Comments on: 2189: Reflections on the Last Five Years, Or: Life After Games Journalism

By: Pete Davison

Pete Davison — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 23:55:58 +0000

In reply to Brandon S.. Thank you! The world would be a boring place indeed if everyone agreed on everything relating to games -- the important thing to do, however, is to respect one another's opinions and agree to differ. This is something a lot of people seem to struggle with these days, so I'm grateful to hear you say that. I hope I can figure something out, too. I'm contemplating options at the moment; more details to come soon!

By: Brandon S.

Brandon S. — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 00:09:52 +0000

I'm glad you wrote this post. I've been following you ever since USGamer, where your perspective really was a breath of fresh air among modern gaming criticism. Even though I don't always agree with everything you say about games, I highly respect your worldview and I was pretty disappointed when you were let go from USGamer. I hope you can figure out how to keep a living doing what you love; I'm in much the same boat and I'm sure a lot of your fans are too.

By: Pete Davison

Pete Davison — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 22:35:56 +0000

In reply to Sha. Thanks; your support is appreciated. I'm currently looking into options to be able to cover niche games on a more regular basis, so watch this space. I would love to be able to make it something I can support myself doing, but whether that's a viable option or not remains to be seen!

By: Sha

Sha — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 14:27:06 +0000

Longtime lurker/reader here:
My story is similar to Stargazer's. I really liked how USGamer covered niche games and I also enjoyed the longer editorial pieces. Then BobKat happened and the quality got worse and worse. The Fairy Fencer F review was the final nail in the coffin and I stopped visiting the site after that.

I hope you can keep covering games in some way. Your Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection review was what got me into the Neptunia series and a few months ago I bought Dungeon Travelers 2 because of your blog posts. Games I would have never noticed otherwise.

By: David Osbon

David Osbon — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:29:56 +0000

Thanks Pete for that post. Good to be able to read, in some detail, about your past employment. I've only ever contributed freelance to sites that don't pay so not seen or been involved in the politics of paid employment. The way games journalism is currently, I think it's far better to be unattached to anything that demands horrid conditions.

By: Pete Davison

Pete Davison — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 01:42:21 +0000

In reply to Stargazer77. I didn't even see their coverage of RB3. Their horrendous review of Fairy Fencer F was enough to put me off ever reading them again. I have some stuff in the pipeline. Considering starting a Patreon to see if I can make a more serious job of MoeGamer, both articles and videos. Don't know if it's a good idea or not yet, but won't find out unless I try, I guess!

By: Stargazer77

Stargazer77 — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 01:23:04 +0000

Your time at USGamer was hard on you, and for that I'm sorry. But you did bring together a lot of us and helped us find more like minded communities. I was very active on USGamer while you were there. Although I initially went there because of Jeremy, I stayed frequenting the site because of you. In fact, that is the first website I ever commented on, and that was over your articles mostly. But when you left and some of my least favorite people from 1up started publishing there, I eventually stopped commenting, my opinion was not wanted there. Eventually my only ties to them was their RPGs podcast. But I kept on not even making it through many of them because of their relentless negativity. Finally I stopped altogether after their commentary of Re;Birth 3 consisted of them calling it an RPGs for the lowest common denominator and basically insulting both the developers and fans. After that I was done done. Their articles are click ate or cynicism, their podcasts are trite and insulting. They turned into what 1up became at the end. I hope that you do truly get fully back on your feet. I do so hate it that so many of the truly good people get mowed under by that giant cynical machine.