After two years of throwing shade at gaming news sites, despite having ran this one for two and a half years, I've decided to try something different. Despite coming a long way so far, RageFor never went far enough to become anything close to a viable business. A lot of people think game journalism is all about the money, and back in the days of the early 2000s, one could actually argue that to be the case. That definitely isn't the case now. Getting a profitable job in writing for a magazine or a website is about as common as a politician telling the truth. This industry is as likely to earn a substantial sum of money as a gender studies major is likely to make anything hire than minimum wage.
A lot of people get into the gaming news scene by starting their own news aggregate, much like the one you're reading now. They drop around $150 on things like domains, hosting and maybe a few dollars here & there on advertising, then stand perplexed as the site ends up going absolutely nowhere. Not only does the site make no money from ads, but the amount of time and effort spent copy-writing another news site's story would warrant a full time salary, and ultimately ends up going nowhere.
There are a few reasons for this to happen -- not the least of which is the nature of the site itself, or even the fact that it's a video game news site in the first place. This is not to say that having a game review aggregate is a bad thing in and of itself, but we're a dime a dozen these days. If yours isn't doing anything different, you have no chance of standing out as a provider of this niche' information.
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| Geoff Keighley being held hostage by several bottles of mountain Dew and a bag of nacho cheese flavored Duritos. |
Truth is, gaming news --as we know it-- is going out of style. Much the same way social media killed Facebook, YouTube killed the gaming press. The future of our industry isn't one where a company like ours hires people to tell you what a company thinks; the future of gaming news is within individuals. The ones hired by the very companies that disseminate the news in the first place. If the Gamergate dumpster fire of 2014 taught us anything, it's that consumers are far more likely to trust the opinions of individuals than the company that hired them.
It's one of the things I realized about RageFor.com as well. Personally, I'd like to think our lack of popularity in gaming media is because we weren't pumping enough money into marketing, but common sense will slap me upside the head and set the record straight... Truth is, RageFor isn't doing anything you won't find on sites like OneAngryGamer or Heat Street.
That being said, I harbor no illusions about the future of game reviews and news as a medium. The way I see it, the traditional gaming publication will go the way of the message board: completely silent.
Luckily for me, when I started this site, It cost me exactly $12.00, which is more than what I pay for two cups of coffee. Unlike a lot of niche gaming news sites out there, We're not paying for hosting, or web development. A lot of people don't even realize RageFor is based around Google's Blogger API, and that the website is being hosted by Google itself. in fact, if you scroll to the bottom of the page right now, you'll see that our design is based on a freggen' Blogger template you could easily download for free. Despite all of that, I still get press kits and review codes for a lot of PS4 and Xbox One games literally every single day. The reason I bring this up, is that it should give you some idea of how volatile this industry has become. Any shmuck with Photoshop and a WordPress account can bee seen as a legitimate source of news and opinions if their SEO is good enough. Not only that, but shitty gambling and casino and websites are practically throwing money at us in the vain hope that we'll write a back-link disguised as a legitimate article.
I bring this up because, I can't imaging how the big wigs at IGN or Polygon are even getting by at this point. If all they do is write articles, it would be impossible for them to pay for the people they hired in the first place. Ad revenue wouldn't be nearly enough to pay that many people to keep pumping out articles. it's no wonder we always hear stories about big gaming news sites exploiting unpaid interns on rotation.
Point is, there is no legitimacy in our industry anymore. If you want to break into the game review scene, don't bother with game review sites, or magazines, because they are a sinking ship these days. Instead of focusing all that attention on a company, you should be focusing it on yourself. Build your brand, because the only one you can count on is yourself.
That being said, I harbor no illusions about the future of game reviews and news as a medium. The way I see it, the traditional gaming publication will go the way of the message board: completely silent.
Luckily for me, when I started this site, It cost me exactly $12.00, which is more than what I pay for two cups of coffee. Unlike a lot of niche gaming news sites out there, We're not paying for hosting, or web development. A lot of people don't even realize RageFor is based around Google's Blogger API, and that the website is being hosted by Google itself. in fact, if you scroll to the bottom of the page right now, you'll see that our design is based on a freggen' Blogger template you could easily download for free. Despite all of that, I still get press kits and review codes for a lot of PS4 and Xbox One games literally every single day. The reason I bring this up, is that it should give you some idea of how volatile this industry has become. Any shmuck with Photoshop and a WordPress account can bee seen as a legitimate source of news and opinions if their SEO is good enough. Not only that, but shitty gambling and casino and websites are practically throwing money at us in the vain hope that we'll write a back-link disguised as a legitimate article.
I bring this up because, I can't imaging how the big wigs at IGN or Polygon are even getting by at this point. If all they do is write articles, it would be impossible for them to pay for the people they hired in the first place. Ad revenue wouldn't be nearly enough to pay that many people to keep pumping out articles. it's no wonder we always hear stories about big gaming news sites exploiting unpaid interns on rotation.
Point is, there is no legitimacy in our industry anymore. If you want to break into the game review scene, don't bother with game review sites, or magazines, because they are a sinking ship these days. Instead of focusing all that attention on a company, you should be focusing it on yourself. Build your brand, because the only one you can count on is yourself.
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