Many people do use gaf as a one shop stop for all gaming media. No idea if they are the minority or majority
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Confirmed NEW gaming website is opening from VOX media. With a lot of people we know.
- Thread starter The Dutch Slayer
- Start date
Many people do use gaf as a one shop stop for all gaming media. No idea if they are the minority or majority
JonathanEx
Member
So right, here's what I'd like to see from a new site, hopefully it'll be in this one.
Tone wise - intelligently accessible. Don't dumb it down but there's no need to get wanky with your words in your average news post. With personalities, everyone's saying they're important to get through but don't... let it dominate all the coverage. Not everyone's going to listen to the podcast and they shouldn't have to in order to understand injokes and comments in every article. Have them, sure, they can be great content. Just find the balance between snarkyness distracting from facts and dead behind the eyes reporting for the site.
We're already in information overload. We don't need every little scrap of information, new screenshot flooding the site. Plenty of content, sure, but important or interesting, ideally both. A well sourced, trustworthy guide that breaks down what's going on making sense of the mess out there. And then interesting, original stories and features you wouldn't read normally, a site about gaming rather than just the games. Those longform pieces on the Verge are fantastic examples.
In short, don't do this. Although it did make laugh, please don't.
...I'm not at all demanding. I know all these sorts of things exist in some way in various sites, but one that pulls it together in a brilliantly readable way would be my ideal site. Just hope others would like it too. All the best with it.
Tone wise - intelligently accessible. Don't dumb it down but there's no need to get wanky with your words in your average news post. With personalities, everyone's saying they're important to get through but don't... let it dominate all the coverage. Not everyone's going to listen to the podcast and they shouldn't have to in order to understand injokes and comments in every article. Have them, sure, they can be great content. Just find the balance between snarkyness distracting from facts and dead behind the eyes reporting for the site.
We're already in information overload. We don't need every little scrap of information, new screenshot flooding the site. Plenty of content, sure, but important or interesting, ideally both. A well sourced, trustworthy guide that breaks down what's going on making sense of the mess out there. And then interesting, original stories and features you wouldn't read normally, a site about gaming rather than just the games. Those longform pieces on the Verge are fantastic examples.
In short, don't do this. Although it did make laugh, please don't.
...I'm not at all demanding. I know all these sorts of things exist in some way in various sites, but one that pulls it together in a brilliantly readable way would be my ideal site. Just hope others would like it too. All the best with it.
It's a shame this perception exists because I want to be a professional video reviewer, but the stigma that comes with being a cog in the "gaming journalism lol" machine has kept me from throwing my hat in the ring and really making myself known to you guys.
I honestly couldn't tell you my own thoughts on whether or not any reviews have ever been "paid for," so-to-speak, because I don't read any gaming sites. They don't particularly interest me as I get all of my news from here at GAF, and unless there's a specific article informing me of something I didn't already know, I tend to stay away.
I wish you the best of luck with this site, and I really hope you guys are somehow able to change the idea that you're somehow bought-and-paid-for by advertisers. It's not fair, and I wonder if it's keeping any other potential talent away from the industry because they'd rather not have their name dragged through the mud unjustly.
I do! I know there are plenty of people that get everything from GAF. Or some other forum. Which is totally valid. But it seems disingenuous to make a statement like "people still visit traditional websites?" I've worked for several very large sites and have been privy to the comscore/omniture data on a number of other huge sites. There are an enormous amount of people who visit them. I'm not trying to troll anyone here (right now), but GAF's userbase is a drop in the bucket to even the smallest "big" site.
That doesn't make GAF a piece of shit or irrelevant. Clearly it is relevant, and yes, there are times when sites get their news from here. I've been the guy checking GAF and harassing my news editors about stuff I see there from time to time. Whenever I've written the story, I've sourced it. I just wish that the people who treat GAF as their only source of news could step outside of their preferences for just a second and realize that their view isn't the only correct one.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
Looking forward to it. I'm not a hater of these guys. Let them have a a fresh start.
I don't really know as I dislike pretty much every gaming site that isn't Giant Bomb, but is it weird the Joystiq guy is leading the pack on this, and not the Kotaku guy? Kotaku is the bigger-name site, right? And does that mean Crecente is going to step down from being the EIC of perhaps the biggest gaming site to become "Senior Editor" or something of this new site? Why would he do that?
