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For the last year or so, I have been slowly churning out game reviews on my blogger blog at http://osgreview.blogspot.com Figured it was the easiest, fastest and most efficient method to produce good reviews in an easy to use format. I would appreciate a few of you all to hop over, check it out, give some feedback, and just enjoy the reviews. I appreciate comments towards each review. Occassionally, I post something that isn't a review, and more of an opinion article. Granted, most reviews are nothing but opinion, but those particular articles are not necessarily reviewing anything, but commenting on something.

 

Anyway, just looking to get a few readers, and some feedback. Thanks.

 

http://osgreview.blogspot.com

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For the last year or so, I have been slowly churning out game reviews on my blogger blog at http://osgreview.blogspot.com Figured it was the easiest, fastest and most efficient method to produce good reviews in an easy to use format. I would appreciate a few of you all to hop over, check it out, give some feedback, and just enjoy the reviews. I appreciate comments towards each review. Occassionally, I post something that isn't a review, and more of an opinion article. Granted, most reviews are nothing but opinion, but those particular articles are not necessarily reviewing anything, but commenting on something.

 

Anyway, just looking to get a few readers, and some feedback. Thanks.

 

http://osgreview.blogspot.com

 

I spent a total of 80 seconds at the site...the reviews are too long...I like videogamecritic.net where the reviews are like one paragraph and they have a summary page of all the grades. It's an easier read...

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The reason I have longer reviews is for depth and information. I am not a fan of reviews that are about 4 to 6 sentences. Granted, these are usually older games, but that doesn't mean you need just a paragraph to explain them. I try to keep most reviews to a simple 5 paragraph description of the game, broken down to Graphics, Sounds, Controls, Playability, and Overall experience. Occasionally, I may include animation as an extra paragraph, but not impactful on overall scores. Each paragraph relates to a specific category for the score.

 

I understand wanting a quick review, but anyone can honestly write a quick paragraph about a game. When I read a review, I want the dirt. I want to get a decent explanation of the game.

 

By the way, after I started this thread, I was in the process of changing over from Blogger to WordPress. I have found that WordPress offers a little more depth to the way the blogs look. I love blogger, mind you, but it is more aimed at just personal stuff, and not so much on the level of good professional looking blogs that I am trying to implement with the OSGR. That URL is at http://osgreview.wordpress.com

 

Overall, to each their own.

Edited by etschuetz
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I think your writing is fine and the length of the articles is just about right. If I want to read a paragraph about a game, I will read the back of the box or something from a sales catalog aobut it. I think etschuetz is doing it right, use the fact that space is cheap on the Internet and make use of it rather than treating it like printed material where space is a premium.

Looks good, keep it up.

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Definitly interesting :)

 

You really should put smaller posts on the first page and then just a picture or youtube video and a link for "read more"... or "continue reading"...

That is how most of game review blogs work...

 

Don't know if wordpress has such an option ?

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Definitly interesting :)

 

You really should put smaller posts on the first page and then just a picture or youtube video and a link for "read more"... or "continue reading"...

That is how most of game review blogs work...

 

Don't know if wordpress has such an option ?

Wordpress offers that type of thing (we use it all the time on UnNamedGaming.com for articles that are longer than we want on the front page). It is the button that looks like two pages on top of each other with a dotted line seperating them in the Word Press software (at least it is in version 2.8 or so).

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I saw your post and thought, damn, I know what that's like! :)

 

I was wondering, though, why so many talented and well-informed individuals such as yourself want to go it alone. It's something I've seen time and time again. I can certainly understand the appeal of calling all the shots, but have you considered teaming up with an existing team that might be to your mutual benefit? At the very least, you might write some "guest" blogs or "guest" reviews at older websites as a way to get people interested in your content.

 

I don't do enough of this myself, but getting an article on Gamasutra would be to your advantage, as would making valid comments on other blogs and posts that let you link to your own website (via your signature line or handle). I think the real trick is getting mentioned or linked to by better established blogs and news sites, but they play by their own rules.

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I saw your post and thought, damn, I know what that's like! :)

 

I was wondering, though, why so many talented and well-informed individuals such as yourself want to go it alone. It's something I've seen time and time again. I can certainly understand the appeal of calling all the shots, but have you considered teaming up with an existing team that might be to your mutual benefit? At the very least, you might write some "guest" blogs or "guest" reviews at older websites as a way to get people interested in your content.

