About Me: I knew at an early age that I wanted to make a career out of writing about games, and now I have. You'll find most of my stuff right here on HonestGamers, of course, but don't be surprised if my name pops up elsewhere. Living out my dream keeps me very busy, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Is it still fair to expect games to make the sort of impact they once did on our lives?

I'm sort of going somewhere with this, but before I get to that dubious destination, please humor me as I make one of the most obvious statements in the history of obvious statements: there are a lot more video games available in 2020 than there were in 1990.

Why make such an obvious statement? For starters, I made it because I think it's easy to forget. We look at all the great games coming out these days, and sometimes the temptation is to say something like "They sure don't make 'em like they used to," which is based on a few factors but largely--to my mind--is based on the difficulty developers now have making an impact. Not a lot of new games, even some very good new games, can keep us talking about them even as little as three months after their release.

[read the full post...]

4 comments

My life is going through a big change, and not just because of COVID-19.

HonestGamers headquarters is moving again. By that, I mean that I myself am moving again. And since the site kind of goes where I go, so too are the site's headquarters. I have lived on the Oregon Coast for most of these last 15 years, after moving here from Central Oregon. Now I am moving elsewhere in Oregon.

[read the full post...]

3 comments

Since my review went live, the game has changed for the better.

Pure Mahjong released on Nintendo Switch in July of this year, and I posted my review for it a few weeks later. It was not a favorable review because, although I liked some of what the game did, there was a lot about it I simply didn't enjoy. You can check out the review itself for more information about that.

[read the full post...]

1 comment

A look at what I'm doing and plan to do around the site and such.

I have been pretty busy lately, and I haven't posted to my blog to keep you all updated on what I'm doing to fill my time. Part of that silence comes from a desire to surprise you with improvements I know you'll like. I enjoy working my tail off on something, then revealing it so it has the most exciting result. But I can see where the silence might also be interpreted as a sign I don't care, or that I am busy doing stuff elsewhere and don't have time of the site. Neither of those things is even remotely true, and so here is an update.

[read the full post...]

2 comments

TLDR; the site is chugging right along, but I am looking for ways to make things better still and I welcome your feedback.

It feels like a reasonable amount of time has passed since my last update on the State of the Site, so I figured I would go ahead and post another one tonight. I'll try to keep it brief, but as you know if you've been around the site for a long while that I tend to fail at that particular objective once I undertake it. Like... almost every time.

This post will discuss the site's current traffic levels, revenue, what that means at present and what I plan to do about it in the future. Some of this information isn't the sort of thing a site would share in public, but then, we're not a typical site.

Site Traffic

First up, let's talk traffic. I looked up results on Google Analytics, and here is how we did in April of this year:

* 12,743 unique users
* 17,833 sessions

[read the full post...]

4 comments

Here are some general thoughts on why we write and who we write for...

Why do we write? Who do we write for? When should we listen to criticism and when should we ignore it?

The above three questions chase writers their whole lives, and the answers will almost certainly change over time and in different circumstances. I thought it was maybe worth addressing them here at HonestGamers, where we are a community of writers and gamers. Careful self-examination can help us to improve as writers.

Of course, a good rule with all writing is that no one can tell you exactly how to write. No one should even try. So this post isn't an attempt on my part to say "Write like this." Rather, it is a post intended to prompt thought specifically on the three questions I mentioned at the onset.

[read the full post...]

4 comments

Google hopes to change the way people play games, but I say it's a little early to embrace that vision.

Today at the Game Developers Conference, Google revealed (some of) its plans for an entry into the console market, if you want to call it that. For some time now, rumors were reporting that Google would reveal a streaming console, and that's about what it did. Called "Stadia," the platform appears right now to be more virtual than physical. Its primary draw is that you'll be able to play games on a range of devices, from your phone to a weak laptop or desktop, using controllers that suit you or the new one Google unveiled.

[read the full post...]

6 comments

Additional Articles:

[01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61]