index" of major reporters and media figures, has a surprising figure ranked at #20 in their "Print / Online Reporters" list: Brian Ashcraft, Senior Contributing Editor at Kotaku. We decided to take a look this week at a legend of reporting, a favorite film critic, and Ashcraft, to see how they stacked up. 

Ranking of Bob Woodward, legendary Washinton Post reporter: #4

Ranking of Manohla Dargis, film critic for the New York Times: #17

Ranking of Brian Ashcraft, editor for Kotaku: #20

"Blog Buzz" ranking for Woodward: #7

"Blog Buzz" ranking for Dargis: #54

"Blog Buzz" ranking for Ashcraft: #12

#1 ranked for "Blog Buzz": Ezra Klein, Washington Post blogger

Number of words in Woodward's bio: 125

Number of words in Dargis's bio: 57

Number of words in Ashcraft's bio: 0

Number of Google hits for Woodward: 812,00

Number of Google hits for Dargis: 146,000

Number of Google hits for Ashcraft: 352,000

Number of people who follow Woodward on Twitter: n/a

Number of people who follow Dargis on Twitter: n/a

Number of people who follow Ashcraft on Twitter: 1,585

Number of articles written by Woodward since July 1: 1

Number of articles written by Dargis since July 1: 2

Number of articles written by Ashcraft since July 1: 95

Number of books published by Woodward: 15

Number of books published by Dargis: 0

Number of books published by Ashcraft: 1

Number of hamburgers being eaten in Bob Woodward's press photo: 0

Number of hamburgers being eaten in Manohla Dargis's press photo: 0

Number of hamburgers being eaten in Brian Ashcraft's press photo: 1

The Score: Hype Machine

This week, Polytron finally announced that their long-anticipated title Fez will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade in "Early 2010". Since it seems like we've been waiting for this game for as long as we can remember, we decided to crunch the numbers on it and a few other titles, to see whose hype started the earliest and lasted longest. "Hype" begins the first time it was mentioned by name on Kotaku, because, well, we don't really get frenzied about what's happening on indie game blogs. They call it hype for a reason.

RED FACTION: GUERRILLA

First Hype: 2/20/2008

Released: 6/2/2009

Total Time Elapsed: 1 year 3 months 13 days 

BRAID

First Hype: 3/6/2007

Released: 8/6/2008

Total Time Elapsed: 1 year 5 months

SUPER MARIO GALAXY

First Hype: 5/9/2006

Released: 11/12/2007 

Total Time Elapsed: 1 year 6 months 3 days

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

First Hype: 5/9/2006

Released: 4/29/2008

Total Time Elapsed: 1 year 11 months 20 days

CASTLE CRASHERS

First Hype: 7/20/2006

Released: 8/27/2008

Time Elapsed: 2 years 1 month 7 days

FEZ

First Hype: 12/4/2007

Released: "Early 2010"

Estimated Time Elapsed: 2 years 1 month 28 days

GEARS OF WAR 2

First Hype: 6/20/2006

Released: 11/7/2008

Total Time Elapsed: 2 years 4 months 18 days

HALO 3

First Hype: 11/15/2004

Released: 9/25/2007

Total Time Elapsed: 2 years 10 months 10 days

METAL GEAR SOLID 4

First Hype: 3/3/2005

Released: 6/12/2008

Total Time Elapsed: 3 years 3 months 9 days

KILLZONE 2

First Hype: 5/16/2005

Released: 2/27/2009

Total Time Elapsed: 3 years 9 months 11 days

FINAL FANTASY XIII

First Hype: 3/30/2006

Released: "Spring 2010"

Estimated Time Elapsed: 4 years 21 days

The Score: Switching up the Beat

It's a rare thing when the gaming media stops their coverage of press releases and play sessions to notice something going on in the outside world. Five major gaming blogs turned their attention to Michael Jackson's death yesterday, and today's The Score examines how they dealt with the story, his legacy, and his small ties to the world of gaming.

