No, seriously. I was actually tossing around ideas for dumping this blog in favor of a full-fledged website with all the bells and trimmings. I think what eventually set me straight was the Giantbomb debacle. Thing is the main reason I even considered a website was because I thought I could make some money. Yes, yes I know I'm so very ignorant about this sort of thing because nobody wants to pay money to read about games. Going from a blog with zero ads to an ad-filled site would not be a graceful jump either I'm afraid.
Another highlight of this website problem is content. What exactly has the content been for this blog? There are reviews but they come more sparingly than they should and occasionally the rare feature. Oh and yes there's all those posts where I bring up all of the games I just bought. Clearly I'm the type of person who could easily start putting together videos, host podcasts, and do all that other fun stuff. I'll have to step my game up something fierce if I ever plan on moving beyond a mere blog.
Maybe if I had a website I could convince myself of some vague notion of legitimacy. Look at me everybody, I'm no longer just some bum pizza-guy with an over-inflated opinion of himself, I'm actually a legit game-critic. It'd be so great. Publishers would send me games and I'd give them negative reviews and then...well that'd be the end of that. Sorry if I can't buy into the notion that there isn't a publisher looking over my shoulder every time I sit down to write a review. Over the years I think I've done more in dissuading gamers from buying games (at least at full-price) than anything.
The biggest issue is time of course. The way I see it I put about 40 hours a week at my job, 10 hours a week into playing videogames, and maybe 2 hours into this blog. I bet if I didn't have to sleep I could totally set aside more time for running a site but I'm not about to sacrifice work over it. I could sacrifice the time I spend playing videogames but ehh..no I'm not seeing that. Playing videogames is really the only hobby I have and I'd like to be able to enjoy it.
Really that's all I have to say on the subject. It was something I was mulling over for awhile but it just doesn't seem like a worthwhile effort. I won't let that stop me from becoming a better reviewer though as I enjoy the challenge.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Clearly a website would be a step in the right direction as to making it as main stream game critic. Though I agree maintaining a website can be time consuming, the benefit of an a url to call you own may be what your missing to take that next big step.
ReplyDelete