Time for another tag post. This time I was tagged in two separate instances, but the format of the tag is such that I’ll replying to both simultaneously. Without any further adieu, let’s hop right in.

The Rules:

  1. Thank the wonderful person people who nominated you and leave a link back to their blogs.
  2. Explain your blog’s origin story or its history.
  3. Hand out two or more pieces of advice for new bloggers.
  4. Nominate 10 5 other bloggers and hook us up with links to their blogs.

Firstly, thank you to both Emiko and AK for the nominations. Both are fantastic and if you aren’t already following their blogs you should be. Though if you’re reading this then there is a good chance you already know about both of them. If not check out either of the posts I’ve linked. Both are worth a read.

The History of my Blog

I started my blog so I’d have a place to talk about games. When I get really into a game it tends to be all I can think about and subsequently it is also the only thing I want to talk about. If I played more mainstream games that’d be less of an issue. It isn’t hard to find people to talk with about Monster Hunter for example. It’s a lot harder to find people to talk to about Pyre. Or Va-11 Hall-A. Or any number of the more niche games I’ve played. Thus my blog was born out of wanting a place where I could empty my thoughts into words.

But Frosti why game reviews specially? You can write about games without doing a review.

That’s true. However there is a reason for that.

So along with wanting to write about games, I was, and still am, largely displeased with how mainstream critics review and analyze games. I find that I often get no value out of professional reviews because they are afraid to state an opinion and when they do it isn’t clearly supported. If you don’t explain why you have the opinion you have the onus is put on the reader to figure out where you’re coming from. And given I don’t know anything about most of the reviewers I can’t even begin to do that.

Around the time I was thinking about starting my blog the comedy Youtuber VideoGameDunkey put out this infamous video. I try not to take anything Dunkey says too seriously, but I agree with some of the points he made. This got me thinking, “well if you think the professionals do such a bad job then why don’t you try to do a better job”. And that was the final push I needed to start writing.

I’ve come a long way since then. I think my writing is consistently better and I’ve improved at analyzing games and articulating my opinion. Turns out the professionals do such a poor job because clearly explaining your stance on something isn’t easy.

Anyway, that’s the roundabout history of how my blog started.

monster_mash
Unrelated, but I like this screenshot

Advice for new bloggers

For my first piece of advice go read AK’s blogger recognition post. No seriously. Go read it.

Writing about something you care about and being yourself while writing are so important. If you aren’t writing about something you like then what is even the point of all this? Blogging is a hobby. If you don’t enjoy a hobby then you probably shouldn’t be engaging with it. So if you want to get into blogging stick to what you know and love. You’ll find the whole experience a lot more enjoyable that way.

My second piece of advice would be to pace yourself. I burned out quite a bit trying to write a post every week. I managed that for about six months and then exploded. It was fun for a time, but eventually became overwhelming. I simply couldn’t maintain that pace forever without driving myself into the ground. Given that blogging is a hobby finding a cadence that suits you is paramount. Find a pace that works for you and stick to it.

That’s probably not great advice since, by all traditional metrics, I’m not a very successful blogger, but eh. I firmly believe that writing about stuff you care about at your own pace is the best way to enjoy this hobby.

Nominate Some Victims

I hope none of you have already been tagged for this. If you have sorry about the additional tag. Unlike other tag posts this isn’t one you can really do twice.

Jett – In Third Person

Solarayo – Ace Asunder

Meghan – Meghan Plays Games

The Gaming Diaries

Naithin – Time to Loot

I look forward to hearing from each of you.

Thanks for reading!