I think everyone reaches a point in their blogging career when they ask themselves, "Why am I doing this?" It is rare that a suitable and satisfying answer comes to light. Some people do it to explore their own thoughts in an organized fashion, others do it for entertainment, and others simply as a job. I don't know why I write to an invisible audience. If we are to be brutally honest, most of us blog because we crave attention and want to be recognized for our worth. It's tough to admit such a superficial and seemingly needy concept, but a blog that receives 20 comments is certainly more satisfying than one that lives in obscurity. It's just one more attempt at belonging, one more stab at climbing the social ladder. It is not an unwise attempt by any means. The anonymity of a community such as this one affords many people an opportunity to become something utterly more satisfying than their real-world counterpart. The risk is minimal and the veil never has to be lifted, unless the writer chooses to do so. Just to clarify, I am not saying that people who blog are are unsuccessful in other aspects of their life, but talents hidden away by shyness and social misunderstanding need not hinder someone in the written word.
It's tough to analyze oneself without a certain amount of bias and I am sure I write, at least partially, for some of the reasons above. I can honestly say that I'm very pleased with my current position in life and really have nothing to complain about, but the allure of a successful blog is still there, dangling just out of reach. Beyond simply wanting to be read, perhaps I also seek a place to delve deeper into my video game-related interests, as they are still not something I share with most of my real world friends. They know I play them and own way too many, but they certainly don't understand my desire to know about developers and follow the business of the industry. It's a shame that this hobby is so widely derided that we flock to blogs, rather than our close friends, to share our thoughts on a supremely entertaining form of media. Of course, gaming is far more accepted now than it ever has been, and people blog about everything under the sun, so the medium is not particularly important to our current discussion.
With that being said, I will probably put something more substantial and more game-related here in the near future as I would like to see where it takes me. Success is, after all, only one amazing blog away. As usual, I'd love to hear your opinions on this subject.
With that, I bid you adieu.
Why Blog?
I think everyone reaches a point in their blogging career when they ask themselves, "Why am I doing this?" It is rare that a suitable and satisfying answer comes to light. Some people do it to explore their own thoughts in an organized fashion, others do it for entertainment, and others simply as a job. I don't know why I write to an invisible audience. If we are to be brutally honest, most of us blog because we crave attention and want to be recognized for our worth. It's tough to admit such a superficial and seemingly needy concept, but a blog that receives 20 comments is certainly more satisfying than one that lives in obscurity. It's just one more attempt at belonging, one more stab at climbing the social ladder. It is not an unwise attempt by any means. The anonymity of a community such as this one affords many people an opportunity to become something utterly more satisfying than their real-world counterpart. The risk is minimal and the veil never has to be lifted, unless the writer chooses to do so. Just to clarify, I am not saying that people who blog are are unsuccessful in other aspects of their life, but talents hidden away by shyness and social misunderstanding need not hinder someone in the written word.
It's tough to analyze oneself without a certain amount of bias and I am sure I write, at least partially, for some of the reasons above. I can honestly say that I'm very pleased with my current position in life and really have nothing to complain about, but the allure of a successful blog is still there, dangling just out of reach. Beyond simply wanting to be read, perhaps I also seek a place to delve deeper into my video game-related interests, as they are still not something I share with most of my real world friends. They know I play them and own way too many, but they certainly don't understand my desire to know about developers and follow the business of the industry. It's a shame that this hobby is so widely derided that we flock to blogs, rather than our close friends, to share our thoughts on a supremely entertaining form of media. Of course, gaming is far more accepted now than it ever has been, and people blog about everything under the sun, so the medium is not particularly important to our current discussion.
With that being said, I will probably put something more substantial and more game-related here in the near future as I would like to see where it takes me. Success is, after all, only one amazing blog away. As usual, I'd love to hear your opinions on this subject.
With that, I bid you adieu.
-_- so you found out about my reasons for "blogging" (well the untold reasons anyway) , but .. yeah it is hard not to have someone to talk about videogames with passion in real life , even more so that I have moved away from the people that more or less had a similar passion for games like me. Also I talk about them with my mother , but how can I expect her to be extremely interested in them , and after a very hilarious but unsucessful attempt to make her play Halo Reach (she couldnt master moving the camera while walking/shooting) I decided to torture her no more. So yeah I crave for attention :(
" I think everyone reaches a point in their blogging career when they ask themselves, "Why am I doing this?" "Does it count if others ask it for you?
When in doubt, DMV. Humanity is working through the basic problems of life, the universe, and everything, but all it takes is one trip to the DMV to realize there must be something fundamentally wrong with the whole works. Games provide a pleasant distraction from this fact and, at their best, offer glimmers of a solution. Best to you on your travels.
I usually blog when I have a random thought about something and no one is around to listen to me, or I do not think they would care about what I say. I personally dont care who reads it, its basically a form of expression, if someone reads it and responds then I am just happy that I possibly entertained them.
I probably blog mostly because of vanity and a need for validation. But it also keeps me motivated towards my goal and also affords me an allotted time every week in which to collect and order my successes and shortcomings.
Also, no one that I know wants to hear me babble on about what I'm interested in.
