It all started with an HD camera and a sibling rivalry. Creative writing senior Anthony Burch is one of the stars and creator of the highly successful Internet video series “Hey Ash Watcha Playin?” (HAWP). The films came into existence when Burch planned to create a documentary about videogame music and decided to test the camera by filming his sister.
“The documentary ended up being a terrible idea,” Burch stated, “so I stuck with HAWP.”
Burch and his younger sister Ashly focus their series on videogames that she plays, ranging from Metal Gear Solid to Rock Band. These game scenarios are then brought into the real world by a psychotic Ashly, usually at a detriment to Burch’s health.
This video, introducing Ashly Burch, presents a good starting point to the series.
On top of HAWP, Burch's main jobs include being the features editor on the Destructoid video game blog, hosting Podtoid the Destructoid podcast, as well as running the Heyash blog and HAWPcast with Ashly Burch.
As a features editor at Destructoid, Burch is responsible for editing articles that are involved with upcoming monthly themes and giving the site a cohesive feel. Burch voluntarily began posting editorials on the site forums when it was first beginning and was promoted to a staff writer. Burch is also responsible for creating Rev Rants, video monologues wherein he talks about game design issues and his responses to popular games. The videos have been polarizing within the games community, and this is something that he is aware of.
“A lot of the problem with Rev Rants is that I’m not good at presenting my ideas without coming off as an elitist,” Burch said, “A lot of peoples’ response is that videogames are fun and that you shouldn’t analyze them.”
Burch recently also developed the game Runner along with other Destructoid staff members and said that the experience has changed how he reviews and analyzes games.
“I don’t take pleasure in saying bad things about games, and after developing one it really made me realize the amount of work that goes into creating them,” Burch said. Burch said that he is still critical of games, and that one of the best things about the job was seeing a game that changed his perception of what a game could be.
When asked about games journalism, Burch stated that there are major problems within the current system.
“Let me preface this first: I don’t think Destructoid is a 100% immune to this either,” Burch said. “Sensationalism is huge in videogame blogs, between cosplayer galleries and pictures of naked girls with gamepads over their tits, most blogs don’t care about analysis.”
Burch said that far and wide Destructoid is more opinions than journalism, but that they try to be upfront about it.
“You need to balance the sensationalism with community involvement. It’s like starting a conversation with your readers.”
When asked what three games had the biggest impact on him, three came off the top of his head.
“Shadow of the Colossus is one because it was the first thing that I played and realized that games can be more than just fun,” Burch stated. In Shadow of the Colossus players are forced to hunt lumbering creatures, most of which are non-aggressive.
“You were literally hunting these peaceful creatures, which was really striking to me,” he said.
Burch also referenced Half-Life 2 because of its ability to blend game play and narrative. Finally, Burch also referenced Far Cry 2 as an interesting game because of his experiments with perma-death [Permanent Death] runs.
“If you die, then that game is done and you start from the beginning again. It adds a real meaning to the choices that you have to make, and let's the player create their own story,” Burch stated.
Anthony Burch recently gave a talk at the 2010 Game Developers’ Conference about the Perma-death runs in Far Cry 2 and the effect it has on player choices and personal stories. This talk is available at the GDC Vault under Artgame sessions.
You can email Colin McGann, at cjmcgann@asu.edu, or DM him on Twitter at @Beardedmick if you have any geeky topics that you want covered.
