147
rate

Why You Should Support Small Gaming Sites

September 07, 2009 in Blog comments 16

Have you ever visited a small gaming site and then never gone back? Hamsterfist details why you should always make it a point to visit small gaming sites, and continue to support them.

"In honor of today being Labor Day, I thought we would take a look at all the hard working men or women of small gaming sites. There are numerous reasons why you should be visiting such sites, not that I don't have a small bias in this issue. You know you love them, and continually visit such sites. Even if you never go back. (You should!)"
hamsterfist via hamsterfist.com »
Favourite this article Add source
| More
Report!

Comments

Register as a member to subscribe comments.
  • 4
    RabidChinaGirl Sep 7, 09
    Not directed at you specifically, but sadly I think GameGrep often presents reasons to not support small gaming sites. Not that the big guys don't spew their fair share of bullshit -- just less frequent and outlandish. Unfortunately, most of the really small sites are not only poorly written but host "fanboy bait" more than actual news. Normally, if the site is good quality, I do visit smaller game sites.

    I've never been one to supplement my gaming knowledge on IGN or Kotaku alone; that's like only watching Fox News for accurate reporting of world events.

    Read more Neoseeker.
  • 0
    hamsterfist Sep 7, 09
    @RabidChinaGirl
    Sometimes you must get past the 'poor' writing, if you can at least understand it. Do you know why the small sites host fanboy bait? It is because occasionally you need an article like that to draw traffic. Or perhaps you do not realize an article is flame bait. I wrote an article concerning the top ten reasons to own a ps3, and it is my number one viewed article and discussed article. I drew ire and fanboys from everywhere. Despite the fact I also wrote a top ten reasons to own the 360 and Wii.
    • 2
      Tiger of Wu Sep 8, 09
      quote hamsterfist
      Do you know why the small sites host fanboy bait? It is because occasionally you need an article like that to draw traffic.
      No, you don't, what you need is integrity as a journalist.
      • 0
        hamsterfist Sep 8, 09
        You are correct, but the fact is that 'flame bait' draws ten times the traffic as something well thought out. So is this a problem with small sites or with the internet in general?
        • 0
          chautemoc Sep 8, 09
          Does it matter?
        • 0
          Tiger of Wu Sep 8, 09
          It's a problem with small sites, obviously.

          Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day. Teach him how to catch fish and he'll eat for the rest of his life.

          Flame-bait draws a crowd of retards for a week and then everybody remembers to avoid that site because it has flame-bait bullshit. If a small site has integrity it'll take longer but they'll get a steady stream of traffic whilst still making actual articles, gamersushi for example. I'm fairly certain not many here will have heard of them but that's the point of being a small site. All hosting flame-bait proves is that the people who work on the site are inadequate, to put it bluntly.
  • 6
    RabidChinaGirl Sep 7, 09
    quote hamsterfist
    Sometimes you must get past the 'poor' writing, if you can at least understand it.
    No. Writers need to learn how to write. Readers should not have to compensate.
    quote hamsterfist
    Do you know why the small sites host fanboy bait? It is because occasionally you need an article like that to draw traffic.
    I know how it works. Doesn't mean I enjoy / read it. There are small sites who don't do this -- I like those.
  • 3
    Seeker X Sep 7, 09
    It's thanks to small gaming sites' blogs that GameGrep is becoming less and less attractive (to me at least). "Top 10" this, "X is killing gaming" that, "Why X is overrated", etc. Quite frankly I'm really tired of other people's opinions (or attempts to be funny by smearing sarcasm on their every blog entry), I'm usually interested in just news...and I'm not exactly gonna get it first from those sites.
  • 0
    hamsterfist Sep 7, 09
    @RabidChinaGirl
    You have a point regarding learning from mistakes, and trying not to repeat. I try my hardest to not have spelling mistakes, but Microsoft Word and myself are not perfect. So you would not forgive someone for an occasional spelling mistake? Or some grammar inconsistances, but overall a strong command of the English language?

    @ Seeker X

    How much 'gaming' news can there be in one day? The fact is the gaming industry, much like other entertainment industries, have no 'real' news day in and day out. Most of what is out there is opinion, but my point is that perhaps someone might come up with something you never thought of or would of heard of through a more mainstream site.

    Basically people have become 'Name Brand' only. This is a mistake. A larger, more diverse community is much better for any sort of niche, especially gaming.
    • 1
      Tiger of Wu Sep 7, 09
      quote hamsterfist
      So you would not forgive someone for an occasional spelling mistake? Or some grammar inconsistances, but overall a strong command of the English language?
      Some grammar inconsistencies are fine. The occasional slip-up is fine. You can safely bet that RCG was talking about things like that which we see from the HipHopGamerShow.
      • 0
        chautemoc Sep 7, 09
        Grammar inconsistencies aren't fine to me (they make a site look unprofessional), but that's a personal standard thing, I guess. Everyone makes slip-ups now and then -- of course the beauty of the web is you can read over your work after and correct appropriately.
    • 3
      RabidChinaGirl Sep 7, 09
      My opinions, mate. Take 'em or leave 'em. None were directed at you personally; I was just pointing out some main issues that can drive readers away from smaller sites. Hey, I even said already I don't visit the big guys alone for gaming news.

      I'm not perfect, but I'm as hard on myself as I am on everyone else -- my co-workers at Neoseeker already know I'm a massive grammar Nazi. If you truly want to improve your writing, I suspect you will find a way. If you're happy with your current abilities, then be confident / content with it and don't bother trying to glean my or others' approval.

      English was not my first language.
      • 1
        hamsterfist Sep 8, 09
        @RabidChinaGirl

        Don't mistake what I was saying for being at odds. As a website operator I was just illustrating some of the 'behind the scenes' things that just users do not see. I value the hell out of your opinion, as it is tough to get honest feedback. I get tired of the fanboy only feedback, saying I need to attack this system or that. I want to make Hamsterfist.com a legitimate site, it is just insanely hard to get something off the ground with the traffic bumps that come from fanboy related issues.

        I think my article on the Future of Gaming was funny and well put, yet it did not even get approved on N4G. (Why, because it belonged on Badjoystick. An article cannot be truthful and funny?) So I would ask that you please don't be afraid to criticize my site, and tell me what you think is missing on current gaming sites. BTW what would you guys think of a LIVE gaming call in show. The stars of that podcast are you, the average gamers. Or is this a bad idea?
        • 0
          chautemoc Sep 8, 09
          It's definitely the easier road, at least in the short term. I guess we're just saying we'd prefer if more people took the harder road.

          A potentially very cool idea.
        • 0
          RabidChinaGirl Sep 8, 09
          You do what you have to, at your own pace. Sounds vague to me, but if it's an idea that jives, just go for it.
    • 0
      Seeker X Sep 7, 09
      quote
      How much 'gaming' news can there be in one day? The fact is the gaming industry, much like other entertainment industries, have no 'real' news day in and day out. Most of what is out there is opinion, but my point is that perhaps someone might come up with something you never thought of or would of heard of through a more mainstream site.
      I don't have problems with EVERY blog out there. Some are pretty clever, they bring forth points you never thought of before. The majority out there, though, is absolutely nothing like that. Most of them are just some stunt or someone's sad attempt to be some internet ass-clown.

      Now I'm not exactly one to watch for news EVERY day, but it gets pretty hard when actual news are overshadowed because someone's idea of a good article was to talk shit about a console system/game for no good reason.

This news story is archived and is closed to comments now.