Actually, not only does it seem he's not the top-dog of the new thing, but maybe even third-in-line after McElroy? I don't understand...
Actually, not only does it seem he's not the top-dog of the new thing, but maybe even third-in-line after McElroy? I don't understand...
I'd say just have fun, create a positive atmosphere, and stay away from the obvious web hit bait articles as possible.
infinityBCRT
Member
Chris, Justin & Griffin have great podcast chemistry with each other, I enjoy Arthur's opinions and trust his reviews, and I think Crecente just has great hair.
Blast Processing
Member
The point is that I'm not going to gaming sites for the reasons Joe Sixpack is--news, screens, previews, reviews, and all that shit that is available anywhere and everywhere. If GAF or Reddit or somewhere can aggregate all that, then anyone hoping to start a successful site needs to know that something above and beyond that is necessary.
If I was trying to pwn him I would have just posted a stupid meme picture with something he said taken out of context in a funny way.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Drudge Report is the best site ever. I view it several times a day and have been for YEARS (like 7+) just because it's so fast loading and easy to read and has every big story on it, also smaller and odd stories. A gaming Drudge Report would kick all sorts of ass. Sites like IGN and 1up are the opposite of DR, they're huge, bloated, loaded with tons of images and garbage.
Oh and you are right on about the gaming journalists wanting to be Internet stars, so true.
Yes. A podcast is the best way to give your site a Voice and hopefully endear your listeners to the personalities that make up your site. I continue to go to Giantbomb because I feel like I know those personalities to some degree. When Jeff, Brad, or whoever writes a review for something you feel like you can glean a better idea for whether or not that game is right for you because you think you have an understanding for their tastes as compared to your own.
Also try to find some way during the podcast, or the site in general, to engage with your audience. Weekend Confirmed keeps me going back to Shacknews because I know that they read the comments on the previous show and occasionally respond to those commenters on the show. The same could be said about 1up back in the day. They did a fair job of engaging with their users on podcasts and the forums and it kept me going back.
Best of luck to all of you and you can be assured that, for a time at least, I will be reading, watching, and/or listening to what you guys do.
EDIT: Oh and hey could you try to give a bit more air to the unsung games? Games like Shadows of the Damned & Rayman should be highlighted simply because lots of people won't be aware of them otherwise.
It's awfully dismissive to say anyone who doesn't read games news the way you do is "joe sixpack," which is inherently a shot at them. I know why people come to GAF (or reasons why, anyway). That's cool. But it's strange to me to live in a world where anyone who doesn't do that exclusively isn't a "real" gamer.
I mean, "pwn" away, I guess. There's a GAF contingent that likes to play "six degrees of how can we involve Arthur in this topic so we can trash him personally for not liking the games we like" at every opportunity.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Yeah, I cannot stress personality enough. As someone mentioned don't bury your writers. I love Giant Bomb because I love seeing and listening to those guys, and I could actually pick them out in a crowd if I saw them in person, I cannot say that for most folks (I do know what Brian looks like due to GameTrailers appearances, etc and I have seen Arthur once at a PAX get-together).
If you want people to come to your site and stay, identify with them. Show them your writers are not machines pumping out short article after short article. Give them their face to the public, and give them the ability to flex whatever creative muscle they have to show readers that the writers do, in fact, exist and that they want us all to know them.
If you want people to come to your site and stay, identify with them. Show them your writers are not machines pumping out short article after short article. Give them their face to the public, and give them the ability to flex whatever creative muscle they have to show readers that the writers do, in fact, exist and that they want us all to know them.
I'm not that interested in titles. I'm more interested in creating something new and in reporting and writing. It's what I love.
I'll be a founder and the new site's News Editor.
So long as the crew of the new site is here reading comments and taking advice (congrats to all, by the way, very excited), I'd like to suggest they listen to the Day 5 deliberations on Giant Bomb where the guys determine the site-wide Top 10 list, and notice how brutal and honest they are. It struck me as I listened that this was the first time I can recall hearing the guys talk like that about these games, where they find seemingly arbitrary reasons to knock a game but back it up with their own internal logic.