 

I don't do enough of this myself, but getting an article on Gamasutra would be to your advantage, as would making valid comments on other blogs and posts that let you link to your own website (via your signature line or handle). I think the real trick is getting mentioned or linked to by better established blogs and news sites, but they play by their own rules.

 

I agree, it is harder to go alone and possibly to the point that you would stop doing it altogether since you probably won't get the results you want. That is why I joined up with UnNamedGaming for my editorials and such that won't fit at my other home on the net, Retromags (which is not an actual magazine, some people think we produce a magazine, we don't).

 

etschuetz, if you would like to join up and do some stuff with UnNamedGaming, just let me know, we can work out something to drive traffic to your blog if you like (we are extremely open about how things are done over there unlike most of the news sites and such).

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et, have you thought of getting a review in Classic Video Gamer magazine? It's a great paper magazine and so far it's been fun to write for.

 

And Matt's a great guy to team up with, too, he does pretty good reviews of things on video (with a huge mic :cool: ) kudos to both Mike and STGuy

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et, have you thought of getting a review in Classic Video Gamer magazine? It's a great paper magazine and so far it's been fun to write for.

 

And Matt's a great guy to team up with, too, he does pretty good reviews of things on video (with a huge mic :cool: ) kudos to both Mike and STGuy

 

Hehe...

 

I remember when we first starting off Armchair Arcade, we really worked our butts off. However, we really lucked out at the beginning when one of the guys at Slashdot became a fan and posted about our issues. That led to all sorts of other sites linking to us. Even then, it was impossible to compete with the commercial sites with paid staff and fat advertising budgets. They also have publishers flooding them free hardware and software to review, and getting an exclusive interview with anyone they want is just a phone call away. Just can't go toe to toe with those guys no matter how awesome you are. Sad part is, even those guys aren't look so hot nowadays.

 

At any rate, I think it'd be sweet to land an article on Next Generation, Gamasutra, or Edge. Anything there would really get some eyeballs, especially if you followed up by submitting the published piece on Slashdot and wherever else you could post it.

 

One my friends set up a blog at Destructoid and claimed it was doing really great. You might want to look into that as well, though I don't personally have any experience with that.

Edited by mattbarton.exe
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thanks for the Support folks. I don't know if everyone saw some of the things I did after starting this thread. The main page is more or less the introduction. Basically explains who I am, my love for video games. After that is all of the articles. I may consider doing the shortened version, with the link for the extended version. It would make it easier on the grouped archivals.

 

As for writing "freelance" for other sites, I do submit articles to Retrogaming Times Monthly from time to time using my real name Eric Schuetz. I have a lot of fun with that. I am still "learning" wordpress right now. I have been using Blogger.com for a long while and was very used to their format, but found that I liked the WordPress themes and styles a lot more. Blogger is great for personal blogging, but doesn't have that easy set up for professional looking blogs. I don't know CSS, so that doesn't help either.

 

As for getting other reviewers, that would be cool, but I am very particular to the style each article looks, and I look at this as more of a fun little hobby than anything else.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Wordpress offers that type of thing (we use it all the time on UnNamedGaming.com for articles that are longer than we want on the front page). It is the button that looks like two pages on top of each other with a dotted line seperating them in the Word Press software (at least it is in version 2.8 or so).

Finally found what you were talking about in regards to the shortening of the post on the main page, and clicking the "Read More" link to view the whole thing. Since the main page of the Blog is an introductory page about myself, I find this is VERY helpful with the archives. Prior to this, the archive pages were looking really convoluted. This really helps shorten it down and such. Again, thanks for pointing out this feature!

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Your welcome. We make extensive use of that feature on UnNamedGaming.

 

Considering the code for that feature is pretty simple, I can write that directly into the html as I write it. I use Windows Live Writer for my blogs. i have to admit, it is a pretty competent blog writing tool. Just need to remember to use the "category" menu when I finish as so that the blog is categorized properly.

Edited by etschuetz
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I really don't care if people like or dislike the fact I have used an emulator in some cases. Most games I have reviewed, I have used the original hardware, and can make a very educated decision on my ratings. Those that I haven't had the chance to try the actual hardware, I believe my reviews are accurate. Once those machines are in my grasp, I can adjust the ratings accordingly. However, I doubt that will be necessary. The emulators I have used are popular and very well designed.

 

Anyone that doesn't like my methods are more than welcome to find a review else where. I just happen to be honest in my reviews.

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