I've noticed that since the new year started, we haven't had any of the more recent titles reviewed in any capacity at all. Resident Evil 4 and Mercanaries pop into my head first, but we have little to no coverage on them and most of the new releases, but just about everyday a new classic review is up. And we're JUST getting a PC KOTOR II preview up when the game's been out for a month now on Xbox when they're mainly the same game?? Am I the only person who thinks we should put a stronger emphasis on the newer titles to compete with other sites rather than doing all these classic reviews? Nothing against them, but I don't think they should be top priority right now when we're trying to get more people on the site. Certainly there's a niche for it, but alot more people are looking for info on newer games much more than a review of Majora's Mask. Just my two cents.
Where are the reviews for new games?
- Thread starter Wsv771
- Start date
Thank you for your two cents Mr. Q.
As it stands we have 16 January titles in the system. This means that they're assigned to writers, who're currently reviewing them.
I understand your concern over quick coverage--me more than anyone--but, unless you can magically conjure up vast amounts of promo copy, we have to wait.
Wait for the release
Wait for the writer to rent or buy
Wait for the written material based on time constraints of said writer
Wait for the edit
Wait for the posting
The PR guys are doing all they can to change the situation when it comes to promo, but this won't happen overnight. You're going to have to be patient. Just like the rest of us.
Brian, Andy? Care to comment?
As it stands we have 16 January titles in the system. This means that they're assigned to writers, who're currently reviewing them.
I understand your concern over quick coverage--me more than anyone--but, unless you can magically conjure up vast amounts of promo copy, we have to wait.
Wait for the release
Wait for the writer to rent or buy
Wait for the written material based on time constraints of said writer
Wait for the edit
Wait for the posting
The PR guys are doing all they can to change the situation when it comes to promo, but this won't happen overnight. You're going to have to be patient. Just like the rest of us.
Brian, Andy? Care to comment?
Thanks for responding so fast, Steve.
I, along with the whole staff by now it should seem, know that we don't get every single game in the world to cover, but we all heard that song and dance well before we signed up for this gig. Maybe its the journalist in me coming out here, but writers should be doing whatever they can to get a review out, and not just pointing the finger at someone because we're not getting a copy to review. I can't speak for overseas, but stateside there are plenty of deals where you can rent as many games as you want for about $15 a month so that shouldn't kill anyone's bank.
Not to toot my own horn here, but when I did reviews I always got them in about three to four days after release because I knew time was a factor as far as the competition goes. Rachel was the only other person I saw doing that too with her Halo 2 and Metroid Prime reviews (as controversial as they were, they got people reading). I have no idea what's going on in PR right now but that shouldn't be the main reason for people not getting stuff. Long story short, I just simply think the coverage has got to pick up faster than what it is because we're getting slammed by everyone else, and not just the big boys. Two more cents in the bucket, lol.
I, along with the whole staff by now it should seem, know that we don't get every single game in the world to cover, but we all heard that song and dance well before we signed up for this gig. Maybe its the journalist in me coming out here, but writers should be doing whatever they can to get a review out, and not just pointing the finger at someone because we're not getting a copy to review. I can't speak for overseas, but stateside there are plenty of deals where you can rent as many games as you want for about $15 a month so that shouldn't kill anyone's bank.
Not to toot my own horn here, but when I did reviews I always got them in about three to four days after release because I knew time was a factor as far as the competition goes. Rachel was the only other person I saw doing that too with her Halo 2 and Metroid Prime reviews (as controversial as they were, they got people reading). I have no idea what's going on in PR right now but that shouldn't be the main reason for people not getting stuff. Long story short, I just simply think the coverage has got to pick up faster than what it is because we're getting slammed by everyone else, and not just the big boys. Two more cents in the bucket, lol.
Believe me, if I wasn't so busy with this final stretch of college and news you wouldn't even have to ask. But it shouldn't take me showing people how to do it for faster stuff. I did it for four months before taking over the news and nothing really changed over that time. It's gonna take alot more than me coming back to reviews to fix that.
It takes committed writers, Q, nothing more.
Commitment, passion and dedication. All of which YOU seem to have in spades.
Believe me I am doing all I can to remedy this problem. Come Thursday 20th we will know who is in for the long haul. Our crew list may decrease somewhat, but those remaining will have pledged their support. I have already brought in five new and extremely promising writers to the staff, all of which have grabbed the chance to review their butts off.
More of the same. I promise you that. ALL of you.
Commitment, passion and dedication. All of which YOU seem to have in spades.
