blogging

10 Years of In Third Person: Strength in Numbers?

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This is my car, circa 2011. I took this picture of it before driving it off the lot for the first time. Not long after, I wrote a post about it. It’s not gaming-related, but buying my first brand new car was an event worth celebrating however I wanted.

What happened after that was…unexpected.

Not long after posting, traffic to that post took off. So much so, that it’s still one of my most most popular posts. On one hand, it droves me nuts that this one off-topic post took off, while so many of the gaming posts that I care a lot more about are more deserving of the eyeballs in my opinion. However, it also served a teachable moment with regards to what the numbers can (and can’t) tell you.

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Content Creation and Load Management

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One of the trendiest phrases in NBA jargon is “load management”. This is the practice of forcing healthy players to sit out regular season games as a means of keeping them fresh for the playoffs. Though it’s a touchy subject – as it devalues the NBA season while robbing paying fans of their opportunities to see the best players at times – we’re starting to see the potential benefits in this strategy. Case in point: Kawhi Leonard on the Toronto Raptors this past season.

Coming off the previous season where he only played 9 out of a possible 82 games due to injury, the Toronto Raptors put Kawhi on an aggressive load management program to keep him fresh. Instead of playing all 82 games, he played about 60, while skipping at least one of two games that were scheduled on consecutive days. Kawhi might have been visibly limping by the end of this past season, but he had enough gas in the tank to lead the Raptors to their first ever NBA championship. Though we’ll never know for certain, there’s a chance his body would have broken down prematurely had he played the season in full.

While I am not a superstar basketball player, applying the concept of load management to the way I manage In Third Person may not be a bad idea.

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What’s Happening with In Third Person While I’m Away on Vacation

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On June 9th, Steff and I will going on a trip to Europe! We’ll be enjoying the sights and sounds of London and Paris for a few weeks. Can’t wait to take a vacation!

That said, I can’t leave you alone! Tons of stuff scheduled to make it feel like I’m not gone at all!

  • The website will still have new content going up every day while I’m gone. Two major features will be rolling out: Arcade Week and GameCube Week!
  • As awesome as it would be to live stream from Europe, that’s not happening. Instead, I’ll be scheduling in a number of Twitch Premieres. The schedule is as follows:
    • June 10th, 7pm EST – LOST TAPES: The Show That Became Boss Rush
    • June 12th, 7pm EST – LOST TAPES: NES Classic Mix Featuring Castlevania I and II, Double Dragon II, and Ninja Gaiden!
    • June 14th, 7pm EST – In Third Person Comic Book Show Marathon
    • June 18th, 7pm EST – Board Game Talk Marathon
    • June 20th, 7pm EST – Boss Rush: All Game Show Marathon

      • Side note, if you haven’t already, make sure to follow twitch.tv/xdoublejump and twitch.tv/jsick06! Kris and Rachel over at Double Jump run a fantastic show and they stream multiple times a week. As for Jason, he’s probably going to stream something weird and retro that you haven’t seen before!
  • Social media updates will be…sporadic. I’ll be taking lots of pictures while I’m out there, and I should have regular access to wifi from our accommodations. If I do post, it will probably be light on gaming-related stuff and more heavy on tourism. But hey, I’m no stranger to deviating from my core content strategy in order to indulge in my other personal interests.

Wishing you all the best while I’m out! We’ll catch up when I get back on the 24th!

The Evolution of My Dream Gaming Space

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As a kid, I had this vision for what my dream gaming setup would look like. On one end, a large screen with all of my gaming consoles hooked up to it. On the other end, a nice comfy couch for me and my friends to sit on and enjoy the action. Lined along the walls would be all of my games and gaming memorabilia. Even as an adult, I had it in my mind that I would work towards creating a setup like that someday.

These days, my wife and I are pretty settled into our house. I have the basement as a space to create this gaming den of my dreams. Money is still an issue, but that’s not what’s ultimately stopping me from assembling some version of that dream setup.

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Reviewing Games as an Independent Content Creator

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I’m in the midst of writing my review for Mortal Kombat 11. Taking a moment to reflect on what I’d written thus far, it was over 1,000 words long, with the vast majority of it being focused on a handful of new gameplay adjustments that I find really cool. Whether I keep it all or not, being my own boss here at In Third Person gives me the wiggle room to approach my evaluation of the game in any way I so choose.

Having that freedom is really important to me with regards to the work I do here. While reviews are a staple of the video game content mix, I also find them to be a chore. Especially when you’re writing them with the goal of covering every aspect of what a game has to offer so that your readers can make an informed purchasing decision. It’s an unnatural way to consume and write about games that can really wear someone down over time. If it’s a game you don’t like, the strain to complete the game and review is amplified further.

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The Hannie Corner and I Team Up for “Navigating Written and Video Content”

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Are you a blogger looking to make the jump into video content? Maybe you’ve already made the leap and want to trade war stories? Or maybe you’re just interested in the process of creators transitioning from one medium to another? Hannie from The Hannie Corner and I have the post for you!

In “Navigating Written and Video Content“, we go in-depth on our experiences as bloggers going through this process. We share our motivations for getting in front of the camera, a number of the production challenges we face, as well as a few words of wisdom. It was a pleasure working with Hannie on this, and you should head over to her site for the full story!

Head over to The Hannie Corner for “Navigating Written and Video Content“!

10 Years of In Third Person: The Post That Changed Everything

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About a year after I started the site, I bought a PlayStation 3. It was the first Sony console I had ever owned and I took some time to write my impressions of the hardware at the start. The piece has an odd flow to it, as I spend most of the time nitpicking at its issues before trying to sweep it under the rug at the end by saying my overall impressions were positive. Not at all my best or most personal piece of work.

But on a special day in 2010, it became the single biggest turning point for In Third Person.

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Closing Out 2018

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As the clock strikes midnight tonight, we will bid farewell to 2018. It’s been an eventful one for the In Third Person experience, as I made great strides in expanding beyond the site. Here a few noteworthy things that went down this year!

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Off-Topic: Time Capsule Blog Idea

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Many years ago, while looking at my blog’s publishing options, thought it’d be a cool idea to start a blog and write posts that wouldn’t get published until 100 years from now. I’d write about my life and the happenings of the early 2000s and beyond, and when the 2100s hits, this random time capsule blog will start publishing posts out of the blue, detailing life as it were 100 years ago. There something romantic to the idea that I love. However, the idea is heavily dependent on these blogging mechanisms of today still working a century from now. Say what you will about the major blogging players today, but who the heck knows what will exist tomorrow? Oh well, one can dream.

In Third Person’s 10 Steps to Video Game Blogging Success

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Welcome to the wonderful world of video game blogging. Though there are millions of video game blogs out there and millions more to come, there’s always room for you to join the party. I don’t have any stats to back this up, but I’m fairly certain that most blogs live a relatively short life, garnering at best a handful of visits a day until the blog owner gets bored of writing. If you have no long-term aspirations for your blog, then leaving it to die after a few weeks or months is fine. With that said, if you have visions of your blog being the next Kotaku, or using your blog as a stepping-stone to work at a blog like Kotaku, you probably don’t want to run the blog that has no readers and stays that way until you eventually abandon it.

In Third Person is not on the level of a Kotaku, Joystiq or Destructoid, but I’ve been able to achieve a certain level of success in the few years I’ve been doing this. To celebrate reaching 100,000 visits, I thought I’d share In Third Person’s secrets to success with you.

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