I’ve been meaning for a few days now to put up a big thank-you to everyone who covered Desert Bus, and helped us get attention over the course of our run. It’s been a few days, and it’s taken some time for all of us to recover, so sorry that blog posts have been few and far-between. Its funny to come back to your real life after something like Desert Bus — as something that took up almost a week of our lives, it feels like it was over in an instant. Time rolled together, like giant one-day party, that mysteriously ate up much more than one day, and now feel like it happened a year ago; it’s crazy.
Anyway, back on topic, here’s a recap of more-or-less everyone who covered us over the course of the event. If you know of any articles I’ve missed, please let me know.
Press & Newsblog Coverage:
1Up: Huge thanks again for Frank Cifaldi of The Lost Levels for calling in to check up on us and give us some history on Desert Bus and Smoke and Mirrors, and, of course huge thanks for donating the Retronauts blog post on Smoke and Mirrors to us.
A Life Well Wasted: Big thanks to Robert Ashley for dedicating part of his fifth of his labour-of-love podcast to Desert Bus, and for pimping us out at the end of the article. Check out the best-put-together interview you will ever hear with Matt and myself in the latest episode of ALWW.
Columbia College Interactive Media Blog: Thanks to longtime supporter Brice Puls for this very nice writeup. Brice, I had no idea you were involved in such an interesting educational program; best of luck and thanks for the support!
Crispy Gamer: Huge thanks to Matt and James from Crispy Gamer, both for the lovely article, and for offering prize packs to several of our viewers farther on into the week. Just when I thought we might drop off in donations and press coverage, there was Crispy to prove me wrong on both counts. Thanks, guys!
Critical Gamer: Rikard across the pond at Critical Gamer wrote a quick recap of our progress midway through our run, that sent our chat into a linking frenzy. Cheers, sir!
Future Shop Tech Blog: Again, I didn’t even know Future Shop had a tech blog, but there it is. Paul Hunter wrote a nice article for us there, also mirrored on NextGenPlayer.com.
Game Marathons: Game Marathons is a great community for all forms of video game marathon. This year, they posted both an introductory post for us, and an interview with Matt while we were still in-progress. Huge thanks for all the coverage, guys!
Game Politics: As someone who is interested in both games and politics, and someone who writes sketches about game culture for a living, I am an avid reader of Game Politics. I’m super happy that they covered us, so thanks to everyone there for the writeup.
GamePro: John Davison, the new EIC of GamePro, and a Desert Bus phone-in alumni from last year gave us a very nice writeup, and a followup article as well. Thanks a bundle, John, for all your support. I personally look forward to see the direction one of North America’s last surviving game print publications takes going forward.
Icrontic: Bobby Miller did a really good article for Icrontic, outlining the event for a really cool geek community. It’s definitely worth a look!
The Independent: Imagine my surprise at discovering we’d been covered by a larger British news outlet … classified as “Relax News”, no-less. I’m flattered, thanks to whoever wrote this piece–it’s very well done!
Joystiq: Not only did Justin from Joystiq call in to give us support and a prize pack during the event, he also wrote two articles for us, the first announcing the start of the event, and a second announcing its final total. These were both mirrored around the internet, but his voice is distinct enough that it’s pretty easy to tell its source. Thanks, man!
Kotaku: Kotaku followed up Owen Good’s very nice article on us last week, with an excellent one on game charities in general by Brian Crecente this week. Both are definitely worth a look, as is apparent from the number of times both have been mirrored around the internet.
News 1130: These guys mirrored a couple articles about us, but also Erin Loxam also penned this original report. Thanks, guys, for all the support!
New TV: I didn’t get a chance to read Liz Miller’s article on us until today, but it’s a very nice piece — which gives us a five-star rating for entertainment, no less. Thanks so much, Liz!
One Last Continue: I don’t know a lot about One Last Continue, although this was the blog that inspired my RoJo story for ENN. Huge Props to Lars for the shout-out and overview of the event. Rosco is appoint.
Rock-Paper-Shotgun: Huge props to Kieron at RPS for the quick shoutout, even though Desert Bus is clearly not a PC game ;). I guess it would be if we were emulating it, but no, real Sega CD for the win! Thanks so much!
The Serious Business: If there was any doubt before that Desert Bus was srs bsnss, I hope that this post on The Serious Business has squashed it. Thanks, guys, for the support!
The Times Colonist: It took until the event was over for our local paper to cover us, but when they did, it got mirrored all over the place, from Seattle, to Kelowna to the NY Times. Huge thanks to the TC for getting us out on the wire with this article!
The Tweet Gazette: No doubt inspired by our trending status on Friday, the Tweet Gazette did a quick article on us. Thanks for sending … tweeple? our way, Tweet Gazette!
Vibrant Victoria: I frankly had no idea that Victoria even had local news blogs, until my one-time schoolmate Tristan contacted me for an interview about Desert Bus. His article is a unique interview with the crew in mid-run, and definitely worth a read!
Virtual Underground: It’s good to see coverage from smaller, grassroots gaming communities, alongside the major blogs. Thanks to Virtual Underground for their shout-out and coverage.
Wired News: Gus Mastrapa at Wired News’s Game Life blog wrote a fantastic article as we were in the midst of our “gearing up” montage for this year’s bus ride. We really appreciated the coverage right out of the gate, so huge props for this!
Lifestyle and Personal Blog Coverage
After spending several hours putting together the above, I am running out of words to describe the amount of awesome that folks around the net have contributed to Desert Bus. Thanks so much to everyone who committed space on his or her personal blog to us — your comments were among the most impassioned, and your stories the most poignant.
Blue Ink Alchemy by Josh -Thank you sir for all the support on the blog, in chat, over email, etc. We really really appreciate it!
Bloginhood by Robin Shanz – thanks for the vote of confidence, Robin, and for letting your folks know about us!
Digital Seahorse by Danielle – Your excitement is palpable – we really appreciate your kind words!
Effing the Dog by Mike Vardy – Mike’s exceptionally funny productivity blog is well worth reading, and his article on Desert Bus is very, very good. This is one you should definitely look at. Did you know Mike’s appeared in ENN? He’s our own personal Sony Representative!
Empties Crushed by Dan Yost goes into some details about the history of Desert Bus, and recaps the beginnings of our fundraiser. Again, thanks, Dan, for sending so much love our way!
Goodnight, Neverland by Clinton Hallahan presents a nice overview of the event and some much-needed words of encouragement – thanks, man!
Inane Rantings of Meby Alex – Thanks Alex for the exposure. We appreciate it, and thanks for the props regarding our sketch comedy as well. We’re proud of it!
Jason Montgomery – Proposes DB as a downloadable XBLA/PSN game – an idea we’ve though of before, though getting the writes sorted is maybe a bit beyond a group of comedians.
Twenty-Sided by Shamus Young – if you read one blog about Desert Bus, read this one. Our fellow Escapist contributor Shamus has a lot to say about Child’s play that is well worth a look. Also, thanks, Shamus, for the shout-out earlier in the week!
The RaT Project podcast chatted about us extensively during their Nov 23 episode, as we were in the midst of an epic run. Thanks, guys!
Snurfs by Nick S. – Thanks so much for the writeup!