It's weird to say this but it was refreshing, and it felt like it was highlighting the importance of letting time pass between completing a game and reflecting back on it. And it struck me that these are the kinds of conversations I find myself having with friends; we talk about how awesome a game is/was but inevitably we also discuss some things that we want to be fixed in the sequel, but still wasn't it a great game?
My request/advice would be to try to balance your reviews and podcast impressions in a way that brings some of that nitpickery. Just a little bit. It doesn't happen often enough and I think it would go a long way to ground your coverage and help build a voice of trust.
I also would like to request that you do absolutely as much video content as possible. Don't even post written news articles or reviews, just do video content.
It's weird to say this but it was refreshing, and it felt like it was highlighting the importance of letting time pass between completing a game and reflecting back on it. And it struck me that these are the kinds of conversations I find myself having with friends; we talk about how awesome a game is/was but inevitably we also discuss some things that we want to be fixed in the sequel, but still wasn't it a great game?
My request/advice would be to try to balance your reviews and podcast impressions in a way that brings some of that nitpickery. Just a little bit. It doesn't happen often enough and I think it would go a long way to ground your coverage and help build a voice of trust.
I also would like to request that you do absolutely as much video content as possible. Don't even post written news articles or reviews, just do video content.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
Here's what I would do for a gaming website, personally.
Visit the "gaming" portion of Reddit. See all of that? That is the list of all the things you never print, talk about or acknowledge.
Shawn Elliott is at Irrational.
Visit the "gaming" portion of Reddit. See all of that? That is the list of all the things you never print, talk about or acknowledge.
Shawn Elliott is at Irrational.
Shawn Elliot? He's at Irrational working on Bioshock Infinite.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Oh also. PSST Brian, get Garnett on board.
Exactly. Nice that Gies, the McElroys and co are all in one easy to ignore location. Add Sterling and they'd have the Dream Team of awful. Joystiq's now back on my bookmark list.
I can get really behind this idea of a drudgereport style for a gaming website. This model is tried and true for so many years which is why still one of the most popular news site on the net. No fat, no opinion pieces or bias articles, just the meat. With a website layout that is simplistic and fast loading on computers and mobile devices. Now I'm thinking of building a website dedicated like drudge.
infinityBCRT
Member
Shacknews got him a Porsche. I guess Vox would have to get him a Ferrari if he were to join on.
RedNumberFive
Banned
But now, with this new site, you have a one-stop-shop for all of your late breaking Japanese love pillow and pervy cosplay news!
GillianSeed79
Member
For me, I think it's important to have unique content that will drive viewers to the site.
Don't just rely on general gaming news stories that will be posted on every gaming site on the internet within 15 minutes. Sure there's that stuff to fill pages and space, but you need something unique to get people interested in visiting the site.
If you look at a site like Giant Bomb they have done a lot of innovative and unique things that makes their content stand out against general gaming sites. Stuff as simple as two dudes sitting down and playing a game in front of a camera for their quick looks is vastly more informative to me than a 12-inch preview, first impression story posted on a gaming site.
Try to think of niches that aren't being filled. Look at EGM's rebirth. The best thing that can be said about the magazine now is not the reviews and previews, but stuff like the five-page, Rolling Stone-like interviews with people in the industry. You generally don't get in depth interviews like that on the internet. People forget that Crecente is actually a trained journalist. Try maybe adapting some of the stuff you learned in the newsroom to try and approach gaming stories from a different angle.
For example, I recently listened to a story on NPR about the guy who invented cow clicker, which actually featured a Kotaku contributor, and I found that story pretty interesting. Not just the story about the creator of the game, but the sociological kind of impact Facebook-like games have on people.
Like others have said, a podcast is smart too. It's not just about putting the site's personalities on display, but highlighting other stuff on your site that the general listener might not know about or might not have found yet like an interesting news story/interview or feature that you've done.
Basically what I'm trying to say is try to do something different.
Don't just rely on general gaming news stories that will be posted on every gaming site on the internet within 15 minutes. Sure there's that stuff to fill pages and space, but you need something unique to get people interested in visiting the site.
If you look at a site like Giant Bomb they have done a lot of innovative and unique things that makes their content stand out against general gaming sites. Stuff as simple as two dudes sitting down and playing a game in front of a camera for their quick looks is vastly more informative to me than a 12-inch preview, first impression story posted on a gaming site.
