Category Archives: Community

Articles based on community feedback, or to promote discussion among the community.

The Birthday Post, 2021 Edition

Hello everyone! It’s that time of year once again, when I celebrate getting a year older and, at the same time, celebrate my own little nook of the Internet being a year older too. This year I am 40, and MoeGamer is seven.

If you’ve been following MoeGamer for a while, you’ll have doubtless noticed things are a little quieter around here than they have been. In today’s post, I’d like to talk a little about why that is — it’s nothing to worry about! — and reassure you that this cosy little corner will continue to be A Thing for the indefinite future.

And if you’re relatively new to the site, I invite you to catch up on the story behind its creation in this post, and check out my post from last year about why independent creators like me are doing important work in games writing.

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Important things have happened, though, so let’s talk about those! The chief reason I’m not doing as much work here on MoeGamer these days is because I have a new day job: I’m the site editor over at Rice Digital, an online publication that focuses on Asian popular media including anime, manga, video games and anything else that might be of interest, like VTubers.

What does my work as site editor involve? Two things, mainly: firstly, editing, as the name suggests. I have a group of lovely writers who contribute regularly to Rice Digital, and it’s a pleasure to go over their work with the metaphorical red pen and help their knowledge and opinions shine for the rest of the world. Each of them have their own distinct specialisms, even within the niche of Asian popular entertainment, so it’s always a pleasure to read what they have to say — and often learn something about fields I don’t know much about.

Secondly, of course, I write. I write a lot! I write about eroge, I write about returning to Final Fantasy XIV after a long break, I write about puzzle games with tights fetish artwork in them. I write about new stuff every day, and it’s a never-ending challenge that I absolutely love. I love to write — especially about the things I’m passionate about — and for it to be my actual job is a genuine dream come true.

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As you can probably imagine, spending all day squeezing out my brain-juice to find things to write about for Rice Digital leaves me fairly tapped out by the end of the day, so I made a very deliberate decision shortly after starting with Rice to considerably scale back my other projects online — primarily so that I could have a bit of time to myself in the evenings and at weekends.

What this means for MoeGamer is that it’s a return to the format I had several years back: focusing entirely on a single main feature at a time, without other daily articles. This allows me to give the feature in question — at the time of writing, the ongoing Atelier MegaFeature — the time and attention it deserves without applying unnecessary pressure on myself. That way I can still do what I feel like I do best without churning out “content” for the sake of “creating content”. I’m not a “content creator”; I’m a writer.

I do also intend to return to the Fatal Rewind retrospective I was doing on Bizarre Creations a while back, but things have been quite busy recently, and I haven’t found the time to give both that and the Atelier feature the aforementioned time and attention they deserve. If and when things calm down a bit, I’ll make some time to continue with that as well, because I’d love to finish that off.

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In the meantime, of course, don’t forget that there’s well over a thousand articles already here on the site, and you can get a random one picked for you by choosing “Anything!” from the menu up at the top of the site (or in the “hamburger” menu if you’re on mobile) — I’ve made a distinct effort to make everything here on the site as “timeless” as possible, so hopefully you’ll stumble across something you find interesting along the way, even if it’s months or years after I originally posted it. Told you I wasn’t a “content creator”.

Alongside MoeGamer, I am, of course, continuing with my Atari A to Z series on YouTube, as you’ve doubtless seen. These three series are important to me, and they are, I feel, the main thing I do that makes my YouTube channel unique. And I’ve had some lovely people stop by in the comments on those videos, too — I’ve even inspired the creator of two of my favourite Atari 8-bit games to finally develop the third game in what was originally intended to be a trilogy of titles!

At some point in the near future, alongside Rice Digital I will be starting a retro gaming related project as part of the day job, too. Atari A to Z will continue when this gets underway as it will be more “generically” retro rather than focusing on a specific platform, so please watch out for that when it launches.

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So that’s about it for now. I’m having a fantastic time; the day job really is a dream come true for me, so while I’m sorry I don’t have as much time to write things here and hang out with the WordPress community on a daily basis, I hope you’ll stop by Rice Digital every so often and check out what we’re up to over there — I think a lot of you reading this will very much enjoy what we do!

MoeGamer’s not going anywhere, though, don’t worry, and I’m going to complete the Atelier MegaFeature if it’s the last thing I do — and even if Gust manages to slip out another Atelier Ryza title before I finish things off completely! It’s one of the most ambitious, substantial things I’ve ever done, I’m super proud of what I’ve created so far — and I’m damned if I’m giving up having come this far on the complete journey. So please look forward to more!

In the meantime, thank you for your continued support here on MoeGamer — and I look forward to seeing you over on Rice Digital!


If you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting the site via any of the services below or the Donate page here on the site! Your contributions help keep the lights on, the ads to a minimum and my shelves stocked up with things to write about!

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Around the Network

Hello everyone! You’ve probably noticed it’s been fairly quiet around here of late, so I wanted to make sure I got back on with doing these Around the Network posts to keep you all updated with what I’m up to.

