Hello and welcome to week 3 of Sharifah blog guide 101!
In this Interview series, I Interview different bloggers with different niches worldwide.
Today’s Interviewee is a gamer blogger called nekojonezgaming.
Before I Interview him, here’s his blogging background.
Jonez is a gamer blogger who writes mainly about reviews about gaming.
Make sure you check out his blog posts
https://arpegi.wordpress.com/
This interview will cover…
Promotion
His blog posts
Advice
Copyright
The gaming community
And more.
If you’re planning to create a gaming blog like Jonez, make sure you get your pen or pencil and a piece of paper and write notes.
Or don’t...
It’s your choice.
So, let’s begin.
S.B.G INTERVIEWS
S.O: When did you start your blog?
J: I started writing my blog since 2010. I changed to an English blog and game reviewing in 2013.
S.O: Why did you start your blog?
J: Well, I have a lot of friends and family members in various parts of the country. I was somewhat tired of telling the same story each & every time on family parties and gatherings. So, I decided to write a blog that everyone could visit so they could read about my life and such when they had time.
One day, I decided to start reviewing games. I had so much fun with that, I continued it. This made my blog focus more on games than on my life. After a few personal things, I deleted my Dutch blog and decided to restart in English. Since May 2013, I have been writing almost weekly in English.
S.O: Was it hard to promote your blog posts via social media?
J: At the start, it was. While some people would disagree with me, I decided to only use Twitter as social media instead of the whole suite of social media. My reason for that is, I keep my twitter up to date and tend to forget my other social media pages.
Nowadays, it isn't that hard. I have 400+ followers on twitter and around 200 followers on my blog (mail and other bloggers) and followers on various other places. So, that makes things easier compared to early days.
S.O: Do you think boys are more interested in video games more than girls?
J: Well, depends on the game. There are genres where there are a lot more males than there are female gamers. For example, I see more male gamers in shooting games.
But, there are games that attract a more female player base. Out of my experience, I see a lot of female players play MMO's, puzzlers, simulation & sandbox games...
Let me be clear here, I'm not saying that shooting games are for males and puzzlers are for females only. Not in the slightest.
I just think that the stereotypes the outside world has of gamer don't do it any good either. For this answer, I want to point your attention to an old episode of Extra Credits.
WARING: EXPLICIT THUMBNAIL
Video Games and the Female Audience
I know that the video is almost 10 years old, but a lot of things are still valid nowadays.
S.O: What is trending in the gaming world?
J: It pains me as a collector to say it, but digital distribution. I miss the time that you could buy a box and put it on your shelf as a sort of trophy.
Also, it looks like we have a scandal EACH year. Konami and the loot boxes in the EA games to give two examples.
To be honest, I don't really follow all the latest trends in gaming. I'm more of a retro gamer and collector. Speaking about that, I think we are at a time was retro is making a revival. Were old series is getting a new life.
S.O: What is your opinion of gamers who writes fake reviews?
J: An interesting insight into how people think about a certain game. Now, the big issue is that some people take these fake reviews seriously.
You can answer this question in three ways, first, you could ask yourself, what I think about people who write a review to make a game look better or worse than it is just because they adore the game or hate it with a passion. To those I say, thank you for sharing your opinion. I may or may not agree with your opinion, but I’ll take it into account.
Another way is those reviewers on YouTube who make a parody (review) of the game. I love watching and reading these since the creativity in those pieces is just amazing. Take the April fools video from Projared about NHL. He reviewed the game as if it were a fantasy sports game. Amazing.
The 3rd way is the way is despise the most. Misleading and paid reviews. If you mislead your readers by not giving your honest and fair opinion and just say, this game is good because I got a large sum of money, please get out. I know they are here to say and important for the revenue of some big sites, but still. They are a necessary evil I think, but I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t this bad.
S.O: Why do you write your articles in English instead of your native language?
J: I often catch myself speaking English in real life. I even forgot some expressions in Dutch, my native language, since I used the English variant so much.
Also, I noticed that I tend to forget all the other languages besides my native language. In the past, I was able to speak French and a bit of German. But, that's all gone now. Overwritten with more advanced English.
I'm somewhat disappointed in myself from time to time that my grammar skills are a disaster. Oh well, that is something training can fix.
S.O: What is your advice on someone who wants to start a gaming blog?