Time Michael Jackson's death was confirmed (EST): 5:06 

Time Games Radar blogged about Michael Jackson's death: 6:31

Time Kotaku blogged about Michael Jackson's death: 6:40

Time G4TV's "The Feed" blogged about Michael Jackson's death: 7:38

Time 1UP.com blogged about Michael Jackson's death: 9:00

Time Destructoid blogged about Michael Jackson's death: 9:00 (in a passing mention)

Number of words Games Radar spent on the story: 1179

Number of those words that were related to videogames: 1115

Percentage of the story that was related only to games: 94.6%

Number of words Kotaku spent on the story: 195

Number of those words that were related to videogames: 148

Percentage of the story that was related only to games: 75.9%

Number of words G4TV spent on the story: 352

Number of those words that were related to videogames: 324

Percentage of the story that was related only to games: 92%

Number of words 1UP.com spent on the story: 491 

Number of those words that were related to videogames: 456

Percentage of the story that was related only to games: 92.9%

 

Number of words Destructoid spent on the story: 20

Number of those words that were related to videogames: 20

Percentage of the story that was related only to games: 100%

Number of those five posts that mentioned Moonwalker: 4

Number of those five posts that mentioned Thriller: 1

Number of those five posts that mentioned his three children: 1

Number of those five posts that joked about his alleged child abuse: 2

Number of views on Kotaku's Michael Jackson piece: 42,595

Number of views on the next most popular story of that day: 31,167

Number of copies sold of Thriller: at least 65 million

Number of copies sold of Super Mario Bros. (NES): 40.2 million

The Score: Just Another Wednesday

This week, The Score runs down two different, but oh-so-similar worlds - the world of "celebrity journalism", at TMZ and Perez Hilton, and the world of "games journalism", at Kotaku and Destructoid. All counts refer to the posts made to the front page of the respective blogs on Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

Number of items posted:

Kotaku: 61

Perez Hilton: 59

Destructoid: 45

TMZ: 32

Number of those posts comprised entirely of original content:

Kotaku: 6

Perez Hilton: 0

Destructoid: 9

TMZ: 23

Number of posts featuring the words "exclusive" or "original":

Kotaku: 0

Perez Hilton: 0

Destructoid: 4

TMZ: 13

Highest number of comments on a post:

Kotaku: 634

Perez Hilton: 463

Destructoid: 142

TMZ: 326

Number of posts consisting entirely of links to selfsame blog:

Kotaku: 2

Perez Hilton: 0

Destructoid: 1

TMZ: 0

Number with images of scantily clad women:

Kotaku: 9

Perez Hilton: 10

Destructoid: 5

TMZ: 0

Number with images of scantily clad men:

Kotaku: 2

Perez Hilton: 7

Destructoid: 3

TMZ: 2

Number of ads per page:

 

Kotaku: 3

Perez Hilton: 11

Destructoid: 6

TMZ: 12

Most uncomfortable item: 

Kotaku: Run-through of ways to dress anime golfers in Pangya: Fantasy Golf

Perez Hilton: Kate from Jon & Kate Plus Eight hitting her child

Destructoid: Olivia Munn's Bikini Picture reaction

TMZ: An in-depth report on the other guy from Bosom Buddies

The Score: Ghostbusters

June 16th marks the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, a project that brings together much of the original cast of the movies for an all-new story in the Ghostbusters franchise. In this week's The Score, we crunch some of the numbers behind the cast, the legacy, and the game.

