Malaysian Gamer Is 3 Years Old! Hallelujah!

It's time for a nostalgia post. Today, Malaysian Gamer is 3 years old. What started out as my very own foray into video games writing is now well... still just that but with a lot more promise than I ever imagined it would have had in the beginning. There's something really good here.



When I first mooted the idea of starting up a video game website(and it was never planned to be a blog, it was just that the format of a blog at that moment was convenient), I didn't do much promotion in terms of spreading the word. I just wrote... and I wrote as much as I could. Over the years, I believe I've improved on my writing and really narrowed down into a writing style and review format that I think people would enjoy reading and allow for people to scan through reviews(if they want to) without resorting to the arbitrary review score. I'm quite happy with the feedback regarding our review format. Anyway, as an outline of what we are and what we hope to achieve in the future, below are some pretty important points highlighted.


What Is Malaysian Gamer?
Malaysian Gamer is all about bringing you news, reviews and previews of video games in a unique, personal, off beat style(which I think I've developed over the years). Most important bit... we're honest. We always ask the question if we enjoyed playing a game regardless of how we got a game(publishers/distributers) or the amount of hype a game got prior to release. We are not bound by any publisher or distributor to say nice things about their products. We tell it how we think it is.

The focus of a write up will always be on the experience of playing the game although this can't be avoided for technical games like strategy games etc. We'll have to dig in to the mechanics to make explaining the experience of playing the game make any sense at all to the reader. We'd have to go through countless hours of reading manuals, playing tutorials, or just plain trying things out all for the sake of giving you an opinion that holds its weight.

We're also trying new things with Youtube videos and play throughs of games. Writing and the deliberation of composing your thoughts needs time. Video's are more spontaneous. The reason I started doing First Play videos is so that you guys and gals have content to see about a game, before I have done a proper write up of it. I definetely need more practise with this and Leo's helping out a lot in this aspect for the site.

I'm a very open minded person and I'm open to new ideas. You might see us try new things from time to time. Give us feedback about what you thought about it. Either here in the blog comments or on our Facebook fan page.

What We Hope To Achieve In The Future
 Having went for the Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 launch events, covering gaming events is certainly something we would like to do more. Giving you more of a local flavour... what's happening in Malaysia. Getting to meet some of the community and fellow journalists was fun and exciting... certainly looking forward to more of it.

While I've been running this blog revenue free( the Google Ads are there just for show), monetising the blog is something we are looking into. Revenue is important. It helps us expand, get more games, give back to the community and improve the blog even more. However, I can assure you that ads or other revenue generating methods wont involve inconveniencing you, the reader, or ruin the readibility of the blog.

I'm opposed to the idea of Ad Sense because it's a little misleading. The whole idea of tricking you into clicking on them, expecting it to be just a normal link is to me.... unethical. Ad methods such as these are out of the question. Subcription is also not going to be considered since I want all content to be available for everyone. Everyone is equal, there wont be elite blog readers.

Console Land
I'm still holding back console news on the blog since that would require a bit of a redesign. Console news is now being done by Edison, and at the moment, he is updating the Facebook page with console stuff. I'll slowly be adding them into the blog this coming year.

Merchandising
Making cool T-shirts and other merchandise is one avenue we are looking into. It might not be the main way we gain revenue and I definetely want Malaysian Gamer to be something people would be proud to be associated with before making merchandise a feature. We might start with a limited number of units at first and see if there's demand for them before we fully commit to producing them in larger quantities.


What We'll Never Be
This section of my post is rather important. I know most anniversary posts always focus on what the site is with no hard writen statement on what they won't be. I'd like to stress that our emphasis will always be on the content. We might take a while putting them out there, but I make sure they're interesting and up to the quality bar I've set for this blog.

We'll never do sponsored posts(something quite common with other more commercial blogs). Content should never be advertisements. Ads will be limited to specific areas(I haven't decided exactly where yet, or when I'll be implementing ads on the blog) and it will be clear that they are ads.

We'll also never expect you guys to spam Facebook or Twitter in the pretext of any contest just for the sake of marketing the site. If you like what you read and what the site stands for, tell your friends. We aren't going to make you do it any other way. Help us out spread the word if you like what you read.

We're also avoiding cliched blog posts. Top 10 posts will be kept to a minimum and we certainly will not post news that are pure specultion. Rumours from unnamed sources and such dont belong at Malaysian Gamer.


Malaysian Gamer's 10 Commandments

1) Content Always Holds Precedence Over Everything Else(delay a write up just to make sure its got quality)

2) We'll never use cheap ways of making money off of our readers

3) Always try to be quirky, funny, and plain different. Whichever way we can.

4) Do unto as you would have them do unto you. Respect the reader! We won't spam people on social media just to get cheap hits on the site.

5) Always speak the truth. Tell it exactly the way we thought about something. No hiding behind shifty language to mask a crap game.

6) Simplicity in design. We'll never want the blog to be bloated with a bunch of plugins or crap. Keep it simple stupid.

7) Always open to new ideas and trying new creative ways of expressing our thoughts

8) Quality! Quality! Quality! Always look to the best and strive to do better

9) Indie games rock! There'll always be a place for them at Malaysian Gamer

10) Have fun!!! fun!! fun!!! Friday...Friday...erm... Well there's no point in writing about video games if we didn't have a passion for them. We love games! And we love writing and talking about them.


I couldn't have done it without you... the readers of this blog. Thanks for the encouraging words, those has kept me going at this for 3 years now. I know the effort was worth it when people tell me they like what they read. Thank you. And thank you to the publishers and developers who have given us a chance to review your games. We are open to criticism as well and would take any feedback to make Malaysian Gamer the best damn Malaysian gaming blog! To the future! NYAAAAAAAAAN!