Want to be a Bigger Bomber. Advise?

Let's cut to the chase.

I am looking to be a really prominent user reviewer/writer on GB.com. I don't know if I am going to pursue gaming journalism as a career, but for now I want to be the guy on the site who can deliver some really good reviews from time to time (as well as give my share of curveball pieces) and at least have at least a handful of people (3 or 4?) recommend it and/or comment on it. That's not to say that I write for the sake of getting people to look at the work, but it is always icing on the cake when guys stop by, take 5-10 minutes of their time to read what I have to say and leave a comment or two.

I remembered when I wrote my Rapid Fire review of Nier; there was a tremendous outpour of people liking the game, disliking the game, comparing it to other games, the lot. Long story short it was a fun, fun time when I got to talk to and interact with members of the community. OK, 15+ comments from a couple of different users is not much, but it still felt great.

So help me out here; if I want to be a more known member of this community, what should I be doing to head in that direction?

If you put out quality on the regular basis you'll be good.

And be advised that everyone is different but you're still just "a guy". You don't necessarily have an authoritative voice so find your own angle and keep shit short and simple.

I've been doing amateur game journalism wanna-be stuff for 8 years and I'm still figuring out what's right.

Well this is weird.

Make interesting topics that will grab people's attention. Think of topics that hasn't really been seen before on GB.

@raycarter: I think posting well written, concise and most importantly interesting Blogs would help you out.

Keep in mind - concise, interesting. No one will read huge walls of text from just another dood on the internet and definitely not if they are about obscure games no one has heard of or cares about.

Reviews are fine but they're not really promoted on the site so they don't do much to give you any exposure as a "user" per-se. I've written a bunch of reviews, more or less for my own enjoyment - I doubt more than 10 people even read them.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying in that if you do good things for the site that nobody else is doing I suspect you'll get a lot of attention from users and might even be featured in the community spotlight.

I've been blogging on Giantbomb for a long time. Before this I did it on Gamespot. Well, on Gamespot I wrote player reviews. I learned I am not very good at reviews and am better at editorializing my thoughts of games. So, that's why I switched to blogs.

Since I have a job and other responsibilities, I only write a blog when I have something I want to say about games or a particular game (I'll probably end up writing about The Last of us whenever I finish it).

Anyway, my point is I've been writing, sometimes poorly, about games for a while. I have been on the community spotlight thing that Zombiepie does (I am always shocked when he mentions me on there) and a community podcast. No one cares. That's just how it is. People will view it if they like whatever it is you are writing about. It will always be niche and unless you become amazing (and you can, don't get me wrong) it will probably never be more than a hobby. You can use it, though, as a way to keep your writing sharp and if people enjoy it or even reply that's a bonus.

On the plus side, if you write well about a newer game you will probably get the most views. I tend to write about niche/obscure stuff a majority of the time, and that's what I enjoy. So, my audience is smaller in that regard just by nature haha

I don't know if any of this helps, but what I am really saying is just be content with what you are writing about and always work on how you write (find your voice as they say). The audience finds you- big or small. Writing a blog on a regular schedule helps. Until you have your own website and people who like reading your work, that's really all you have.

Anybody who tells you to keep it short doesn't know what they're talking about. Follow my example and ramble on for a billion words once a week about games nobody can relate to. You're sure to win readers that way.

Write half-decent stuff (shouldn't be a problem for you if your regular output matches that Nier blog) and don't be too afraid/humble to drop a link in the current Community Spotlight's comments to get it featured on the following week's edition so it can reach more people.

A lot of users are oddly intimidated by the Spotlight and its purported prohibitively-high quality filter. The barrier to inclusion is actually very reasonable: as long as your blogs are sufficiently informative/amusing (depending on whichever you're going for) and don't look like your cat proofread them, it's probably good enough for the Spotlight. The tougher accomplishment is getting it on the front page User Showcase which is entirely down to Marino's (and possibly now Rorie's) discretion. So don't worry about that part; it'll either happen or it won't.

I know I've struggled with where to draw the line between wanting to get my stuff out there and too much shameless self-promotion, but given the site's ongoing issues with alerting users to new blogs and the like it's entirely copacetic to hawk your material on the Community Spotlight. ZombiePie definitely appreciates having those links somewhere central instead of hunting for them all each week.

May I suggest Stilts? Taller is bigger right?

Create a ton of really mundane polls.

