Sites I Like – Tumblr Edition

So this was meant to be a regular column on Pietriots as I compile and write love letters to the websites that make the internet worth visiting. However, the internet would prove to be a hostile, unloving place with few sites worth mentioning. In fact it was looking so bleak that I was considering deleting my previous Sites I Like column so that the internet would never know my shame of enjoying a single piece of its content. But then I discovered Tumblr.

Critics would have you believe that Tumblr is the worst form of social networking. A LiveJournal for idiots, if such a thing could exist, with typical site layouts designed for 640×480 monitors. Those critics are right on the money as the vast majority of tumble logs and their entries consist of little more than image memes and animated gifs, re-blogged from other worthless tumblr accounts. A giant cycle of filth perpetuates, like a tornado sucking up all the shit of the internet, swirling it around and flinging it back out. The last time I used the metaphor of a cylindrical storm though was in an academic essay when I talked about the generation of knowledge in emerging academic areas. My tutor was so impressed she suggested I do honours but I managed to turn things around and fail the unit anyway. What I’m getting at though is that in this insular land of chaos, this quagmire, beautiful content producers have emerged, delivering content that is edgy, hilarious and post-ironic. It is true irony that it is Tumblr, of all places, that I found the quality web content I required to restart Sites I Like.

Tiny Cartridge is probably the best source of Nintendo DS and 3DS news on the internet. Updated multiple times a day, Tiny Cartridge links to news as it breaks and provides funny and insightful commentary. As the gaming media becomes increasingly corporate and mundane, it is really refreshing to see a site like Tiny Cartridge deliver the news with some flair and personality. The other important thing about Tiny Cartridge is that they only report on the games you like. Yes you, sitting there. They’re not awash with release dates for Martha Stewarts 3D Cooking or screenshots for Madden; Tiny Cartridge only report on important, unique and high quality games for gaming hipsters like us. They don’t even drone on with essays dedicated to how Ubisoft is killing gaming with it’s latest Petz incarnation; they just go on like those games don’t exist. It’s a happy world where we can be blissfully ignorant of Kingdom Hearts and other shovelware that sully the good reputation of portable gaming.

A couple of times on Pietriots I’ve railed against my nemesis Fred Dutton, who writes poorly researched news articles hobbled together so quickly that you have to wade through the grammatical errors to find factual inaccuracies. In truth, though, it’s not just Fred because it turns out all game journalists everywhere are incompetent fuckwits and this blog of the same name chronicles their failings every single day. While it usually picks on the obvious and easy target – Kotaku – GJAIF has been known to highlight industry wide failings, over-excitement at shitty games, and even the shady business deals of VG Chartz, cheating employees out of their money. It’s really important that there are sites out there railing against the criminals in game journalism, doing their bit to drag the profession, kicking and screaming, from the pit of mediocrity it lives in.

I just like their name. We Hate Games hates games and the game industry. If you ever want to be immersed in cynicism, check out their blog and laugh along at how bad today’s games and the game industry as a whole are. Their recent article highlighting everything that is wrong with Spike’s VGAs was so good that a certain nasty, name calling blog I just mentioned highlighted it as an example of good journalism. We Hate Games isn’t as updated as much as the other tumble logs here, adopting a more Pietriots-like updating routine (ie. on a whim). I presume this is also because being a nasty, cynical prick every single day is tiring. I know from first hand experience. In fact, the whole blog reads a bit like how Pietriots would if I was the only contributor and didn’t adhere to our neither spoken nor heard positivity guidelines.

I also have some other amazing tumble logs to celebrate but they’re all about Pokémon, so I’ll save them for a special Pokemon-Tumblr edition of Sites I Like. If you know of a good Tumblr, camouflaged among the piles of filth, be sure to let me know.