{"id":957,"date":"2008-05-14T10:23:15","date_gmt":"2008-05-14T16:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=957"},"modified":"2008-05-14T10:23:15","modified_gmt":"2008-05-14T16:23:15","slug":"the-gdwtp-deal-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/14\/the-gdwtp-deal-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"The GD\/WTP Deal – Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’ve gotten a flurry of email from friends, colleagues, a VIP or two, PR reps,\u00a0and readers over the preceding announcement. Here’s the gist: What They Like Inc. bought the bulk of the GamerDad review archive and are going to repurpose it for their more sober format. I “sold out” for two reasons but let me tell you the story – from my perspective – first. Let me start by saying, after a near-death experience and on the 5 year anniversary, I can’t tell you how happy I am to be writing about all of this!<\/p>\n

Before launching GamerDad in 2003 the concept was rejected by pretty much every review magazine\/website on the net. Even the handful who for whatever reason saw things clearly, like I did, that gaming was going to go mainstream very soon and that the world needed accurate reports about video game violence and content – and parents needed help – still didn’t see any money in it.\u00a0‘<\/p>\n

1320 reviews and five years later most of what I predicted came true, and I was no longer alone. I proved a lot, but the consequences were competition. Moneyed competition (the worst kind!)<\/p>\n

First of all, GamerDad is only “first” from the following perspectives:<\/p>\n

1. We’re the first to review games for content and critical value<\/p>\n

2. We were the first to do it without moralizing. We report, parents decide.<\/p>\n

3. My ONLY agenda is helping parents and making sure gaming gets a fair shake.<\/p>\n

4. GamerParents should review games. Not non-gamers.<\/p>\n

In 2005 or so, CommonSense Media came along and started doing something similar to what I do. I disagree with a lot of their conclusions, but was happy to work for them and I started pitching GamerDad to them then.<\/p>\n

In 2006 Disney tapped me to create a review format similar to mine that they could own. I then managed all review content (movies, DVD, video games) for FamilyFun and Disney Family for the year 2007.<\/p>\n

By 2008 it was clear that GamerDad was outperforming CommonSense Media – no mean feat… see, they have money. We’d published over 1000 reviews over 5 years to their 250 game reviews in 3 years. In November WhatTheyLike Inc launched WhatTheyPlay.com.\u00a0 I like the site, I like working for the site, and I like the people who work for the site mainly because the site is so much like my site.<\/p>\n

In 2008 I had a near fatal heart attack and quadruple bypass.<\/p>\n

That last bit made me come to a difficult decision. As GamerDad my crew and I kept knocking our brains out reviewing everything game companies sent. The pressure was enormous, the stress severe, because every PR rep seems to believe their game is the only one we’re reviewing – and that I have a staff of people like a regular magazine that can make timely requests or notify them of coverage. Add to that the constant requests from parents looking for specific game reviews or kids hoping against hope that I’m going to break with the ESRB and recommend something violent to teenagers.<\/p>\n

I began shopping around 1000 of our reviews (why 1000? Because the other 300 are owned by their authors (in one case Disney, in another USA Today). I began negotiating with CommonSense Media and WhatTheyPlay for these reviews and WhatTheyPlay won out with a generous offer.<\/p>\n

GamerDad is not going away!<\/h1>\n

As you’ve recently seen, I’m focussing more on spokesman work, helping groups like the National PTA, ESRB, and American Library Association with gaming, helping parents as best I can, building this community, and helping radio, TV, and newspaper journalists do their jobs more accurately.<\/p>\n

We’ll still be reviewing, but we’ll leave the grind part to better equipped\/financed websites. Our reviews will focus more on the family fun aspect of games. This site will be more of a community.<\/p>\n

The press release brags about me. Quotes me too. But it leaves out something crucial to our success. Here they are:<\/p>\n

Jeff Bogumil – He built the 2nd GD site, the more useful one. He handled our often stupid webhosts and did a lot of troubleshooting. He\u00a0did some reviewing and he put up with a lot of crap. His company Red Bird Solutions gets my hightest recommendation and endorsement.<\/p>\n

Mike Anderson – How did a late comer to the site manage to out review everybody? If you know Mike, you know that’s more than possible. The man is a parenting machine!<\/p>\n

Cary Woodham – Cary isn’t a parent but he’s still very much a kid at heart. He reminds us what pure enthusiasm feels, looks, and sounds like but he’s no mere fanboy. Cary is an accomplished critic and watching him grow here has been very satisfying.<\/p>\n

Simon Windmill – a terrific writer and game reviewer, Simon also programs and is trying to make indie games while being a stay-at-home dad.\u00a0 I keep him busy managing this site and making any logo or graphic that flits across my fevered brain.<\/p>\n

Colleen Hannon (MomGamer) – I came across Momgamer right after I launched the site. She quickly accepted my offer and she’s given us a lot of funny family stories, reviews, and expert analysis of how mainstream groups bungle video game coverage.<\/p>\n

Dr. Matt Carlson – Matt’s boardgame coverage is a real feather in the site’s cape. He’s also an enthusiastic guy, an asset to our team,\u00a0and he’s\u00a0a science teacher!<\/p>\n

“Sparky” – Sparky created all of our old logos and then gave them to me free of charge. She’s awesome… and hilarious.<\/p>\n

David J. Long – a professional freelancer, David also did all of our copy-editing for about 3 years. He left us about 15 months ago, but he was a founder and his contribution will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n

Marc Saltzman – writes for USA Today and pretty much everyone else. He donated over 200 of his professional reviews to us free of charge – why? Because he believes in what we’re doing here. Thanks Marc!<\/p>\n

Doug Hanna, Wayne Belton, Stacy Tate, Bernie Dy, Steve Fulton\u00a0– wonderful people I’ve lost touch with over the years. Thanks for your contributions guys!<\/p>\n

Anyone I Might Have Forgotten – come on, aw, come on! You know I’ll miss you most of all, right?<\/p>\n

We made it!<\/h2>\n

Now, we’re going to use the power\/credibility\/trust and reach we’ve developed here to help parents more than ever.\u00a0 Thanks for reading GamerDad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve gotten a flurry of email from friends, colleagues, a VIP or two, PR reps,\u00a0and readers over the preceding announcement. Here’s the gist: What They Like Inc. bought the bulk of the GamerDad review archive and are going to repurpose it for their more sober format. I “sold out” for two reasons but let me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gamerdad-press","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}