spectere.net
The Chatterbox => Random Chat => Topic started by: dinnerroll on January 26, 2008, 07:44:31 PM
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This may belong in Games, but I figured it would get more traffic here.
K so here's the deal. It's getting to the point in my life to where I feel I should start thinking about what to make of myself. I've been thinking of the things I'm good at and the things I enjoy doing. The one thing I keep coming back to is editorial journalism. I enjoy writing and I feel I'm fairly proficient at it. I also enjoy video games. These two combined led me to video game journalism. I read ign, joystiq, and other game sites and blogs on a daily basis. I feel I'm comfortable enough with the format to effectively pursue it myself.
If I can get all of the pieces together, I want to put together a game blog in the style of joystiq or kotaku. It would focus on all of the normal stuff like previews, reviews, news, game culture, opinion articles and editorials and any other creative ideas that may present themselves.
The purpose of my posting this here is that frankly, I need your help. I need advice, input, ideas, technical help, anything you can give me. I'm thinking that the site would have a small core writing staff in charge of main projects like news and reviews, and we could have people we know or invite people that visit the site to write any kind of opinion piece of editorial and submit them. The core staff would screen those submissions and publish the good ones and either reject or send the others back for revision.
To be honest, I don't see this idea taking off and becoming the next ign, although it would be awesome if it did. I see this idea as more of a platform to get some experience and build a portfolio in a career path that I find interesting and hope others might want to share with me. Thanks for reading all of this; even if you aren't interested. 8)
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I think it'd be neat-o. :)
One thing that I'd advise is trying to start with a certain theme. A lot of sites try to start off too big and wind up completely dying because nobody knows what to focus on.
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there's already a ton of gaming journalism sites, we don't really need another one
basically everything's been taken. escapist does serious stuff, joystiq/kotaku/destructoid/whatever the hell do news, ign/gamespot/1up do reviews. what are you going to do differently?
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there's already a ton of gaming journalism sites, we don't really need another one
basically everything's been taken. escapist does serious stuff, joystiq/kotaku/destructoid/whatever the hell do news, ign/gamespot/1up do reviews. what are you going to do differently?
Like I said, I'm not really trying to do anything different or fantastic. I'm just trying to get some experience writing in a more professional style. If I happen to get a little bit of a reputation as a good writer, maybe that'll carry me on to the next step, but i'd be happy with just the experience.
Even though it's going to be a relatively small endeavor, I'd like to try to emulate the major sites as much as possible. One thing i've been racking my brain over is a name. It has to be a short, catch name with widespread appeal. IGN, 1up.com, and joystiq got this right on. No site like redneckgamenewsaddicts.com or superdupergamer.com ever gets any recognition. It has to be just right.
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I'd like to try to emulate the major sites as much as possible
you're doing it wrong.
find a niche. maybe freeware, flash games, indie games, something that is pretty underreported (not that there aren't a shitload of blogs about these, just not as many as there are big games).
actually, what hasn't been done is a gamespot for free games. do that. do the hell out of that.
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I hadn't thought of that. It's not a bad idea actually. That's why I posted here for help, because I really want some input before i jump in.
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And make sure that you have a site theme that works well. Nobody wants to try to navigate a site that is ugly, or is hard to find your way around.
On a slightly more technical aspect, what content management system are you planning on using to deliver thee goods? I highly suggest you use something like Joomla or some other one, because doing that yourself is a GIGANTIC pain. I've been working with Joomla a bit on my soon-to-be webserver (currently not accessible from the net due to my router not forwarding ports properly), and I really like it. However, using a default theme is a GIGANTIC no-no in this case. You'll want something unique to your site. I'd offer to help, but I don't know jock about making themes :/ If you ask Sqthreer nicely, he might lend a hand. (No promises... I'm not going to say he'll want to help at all, but you never know, and he does have some experience doing that sort of thing.)
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One reason I asked here was for technical help. I know absolutely nothing about any kind of coding and one thing I really wanted to make sure the site had was a unique style. So right now what I need is a name, a tech guy, and people as interested as me that want to write articles. I already have piroteknix and a couple guys from my school, but a couple more would be great.
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Well, I can help you with any technical questions (as could Spectere, and maybe a coupe other people here.)
Using Joomla, there's very little coding you actually need to do, it was built so that you can edit things with a wysiwyg editor, a lot like forum post things. However, you would still need someone to make a theme for it, unless you used one of the default themes (which really isn't an option here).
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Joomla is so complicated it's not even funny. People have written entire 475 page books on it. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590598482/interactiveda933-20) If you wanted to get started with a heavy CMS like that, I'd weigh your options very carefully, then set up a local web server, grab some reading material on it, and use the crap out of it so that you aren't caught with your pants down.
