While I was writing the draft for my post about security, another thought crossed my mind. So let’s talk about video games for a second.
Very few people know that I used to be a “game journalist” (although it somehow fields I already wrote this a million times). I was a “gaming journalist” before it became cool and profitable, and then uncool again. I was one the first people to cover Xbox in Belgium, starting from the OG Xbox and did so for years until it somehow became something I just didn’t want to do anymore. Which, I’m sure, is a story I’ve told somewhere.
After taking a semi-permanent break of nearly a decade, I am starting to feel the gaming itch again. Not because I’m missing all the free games (okay, not getting free games sucks) but because I feel like gaming journalism has become a joke. Clickbait articles are battling for front page rooms with weird reviews and “journalism” that are just really bad fanboy ramblings. For example, there’s a gaming site that sounds Japanese, that published an article on how Halo Infinite is dead. Their source is a Forbes blogger (they’re not journalists, dude) whose source is where Halo Infinite ends up if you sort Xbox games in the Microsoft store by “Most Popular”. With zero proof that this is somehow in any way related to statistics. (I’d hate to build a show whose ordering has to change based on how often games are played in any given week, just saying).
That isn’t journalism. That’s just Facebook tier content writing. And yet people wonder why people are ignoring these ad-infested outlets in favor for smaller content creators? What could possible be the reason (*)
(*) Disclaimer: Obviously not all gaming journalism is trash
I caught myself thinking “I could do this to. Wait, I actually used to do this…” on more than one occassion recently. Do I really think I can do better? Maybe not when it comes to building an audience or other metrics. I definitely can’t output multiple articles every day. I certainly don’t believe that I can make a dedicated site, podcast, Youtube channel or Twitch stream and create content for all of them.
Unrelated aside: I have these moments where I’m full of energy and bad ideas, so I have, in fact, made these accounts for not one but multiple “brands”. Who’s to say I can’t be productive by being not productive at all?
But does that have to stop me from writing about video games? It does not. A while ago I wrote a post about my “Xbox” history and it was some of the most fun I had writing an article in a while. I love video games. I love writing about things. So writing about video games when I find the inspiration is an absolute blast.
To keep things nice and easy, I’m probably start to post here or on one of my tech blogs I’m currently neglecting. For a long time I have tried to “niche down”, as marketing guys call it, by trying to put everything I do in separate boxes with their own labels. Hell, I have been doing that for years and it has made me ridiculously unproductive. But video games are part of what I am. So if people don’t like that, then that’s their problem and they can just skip the articles. In return, I’ll skip their posts about their cat, dog or last meal. That’s only fair.
So, TLDR, expect me to start writing some game articles in the near future, is all I’m saying. And if it doesn’t happen, hopefully it’s because I’m too busy playing games and doing other things I like.
With that being said, there’s another thing I want to talk about “just doing what I feel like.” BLOG. POST. SPAM.