I'm pretty much a failed blogger. It's an interesting thing to do, but my "talents" seem to fail me right as I submit them. I used to blog ALL THE TIME when I was younger on the internet(around 13-14. Am now 18). I don't know what my deal is but normally I lose interest as they are finished and sitting there. I mean I'll spend a few hours coming up with stuff and writing it down, then proof-reading/editing a few times over to make sure there are no petty mistakes, but then I'll be like "Alright, I'll just leave it here and go boot up some music and then browse the net" and after a few hours of totally forgetting about it, I'd have lost interest and just delete it all.
It's not that I'm some obsessive attention whore or anything, it's just, why spend hours writing something that not only no one will end up reading, but no one will give two shits about? And it's not even that, but I usually end up talking about something or offering an opinion that touches a nerve with people and then I end up looking like an asshole. I don't really care what people think about me, it's just that I don't want to be Mr. Asshole McBloggerguy who's only claim to fame is that he's an asshole who blogs. I mean, I'm not tooting my own horn or anything, but I'm not an asshole. All my friends tell me that I'm the funniest guy they know, so I don't want to paint a negative image for myself. And it's not that my ego is so huge that I just HAVE to be the talk of the town, it's just, you know, why write something no one's going to read?
For instance, I had a good opportunity to write for a community driven internet magazine that Sony themselves would actually help out. And I don't mean some run-of-the-mill half-assed internet thing that two people put together and said Sony's going to be helping them. I mean Sony is going all out. They're providing information and pictures about games for these people to write about that, at the time, no one else has access to. They're going to be providing special ranks, forum powers and all sorts of neat features to these people and they've already given them an exclusive interview with Kazunori Yamauchi of Gran Turismo fame. And the best part about all of this, was three of my friends were already signed on and working on it. So I was extremely hyped up to get a position there. I would technically be working for Sony, although just working on the forums, and for free. And best of all, I'd have my friends to vouch for me and my ability to write.
I mean, it would have come at a great time for me. My dad died not too long ago and I've been needing something to keep me busy until I turned 18(Which I did yesterday) so I could get a job. I shut the world out right at a time where this position opened up for me, and it looked like I'd finally gotten my chance to do something that was good for me and fun to do. I mean, my dad dying was pretty harsh for me. It still hasn't fully set in that he's gone, but I'm being eaten alive here by the fact that I'll never even so much as hear him yell at me again for not taking the garbage out. I'm not even trying to pull the pity card, you know. Just, damn. I'm freaking out, I need something to do to keep myself from going crazy.
Then, the reality set in that the world sucks and no one cares. One of the guys working there who wasn't even in charge, was apparently calling the shots and FLIPPED. THE. FUCK. OUT when I sent in a request to join. I had never talked to this guy in my life, but apparently he knew me and knew enough of me to hate and did not want me there at all. So I got ignored and passed up on the opportunity for no reason other than the guy didn't like me. Then one of my friends ended up leaving because of that very same guy, who turned out to be the hugest asshole of all the assholes, was putting waaaaaay too much work into him and wasn't even doing his job. So, once that ordeal ended I started putting more time into Giant Bomb and seeing that the community here seems to be pretty good. It's active, fun, I like the random shenanigans that occurs here(Not to mention the staff ROCKS. Vinny FTW), and it just seems right for me. So I solidified my new found love for this sexy website and bought a full, yearly subscription to Whiskey Media.
WELL NOW, this kind of went out of control. In a way, I feel good for getting it all out of my system, but in another way, holy shit. That's a HUGE wall of text. I'll just hide it in this spoiler tag so the people who want to read it, can read it, and so that any unsuspecting bystanders aren't injured in the event of a wordquake.
My blog is basically an opening for a conversation which I can't have anywhere else. My friends don't want to talk about this stupid pretentious videogame bullshit, but thanks to the internet I can discuss my addiction in minute detail with other misguided enthusiasts like yourself.
As for getting replies... I guess it depends on what you want from your blog. Some people don't consider a blog successful unless they get a huge stack of replies to rifle through. I don't see why a blog can't be successful without any replies at all, but personally I have always maintained it's about quality not quantity. If one were to write a huge wall of text and get one reply, that's still a win - that's one person connecting with another person, and that's all you can really hope for.
" I've never found reason nor compulsion to blog. Guess I've nothing interesting to share. Reading a good, well-written blog is nice though. "This pretty much.
A lot of really good points and interesting comments. I agree with a couple of you that blogging and reviewing on a games site could be seen as the first step towards getting into the video games industry (although a bachelor's degree in journalism is also highly recommended). It's not surprising that so many people blog about video games because they haven't been able to find people to talk to these things about.
I also find if quite interesting and commendable that so many people are so honest about all of this. So as long as you enjoy the blogging and a lack of views doesn't get you down, I say keep on writing. Something great could come out of it.
@N7: Venting is a good thing.
@Sweep: You make a really good point about the wall of text. Having one person really identify could certainly be worth it, depending on the response. I think the issue with replies really comes down to the need to be validated. Quite frankly, no one likes to work for hours on an entry and then have no one read it. But such is life.
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