For those who weren’t aware, I’m now the editor over at Rice Digital, a site that focuses on Japanese and Asian popular entertainment and culture, with a particular focus on video games. You’ll find my writing over there every day — this doesn’t leave me a whole ton of time or energy to work on MoeGamer, however, which is why the pace of posts has slowed down a bit over here!

I’m still keeping the Atelier MegaFeature going, though, and I will be continuing with the Fatal Rewind MegaFeature in the coming weeks, too — just need to make some time for it. In the meantime, be sure to go support my work (and that of the great writers working with me!) over at Rice Digital every day — I look forward to seeing you there! So let’s catch up on what you might have missed in the last week.

Continue reading Around the Network

Around the Network

Sunday evening, and the living is eas– wait, that’s not how that goes.

I’m sleepy! I haven’t had a particularly busy weekend but I did have a fairly packed working week, and thus it’s been nice to just have a fairly laid-back weekend where I didn’t need to worry about anything in particular. So I didn’t. We had a nice Chinese takeaway, I played some Atelier and Final Fantasy, and life is good.

So with a comfy air of satisfied tiredness about me, let’s look back over what you might have missed in the last week.

Continue reading Around the Network

Q&A: January 2021

Welcome to the third monthly Q&A session, in which I milk you mercilessly for “Content” and then provide you with a video for your troubles.

This month, we talk classic arcade games, a dream “next-gen”, favourite aesthetics and more. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more. If you’d like to be part of the next Q&A, sign up to become an S-Rank Patron at my Patreon page here: https://patreon.com/petedavison

Around the Network

And so, another week draws to a close — and with it, the January of what will hopefully be a better year for everyone.

My 2021’s got off to a thoroughly nice start with a new job that is full of lovely people and work that I enjoy, though the wife and I are still going a little stir crazy at being stuck in the house all the time. It’d be nice to see friends, but then it is also nice to be able to breathe and not die, so there’s that.

Anyway, all that aside, it’s that time again — let’s see what you might have missed in the last week!

Continue reading Around the Network

Around the Network

Hello everyone! It’s the end of of another week, so you know what time it is — weekly roundup time!

Things have been proceeding well at the new day job — be sure to stop by Rice Digital if you haven’t already, as it’s a great place to hang out if you’re fans of Asian video games and other forms of popular entertainment. And we’ve got some super-cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks and months to tie in with some big releases! Please look forward to it.

In the meantime, though, let’s check out what you might have missed this week in the various places I’ve been Doing Things Online…

Continue reading Around the Network

Around the Network

Good evening everyone! I have some exciting news that you may not know if you didn’t see on Twitter: I’m now the site editor of Rice Digital, which you can find at https://ricedigital.co.uk.

This is an actual proper day job that I’m getting paid for, so you’ll be seeing plenty of my stuff over there in the daytime — be sure to follow for the latest updates! MoeGamer won’t be going anywhere, though; the focus of both Rice and MoeGamer is quite different despite the overlapping subject matter, so you’ll still see stuff in both places. I have that Atelier MegaFeature to finish, after all!

In simple terms, you’ll likely see more “current” stuff on Rice, while MoeGamer will continue to deep-dive into stuff that’s been around for a while. Between the two, you should find everything you’d ever want to know about RPGs, visual novels, retro games and everything in between. So let’s take a look at what you might have missed this week!

Continue reading Around the Network

Around the Network

Good evening! I hope you’ve all had a pleasant weekend. It’s been pretty relaxed around here — I got a few videos done, but for the most part it’s been pretty chilled out.

I have some significant life changes coming up next week that hopefully won’t affect the stuff I’m doing here on MoeGamer and YouTube — it’s unlikely to, but just wanted to mention it just in case posting is a bit sporadic for whatever reason! Not in a position to be able to talk further about it right now, but suffice to say for now that it is a good life change. More soon. Perhaps.

Anyway, mysterious teases aside, there is a review of the week to deliver! So hit the jump and let’s check out what you might have missed.

Continue reading Around the Network

Around the Network

A late one today! I’ve been podcast editing all day, in my defence, but with it being “back to work” tomorrow I wanted to make sure I got the weekly roundup done before I went to sleep!

So it is a brand new year once again, and after the chaotic nonsense of 2020, I think everyone is keen for a fresh start. It’ll continue to be business as usual around here, though — so expect more coverage of overlooked, underappreciated and retro games from over the years!

Posting schedule has been a bit all over the place over the holiday period, but hit the jump to see what you might have missed in the last week or so!

Continue reading Around the Network

Happy New Year! (2021 Edition)

Happy new year to you all! What a year it was, too, eh? Hopefully you all had some sort of opportunity to let your hair down a bit last night — while staying safe (in every sense of the word) of course.

I stayed in and played original Xbox games while my wife played Jackbox Party Pack with some friends she hasn’t had the opportunity to speak to, let alone see, for a very long time now. We also had a Chinese takeaway, much like last year. I am 100% fine with these arrangements.

I’m not going to spend too long talking about stuff today, but I do want to outline a few things I have planned for the year coming up. Hit the jump to find out more!

Continue reading Happy New Year! (2021 Edition)