GamerDad at Large! – WhatTheyPlay Edition
No, I haven’t grown to giant size. I’ve just been freelancing recently. Here’s just one of the outlets: WhatTheyPlay.com is a new website that pretty much mirrors GamerDad’s mission and much of our approach (imitation = sincerest form of flattery, etc) to a tee. The main differences are… they have money, and they clearly learned from our (and CommonSense Media’s) mistakes. But GamerDad.com has something WhatTheyPlay doesn’t. Me! Since we weren’t able to reach an agreement to hire me on their staff or for GamerDad to fold into their website (we’re staying independent folks!) they’ve hired me to do some work for them. An “Ask GamerDad” column is coming soon. But for now, here’s a big batch of pure uncut content reviews for your reading pleasure:
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Xbox 360, PC, Collector’s Edition
Rainbow Six: Vegas PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Sid Meier’s Pirates: Live the Life! PSP
Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends DS
Blue Dragon Xbox 360
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
No personal credit? Oh well, at least they are paying you – can’t wait for the column!
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
I think it’s the right idea. Actually if you remember, this WhatTheyPlay site vindicates everything I’ve been saying for the past 3 years. Its so much easier to tackle the glut of gaming when you’re only dealing with the descriptors and the features. And by not using bylines, they have a much more Unified front. My linking them here is my taken personal credit. 😉
You’ll like what I’ve been doing for them. I’m basically going to be their “personality” with an advice column to start, then features. I’ve insisted my name goes on all features.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I agree about the descriptors & features making it easier to get through games for them, and also easier to read for someone who perhaps doesn’t care about a game’s quality, just whether it’s okay for their kids. I think that’s kind of sad, and would hope that people see why GamerDad reviews go beyond that.
The one thing they are definitely smart about is getting the new games in their database before they have a review. That must help their traffic – and ad impressions. I’m sure we could do the same thing, but is that ethical?
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
It’s ethical because readers can post their own thoughts and reviews.
I agree Simon, only for a mainstream audience I think the ideal would be doing exactly what they’ve done only briefly address quality and give it a:
Buy
Rent
Avoid
quality score. By far the biggest problem with GamerDad and thus CSM and WTP is the sheer amount of games released. It’s an incredible amount of work and fact checking. We had this idea if you recall, we called them Kid Factor reviews and I think I might start doing them for all those extra games.