For years, Boing Boing was one of the most popular blogs around, and with the rare exception of a guest writer or two, it was written entirely by a group of four accomplished co-editors.
If you were interested in the culture of technology, there was a pretty good chance that Cory Doctorow, Xeni Jardin, David Pescovitz, and Mark Frauenfelder were your heroes. Even as other blog networks, such as Gawker Media and Weblogs, sprouted up, Boing Boing stuck to its original, successful formula.
A little more than a year ago, the four editors finally broke that mold and launched Boing Boing Gadgets, with Joel Johnson as the editor. Then came Boing Boing TV. Now Offworld, written and edited by former Gamasutra news editor Brandon Boyer, is joining the fray of offshoots.
As Pescovitz puts it, "Boing Boing Offworld is a hub for gaming culture that cultivates the joy of discovery, sense of wonder, and celebration of innovation that all of us, and you, thrive on. Offworld will mix no-nonsense game reviews with profiles of designers, game industry news with level-headed think pieces, how-tos with actual games you can play. And of course, community! Gaming is a social (phenomenon)."
To be sure, there are now scads of game blogs. There is, of course, this one--though it differs from pure game blogs in that we also focus on many different topics, and don't do straight-up reviews. Then there are Gawker's Kotaku, Weblog's Joystiq, Wired's Game Life, and many more. (Not to mention game-centric sites such as CNET's GameSpot.) So Offworld will certainly have its work cut out for it.
Of course, being published by Boing Boing should win Offworld some fans right off the bat, and being written by Boyer may attract readers of his former employer, game blog Gamasutra.
So, as someone who will be both a competitor and a reader, I say welcome. And good luck.
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