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I've seen that book before :s
But yeah, sounds like a good idea, I'd be willing to write articles or something for it if you needed help with that. I don't know what good I'd be in a technical aspect though : |
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I'm an opinionated fucker, so I'd be willing to write short reviews and such. Also a bigger focus on inde games could help you become more popular.
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ok so I think I have a pretty good handle on the format. I'm thinking general game industry news and editorials with a heavy focus on indie games for content pieces. Since those games are on pc, it would be much easier to capture screenshots and videos for previews and reviews and things like that.
I'll worry about the technical side of thing when I actually have a web hot and a site to actually work on.
What I need right now is a name. Like I said earlier, it has to be clever and catchy and have a broad appeal. It can be an acronym, a rhyme, anything. If anyone thinks of anything, no matter what it is, a name or any other ideas just throw it out there.
You guys have no idea how much I'm appreciating your input. There's no way I'd be able to put all of this together by myself. If anybody is especially interested, you can catch me on aim or email or something.
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Well, I've been messing with Joomla and really like how it works. Sure, it's not some small-ass system and stuff, and it can be complicated, but you can do a LOT with it. I probably haven't scratched the surface of what's possible with it, but I do really like the way it's set up.
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I'll set my mind to work, and try to come up with a name. Hopefully I'll have something for you tommorow.
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Couldn't you just mod WordPress? Basically none of the format of your posts would be automated, but you could just set up some categories and then make some special category pages using the WordPress pages (a page that lists Reviews, that kind of thing).
Hell, I'm bored. I'll probably fuck with WordPress tomorrow.
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I tend to find game news faster than either Kotaku or Joystiq (which just reposts what Kotaku posts...) and I get a lot of information for all sorts of other things so I could easily help with just about all writing ideas. Hell, I've definitely got the time and the game library to write for.
Or at least I would if it were for console stuff anyway. I usually don't pay much attention to PC stuff ;_;
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Now that I'm thinking about it, WordPress would probably be too simple. Joomla could work, but I have had zip experience with it.
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I tend to find game news faster than either Kotaku or Joystiq (which just reposts what Kotaku posts...)
Hah, what? Kotakus nickname is slowtaku. Also it would be better if it were focused on inde and not so mainstream games (The Witcher, No More Heroes, etc).
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Hah, what? Kotakus nickname is slowtaku. Also it would be better if it were focused on inde and not so mainstream games (The Witcher, No More Heroes, etc).
No. These are not indie games. These are very commercial games reviewed by much of the media and extremely popular in gamer communities. The Witcher sold a shitload in Europe, and NMH is published by fucking Ubisoft.
The limit for what I consider "indie" would probably be Introversion Software. They're pretty popular, even with the media, but still make fairly obscure and underground games.
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Well I'll work on getting a site up this weekend if i can come up with a tentative name or something or if I even need one to get web hosting.
Yeah eggman that'd be great if you could help with news. And tommy, help with wordpress would be awesome too. I know nothing about web software.
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The limit for what I consider "indie" would probably be Introversion Software. They're pretty popular, even with the media, but still make fairly obscure and underground games.
I never said they where inde, but the are definitely up and coming cult games that most "gamers" don't really know about. Shit, even my nerd friends wouldn't know about the Witcher or NMH. Which is why I'd like to see something a little more in depth done review wise with them. My problem is I'm muh fuggen broke, and I only own a Wii, so this would vastly impair my reviewing.
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I never said they where inde, but the are definitely up and coming cult games that most "gamers" don't really know about. Shit, even my nerd friends wouldn't know about the Witcher or NMH. Which is why I'd like to see something a little more in depth done review wise with them. My problem is I'm muh fuggen broke, and I only own a Wii, so this would vastly impair my reviewing.
http://www.n4g.com/News-81964.aspx
Also, I've been fucking around with Joomla, and the documentation is just godawful. It is seriously the worst documentation I've ever read. I'm trying to install this thing that lets you set up multiple pages at once, but it's not a packaged install file, and I cannot fucking figure out how to install it.
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Alright I guess in Joomla-speak stable != fucking useable because this is seriously the worst web application I have ever used.
I was going to set it up further, but you know what? Fuck it. Maybe I should just make a custom CMS or some shit. This is fucking horrible stuff.
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I got Joomla working in about 10 minutes. Using an SSH console connection....
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I got Joomla working in about 10 minutes. Using an SSH console connection....
Oh, sure, it installs.
Try actually using it.
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Yeah, its documentation is pretty bad. I pretty much had to go by ear when I was playing with it.
I didn't really have many problems with the usage, but for a small site it is just excessive. The way they have the permissions system set up requires you to have to go through a bunch of hoops to do some things.
I might have missed something...who knows. That's probably why they have huge manuscripts on it, heh.
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There really is no light weight CMS though- a middle ground between Joomla and WordPress. You'd pretty much have to make your own.
The guy who does PunBB should make PunCMS next.