Stuart Campbell (journalist)

Infobox journalist
name = Stuart Campbell

| birthname = | birth_date = | birth_place =
age = | education =
occupation = Video game journalist
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gender = Male
status = | title = | family = | spouse = | children = | relatives =
ethnic = | religion = | salary = | networth =
credits = "Your Sinclair", "Amiga Power", "Sega Zone", "Digitiser"
agent =
URL = http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/

Stuart Campbell is a Scottish freelance journalist with a special interest in video games, and a video game developer.

Career

Stuart Campbell was winner of the UK's , a list of what was considered to be the best ZX Spectrum games.

Campbell became known, particularly at "Amiga Power", for his uncompromising review scores. One such instance was when he awarded the game "International Rugby Challenge" a mark of 2%, in one of several reviews which attracted attempted lawsuits from aggrieved publishers, [http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/ap2/dissent/dissent.html AP2 | Why I oughta ] ] on this occasion due in part to the game's being compared unfavourably to a number of real-life atrocities and disasters. On another occasion, writing for the magazine Sega Zone, he gave "" the lowest score possible, 0%.

On a number of occasions, "Amiga Power" detailed in print the attempts of publishers to influence game reviews, naming the parties involved, a practice which led to several companies (including U.S. Gold and Team 17) withdrawing review copies and refusing to speak to the magazine.

After leaving "Amiga Power", he became Development Manager at video game developer Sensible Software during 1994 and 1995, Amiga Power ] overseeing the development of "Cannon Fodder 2" (designing all of its 72 levels, excepting approximately 10 which were implemented by Campbell based on original concepts by successful entrants to a competition run by "Amiga Power" and "Sensible World Of Soccer". Both games achieved a No.1 placing in the All Formats charts. In addition, he has created a number of original freeware video games for various formats. [ [http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/ World Of Stuart ] ]

He returned to the pages of "Amiga Power" as a freelance contributor during its final few months, writing several more reviews and features. He later wrote for Teletext's videogames section "Digitiser" from 1996 to 2001 (as well as its short-lived online successor "Digiworld"), and was Features Editor of the videogames trade magazine CTW ("Computer Trade Weekly") until its closure in 2002. He was also a resident gaming expert on the BBC technology television programme "Don't Read The Manual", appearing on most episodes of the show in 2001 and 2002.

He has also written on non-gaming-related subjects for various other publications , [ [http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/world/sections.htm Wear Your Jacket With Pride! - or don't wear your jacket at all ] ] including newspapers "The Guardian" and the "Daily Mirror", science-fiction journal "SFX", soccer publication "Total Football", style magazines "The Face" and "Esquire", comedy monthly "Comedy Review", the technology magazine "Wired" (which described him as "the UK's foremost authority on computer and video games" - p91, February 1996 issue) and the long-running email newsletter "Need To Know", which called him "Britain's best games journalist". [ [http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=01999-04-02&l=264#l Need To Know 1999-04-02 ] ]

More recently, his writing has broadened to the area of travel, exploring and documenting unusual locations in the UK such as the "ghost villages" of Imber, Tyneham and Bangour, and the derelict 19th-century Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare. A number of these articles appear, amongst work by other authors, in a book collection entitled "Weird England" [Weird England: 251-5] , edited by Matt Lake.

He now produces regular freelance articles for Imagine Publishing's retrogaming magazine "Retro Gamer", mainly concerned with long-running popular game series such as "Bubble Bobble" and "Defender". As such, the magazine describe him as their resident historian. ["The Art of C&VG"; "Retro Gamer" issue 39, July 2007] He also produces original features for his own subscription-supported website.

FairPlay

Campbell is often reported as being a founding member of the campaigning group FairPlay. [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/02/video_games_biz_hits_back Video games biz hits back at rip-off claims | The Register ] ] According to the group themselves, Campbell did not instigate or devise the campaign, although some of his quotes were used to illustrate their point. [cite web |url=http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk/press2english.htm |title=Press Release: October 7, 2002 |accessdate=2007-08-13 |format= |work=.fairplay-campaign.co.uk] FairPlay's campaign led a controversial week-long boycott of game purchasing in the week of the 1st to 8th of December 2002, in protest at what it regarded as the artificially high prices of games. FairPlay claimed that retailer GAME suffered poorer than expected sales for the week of the boycott, and subsequent 80% drop in share value during that period, with the company's value recovering immediately afterwards. Fairplay also linked its campaign and the issues behind it with price cuts in games and hardware during that Christmas (and through into the following year), Nintendo's £100m fine for price fixing in Europe, a change in that company's publisher licencing fees, and a series of high-profile publisher and developer collapses. [ [http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk/front2.htm Fairplay - Campaign for cheaper videogames ] ]

In 2003, FairPlay switched its attentions to the slot machine industry, and after several months of campaigning, attracting significant coverage in the broadsheet press. [http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk/fruit/ind.jpg] [ [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=635312003 Scotland on Sunday ] ] As a spokesman for FairPlay, Campbell explained how the majority of fruit machines had a pre-set limits on pay-outs, and that they regularly offered "gambles" in which the player was guaranteed to lose no matter which option they chose. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2979142.stm |title=Just how far off is that jackpot? |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work=BBC News Technology ] The campaign succeeded in changing the UK gambling industry rules governing cheating by such gambling machines, [ [http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk/fruit/news.htm Cheating Fruit Machines ] ] evidence of which can be seen on the warning notice about "no-win gambles" which has been printed on most of the gaming machines subsequently produced, to the present day.

External links

* [http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/ World of Stuart]
* [http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/ap2/ AP2, "Amiga Power" history archive]
* [http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/cf2/cf2.htm "Cannon Fodder 2" development history]
* [http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk/ FairPlay homepage]

Notes

References

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