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Friday, December 02, 2005
Gamergod is getting there
I'm still writing for Gamergod. I just tend to mention it less, because the site often annoys me with being overly commercial and self-obsessed, with relatively few good quality articles and discussions on the forums. But since the last redesign the banner ads aren't quite as bad any more, and the quality of the site and forum discussions is slowly rising.
And then sometimes Gamergod is surprising me with a piece of outstanding quality. Like a thread (with lots of links to articles at different places) in which major thinkers of the MMORPG world like Brad McQuaid, Raph Koster, and Lum the not-quite-so-mad-any-more discuss the advantages and disadvantages of instancing. It'll take you a while to read all the different pieces that are linked there by their authors, but it sure is worth it, and I'm not going to add anything to the discussion here.
- posted by Tobold @ 4:54 PM Permanent Link
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I couldnt make the switch to Gamergod... I really don't understand what attracted Grimwell to go there... it reminds me too much of IGN or gamespy or something. Crap, tacky and too commercial.
# posted by 
: 4/12/05 22:42
: 4/12/05 22:42
Winter Grimwell moved because he had a passion towards gaming and gaming media. Gamergod gave him the step up he needed to.
Websites and bandwidth aren't free at the level Grimwell was running.
I'm not going to say GG is better than the old GO, but I understand the move and honestly Gamergod is getting better.
Hell we have Raph Koster and Lum the Mad arguing on our boards!
Websites and bandwidth aren't free at the level Grimwell was running.
I'm not going to say GG is better than the old GO, but I understand the move and honestly Gamergod is getting better.
Hell we have Raph Koster and Lum the Mad arguing on our boards!
GO was "amateur", GG is "professional". Both have their advantages, with amateur being smaller, but run by people out of love for gaming. Professional has a larger audience and brings more money, but then you get forums where the most visited thread is about winning a free PSP.
I sure hope that Gamergod can get more threads with intelligent discussion between industry people going. Right now there are a few threads from Darniaq, Heartless, or me, but we are still far from the intellectual level of the old GO or Terranova.
I sure hope that Gamergod can get more threads with intelligent discussion between industry people going. Right now there are a few threads from Darniaq, Heartless, or me, but we are still far from the intellectual level of the old GO or Terranova.
I wouldn't have classified GO as amatuer and GG as professional... I feel it was more like GO was an independant media site that had intelligent debate going on and GG is a commercial, well... a gamespy/IGN wannabe.
Is it ever going to get up to those levels? I doubt it, so it is going to be neither big enough to play in their space nor maintain the intellectual feel that GO had.
Oh well :-(
Is it ever going to get up to those levels? I doubt it, so it is going to be neither big enough to play in their space nor maintain the intellectual feel that GO had.
Oh well :-(
# posted by : 5/12/05 22:30
: 5/12/05 22:30
Winter, I'm talking of the strict sense of the words "amateur" (= made for love) and "professional" (= made for money). Nowadays many people think that these are quality levels, with amateur being worse than professional, but that isn't true. The non-profit GO certainly had a higher intellectual level than the for-profit GG.
Its sad Real Name gamers didn't take off and the posters refuse to venture to GG for discussions.
And calling TN intellectual... well they offer a pretty slanted intellectual if you ask me.
And calling TN intellectual... well they offer a pretty slanted intellectual if you ask me.
I don't read Terranova much, because as you say it is pretty much slanted towards the developers view of things. And as a player, the arrogance of some of the developers is sometimes pretty unbearable. Creating worlds has some people believe that they have become gods. The notion that a MMORPG is an entertainment service for paying customers is often forgotten.
The worst is that players are generally blamed for all that is going wrong, or not working as intended. When in fact player behavior is often a direct result of the reward structure in the game.
The worst is that players are generally blamed for all that is going wrong, or not working as intended. When in fact player behavior is often a direct result of the reward structure in the game.
GO didn't offer a paycheck.
GG does.
Paycheck > No Paycheck
It is never that simple, but that is your nutshell. I had the option of working on a site that is endeavoring to grow into something grand and useful, or managing a Best Buy and pretending that I had enough spare time to do more than moderate my own website.
My vision for GG is that it gets as big as Zeus hopes, but also enables me to discover, empower, and (someday) pay people for real journalism. There can be a balance; finding and striking it will be the decision point for GG between success and failure.
The Wall Street Journal is successful, and for business news they are also the standard bearer for quality on a large scale. I want to do that for gaming, quality + big.
It's a work in progress though.
GG does.
Paycheck > No Paycheck
It is never that simple, but that is your nutshell. I had the option of working on a site that is endeavoring to grow into something grand and useful, or managing a Best Buy and pretending that I had enough spare time to do more than moderate my own website.
My vision for GG is that it gets as big as Zeus hopes, but also enables me to discover, empower, and (someday) pay people for real journalism. There can be a balance; finding and striking it will be the decision point for GG between success and failure.
The Wall Street Journal is successful, and for business news they are also the standard bearer for quality on a large scale. I want to do that for gaming, quality + big.
It's a work in progress though.
# posted by : 6/12/05 18:09
: 6/12/05 18:09
And I doubt the Wall Street Journal started out looking like Hustler... Maybe it can work, good luck in trying, but it seems it will be hard to shed the tacky gamespy like image being promoted now.
I think half the problem is that the masses seem to be more concerned with free PSPs than with quality journalism in gaming. Those that are concerned with it can get it from smaller, much higher quality sites on the net. I'm just dissappointed that GO had to go...
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I think half the problem is that the masses seem to be more concerned with free PSPs than with quality journalism in gaming. Those that are concerned with it can get it from smaller, much higher quality sites on the net. I'm just dissappointed that GO had to go...
# posted by : 6/12/05 22:24
: 6/12/05 22:24<< Home
