BuzzFeed published its first longform piece under new longform editor Steve Kandell today. It’s a history of the videogame Pong, written by Chris Stokel-Walker, Kandell tells Poynter.
Kandell was named BuzzFeed’s longform editor earlier this month. The Pong piece is his first commission; Stokel-Walker pitched it on Kandell’s first day, he says. Stokel-Walker spoke with the game’s co-creators in the course of his reporting, says Kandell, Spin’s former editor. (I worked at Spin a hundred or so years ago, but I never worked with Kandell.)
The piece is about 5,000 words long and includes “some design and animation elements,” Kandell says. Fingers crossed for a game! It was published around 1 p.m. ET. Forty years ago today, Atari announced Pong’s release. New York’s Museum of Modern Art hopes to include Pong in a new exhibit of video games.
Here’s a gripping video of a Pong game that goes on for more than 7 minutes.