So....you think you can be

?

use more nitrogen

Sit on Cakes/Pastries review the experience and post it on forums

Review store bought cakes and pies from your local groceries

I'd go with a cheesecake, you know those bought at your local grocery store. Get some Hostess Cakes (HOHOs, Twinkies) too, the packaged ones lay them all out and just fucking sit on them.

Sit on it, take a picture of it, then review it, post it on the forums and people will eat your shit up. You'll be a GIANTBOMBDOTCOM Legend.

review the texture of the cake, how it felt when you sat on it.

You know what Fuck You this is my idea.

@bigjeffrey:

Call it Pants Pastries.

I can give you some advice that doesn't work:

Do what I do.

1. Don't ask a question like that again.

2. Start posting threads that you think others will read.

3. Comment on posts other than just your own.

4. Start chatting with others.

5. Just be yourself and not someone you're not.

6. Write about your interests and whatnot, and everything else should follow or fall into place.

7. Stay active with what you do, no matter how many or less comments you get.

And if this doesn't work for you, then my advice wasn't really good enough for you or anybody that asks the same question.

1. Blog

2. Create threads

3. Have an awesome avatar

4. ???

5. Profit

Quality > Quantity. No one likes a spammer who has a terrible compulsion to post a thread every single day.

Also, proofread.

eat lots of fattening foods

@video_game_king said:

This is also the basis for the entire career of Tim Rogers.

Also, everyone in this thread is now on an FBI watchlist.

You gotta come at things from your own sideswipe angle™ if you want to have any chance of making it in this competitive market. The first thing I notice about someone's writing is not whether it's well written, well punctuated, or even if it's about anything I'm interested in; I'm looking for that sideswipe angle™. Have you got it? I'll be honest, at first glance I didn't feel it in your writing. That doesn't mean you should pack up your pencil case and go home, the sideswipe angle™ is something that can be forged after all. Think of it like an Ultimate Weapon in a JRPG, you don't start with it and not everyone gets itーin fact most people don't even want to put in the time to get it, but those who do are rewarded greatly. The essence of the sideswipe angle™ lies within you, you just need to rip it out with great vengeance and furious anger.

Once you have the essence of the sideswipe angle™ you'll need to bring it to this guy:

"Pastry Pants"

4. Be sexy the sexiest!!!!!!

@raycarter:

Hey Ray

I think that's tough to do with the site in it's current state. Blogs and reviews are hard for users to find/follow and now the notification system itself seems busted which makes even forum conversations tougher than they once were. It's not a situation that's real conducive to content creators getting recognized.

Still in general I think the easiest way to be better known is to participate in general. Don't just be a blogger or reviewer, also be a frequent quality comment-er on others' work and participate frequently in forum conversations.

and as far as creating your own discussions, given the way the site is right now, creating forum topics seems like the best way to get comments.

Make some dope-ass Giant Bomb-inspired art/music/whatever. Post it to the forums. Bask in glory.

I find that the awesome avatar is the most important of these. Mine's shit so nobody knows who I am.

;_;

Everyone knows that if you want to get respect on Giant Bomb, you've got to find the biggest, craziest, most prolific duder and Take. Them. Down.

it's true, we love creatives here. whodda thunkit.

Ha, at first I though this was gonna be about getting started weight lifting.

Anyway, a good start would be to make your name more recognizable by getting your forum post count up with (mostly, hopefully) intelligible, reasonably thought-out posts. On top of that, write good blogs. I don't blog here myself, but it seems like the dudes who do, and do it well, get quite a bit of respect and recognition from the community, often yielding dozens upon dozens of comments on a single blog. Reviews, on the other hand, don't get much attention around here.

You could always just try trolling too.

Touch all of our shoulders.

Make something cool. That's the quickest way to some sort of fame (though people will know what you made moreso than who you are). Think videos, artwork, or apps. If creative writing is your thing, maybe make that Jeff/Chie fanfic that we've all been too scared to make ourselves. Blogs are a good for establishing a personality, but make sure you have something interesting to say, and say it in an interesting way. The user reviews are, from my experience, the bottom rung of user content here. No one will notice/care.

Good luck!

fake our deaths.

¡Pasteles del Pantalones!

Use more nitroglycerin ..err ah Make blogs about sexism in video games and call people who disagree with opinion "bigots".

You beat me to it... This will get people following you in no time. Just so you know we have 7 billion people on Earth... not that all are online or on GB but... yeah. GL. XD