Before you get too excited, this isn’t some lame post fishing for compliments. We genuinely want to know if you guys are reading our posts or just skimming past them amongst a sea of other gaming news/entertainment/etc. sites. There are so many possibilities for us when it comes to covering news, reviews, and opinion pieces, but we’ve made it a point recently to exclusively cover the things that interest us. News for the sake of news isn’t something you’ll see on What’s Your Tag? going forward, but maybe we’re alienating people who’ve been following the site for a while now.
We’re opening up the floor to our readers. Come step up to the podium and tell us everything we’re doing right, but more importantly let us know what we’re doing wrong. We know there are literally thousands of other sites doing something similar and realistically, probably a little better than we are. What are your go-to gaming sites and why? What about those particular sites keeps you coming back on a regular basis? We don’t want this to feel too much like an essay for English class, but we do hope for some real, honest feedback.
If you’ve been following this site for a while now, you know we’ve been going through a little bit of an identity crisis this past year and work actively working to push past that and get ourselves back on track. A huge thanks to everyone who’s continued to support us as we work through these issues. You dudes are awesome and we want to make sure we’re doing something you legitimately want to read because ultimately if you don’t want to read it, there’s no reason for us to be doing it. Well, unless you count our own self-gratification, but loving yourself is lame if nobody else wants to do it.
What's Your Tag? 
Honestly I haven’t read a lot of the mainstream stuff for awhile. With the closure of the vintage magazines, and sites I did frequent, the sites replacing them haven’t been that compelling. I get more from communities, blogs, and youtubers than from the typical game sites.
For a number of reasons that would take too long to explain in detail in a reply.
One thing that gravitated me toward WYT is the comic strip. Few strips are consistently funny, and most of the time the WYT strip is. It might not have the best art style, but it’s generally pretty good. It kind of set WYT apart from the rest of the pack though I suppose some might compare it to Penny Arcade, it still has a different feel, and it has its own identity. Personally, I can see them as one of the cornerstones of the site.
I also really like the reviews. I may not always agree with them, or own a lot of the games that are talked about. But there is an honesty in them, and they usually invite some civilized debate.
As for doing it for self-gratification, well you ought to. Because it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, if it’s a hobby or a career. If you don’t enjoy doing it, it isn’t going to be good. It’s going to be “Let’s get this over with.”. Now everyone who has ever done anything creative, does hit a period of burnout. There’s nothing wrong with giving yourselves a break now, and again. If there’s a week in two months time, where nothing gets posted it isn’t the end of the world. A good example is probably Doug Walker’s Nostalgia Critic show, where three years ago he got burned out. Didn’t think he could come up with much else for the character, and went on to do some other stuff that just wasn’t nearly as popular. But one day, a few months later he saw a movie, that would perplex him so much, it made him realize he could do a lot more with the Nostalgia Critic. A project he enjoys doing. If he didn’t enjoy it there wouldn’t be a show.
I think you should keep doing strips, reviews, commentary, etc. But when you get swamped, realize it’s okay to take a break every so often.
When we originally started WYT? it was basically nothing more than a weekly comic strip. I pitched the idea to an old work buddy and we just started throwing ideas around for what we’d wanna do with it. Our very first comic essentially makes fun of the fact that we are a Penny Arcade ripoff. We’ve personally always prided ourselves in being a bit weirder than that.
Eventually we wanted to do more with the site and began incorporating other video game media elements like news/reviews/opinion pieces/etc. For a while this seemed like a great step in the right direction because we were gaining ground and getting a lot more attention, but we all got really burnt out rewording news stories from other websites and ultimately I think it sort of killed a huge chunk of the enjoyment we originally got from doing the site.
We’re definitely stripping it down and cutting a lot of fat. We want to do things we legitimately are interested in and hopefully that draws the attention of like-minded individuals. Thanks for sticking around through all our shenanigans!
“I also really like the reviews. I may not always agree with them, or own a lot of the games that are talked about. But there is an honesty in them, and they usually invite some civilized debate.”
Thanks for the kind words, dude! I know reviews aren’t for everyone, and I’ve seen feedback from others saying they don’t bother reading them at all. So it means a lot that you even give them a chance, regardless of your interest in the game or conflicting opinions. I’m always open for civil discussion, so keep the comments coming. =)
I mostly read reddit and other blogs nowadays. I find that the popular sites are just a mess with annoying fanboy talk and it just gets old really quickly.
I still read stuff here, and I like to read your opinions on things. I feel like blogs are a little more personal and you’re more likely to get a unbiased view on things.
The thing with posting news is that there is so much coming all the time that its hard to keep up with it.
For a while we were trying to handle all the news we possibly could and I feel like it really took away from out other content. Sure we’d get an occasional viral post and lock in a huge chunk of views, but it wasn’t anything that was really going to get people coming back to visit the site.
We’ve decided to do away with that stuff almost completely. I want to strip down what we’re doing and deliver genuine, passionate content that hopefully people will legitimately care about reading or watching.
It seems like a large majority of the “reputable” media outlets are succumbing to the clickbait BS strategies that so many dirtbags on Facebook and Twitter use. It’s an awful strategy that demonstrates the worst qualities in human nature, but it obviously must be effective. We will never give in to that temptation in hopes of scoring some easy views.
I usually stop to read when the article is about a game I care about (which is usually when I post), since I like to see different reasons why people like/dislike a game, and I find your posts fun to read.
I’ll also often skim the ‘this is what we’re playing, what are you playing?’ posts, for much of the same reason – seeing what other people are excited about (in an easier to digest form than twitter explosions).
The comics are fun when they’re about a game I care about already (I see a pattern here =P), but mostly I’m here for opinions/reviews on games I’m thinking about already.
And on a side note, I enjoyed exchanging 3DS friend codes for pokemon (without feeling like I was just adding random people)
Well we definitely appreciate you stopping by and engaging in our stuff. We definitely want to shift our focus towards opinion pieces and original content, so it’s awesome to hear that’s what you’re most in to.
We try to cover a wide range of stuff with the comic, so I can definitely understand if every one doesn’t tickle your fancy lol. We recently relaunched that and we’re shifting styles a little bit and we’re really hopeful people will like the direction we’re taking it.
Those Friend Code exchange posts got way bigger than I ever expected them to! I was super excited to see other bloggers share their codes in the comment section, but it eventually got to the point where my 3DS wouldn’t even let me register any more friends haha.