Try to think of niches that aren't being filled. Look at EGM's rebirth. The best thing that can be said about the magazine now is not the reviews and previews, but stuff like the five-page, Rolling Stone-like interviews with people in the industry. You generally don't get in depth interviews like that on the internet. People forget that Crecente is actually a trained journalist. Try maybe adapting some of the stuff you learned in the newsroom to try and approach gaming stories from a different angle.
For example, I recently listened to a story on NPR about the guy who invented cow clicker, which actually featured a Kotaku contributor, and I found that story pretty interesting. Not just the story about the creator of the game, but the sociological kind of impact Facebook-like games have on people.
Like others have said, a podcast is smart too. It's not just about putting the site's personalities on display, but highlighting other stuff on your site that the general listener might not know about or might not have found yet like an interesting news story/interview or feature that you've done.
Basically what I'm trying to say is try to do something different.
Never had a problem with your choice of games and I've no opinion on your writing one way or the other. Really just didn't care for how dismissive you could sometimes be of other people's opinions on RebelFM.
Couldn't agree more. If you're just another site cycling through the same news, reviews, & previews as every other site why should I bother visiting? If your layout is better than that Gawker/Kotaku layout it'd help as well.
BoobPhysics101
Banned
I think it'll take a lot to get me to visit a gaming website other than GAF for my gaming news/commentary. When I look at garbage like Kotaku, 1UP, IGN, my head just kinda explodes because it's such a circus of horseshit filling every page. They're the website equivalent of a bullethell shmup without the quality to make you want to force yourself to endure.
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
It doesn't matter what people on GAF do, the point is that hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people still visit dedicated game sites. The person who started this conversation sounded like they were unaware or skeptical of that obvious fact.
Edit: should have read the whole page. Arthur already responded. I agree with Arthur. This time. *narrows eyes*
Depending on the site, tens of millions of unique visitors a month. A MONTH.
BoobPhysics101
Banned
Prostitutes get a lot of quantity as well.
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
Irrelevant to the argument.
JonathanEx
Member
To use this analogy, this means there's still a market for another whorehouse, surely?
Here's a suggestion. Open the wallet and pay whatever it takes to get Chris Remo & Co. to do a Idle Thumbs guest podcast for this new site. That would make this site a day one perch for me!
It would be cool to see 'state of the game/community' type of articles for games that were released six months ago to see if people are still playing it and how patches/DLC has improved/harmed the game.
It would be cool to see 'state of the game/community' type of articles for games that were released six months ago to see if people are still playing it and how patches/DLC has improved/harmed the game.
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
I want Idle Thumbs back as much as anyone, but I have to wonder if game industry personalities get tired of hearing the constant fantasy-podcast style requests/demands from us. Like, they don't even know each other necessarily but we lump them together in weird ways just because they have similar jobs.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Look at these numbers:
dat drudge! Most visitors stop by 4-5 times a day at least so the unique users is smaller but still humongous
infinityBCRT
Member
Based on Alexa.com, giantbomb has about the same amount of traffic as GAF (maybe a little bit more), theverge has double and is trending upward, and kotaku/joystiq have almost triple the traffic of GAF. And then IGN & Gamespot pretty much dwarf all of the sites I mentioned with over 10x the traffic of GAF.
Neuromancer
Member
I would go to this site if Justin McElroy re-reviews Nier after playing the entire game.
I am being completely serious.
I am being completely serious.
infinityBCRT
Member
His first post should be a video of him dancing with Mass Effect 3.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Wow that's weird to hear. Like I figured giantbomb was much smaller and gaf was around kotaku/joystiq levels not 3x less
Dakota47
Member
Site traffic nowadays is generated through aggregated sources, like it or not. People hardly ever use bookmarks anymore. I pick up my news and links to interesting articles or reviews from Twitter, GAF or reddit. The only gaming sites I do regularly visit are Rock Paper Shotgun (Quinns and Keiron are dearly missed though), Eurogamer and Giant Bomb.
Good luck on your endeavors. I will be checking the site out.
Always liked Crecente. Didn't mind Kotaku too much in that it was a quick way to get the game related news of the day. The redesign turned me off entirely though.
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