Kotaku is well known for its witty and snarky tone and why not when brains like those of Brian Ashcraft are feeding gamers 24X7 with a less business like attitude, which of course, we all wild virtual fun seekers die for.
Brian Ashcraft, Associate Editor of Gawker Media’s top gaming blog, is our Cool Geek of this week, and is ready to take on your questions. So, what are you waiting for, shoot in your questions and do check his profile in his own words below.
Here is Brian in his own words:
I am the Night Editor for Kotaku.com. Since I’m based in Japan, we post through what would be the night for our American readers, giving Kotaku 24-7 gaming coverage. I’ve been at Kotaku for about two years now. So much has changed! When I started, we were getting something like 20,000 or 30,000 page views a day. Now, we’re getting over half a million.
I’ve lived in Japan something like six years. I forget. A long time! Besides Kotaku, I am a Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine and have a regular column at Ready Made Magazine on cool Japanese products. I freelance for other magazines as well.
Hobbies? I would say video games, but that’s my job. I like playing with my kid. I love movies and when I was in college, I worked at a distributing company that was headed up by Quentin Tarantino. That distributing company has since been shuttered. Also, I’m really into music, looking at art. Crap like that.
Links to few of his best posts:-
Xbox 360 Japan Launch Recap: The Real Story
Feature: The Colossus and the Comedian
Feature: Big Day Out At Nintendo World
Feature: Nagoshi, Japanese Porn and Sega’s Silence
So, start pouring your questions now!
What are the current reasons/thoughts behind the lack of forums for Kotaku? Are there any plans to add forums, or is it an open topic that you’ll address when ”The time comes”?
And I still wanna know if you guys have ANY leads on info pertaining to modding a PS2 controller so the look stick is 100% inverted. Freaking FFXII...
why are you such a c**t?
Just a living in Japan question that I can’t seem to get a straight answer from any friends living there.
I may be getting a position in Japan in the fairly near future, but have a couple ferrets as pets. I know there are ferrets in Japan but any idea how easy a pet friendly apartment is to find? I thought there were a lot, until I found out a good deal of my Japanese friends that have dogs are just hiding them. I’d love the opportunity to stay in Japan for awhile but couldn’t bear to leave my fuzzy-butts behind.
If you have any insight, thanks in advance.
Wow, Amazing, I was actually able to leave a question.
Brian, you are basically living my dream right now. Living in Japan as a successful and established freelance journalist. I’m partway there, what with having a Japanese wife, but the ”successful freelance journalist” thing is a tad harder, somehow.
So to be blunt, what would you recommend Ido to get close to or start on the way to where you are, career-wise? Also, could you give us a round ballpark figure of your annual salary? This last part is especially important, as my wife is not convinced freelance journalism is a lucrative career path.
Thanks in advance!
I’ve been very curious to know what brought you to Japan in the first place Brian? Was it for work? Fun? Did you meet your wife in the US and decided to move back to Japan with her? Just curious to know why you ended up in Japan in the first place!
Also, did you know Japanese before moving to Japan? If so how did you go about learning? Were you able to take a class or were you self taught? Any tips for someone just starting to learn on their own? I know they say the best way is to move to Japan, but that’s unfortunately not possible for me (at least at the moment!). So any tips from you would be much appreciated.
What do you look foward in the game console of the future ?
Where do we see the answers to the questions?
