Written reviews and compilations

SveNitoR

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I've noticed there are quite few news postings about written reviews and compilations of how many different reviewers rate games.

There's instead mostly links to a few different youtuber's videos.

Is this a conscious strategy since more people watch youtube and it gets more clicks, or is it just that the news posters watch more and read less about rpgs?

Personally I almost always prefer reading first, since it is so much faster; but I believe most people prefer video, so I get if that is the focus to draw traffic.

I know I'm becoming a dinosaur, but I more often find rpg news I can read through other sites, like Blue's News.
 
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I also prefer reading news rather than watching a video review. Kinda wish there's good balance but for now, majority of reviewers seem to favour video reviews.
 
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The big sites like Gamespot, PC Gamer, IGN, whatever all seem to still generate written articles? Though those rarely get posted as news here. It's the independent/smalltime guys that seem to be frequently videos. Maybe because they make more money that way, or hope to?
 
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i never watch those video reviews posted in the news, or most of the videos (except trailers)
 
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It would be good to have some more written RPG articles in the news - if they exist to be found.

I almost never watch the news videos, and just read what folks here have to say about them.
 
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I also prefer the written word, but it seems it's getting increasingly more rare. Putting pen to paper (and getting it read by others) has a higher bar to meet than picking up a microphone and uploading it to Youtube.
 
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I don't watch video reviews myself either. I grew up as a reader and I can read a long article way faster than watching a video. I get really bored listening to a video.
 
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Not wanting to appear that I'm piling on here as well, but I personally prefer written reviews as well because video usually takes much longer than me reading or scanning what I want to know and skipping over the fluff. I'm chronically lacking time as it is. I need to consciously take the time to watch a video and that'll be rare, only when I really want to see the gameplay usually.

That said, I expect that the trend probably is somewhat in favour of video reviews these days, especially with smaller outfits that are monetizing their YouTube streams. RPGWatch or @HiddenX to my knowledge have no affiliation with any of the YT streamers and we don't get paid anything for linking to them, just to clarify on that point.

So yea, I wouldn't mind seeing written articles represented a bit more. That said, I do also realize that handling text articles, reading them, posting excerpts, etc. takes much more time than posting news about a video review and embedding it. HiddenX can only devote so much time every day to doing the news and all the other related tasks, and for a single person, he's working miracles here as it is. Realistically, we would probably need at least one more news editor that could take on posting more time-consuming news, but we haven't discussed this internally in any way yet.
 
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Posting a video is faster than posting an article (but normally I view it first, which costs time as well). But the real reason for less newsbits right now: There are very few releases in the last weeks, so we are getting very few written reviews and video reviews. The usual youtubers are still creating some content. 2023 previews, retrospective reviews etc.
With new releases coming soon the situation will change again.
I'm happy right now that not so much is going on, because for the GotY 2022 and most promising RPG contest I had to go through 161 + 125 database entries!

If someone finds an interesting article please send it in via our contact formular. The incoming folder is close to empty for weeks now as well.

PS: More and more sites favour video reviews or do both (video+text).
PS PS: RPGWatch has no affiliation with Youtubers or other news sites.
 
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I'm another that will rarely watch a video review of anything, sometimes might listen to an audio version, yet will always check out a text format. I guess we tend to stick with what we know and enjoy best.
 
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I've been sharing news on this site for over 12 years and can definitely say while I prefer written articles myself the news nowadays is more informative in video format.

So I find three times as many videos posted compared to written articles in my search.

Also doesn't help that the larger sites are now pay-walling content, and using to many ads.
 
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I prefer written articles unless it's one of the few quality content creators. For reviews I think it's nice to have both, it's easier to select what we're looking for in an article but the video shows what the gameplay looks like, which is important too.

It's not really easy to find good articles, or at least articles that are interesting enough for the audience here. Usually it's reviews or interviews, but now that I think about it, I rarely posted written guides as a newsposter or just in the forums. I'm not sure why, videos were easier to find and perhaps a more suited format? There're also good sources of industry news but not everyone likes that.

I think that most of the time the content doesn't matter much though, and it's just a support or an excuse to discuss about a game or a particular subject. ;)

Also doesn't help that the larger sites are now pay-walling content, and using to many ads.
EDIT: right, and there's that too :/
 
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EDIT: right, and there's that too :/
I was checking out RPS a few months back and noticed almost every interesting article was put behind a paywall. Are these sites that in need of extra revenue nowadays?

It's not just gaming sites either other large sites are now limiting free reads as well.
 
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Ad blocking is a big problem for many sites, gaming especially where it's not uncommon to have percentages of users blocking all ads above 60%. So you either have to work with a constantly diminishing budget, put content behind paywalls or install a solution that requires ad blockers to be turned off to access content. There's no solution that would please everyone.
 
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Yeah I get that it just seems almost every site even the privately owned by mega corps is begging for money every click. That was the reason why Adblock was invented.

I've seen other such tools that can now bypass the paywall as well.

Readers always find a work around.
 
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Same on Youtube. Fortunately the ad blocker is able to remove those pesky ads most of the time. Content creators adds their own patrons, but it's usually more decent that what we have to endure on websites. I would be unable to browse the Internet without an ad blocker these days.

I almost miss when the Internet didn't have ads, but it was so slow. I think it was only in Europe though, if I understand ads were there earlier in the US at least.
 
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There were plenty of ads in the middle of the nineties on the internet. They were just so bad, no one clicked anything unless they loved penis enlargement, secrets so good the doctors wouldn't tell anyone, or wanted to become a millionaire by this one trick.
 
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Yeah I get that it just seems almost every site even the privately owned by mega corps is begging for money every click. That was the reason why Adblock was invented.
Tbh, not really. Realistically, it affects smaller websites much more because their advertising revenue is much smaller to begin with. Once a user has an ad blocker installed, they'll block ads everywhere indiscriminately.

Like it or not, the reality on the internet is that the advertising revenue pays for the running and operation of the websites you use unless the person running the website pays for it out of their own pocket and all the staff are volunteers. You can ask for donations, but that usually doesn't even cover the server and software expenses, let alone anything else. And the percentage of users willing to support the websites that they use with a donation to gain ad-free access is negligible and usually only limited to a few dozen regulars at best for a website like RPGWatch.

So yea, from a regular user's perspective, all ads are evil and serve no purpose whatsoever except to annoy them. From the perspective of the website owner, if everyone thought like that, they could close up shop.
 
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There were plenty of ads in the middle of the nineties on the internet. They were just so bad, no one clicked anything unless they loved penis enlargement, secrets so good the doctors wouldn't tell anyone, or wanted to become a millionaire by this one trick.
That's strange, here we only had the first ones in the late 90s, maybe 1998 or so. Officially it started in 1994 apparently. Either the university had a filter or I managed to avoid those sites for a few years (fast home DSL connections came later, so the university was the only place I could browse from). I suppose it helped to grow the Internet infrastructure but it's such a nuisance. It makes some sites unreadable.
 
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