Hello! My name is Jason Venter and I am a gamer. As it happens, I'm also a writer. You can find my reviews, guides and other content all over the Internet and often referenced here at my home base. This site is both a blog and a professional portfolio, because I'm efficient like that.
See what I'm all about by reading my posts and checking out my work, or use the contact form and offer me an assignment!
Nintendo Direct: a good reintroduction for Wii U or a bad one?
Earlier today, at 3PM (PST), Nintendo streamed a prepared video (primarily featuring Satoru Iwata talking, along with small clips of media) to showcase Wii U, Nintendo's upcoming console. The presentation lasted a half-hour and precedes a formal E3 media briefing that will take place Tuesday, June 5th at 6PM (PST).
Is the Hitman: Absolution trailer misogynistic or just tacky?
Disguised as nuns, a group of female assassins emerge from a school bus and march purposefully toward a hotel. As they proceed, they begin to strip away their disguises (like Neo in The Matrix as he heads toward the security terminal with a trenchcoat full of automatic weapons) to reveal their garb underneath: skin-tight leather skirts and torn fishnet stockings. They reveal more, though: tattooes, rocket launchers, gleaming pistols... These women are clearly a force with which to be reckoned, though their intent is not immediately clear.
Stop bashing us console lovers. We get it. You have a $1500 machine and we don't!
Dear PC elitists: please stop. You're making yourself look like jerks.
What should Blizzard really be doing to resolve the Diablo 3 connection issues?
Diablo III is nowhere to be found in my home office. Strangely, though, I feel like I am experiencing nearly as much of the game as anyone else. Vicariously, I am part of the launch story because I am reading a bunch of tweets about server issues from people who--like me--aren't playing the game. The primary difference between us is that those people paid $60 and I did not.
Theft is a concept and piracy is one of its forms
I have tried and tried--truthfully, I have--but I can't for the life of me understand how rational adults can say "Piracy is not theft" and genuinely believe it. I have seen a number of very smart people make that claim, people who I genuinely respect. Admittedly, they are in the minority. But they do exist. Theft seems like a fairly basic and universal concept, so why the confusion?
“Haywire” is one of those special movies that tells an otherwise simple and linear story in the wrong order, so as to confuse those of us in the audience and to make us forget that everything we’re seeing has been done before (and better). A number of movies have used the technique to great success, but in this case the attempt backfires.
I'm looking for a few good writers...
As you likely know from checking around this site, I am the editor-in-chief over at HonestGamers. I've been working hard to grow the community for years because I believe that the site is capable of producing some of the finest game-related content on the Internet. In my opinion, we often do precisely that.
Empire Avenue and the Case of the More Dessert Fiasco
As someone who has been active on Empire Avenue for nearly a year (my anniversary is less than a week away), one of the things I've enjoyed about the site is that--for the most part--the people it attracts who actually stick around and become regular users are some of the smartest folks on the Internet. They really get social media, they see value in the important stuff that other people don't understand, and for the most part they manage to avoid the whiny mentality that infects so much of the Internet. I've met some amazing people on Empire Avenue, and it's difficult not to attribute that to the strengths of the platform.
Why does Gamestop like selling used games so much, and what are your options?
Do you like Gamestop? Do you like buying your games there, and selling them? If you do, that's great. The company is serving its primary purpose: to sell you as many used games as possible at the highest price possible while also purchasing enough used games at a low enough price to keep things going. If you like being part of that process, terrific. If you don't like it, though, there are other options. Before looking at those, it's worth understanding why Gamestop likes selling used games.
The end of used game sales wouldn't be the end of the world
Twitter's 140 characters don't let me say what I want to say, so here's a not-so-quick blog post on the topic of game prices in a world where the upcoming PlayStation and Xbox hardware lock out the possibility of used game sales.
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