Introducing The Gameological Society, an A.V. Club partner site dedicated to games

If you visited The A.V. Club looking for game reviews today you didn’t find them. But don’t worry: The A.V. Club is now happy to introduce you to a new site dedicated entirely to games, video and otherwise: The Gameological Society. Created by John Teti, who’s been running our games coverage for a while, The Gameological Society is, in John’s words, a place for “smart, fun, thoughtful commentary that invites geeks and non-geeks alike into the conversation.” In fact, let’s let John explain it all in a bit more detail:

This isn’t what I expected. A couple of years ago, I had this notion to start up an online magazine about games. I found some like-minded writers and creative types. Every once in a while, we got together in each other’s apartments and talked about what this fanciful site would look like. We wanted to produce smart commentary infused with a sense of humor. To write criticism that considers games in a broad cultural context. To give the art form resonance outside of the “hardcore” bubble, by putting a face on the people who make and play games.

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It was a side project, a boutique affair. Then last year, a couple of editors at The A.V. Club said to me, “Tell us more about this ‘Game-o-logical’ project. Maybe we can work on it together.” So I did, and we did. Suddenly it wasn’t a side project anymore.

Welcome to The Gameological Society. I’m John Teti, and I’ll be your editor. We intend to pursue all those ideas that the Gameological contributors and I hatched over so many beers and slices of pizza. We’re going to talk mainly about video games, but the discussion will also wander into sports, game shows, board games, and elsewhere.

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Above all, I want Gameological to be humane and approachable. There are so many tiresome fiefdoms in gaming. You’ve got your “hardcore” gamers and your “casual” gamers. Console gamers are inferior to PC gamers, or maybe it’s the other way around. Gaming discussion online is riddled with jargon, and if you don’t know all the lingo, suspicion may arise that you’re not a “real gamer.”

Look, I love enthusiasts. I am one. I also think you shouldn’t have to be obsessed with games to take part in a conversation about them. So let’s open up a bit. I wrote on our pre-launch teaser site that everyone’s a member of The Gameological Society, and I meant it. We’re all about scaling back the intimidation factor and making game talk more accessible. That doesn’t mean dumbing things down. Far from it. It means writing in a grounded and witty style that’s refreshing for fanatics while also welcoming those who are simply fans.

Gameological is not a juggernaut. There are plenty of sites that claim to be “authoritative,” “the ultimate guide,” “the only resource you need.” We don’t pretend to be any of that. We’re a bunch of individuals who like to think and talk about games. While the site certainly has earnest aims, we don’t plan to take ourselves too seriously. Authoritative? Good lord, no. Subjective, spirited, curious? All of the above. It’s more fun that way.

We’re going to be posting two or three items each day—a mix of reviews, recurring features, reported articles, podcasts, videos, and some smaller bloggy nuggets. To make all of this look nice, we’ve put together a new design that’s clean and flexible.

There are more details to come. For now, I’ll close by thanking The A.V. Club, in particular Josh Modell and Keith Phipps, for their support in launching this project. For three-plus years, I’ve loved being a contributor to The A.V. Club, and their offer of a partnership with Gameological was the best surprise of my professional life. It also made a lot of sense, though, because—as you can probably tell by now—Gameological has a lot of The A.V. Club’s DNA. Still, it’s an experiment, and I’m grateful to everyone at The A.V. Club and The Onion for having faith in the idea.

And thanks to you all for being here. After so many months of planning, I couldn’t be more excited to unveil the site and bring you into the fold. So, once again, welcome to The Gameological Society. It’s time to play.

In other words, if you like games, and smart conversation about games, you’re going to want to visit this site. We’ll be spotlighting some Gameological Society content on The A.V. Club, but be sure to visit the site itself early and often (and follow it on Twitter, it’s lonely). John and his team love games, have a lot of great ideas, and have been waiting a long time to share them.