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The reason I started this blog was to see if I could put in the time, effort, writing and creativity necessary to run a website or magazine for geeks and gamers. Admittedly, I have run into a few problems with time dedication, but I am still passionate about the prospect.
I want to keep a magazine going that can appeal to a wide range of people, which covers videogames, conventions, cosplay and perhaps tabletops and pen and paper games. Hell, maybe even a few reviews of fun card games to play with friends (Apples to Apples, anyone?).
Many of my blogs (the mini game reviews, the cosplay advice, etc) are sort of practice articles that have the gist I wish for my magazine/website to have. I was hoping to keep a steady flow of interviews from gamers and cosplayers both professional and non professional. Also, I want to get articles written by other people. I doubt the magazine would be too interesting if it was written just by me!
So here are some sections I am considering:
- Mini reviews of new games
- Mini reviews of old games
- One in depth review of an upcoming popular game
- Convention reviews (what was announced, any notable costumes, general review, etc)
- Calendar with upcoming release dates, conventions and tournaments
- Tournament reviews
- Cosplay corner (a section dedicated to cosplay advice and costumes)
- Dear Riku (or something similar, kind of a Dear Nancy for gamers)
So does anyone have ideas, recommendations, an article they wish for me to consider or... dun, dun duunnnn... an idea what the hell to name this thing? (I swear, the hardest part is coming up with a name).
 
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Interesting idea! You might try mocking something up with the content you already have and put it out there to see what people think of it and become familiar with your means of production and distribution.
I tend to think that magazines either succeed with intense focus on a narrow topic or by having exceptionally in-depth and well-written content. What direction you choose really depends a lot on what kind of writing talent you can get to help out.
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Korea (South)17174 Posts
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The biggest problem you're going to run into is two things: 1. The time to do everything you planned and 2. exposure. You're going to have huge trouble getting exposure due to the amount of video-game blogs that try to do a little bit of everything. Saturated market is saturated, especially when they're all hardly diverse (and it just becomes a question of which personality do the readers prefer the most (ex: Kotaku can go fuck themselves :3).
Your range of topics are good, but it's unrealistic.
Throw away the Dear Riku part unless you feel qualified, I don't think it'll fit in much to be quite frank.
Best of luck.
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Straight outta Johto18973 Posts
Your main problem is probably going to be why people should spend time reading your blog when there are many other things they could be reading instead. There's also the inertia of people who already follow someone they enjoy and don't want to move elsewhere.
If I'm looking for new upcoming titles and want a first impression of them for instance, I'll probably follow TotalBiscuit's "WTF is?" series since he has already done many of them and I agree with the way he approaches it. I'm unlikely to want to follow someone else because I already know I'm getting quality from TB. If you were to make your own first impressions series for instance, I'd probably have a quick glance and if it didn't astound me I probably wouldn't come back.
Focusing on something unique or niche first and establishing a reputation in that before expanding into covering everything might be more useful. If your content is all over the place and I'm not sure what to expect, I'm probably less likely to follow. While you could put put lots of content for everything consistently, it'd also be ridiculously time consuming.
Good luck. If you ever do launch anything, I might give it a look.
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I will handle the hardest part for you and provide some delicuous names that any gamer would be proud to have:
xXxRikuxXxReViEwZxXx
R0cK3n R1kU BL0G
RikusaurosRex blogdog!
Really
Interesting
Kool
Universal *
. . . . . *blog about gaming
Others will follow.
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On June 24 2011 07:32 MaxField wrote:
I will handle the hardest part for you and provide some delicuous names that any gamer would be proud to have:
xXxRikuxXxReViEwZxXx
R0cK3n R1kU BL0G
RikusaurosRex blogdog!
Really
Interesting
Kool
Universal *
. . . . . *blog about gaming
Others will follow.
If you throw away your keyboard right now, I won't hold you to this comment.
+ Show Spoiler +
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On June 24 2011 07:34 Torte de Lini wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2011 07:32 MaxField wrote:
I will handle the hardest part for you and provide some delicuous names that any gamer would be proud to have:
xXxRikuxXxReViEwZxXx
R0cK3n R1kU BL0G
RikusaurosRex blogdog!
Really
Interesting
Kool
Universal *
. . . . . *blog about gaming
Others will follow. If you throw away your keyboard right now, I won't hold you to this comment. + Show Spoiler +
Dang, you are right, i should have changed it from blog to magazine, got confused. Here is one more for my mistake, and trust me, you should use one of these+ Show Spoiler +
Riku-licious Gaming Delights
a place where you can enjoy games and love.
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Most online amateur magazines give themselves at least a month, sometimes a few months to a year to put together something that is genuinely quality. A magazine is an ambitious project and deserves more than 10 minutes of effort per article. Quality, not quantity, is what's important when producing work that is going to take the reader a long time to get through.
I think that is actually the nicest way I can say this. Don't waste your time if you aren't going to do a good job of it.
+ Show Spoiler +I'm saying magazine articles have a standard of quality that is way higher than the standard of quality for blogs, and while some people's blogs on TL have a tremendous amount of effort put into them and maybe with a little editing could be articles, yours are pretty rushed looking without any clear direction or purpose.
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Oh, believe me, I fully understand the time and dedication it would take. Admittedly, I have absolutely no plan to write all of the articles myself. I have a number of very well spoken and geeky friends that I think would really enjoy getting a chance to work on a project like this. I was hoping more to be an editor and write a few articles than writing the entire thing myself! Again, my blog does not reflect what I plan to write on (with the exception of http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=216506 ), but was more to experience the time commitment necessary to maintain such a website.
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Well if you already have a bunch of good writers more power to you... Get er done.
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Riku's Gaming Grotto?
If you use Grotto in the name, I will be superbly amused.
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I really wish I was aware of TL while you were racking up those 14k posts.
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On June 24 2011 10:20 Shifft wrote:I really wish I was aware of TL while you were racking up those 14k posts.
Go back and read some or look around. He has some really good funny stories and posts.
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EPT
