Dear Old Media Coverage,

Hi. How's it going. I got your recent letter and I had to say I was touched that you cared enough to share your advice for cleaning up the awful, awful mess you've made of this column. I mean, an analysis of holiday buying guides? Yawn! It's a good thing I came along when I did, and I'm sure my reign will represent "a step up for this column," as you were man enough to suggest in your letter.

All hubristic kidding aside, I'd like to thank you for what you've started here and, by way of introduction, thought I'd go through your suggestions one by one and tell you and your readers how I plan to implement your advice going forward. Like your goodbye post, my introduction might run towards the self-important and the pompous. Please bear with me... there will be much less pedantic self-reflection starting next week.

Don't mess with the ad folks

Not a worry. I don't plan on dealing with the ad people much at all, whether to "mess" with them or otherwise. The stuff I plan on focusing on has more to do with what's actually on the page and the people who write it than the PR and ad sales people who are trying to sell it. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and the mass of writing produced by the game journalism behemoth should be more than enough to keep me busy. If the ad folks don't like what I have to say, they can lump it.

Bring back the monthly print reviews

First off, you were wrong when you said "no one else is doing this." NewType USA editor and game journalism alum Kevin Gifford already does something similar in his monthly Game Mag Weaseling roundups on GameSetWatch.

Rather than tread the same path, I've decided to start up a series of "one issue reviews" of various game publications. Once a month, I'll pick up a copy of the latest issue of one magazine or another, read it cover to cover, and basically run down my likes, dislikes, and suggested changes.

By focusing on one publication a month, I hope to go a little deeper than the surface, head-to-head coverage comparisons of the monthly roundups and really get into what makes a magazine tick. Who knows, maybe I'll move on to web sites if these things get any traction with the readers (though I might have to limit those to a "one-day review," as trawling through a whole month's worth of updates to GameSpot might kill me).

Don't get caught in the journo criticism of the past

I was about half way through my college journalism degree when I really began looking at game journalism with a writer's critical eye rather than a reader's lazy acceptance. I was a standard cocky young academic back then, self-assured in the fact that I already knew everything there was to know about the way things were and they way they should be in the game journalism world.

Since then, my idealism has been tempered and recast by real-world experience and discussions with dozens of working professionals who have seen this industry from every which way. These days I'm much more interested in the details of game journalism and how they impact the reader - the real process of doing the job rather than the "J-school complaints" as you put it. I will try hard to make this column reflect that changed perspective.

Remember what it's like to work in the industry

This won't be a problem, because I will still be working in the industry. I've been writing about games in some capacity since 1997 and am now a full time freelancer focusing almost exclusively on video game publications, both online and print. So I know what it's like out there, even if I've never held down a full time editorial position at a major game magazine or anything.

Just because I'll be writing about the game journalism industry in this column doesn't mean I'm going to stop working for the same industry in a professional capacity. Yes, this will cause a rather sizable conflict of interest, as practically every outlet I write about will be a previous, current or potential future freelance employer. This is largely unavoidable for anyone writing about the industry with any sort of first-hand experience. For my part, I promise to point out the major conflicts of interest when they come up in my writing and link readers to my workblog at the end of every column so they can evaluate for themselves how my outside writing affects my column, if they wish.

Don't cut your ties to video game schwag

Cut them? To do that I'd first have to establish them. Let's talk later.

Use your real name

I suppose since this is an introductory column I should actually introduce myself, eh?

My name is Kyle Orland. As I hinted at above, I started writing about games in 1997 as the webmaster of Super Mario Bros. HQ, a fansite I still manage from afar. My history of published media criticism goes back to 2003, when I started Video Game Media Watch (then called The Video Game Ombudsman) as a college journalism student at the University of Maryland (Class of 2004 -- Go Terps!)

Since then I've graduated and moved on to life as a full time freelancer, writing for whoever will pay me from a home office in Laurel, MD (No, I'm not in my pajamas right now). I currently blog regularly for Joystiq and am co-host of a regular podcast on NPR. I also write occasional features for outlets ranging from The Escapist to Electronic Gaming Monthly. More about my writing experience can be found in my workblog.

I love the Simon and Garfunkel and the White Stripes and am a semi-avid juggler. My turn-offs include underarm hair and wearing flip-flops away from the beach. The best game of all time is Super Mario 64.

So now that you know a little about me, how about telling me a little about you? Send me your thoughts, feelings, bitter invective, whatever you want to the address below. I'm especially interested in what you think about the column as it stands now and what you'd like to see from it in the future—the more specific, the better.

Next Week: Rumor ratings.

Got something you'd like to see on Media Coverage? Send it to kyle.orland@gmail.com .

Media Coverage is an opinion column. The opinions expressed in this column are solely the opinions of the columnist and are not necessarily the opinions of GameDaily.com.