Believe me I am doing all I can to remedy this problem. Come Thursday 20th we will know who is in for the long haul. Our crew list may decrease somewhat, but those remaining will have pledged their support. I have already brought in five new and extremely promising writers to the staff, all of which have grabbed the chance to review their butts off.
More of the same. I promise you that. ALL of you.
Everyone seems interested in what's going on in PR recently, so let me speak. I appreciate the interest, and if there's interest, I'll most surely spread the word.
First off, there's many reasons why PR slowed to a crawl over December...one of the main ones being I didn't have a working PC, and, since I work in the school system, naturally we were out of work for about 3 weeks, so I couldn't use those PC's. My partner in crime, Andy, was at the same time making the move back to the states from the UK. Just not a good month overall, and it happens sometimes. I did, however make a few phonecalls when I could (though most companies seemed to have the holidays off as well), and made sure Stan was updated on my DTA..
However, about two weeks ago, I did send out an email updating the PR status a bit, but I suppose people didn't read it because of it's length! Lol.
Andy is currently busy as hell now that he's back in the States. He's decided to go back to school and get a job, so his time has been cut drastically. However, I'm back full strength for the time being, and trying to handle several tasks...some of them being:
Requesting January releases
Sending out links to new reviews/previews posted
Hiring another PR person
Doing a few reviews/previews
Sending out "Thank you's" to companies that DO send us product
Getting Stan to email me back about a few things (probably the toughest task of all!)
Preparing for E3 (yes...already)
Looking out for more promotional deals once the site's back up to speed.
Trying to get some of our review quotes added to gaming advertisements.
Andy is of course helping with these tasks when time permits
Another long one from me, but at least nobody can say I don't give the details!
One last thing. I'm hoping that by the 20th we'll have a huge influx of reviews, and I do agree with you Quinton about renting/borrowing/buying to get the reviews done (after all, we even wrote that into the job ad.), but one thing we might be overlooking is previews. They're free to do, and only require research and time. I personally enjoy reading previews more than reviews, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. The release lists I put out always show games for the current month, and the next two months. Surely those who can't afford, or don't have easy access to rentals can pick a few games from the list and preview them, yes?
Aight...I'm out folks. It's gonna be a good year. I truly believe that. Some companies are actually starting to even write us and ask if we'd like a game to review...that's a very good sign. Stevie's on the money...it doesn't happen overnight, but it can and will happen if we keep the faith.
First off, there's many reasons why PR slowed to a crawl over December...one of the main ones being I didn't have a working PC, and, since I work in the school system, naturally we were out of work for about 3 weeks, so I couldn't use those PC's. My partner in crime, Andy, was at the same time making the move back to the states from the UK. Just not a good month overall, and it happens sometimes. I did, however make a few phonecalls when I could (though most companies seemed to have the holidays off as well), and made sure Stan was updated on my DTA..
However, about two weeks ago, I did send out an email updating the PR status a bit, but I suppose people didn't read it because of it's length! Lol.
Andy is currently busy as hell now that he's back in the States. He's decided to go back to school and get a job, so his time has been cut drastically. However, I'm back full strength for the time being, and trying to handle several tasks...some of them being:
Requesting January releases
Sending out links to new reviews/previews posted
Hiring another PR person
Doing a few reviews/previews
Sending out "Thank you's" to companies that DO send us product
Getting Stan to email me back about a few things (probably the toughest task of all!)
Preparing for E3 (yes...already)
Looking out for more promotional deals once the site's back up to speed.
Trying to get some of our review quotes added to gaming advertisements.
Andy is of course helping with these tasks when time permits
Another long one from me, but at least nobody can say I don't give the details!
One last thing. I'm hoping that by the 20th we'll have a huge influx of reviews, and I do agree with you Quinton about renting/borrowing/buying to get the reviews done (after all, we even wrote that into the job ad.), but one thing we might be overlooking is previews. They're free to do, and only require research and time. I personally enjoy reading previews more than reviews, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. The release lists I put out always show games for the current month, and the next two months. Surely those who can't afford, or don't have easy access to rentals can pick a few games from the list and preview them, yes?
Aight...I'm out folks. It's gonna be a good year. I truly believe that. Some companies are actually starting to even write us and ask if we'd like a game to review...that's a very good sign. Stevie's on the money...it doesn't happen overnight, but it can and will happen if we keep the faith.
It takes committed writers. It takes writers. I'd love to get more reviews/previews out and those that are writing for me are working really hard, but there's just a few writing. But as it stands, Steve is working hard at getting more writers for us and has already produced five new writers that I know of, so I think we're moving in the right direction.
