Go Get ’em Gamer: Throwback 1

I still love this picture!

I am no stranger to blogging and while I may have never had the massive success of other sites, I have written some good pieces that I would love to revisit. This is one of them.  

I used to have a site called “An Admin’s Perspective” (Why did I name it that?) and there I wrote an Article with the title “The struggle of the small time blog”. I have re-posted that article for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!  

It’s a tough world out there. Whether your currently unemployed or struggling to maintain your current job/business, in an effort to pay your bills, we are all in the same boat. In times like these people look for easy get rich quick opportunities or they just try to make something incredible and hope it catches on. 

The same can be said for video game blog sites, which have enjoyed a nice influx thanks to sites likeWordpress and Blogger, to name a few. All these sites try to do is give gamers a different perspective on video game news, reviews, and previews but ultimately they all fall into the same pit that most video game blogs and even some bigger named sites get into, which is, the standard gaming news  with nothing new to offer the reader. While some have managed to grasp success (PlayStation Lifestyle, Hip Hop Gamer, Sarcastic Gamer, etc.) most other sites fail to get even past a thousand hits so they start to produce articles with misleading titles and console war oriented banter just to gain a small following (for as long as they can grab them).

Most bloggers use sites like N4G, Digg and also go as far as to utilize Twitter to help promote themselves but they receive a lashing by the readers for putting up misinformed articles and false speculation, but is it really the writers fault? In a sense, yes it is, but if you analyze the circumstances what other choice do they have? Some people are relying on these blogs to nab them dream jobs in the industry and others are looking to turn their blog into a legitimate news source. 

With the bigger sites like IGN, Kotaku, Joystiq, Gamespot, etc actually getting all the insider goods (after all they get paid for it) it’s a tough field to compete in, similar to mom and pop video game stores going against the empire of GameStop. The one benefit that no one can deny is that these blogs offer something that the big boys don’t; honest opinions.

No opinion is truth, but when it comes from the heart it’s honest and not swayed by a publisher or console manufacturer, sure, they are mostly fanboy opinions but you have to separate the good from the bad and give the good ones credit for taking the time to write their thoughts and trying to produce news and articles that gamers can relate to. 

In the end, all these sites/blogs can do is continue to write articles that create debates, no matter how harsh those debates may be, all in an attempt to grab your attention. It’s not easy, but we all love to do it. Thanks for reading. 

When I put that article up I stopped blogging for a while. I made Go Get ’em Gamer as a personal blog on tumblr, and vowed to never get into this tussle again. Since I abandoned the blog I had 2 responses, one that I replied to and another that I literally JUST SAW. Here is the comment: 

GameFlavor said… I am the editor of a medium-sized gaming news website that receives about 200,000 visitors per month. We are able to scrape out a small revenue by any means possible. Flaming fanboy debates is a great way to get major traffic. As long as there are idiots out there who like that kind of content, I am not going to argue with what works. I have written some very thoughtful analysis articles that received almost no hits. Meanwhile, a headline like “Ten reasons Natal will fail” will bring us 10,000 visits in one day. That equates to about $25 USD in revenue. The thing is not to confuse what we do (enthusiast press) with real journalism. Magazines like ‘BMX World and ‘Guitar Hobbyist Monthly’ don’t report real news, either, so why should a crappy video game site? We are in it to make a profit, plain and simple. Video games are entertainment and people want to be entertained.  

Do you agree with this statement? Is this guys approach to game news legit or is he simply trying to make a living by igniting useless fanboy wars? Let me know on my Twitter or in the comments section below   

Thanks for reading.