I Hit 3 Million Views 2 Weeks Ago, I Wanna Talk About Stuff

If you’ve been here on GameSkinny for more than a few weeks, chances are you’ve run into me one way or another. I am perhaps best known as an editor, though my primary duties lie in targeted niche content writing. I am a monster.

Anyway, I don’t want to go into my professional background. I did enough of that in my Using SEO articles as well as my 1 million views announcement. If you really want to learn more about that, feel free to wander over there. Don’t wander to the 2 million views announcement, though; it’s a bore.

Oh yeah, I hit 3 million views. Time to talk about myself! I am clearly unstable.

Talking about myself, obviously

What you may not know is that I am a retro game enthusiast and collector. My primary interest lies in Sega Saturn import titles, but I also dabble in collecting import PSX, Super Famicom (SNES), Famicom (NES), and Dreamcast games.

The honest truth is my interest in modern gaming is almost nil, especially console-based gaming. I don’t pay any attention to console releases sans the odd release (I’m interested in Deception IV, for instance), and mostly stuck to MMORPGs and indie platformer titles on PC.

As of late I have been playing Final Fantasy XIV (PC), Ai Senshi Nicol (Famicom), and replaying SaGa Frontier (PSX). I am very much looking forward to ArcheAge as the only new game I will go out of my way for in 2014, especially after seeing Trion Worlds is listening to the community backlash over the Korean version 1.0 patch.

I also go way out of my way to play Chinese MMO(RPG)s just to see what they’re like. Recently I participated in Tencent’s Plants vs. Zombies Online closed beta, which contained a bundle of “just okay” and “ugh.” Obviously I am a Blade & Soul (China) player, though am currently on hiatus.

So anyway, back on topic..

If you’re a bit new to the site, you may have no idea who I am at all. That’s all right, the majority of my work stays off the front page anyway since it’s not exactly exciting — not to mention half of it is on my secondary account.

My specialty is guides. It’s my job to figure out what people want and the best way to display that information, then to somehow pull it off despite our platform’s limitations. I also help other people with guides and do some standard editing on the side, but my primary task is guide-writing.

I have learned a lot since my initial Final Fantasy XIV guide boom last year, especially on information presentation and tweaking of the user experience based on my vision for my content.

There are a few aspects to guide-writing anyone who really wants to do them should know and follow:

1. The user experience is always first. This not only includes the information presented, but also the content’s ease of use. The easier and simpler, the better. Never alienate anyone in your audience and make sure the most important information is easy to find within the expanse of an article.
2. Whipping up fast content for guides is not always better. For mobile games and the like, you can feel free to go fast — after all, other sites vying for that same traffic are doing the same thing. But make sure what you put out is the most cleanly laid out and easy to use out of all the other options. For RPGs and MMORPGs, always take your time to make sure you are putting out the best information on that topic. There are almost no exceptions to this.
3. Always keep your eyes open, and always have your mind open to new information and concepts. This not only includes noticing guide-worthy information, but also improving as a guide writer in presentation. If you are trying to teach people, you yourself need to learn as you go. This is something I really want to touch on in-depth, but that’s for another day.

I honestly don’t care if you’re writing here on GameSkinny or elsewhere, these are points you must keep in mind if you want to guide people along in their prefered games.

Oh, and tables are better than bullet points 80% of the time.

The biggest piece of advice I can give:

Never be content with your guides.

Okay, not really. But don’t ever be content with how you present information.

Visitor needs vary from game to game, and so do their patterns on how they look at information and use the site. You need to try to think like someone looking for the information you’ve collected, and attempt to match how they will be approaching your content.

If you are shooting for high traffic numbers, you should never take the easy way in information presentation. You should never do things to your first instinct, either — sit back with a piece of paper and a pencil and come up with layout ideas. Then figure out how to pull them off.

There’s a lot I can say about this particular topic as well, but that is also for another day.

So that’s about it. I wanted to talk about myself, brag, and give some advice. You know, the usual. I feel sort of like someone without a face on the site these days, since I’ve stepped away from writing any sort of news content and just stick to dry guides. This article is a breather for me.

I wrote the first half of this two weeks ago and forgot about it. The advice above is something to remember, and is something I will be greatly expanding on sometime within the next two weeks to help my fellow guide writers. There’s a lot to say on guide writing well, and there is always room for improvement on top of any formula. So, uh, do it.