Brutal Gamer
Encyclopedia
Brutal Gamer is a video game blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, founded in June 2008 by Leigh Groocock. It was a community focused blog site that has now grown to be one of the most up to date news, reviews and previews sites in the UK.

History

Brutal Gamer was founded in June 2008 by Leigh Groocock. With help from several community members of Sarcastic Gamer
Sarcastic Gamer
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 its satirical news...

 a new fledgling site was created to try and compete with the growing tide of USA-centric blogs like Destructoid
Destructoid
Destructoid is an independent video game-focused blog based in San Francisco, California that was founded in March 2006. It has since grown into one of the most widely read video game sites on the Internet, reaching more than 3 million unique visitors per month...

, Kotaku
Kotaku
Kotaku is a video games-focused blog. It is part of Gawker Media's "Gawker" network of sites, which also includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Lifehacker, io9 and Jezebel. Named to CNET News' Blog 100, Kotaku is consistently listed in the top 40 of Technorati's Top 100...

, Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...

 etc.

The initial line-up was as follows:
EIC - Leigh ‘Viatrophy’ Groocock
Podcast Director - Ben ‘Chexd’ King
Writers - Matthew ‘Mitch Mitchell & ‘Addison’
Technical - ‘Regua’
Site Artist - ‘Obscx’


The site was launched formally in July 2008, along with the now synonymous quote line ‘’Brutally Honest’’.

The writing line up was expanded in August 2008 when Zeth Ward joined the staff as a writer. Over the coming months the line-up altered as original contributors ‘Chexd’, ‘Mitch’ and ‘Addison’ all left the site. During this time the site was maintained solely by the remaining two members of the team Groocock & Ward. The site still managed to capture the attention of the community and steady growth followed.

Mike Jones joined a few months later in March 2008 and, via his Lookin’ Back feature managed to draw new audiences to the site. New writers Barry Guihen and Jeff Harper soon joined the team and the early complement of staff was formed.

Rapid and consistent growth took the obscure blog site from quirky oddity to a globally read site. Soon the readership swelled to bring Brutal Gamer to a significant level where global and local publishers alike were willing to deal with them on a daily basis.

Following a massive hack on Brutal Gamer’s host server in April 2010 (via a security hole in another sites code on the shared server) the site went completely down for almost two weeks. A minor slippage of global traffic occurred and forced a change of hosting
Web hosting service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet...

 company to a dedicated cloud server.

As the site grew so did the staffing levels and in September 2010 Brutal Gamer was ranking inside the top 4,000 site in the UK, and slowly cracking the top slots in the US and Canada. This marked the biggest impact on the site and it was now becoming a recognisable “brand” in the global gaming community. The ranking placed it above contemporaries like Now Gamer, Beefjack, GamerLimit, Sarcastic Gamer
Sarcastic Gamer
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 its satirical news...

 to name but a few.

The site had it’s third major overhaul in July 2010 running a heavily modified theme and new clean look interface. A new logo was introduced as well that replaced the comic styling of the original “BG Ant” character with a new fanged version.

New staff members Amy Nelson, Troy Benedict and Justin Alderman were taken on to help round out the US operation along with original US stalwart Jeff Harper. With this move Brutal Gamer could now offer 24/7 news, reviews and coverage - a unique position in the UK with only VG247
VG247
Videogaming247 is a video game blog published in the United Kingdom, founded in February 2008 by industry veteran Patrick Garratt...

 offering the same at that time.

In April 2011 the site underwent a staff re-shuffle moving several team members in to more prominent roles to promote growth and longevity of the site. A new Indie focused editorial section was also established to promote a rapidly growing area of video game development.

Staff

Editors
  • Leigh Groocock (Editor in Chief)
  • Zeth Ward (EU Senior Editor)
  • Amy Nelson (US Senior Editor)
  • Mike Jones (Indie Editor)
  • Troy Benedict (Features Editor)
  • Justin Alderman (News Editor)


EU Staff
  • Barry Guihen (Podcast Host & Senior Writer)
  • Simon Flatman (Staff Writer)


US Staff
  • Jeff Harper (Senior Writer)
  • Dale Culp (Staff Writer)
  • Jeremy Meyer (Staff Writer)
  • Jason Micciche (Staff Writer)


Contributors
  • Harry Bandell (Event Contributor)
  • Jennifer Allen (Freelance)
  • Hanna Benedict (Contributor)
  • "Diortem" (Freelance)

Former Staff
  • Ben King - 2008
  • Matthew Mitchell - 2008 to 2009
  • ‘Addison’ - 2008 - 2009
  • ‘Matttbh’ - 2008
  • Lindsy LeSchall - 2009
  • Sky Taylor - 2009
  • Sean Ewington - 2010 to 2011
  • Jon Brady (Freelance & Editor at Sarcastic Gamer )

Podcasts

The original podcast line-up featured Leigh Groocock, Ben King and Zeth Ward. Only thirteen episodes were ever recorded and the podcast ended in late 2008.

July 13, 2009 the podcast was revived due to popular demand from Brutal Gamer’s community.

The new podcast is edited and directed by Mike Jones.

The podcast are roughly an hour in length but were plagued by poor audio quality in the earliest of recordings. The style of the podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

 is that of a relaxed ramble amongst friends at a bar. Plenty of the weeks news and current played games are covered but also retro
Retro
Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...

 titles are discussed as well as general comments and discussion on the Video Game industry as a whole

The Brutal Gamer Podcast spent an extended six week period in the Apple iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 New and Notable section upon initial release and continues to be enjoy by thousands the world over. There is also an associated App for both the iOS  operating system devices and Android  devices.

Current Podcast Line-Up
Director/Editor - Mike Jones
Host(s) - Barry Guihen & Zeth Ward
Regular panel members - Harry Bandell, Justin Alderman, Jeff Harper, Leigh Groocock, Mike Jones & Amy Nelson


Interviews & Features

A few of the Interviews and Features to be found on Brutal Gamer:
Martyn Brown of Team 17 - Videogame History 101)
Tim Wright
Tim Wright
Tim Wright , alias CoLD SToRAGE, is a Welsh video game music composer most known for his work in video game soundtracks such as Shadow of the Beast II & III, Agony, Lemmings, Wipeout and Colony Wars....

- Videogame History 101)
An interview with Team Meat's Tommy Refenes
Tommy Refenes
Tommy Refenes is an American video game designer/programmer, best known for his work on the game Super Meat Boy, a platformer he co-created with developer Edmund McMillen.-Early life:...

 & Edmund McMillen
Edmund McMillen
Edmund McMillen is an American video game designer who is known for his unique visual style and innovative gameplay design, as well as his emphasis on the importance of careful level design and rewarding difficulty curves.-Early life:...

 - Grillin Super Meat Boy
An interview with Neil Alphonso / Brink
Brink (video game)
Brink is a first-person shooter video game developed by Splash Damage for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...

An interview with Tim Willits
Tim Willits
Tim Willits is the creative director and former co-owner of video game developer id Software.-Early life:Willits is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and a former member of the University of Minnesota Army ROTC program...

 / Rage
Rage (video game)
Rage is a first-person shooter video game by id Software which was released on October 4, 2011 in North America. It uses the company's new OpenGL based id Tech 5 engine. The game was first shown as a tech demo on June 11, 2007, at Apple's WWDC, and was officially announced on August 2, 2007, at...

 / id software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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