Equation:
Writers + Committed= Content
Equation:
Writers + Committed= Content
Also there are not too many that came out in Jan for people to spread out and review. I know I am getting one, but right now I am just playing catch up.
I'll definitely concur with the need for more previews. The Hot Previews and New Previews lists look a bit odd with half the games on each already in stores, for at least a couple of months in many cases.
This is gonna sound like a "If I was in charge" kinda thing, but I think we should change up how writers call games for reviews because calling a game on here just seems way too sporadic to me. I don't think we should just be calling games for review moreso than calling a game for coverage, with preview and review being done by the same person so they have a better background with it. For example, Doom 3 for Xbox. The tentative release date for that is in March, so we should have someone getting information and digging around for info to get a preview out on it now in the meantime. When March rolls around, they can get the game and already have enough background info on since they've been assigned it for the last two months and follow up with a review around release time.
That sounds reasonable to me. But one issue with the previews that I have is how exactly do we go about researching a game to write one? The only materials I can think of are readily-available resources online, such as trailers and other previews.
The only real answer to that is "by any means neccessary". Most likely it would have to almost entirely be from stuff like online media, magazines right now but it is possible. Previews are the one main area where not being able to have access to beta copies kill us though. But where there's a will, there's a way I guess.
For preview info you might be able to get some info from the publisher possibly? or even demos for the game?
What's also amazing to me is when I've tried to find some info for previews that most of what I find is announcements they did at E3! We get good coverage of E3 (from those going and those willing to ravage the Internet) then we'll be ahead of the game.
I don't think most people use this forum to call games. I still think a lot of people email what they want to cover which is sad because not everyone can read those emails and know what's being worked on and by whom. I think knowing some things are covered just gives a peace of mind that things are being taken care of and games are not falling through the cracks...
Lynn
What's also amazing to me is when I've tried to find some info for previews that most of what I find is announcements they did at E3! We get good coverage of E3 (from those going and those willing to ravage the Internet) then we'll be ahead of the game.
I don't think most people use this forum to call games. I still think a lot of people email what they want to cover which is sad because not everyone can read those emails and know what's being worked on and by whom. I think knowing some things are covered just gives a peace of mind that things are being taken care of and games are not falling through the cracks...
Lynn
This is the last thing that's been on my mind for a while (the last few months actually) and after this I'll shut up, lol. If we're supposed to be a legit source of gaming journalism, why do we have advertisements for modchips on all our pages?? Sends the wrong message about us off that bat to people coming here for the first time.
...here's a thought.
Would you people care for me to step down? Quinton? Any takers for my job?
Applications to: jobs@webmail.mygamer.com
Would you people care for me to step down? Quinton? Any takers for my job?
Applications to: jobs@webmail.mygamer.com
Steve,
No, no, no bro you're good believe me. These are just some things that have been on my mind forever, I just had to let it out. On another note, 1000 members! Whoo!!
No, no, no bro you're good believe me. These are just some things that have been on my mind forever, I just had to let it out. On another note, 1000 members! Whoo!!
I dont know if this topic should have been posted in an open forum. It might have been best to talk to me or Steve about something like this first.
I think we have a great staff here, and although I do agree that our coverage has been a little on the slow side it does not mean that our staff is not doing what they should to reach our goal. We have'nt been receiving many products for review, so a lot of the current content is written on either rented or purchased games. This is a sign that our writers are very dedicated to bringing our site to the top. The games not coming in is in no way a reflection of how our PR staff is handling their job. I will try to work harder on bringing us more product and lending a hand where needed.
Please let me know if anyone sees problems with the site, I will be more than happy to correct anything to make what we have better..
-Stan
I think we have a great staff here, and although I do agree that our coverage has been a little on the slow side it does not mean that our staff is not doing what they should to reach our goal. We have'nt been receiving many products for review, so a lot of the current content is written on either rented or purchased games. This is a sign that our writers are very dedicated to bringing our site to the top. The games not coming in is in no way a reflection of how our PR staff is handling their job. I will try to work harder on bringing us more product and lending a hand where needed.
Please let me know if anyone sees problems with the site, I will be more than happy to correct anything to make what we have better..
-Stan
Personally, I love ya Stevie, and I KNOW the feeling's mutual! Personally, I think the work ethic of MyGamer in general is probably the best it's ever been. People come and go, but I honestly think that trend is decreasing substantially. There's qute a few "vets" here, if you will, though none are as ripe as Stan. I've personally been here over 2 years now, and in reference to the past, since I've been here, THIS is the most steady and dedicated crew. Again, I think it's gonna be a huge year...let's keep working together and not seperate state and church. For real!