I actually remembered to do this on Saturday like I’m “supposed” to this week. Go me!
Well, Christmas is well and truly on the way now. The MoeGamer Awards 2018 are underway, celebrating the games and experiences I’ve had over the course of the last year, my house is festooned with decorations (Patrons will know all about this already!) andΒ Super Smash Bros. UltimateΒ is out.
Life ticks ever onwards, however. Hit the jump to see what you might have missed this week.
It’s been a fun, busy and productive week around the MoeGamer network!
We kicked off the week with a bizarre PS2 driving game and a new episode of The MoeGamer Podcast, continued with a collaborative post in conjunction with Luminous Mongoose of Otaku Essays and Analyses, and wrapped things up with the next installment of the current Cover Game feature: theΒ Project ZeroΒ series. And in the lands of Atari, we stormed a Nazi fortress and punched some bad dudes in the fa– wait, that’s something else, isn’t it?
Hit the jump to see what you might have missed this week!
November 4 is Game Day for this year’s Extra Life — at least for me.
You can find some information about the event and my contribution to it on my fundraising page — as well as make a pledge — but today I wanted to share a bit more information about what I’m planning for the day itself.
I don’t tend to do a lot of streaming, but my 24-hour stint playingΒ Final Fantasy XIVΒ for Extra Life two years ago was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to this session too! I hope you’ll join me for some of the day.
MoeGamer turned three years old back at the end of April, and this April also marked a year since the launch of “MoeGamer 2.0”, the current format of the site featuring monthly Cover Games.
You may have noticed a few behind-the-scenes tweaks and pokes over the course of the last week or so, in which case you’re probably wondering what’s going on. (Or perhaps you didn’t notice at all as yet, in which case consider this an official “announcement” of sorts.)
Today I’d like to talk a bit about these new changes, what I’d like to achieve in both the short- and long-term with the site, and unashamedly ask you to continue supporting the site!
I’ve been doing some thinking lately: about what to do withΒ MoeGamer, which you’ve doubtless noticed has been dormant since last August; about how I can provide good quality writing that will encourage people to show their support via my Patreon (which is due a revamp — watch that space over the next few days for details); and about how I can help plug the gaping hole the mainstream games press has left when it comes to coverage of more niche-interest Japanese games.
MoeGamerΒ has always been a passion project that I’ve worked on when I’ve had 1) the time and 2) the motivation to write something. It’s easy to get wrapped up in something like this and start pressuring yourself to provide “content” day after day as often as possible — this is the model the majority of the Web operates on, after all, but it’s partly why the games press (and much of the press at large, it has to be said) is in such a mess right now. That constant drive forΒ contentΒ — not writing, not criticism, not analysis,Β content — makes it very easy to get burnt out, which I think is partly what happened here.
Whenever I’ve done regular writing about Japanese games, be it for myΒ READ.MEΒ andΒ Swords and ZippersΒ columns on the now sadly defunctΒ Games Are Evil or for myΒ JPgamerΒ column during my time atΒ USgamer, I’ve always felt the pressure to always try and be on top of things: to be writing about something new; to be writing about something relevant; to provide an interesting spin on something that takes the pulse of (supposedly) popular opinion as well as my own take; to maintain the audience’s interest. Content, content, content.
While that may be an effective way to operate an ad-supported site with a team of regular staffers, it’s no way to run a passion project in which I just want to write in-depth articles about games that have particularly resonated with me — and which I want other people to experience the joy of, too. As such, I’m rebooting my thinking withΒ MoeGamerΒ and trying a new approach that will hopefully create something a little bit different to other games coverage out there.
MoeGamer 