Welcome back, gamers! It’s been a week since you’ve last heard from me, so I figured at the least I owed it to you guys to explain what’s been going on with me and this site these days. Let’s start things off with the least interesting, but most obvious reason for my absence:
School
It’s boring, monotonous, and expected, but school is the main reason I’ve been forced to slow down a little on any external projects. For those of you guys who don’t know, I’m finishing up my degree in Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois. With just two semesters to go (I’ll be out of here for good Mid-December), I need to take things as seriously as I can. I’ve expressed plenty of times before in the past that I’m not particularly enthusiastic about college, but I’m too far in my studies (and loans) to stop things now. Writing every single day like I planned won’t be possible until I get out of school.
Youtube
For a couple of reasons, I’ve been spending my time looking into finally developing Youtube videos for Wittz Gaming. In fact, you can SUBSCRIBE to my new channel right now at youtube.com/wittzgaming to get quick notifications as soon as I get new content out. Not only is youtube my “expertise” (producing videos for 2 years definitely helps that), but it’s also likely a much bigger way for me to spread my word about my own work. While ultimately I want to get as many people as possible reading my written work, I feel like it might actually be a better strategy to funnel in youtube viewers to this site (as opposed to the other way around).
I’ve also been thinking a bit about what kinds of videos I want to make. Originally I felt set on this “At Wittz End” concept, where I complain about the worst part in every game that I play, but I’ve since decided that I’m better off making generic videos first. My goal right now is to have two types of videos: opinion pieces, and video reviews. The opinion pieces would be very similar to Sessler’s Soapbox, involving me going on a minimally edited rant about a popular topic over the course of the week. Video reviews would be, well, reviews in video form. Seems simple enough, but each type of video has a unique obstacle that I need to tackle first.
The Opinion Videos could technically be made right now, but I’m hesitant to start them until I get better lighting for my room. Despite the unscripted/ranting format, I’d like to give my new great camera a chance to shine (pun intended). I also want to be able to produce something of a high enough quality to attract potential employees in the future. I’ve been working with Michael Weldon at Rockman Films to try and get an inexpensive but impressive light setup, and I’ll keep you guys updated as soon as I do.
Video Reviews are also just a handful of hours away from being produced, but I ran into an unexpected conclusion last weekend: no one wants to watch game reviews from 1-2 year old games. Heck, people barely want to read those reviews, yet that’s what I’ve been limiting myself to for the past few months in order to afford the games that I review. It’s still good practice for me to write reviews for games, regardless of their age, but restricting myself to older games pretty much guarantees that they’re going to go unread by most of the public.
To solve this, I decided to finally crack down and give Gamefly a try. Gamefly is essentially the Netflix of videogames, allowing you to rent games instead of purchasing them. While the system itself is fairly pricey (about $15 for one game at a time and $22 for 2 games at a time), that’s nothing compared to the cost of constantly buying new games to review each week. Startup plans were either a 14-day free trial, or by signing up on someone’s affiliate link to try 2 months for the price of one. I decided that the second option was better for myself, because 14 days is barely enough time to evaluate a service’s worth.
I’ll be back with a write-up on Gamefly in April after my trial is over to let you guys know how things are going. I figure being able to review games that are a week or less old is much better than reviewing games that are a year or more in age, and should help bring new viewers to the channel. If I end up liking Gamefly, I’ll also be able to start my own affiliate link and promote that. For each new person you get to sign up for Gamefly, you get a free month for yourself. If I’m able to promote my own affiliate link (go here if you’ve really wanted to try Gamefly for yourself!), I might even be able to support the site’s acquisition of new games for free!
In the meantime, I’m thinking about making a short segment where I play through videogame demos. The Mass Effect 3 demo comes out tomorrow, and that’d bound to draw a lot of attention. We’ll see how it goes!
The Future
I’m still looking at any way that I can to increase my connections and get actual work within the industry. Winning my trip to E3 is pretty much monumental in that I’ll be able to get some work done with the team at GameSpot, but I’m trying to do anything that I can to spread my name before this summer regardless. One big thing I’m looking to do is acquire an internship for a major gaming publication, whether the job is paid or not.
I’m still hammering out a lot of details for the requirements for internships, which I admittedly know very little about. I’ve heard rumors that being a student intern requires that you still pay that semester’s tuition costs. I definitely can’t afford that, and hope that it isn’t the case. I’ll be meeting with a career counselor each week starting with the next, and we’ll see where that can take me. They claim they can help even the most specific of career goals (like my own), so we’ll see if that ends up getting me any farther in the business.
Lastly, I’m looking into writing for other sites. Not quite major sites, but well-recognized places that allow your work to be seen by many. I gave a freelance pitch to The Escapist a few weeks back (they accept paid freelance submissions) but got shot down. I’m not discouraged, but I definitely need to find more outlets for my work than those of my own. Recently, I’ve been looking into BitMob, a community for writers like me looking for a chance to get professional editing and exposure. I might write there around once a week in order to grab a chance at making the front page. I’ll continue to let you guys see that written work via my Facebook page, though!
I’ve still got a ways to go, but I figured the least I can do is update you all on my journey forward. Have a nice week, and a happy Valentine’s day, too!
-Josh
