Brutal Gamer
| File:BG Logo 2011.png | |
| File:BGFrontPage2011.jpg Brutal Gamer as of 14 April 2011 | |
Type of site | Video Gaming Blog/Podcast/Community |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Jason Micciche[1] |
| Website | http://BrutalGamer.com |
| Alexa rank |  548,943; 196,782: United States (April 2014[update])[2] |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | June 2008 |
| Current status | Active |
Brutal Gamer is a video game blog published in the United Kingdom, 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[edit]
Brutal Gamer was founded in June 2008 by Leigh Groocock.[3] With help from several community members of Sarcastic Gamer[4] a new fledgling site was created to try to compete with the growing tide of USA-centric blogs like Destructoid, Kotaku, Joystiq 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,[3] 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 February 2009 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.[citation needed]
Following a massive hack on Brutal Gamer’s host server in April 2010 (via a security hole in another site's code on the shared server), the site went completely down for almost two weeks. A minor slippage of global traffic occurred and forced[citation needed] a change of hosting 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 sites 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[4] to name but a few.
The site had its third major overhaul in July 2010,[3] 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[citation needed] 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 offering the same at that time.[clarification needed]
In April 2011 the site underwent a staff re-shuffle moving several team members into 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[edit]
- Leigh Groocock (Founder)
- Jason Micciche (Owner/Editor-in-Chief)
Editors
- Amy Nelson (Deputy Editor-In-Chief)
- Mike Jones (Indie Editor)
- Christopher Deleanides (Nintendo Editor)
- Ted Stokes (Entertainment Editor)
- Jessica Russo (Associate Editor)
Writers & Contributors
- Hanna Benedict (Contributor & Community Manager)
- Troy Benedict (US Staff Writer)
- Isaac Morales (US Staff Writer)
- Rick Brown (US Staff Writer)
- Martin Allen (US Staff Writer)
- Naeem Ali (UK Staff Writer)
- Jake Rogers (UK Staff Writer)
- Kiri Leatherland (UK Staff Writer)
- Rick Rozenberg (EU Staff Writer)
- Jake Callier (Staff Writer)
- Dan Spiler (Contributor)
- Matt Sainsbury (Contributor)
Former Staff & Contributors
- Ben King - 2008
- Matthew Mitchell - 2008 - 2009
- ‘Addison’ - 2008 - 2009
- ‘Matttbh’ - 2008
- Lindsy LeSchall - 2009
- Sky Taylor - 2009
- Sean Ewington - 2010 to 2011
- "Diortem" - 2009 - 2011
- Jon Brady (Freelance & Editor at Sarcastic Gamer[4])
- Simon Flatman - 2010 - 2011 (Staff Writer)
- Dale Culp - 2011 (Staff Writer)
- Jeff Harper (Senior Writer) - 2009 - 2012
- Justin Alderman (News Editor) - 2010 - 2012
- Barry Guihen (Podcast Host & Senior Writer) - 2009 - 2012
- Harry Bandell (Event Contributor & Podcaster)
- Jeremy Meyer (Staff Writer)
- Robbie Campbell (News Writer)
- Zeth Ward (EU Editor) - 2008 - 2013
Podcasts[edit]
| Brutal Gamer Podcast | |
|---|---|
| File:BGPodcast2010.jpg | |
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | Barry Guihen, Zeth Ward |
| Genre | Video gaming |
| Language | English |
| Updates | Tuesdays |
| Length | 50 - 70 minutes |
| Production | |
| Production | Mike Jones |
| Publication | |
| Original release | 13 July 2009 – present |
| Provider | Brutal Gamer |
| Website | http://brutalgamer.com/category/podcast/ |
Search Brutal Gamer on Amazon.
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.
13 July 2009 [5] 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 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 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 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[6] operating system devices and Android[7] devices.
The podcast was put on indefinite hiatus again in February 2013.
Current Podcast Line-Up
- Director/Editor - Mike Jones
- Host(s) - Barry Guihen & Zeth Ward
- Regular panel members - Harry Bandell, Jeff Harper, Leigh Groocock & Mike Jones
Interviews & Features[edit]
A few of the Interviews and Features to be found on Brutal Gamer:
- Martyn Brown of Team 17 - Videogame History 101[8])
- Tim Wright - Videogame History 101[9])
- An interview with Team Meat's Tommy Refenes & Edmund McMillen - Grillin Super Meat Boy[10]
- An interview with Neil Alphonso / Brink[11]
- An interview with Tim Willits / Rage / id software[12]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Brutal Gamer " Staff". Brutal Gamer. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ↑ "Brutalgamer.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Wayback Machine " Brutal Gamer". Wayback When. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Sarcastic Gamer " Staff". Sarcastic Gamer. Retrieved 21 January 2011. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "contrib" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ "iPlodder " Brutal Gamer Podcast". iPlodder. 13 July 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ↑ http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/brutal-gamer-podcast-app/id389551188?mt=8 Apple Podcast Application
- ↑ https://market.android.com/details?id=tv.wizzard.android.brutalpodcast444&feature=search_result Android Podcast Application
- ↑ "Brutal Gamer " Videogame History 101 : Martyn Brown". Brutal Gamer. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 14 April 20119. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Brutal Gamer " Videogame History 101 : Tim Wright". Brutal Gamer. 9 December 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ↑ "Brutal Gamer " Grillin' Super Meat Boy". brutalgamer.com. 17 December 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ↑ "Brutal Gamer " Brink / Splash Damage Interview with Neil Alphonso". brutalgamer.com. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ↑ "Brutal Gamer " Interview with id's Tim Willits". brutalgamer.com. 8 October 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
External links[edit]
This article "Brutal Gamer" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