THE CAST

Number of movies Dan Aykroyd has appeared in since Ghostbusters 2: 43

Number of movies Ernie Hudson has appeared in since Ghostbusters 2: 47

Number of movies Bill Murray has appeared in since Ghostbusters 2: 29

Number of movies Harold Ramis has appeared in since Ghostbusters 2: 11

Number of movies Dan Aykroyd has written since Ghostbusters 2: 3

Number of movies Harold Ramis has written since Ghostbusters 2: 5

Number of projects involving alcoholic beverages Dan Akroyd is involved in: at least 4

Number of those projects that are a vodka sold in a crystal skull-shaped bottle: 1

Approximate current age of the baby in Ghostbusters 2: 20

Maximum drinking age in Dan Aykroyd's native land of Canada: 19

THE LEGACY:

Number of words on the end screen of the NES Ghostbusters game: 20

Number of those words that were misspelled: 2

Number of times you have to play through the final level in the NES Ghostbusters 2 game: 4

Number of times you play a level in the Sedgewick Hotel in the 2009 Ghostbusters: The Videogame: 2

Number of classic video game characters rescued from ghosts by Ernie Hudson: 1 (Luigi on the Super Mario Super Show)

THE GAME:

Number of writers credited in the game's opening credits: 2

Number of writers credited on the game: 5

Amount of writing the two writers featured in the game's opening credits (Aykroyd & Ramis) say they actually wrote: "little tiny structural things"

Number of achievement points granted for sliding down the firepole: 5

Rotten Tomatoes score for Ghostbusters: 93

Rotten Tomatoes score for Ghostbusters 2: 52

Metacritic score for Ghostbusters: The Videogame (as of 4:00 PM, June 11, 2009): 78

The Score: The E3 Press Conferences

THE BiG SHOWS

Number of Games featured at Microsoft's Press Conference: 14

Number that are currently exclusive to their console: 8

Number of Games featured at Nintendo's Press Conference: 19

Number that are currently exclusive to their consoles: 14

Number of Games featured at Sony's Press Conference: 14

Number that are currently exclusive to their consoles: 10

Number of times the Microsoft "whoosh" played: 9

Number of times the Nintendo chimes played: 0

Number of times the Sony "Play-stay-shun" played: 9

Number of 3rd Party representatives onstage at the Microsoft Press Conference: 17

Number of 3rd Party representatives onstage at the Nintendo Press Conference: 0

Number of 3rd Party representatives onstage at the Sony Press Conference: 10

Number of times applause was audible on G4's broadcast of the Nintendo Press Conference: 1

Number of times applause was audible for Hannah Montana during G4's broadcast of Sony's Press Conference: 2

Ratio of number of free drinks at Nintendo's Press conference to number of free drinks at Sony's Press Conference: 0:infinity

THE MOTION CONTROLS

Time spent on Microsoft's Natal: 23 minutes, 18 seconds

Time spent on Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus: 15 minutes, 30 seconds

Time spent on Sony's Wand Controller: 11 minutes, 24 seconds

Time between Tony Hawk: Ride being revealed and Natal flagrantly making it obsolete: 1 hour, 5 minutes, 22 seconds

THE GAMES

Number of tedious ice-pick strikes in the Modern Warfare 2 demo, before skipping ahead "in the interest of time": 31

Number of times Forza Motorsport 3 was called "definitive": 4

Length of Microsoft Final Fantasy XIII trailer: 2:12

Length of Sony Final Fantasy XIII trailer: 3:14

Length of live 256-player MAG demo: 4 minutes, 19 seconds

Amount of time in MAG demo when no other players were visible (not including menus): 1 minute, 17 seconds

Percentage of time when no one else was visible in 256-player MAG demo: 30%

Tweets as of 9 AM Tuesday about Yoko Ono appearing onstage for the Beatles: Rock Band press announcement: 114

Tweets as of 9 AM Tuesday about Christopher "McLovin" Mintz visiting the Beatles: Rock Band party: 33

Tweets as of 9 AM Tuesday about "Octopus's Garden" making it into the Beatles: Rock Band: 14

Amount of time Yoko Ono spent onstage at the Beatles: Rock Band press announcement: 18 seconds

Amount of time Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr spent onstage at the Beatles: Rock Band press announcement: 1 minute, 26 seconds

Amount of time the Harmonix house band spent onstage at the Beatles: Rock Band press announcement: 2 minutes, 55 seconds