J: https://arpegi.wordpress.com/2017/12/27/gamers-thoughts-giving-out-blogging-advice/ That question was a subject for an article not too long ago. So, basically, what I said in that article.
S.O: How do you plan your blog posts?
J: I have a list of games and subjects I want to talk about. But in most cases, I play a game for a week, take notes and start drafting an article.
Each weekend, I finish and polish up a draft and publish it. My blog is a diary for the games I played. So, that's my planning method. When I'm unable to write about a game after playing it for a week in my free time, I delay the article.
And at those moments, I either write an opinion piece or write about a game I have played in my childhood and wanted to talk about.
S.O: What motivates you to write a blog post?
J: Simple, my love for writing and talking about games not everybody played. It’s such a rewarding feeling to hear when somebody picked up a game that they read about on my blog. Or share nostalgic stories about playing the game.
Besides that, I’m a game collector and I find that not all games that press attention. That’s another reason that motivates me to write about them.
And my main reason is, I find writing about a game rather relaxing. I love analysing a game and trying to figure out what I like and dislike about it and trying to put it in a coherent article. It’s more challenging then you think to get good at.
S.O: How do you find non-copyright images on google?
J: First, I try to make my own screenshots. If that isn’t possible or requires too much work, I go to the website of the game to check if they don’t have a press kit to use. Those contain great screenshots for the press to use.
If that doesn’t work either, I check if one of my befriended bloggers talked about the game in the past and ask if I can use their screenshots.
And if that doesn’t work, I google with “Name of game Screenshots free”. Yeah. It’s as simple as that. If I can avoid it, I don’t use google for my images. Here and there, I ask my friends who are good in graphics to create some art for my blog, since I’m terrible at doing that.
S.O: What are your five tips for new game bloggers?
J: Like I said earlier, I honestly think that these five things are important:
Find your own style that suits you. If you use a style that’s not you, you will burn out on it real fast.
Don’t be afraid of the masses. If all major outlets are saying a game is bad you enjoyed, say it.
Theming is extremely important. This helps your blog to stick with people their head. For me, it’s a sort of diary of my life in gaming and reports on the games that are in my collection.
Let things grow naturally. Don’t try to shoot for the moon right away. The higher you try to jump from the start, the lower you can fall potentially.
Get a contact page where you invite people, studios, marketing teams… to contact you. State your “rules of contact” before you publish your contact page.
And here is a bonus tip, read up about DMCA! You will thank me for that when your articles get stolen and copy pasted on another blog.
S.O: Do you think other game bloggers reviews are biased?
J: Yes, and that’s how it should be in my opinion. Reviews are opinion pieces and a reviewer is biased to certain gameplay elements. A pet peeve of mine is that when a game doesn’t support my keyboard layout, which is AZERTY. I always mention that in my reviews.
Being bias is a good thing, this creates specialities too. Just think about where you go for your reviews on Nintendo products, Sony games or XBOX releases. Yeah. You go to people who know the series or the respective platform the best or well enough.
S.O: How do you have a successful blog?
J: In a certain way, I find that I do. I never imagined that my stuff could draw in 40 – 100 readers each day. While I would love people giving more comments on my articles, I’m not complaining about the traffic and following my blog has.
Keep in mind, I do this in my free time besides a full-time job and other hobbies. So yeah. I find my blog successful. Especially because I have indie game studios asking me to review their game and give my thoughts and opinions on the game.
S.O: What do you like about the gaming community?
J: A well diverse cast of characters. While we have our issues like every other community, I love being in the community. It doesn’t take too long before you encounter a sub-community with people that can become friends and allies in the gaming space. (Or enemies if you play against them, but stay friends)
What I love the most is the fact that everybody is welcomed with open arms. Gaming is more than just a pass time for us.
Something I like a lot of our community as well as the fact that you can be creative in the community. From creating articles, videos, fan art, fan music to fan games. I could talk for hours about our community, but I won’t. Otherwise, we would be here tomorrow as well.
Thank you, Jonez for your answers
J: You are welcome my man.
If you don’t want to read this blog post, there’s an audio version.
I hope this has helped you with your gaming blog; if I have missed something in this blog post, make sure you send me an email or comment below.
Email: sharifahtaiwo31@gmail.com
Should I interview other gamer bloggers?
Please tell me.
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Xoxo, Blog Guide With Sharifah 101
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SONG OF THE DAY
Five Nights at Freddy's 1 Song - The Living Tombstone
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Credit: The Living Tombstone