Well I will have to put my New York travel blog on a hold for a minute, because this acquires my immediate attention. In this blog Yoda asked for feedback about what he should do next. One of the more popular demands was a forum.
In this blog I shall try to give a detailed vision of a possible future of Insert Coin. My vision is not the end all vision I will require feedback of all of you. With your feedback my vision can hopefully become something bigger, something that encompass all of us.
The key difference between Insert Coin and all the other Internet sites like Gamespot, is that Insert Coin is ours while in Gamespot we are mere guests. So in practical terms this means that all of you guys have a say, so please use it. This is our home, so let’s make it a home we will all enjoy.
The Daily Gamer
As I explained before, my idea is the newspaper idea. Inspired by my sister’s idea to name our site like a newspaper, like the Gaming Times, Gaming Tribunal and so forth, she also mentioned that the name should be exactly the same (size, letter type, logo, ect.) as the real one. For instance the name the Gaming Time will look exactly like the New York Times.
Than it hit me like Fedor hit Timmeh, we could take the idea even further. Why stop at the name? Why not make a whole newspaper? We could just rip of the design of a newspaper and post gaming news. Which would make sense, because at Insert Coin we are posting news, and what are newspapers used for? Yep, they are used for news! It fits together like 4 dicks in Jenna Jameson’s arse.
How will it look?
Well aesthetically it will look like a common newspaper, but “gamer-ised”. It could look like a gamer version of New York Times or perhaps another newspaper. Some examples below, I decided to link them because they are huge.
paper version
web version
My personal favourite is the Daily Planet. For the people who have not been in the civilized world (in other words Australia) the Daily Planet is a fictional newspaper from the Superman comics. 
The Daily Planet (We could make a sick gamer version of this)
I will take the Daily Planet as an example. First we shall change the name in Gaming Planet. The planer logo shall be changed to look more like the guy below. The contents will naturally be about gaming and not Superman, well unless it is about Superman 64 (I threw up a little just now). Of course the Gaming Planet will have multiple pages and the index at the bottom could be clickable so you can skip there on the push of the button.
Replace the planet in "Daily Planet" with this guy
We could have different kinds of pages. The front page will be about the biggest news of the day. We could make a separate Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and PC page. The sky is the limit.
The final step that we can take is editorials. We could have Punk write about why 2D is better than 3D. Vader could explain why he likes games with retarded stories (Metal Gear and Resident Evil) and GG could make a blog about movies no one cares about.
All in all we shall have an electronic newspaper about gaming.
How will the site look?
Well the homepage will be the newspaper. Pure and simple, below the newspaper will be a comment section where you are able to comment on the news. This comment section will be pretty much the same what we have now. In the newspaper and under the title there will be links to the forum, reviews and blogs. These linked places shall all have the newspaper motive. The forums can be divided by gaming and non gaming. So everything will have the newspaper motive.
How will it work?
Let me first explain to some of you guys how updating news works in the present. The news team scours the Internet to find news. When found we make a title, if needed a subtitle for more clarification and finally the html is copied. Further tasks are deciding if the news is big which will give it a yellow colour, and if it is a Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft exclusive which will give it a Red, Blue and Green frame respectively.
This is what it looks like now.
But this method will have to change significantly. Only writing a title and subtitle would make a crappy newspaper. We need to write a short paragraph or two and perhaps add a picture too. For instance after finding news we need to write a short summary what the news is about and link to the source. This way the reader knows the news and if he is interested in more he/she can click on the link that will directly take him/her to the source.
Another example is posting pictures pictures. Most sites have a huge number of screenshots. It would be pointless to post them all. A better idea is the post the more beautiful ones and maybe a short description of the game, if it is not very well known, and if the reader is interested he or she can click the link that will directly take them to the source.
The last example I want to give is a trailer and videos. Trailers and videos will be embedded (we are an electronic newspaper after all) and again some short amount of info will be given for the more unknown games.
So in short it will look like this. We have a title and some additional info that must be filled in like: platform (360, PS3, Wii, PC, DS, PSP) and perhaps release date. Than text must be written with the options of adding pictures and videos. The last part is the link to the source of the news.
How will we work together?
Making a news articles does not make a newspaper. This here shall be the most difficult part, the collaboration. All we got until this point is a bunch of individual news articles. We need some one to put them all together. What we need is an editor. The editor’s job is to structure all the articles to make it look like a newspaper. The editor decides what goes where and how. For instance the editor decides what will go on the front page.
This means that the people writing the articles will have to be on a deadline. After they are done, the editor takes all the articles and gives them a proper place. After he is done the newspaper of the day will be finished and the process starts over again for the next day. This means that we need to be able to work together effectively, here are some options.
All-by-one
Each day one guy does the news. The same guy shall act as the editor too. Advantage that it is easy to organize, but there is a big disadvantage, the newspaper will vary significantly between different editors.
All-for-one
We have several writers who look for news each day. One might do various sites of platforms. We could have an IGN dude, a GameSpot Retard etc. Or we could do like Nintendo guy, Sony Guy and so forth. Than the editor collects all the articles and produces a newspaper. Disadvantage is that all the writers have to look for news every day, but per day they have to do less work. Advantage is that the quality remains constant. The editor stays the editor, the Nintendo guy does the Nintendo news, each of our strengths will be used in making the newspaper.
Two-for-one
This is a combination of the previous two. Each day a different writer does the news, while the editor is always the same person every day. The advantages are that it is easier than the All-for-one method and the newspaper will vary less than the All-by-one method. Disadvantages are that the consistency is lower than All-for-one and it is harder than All-by-one.
We could use any of these methods of collaboration, or maybe some one has an even better idea, but nothing has to be decided yet.
Okay it admit it look cool, but are there any other advantages?
Well I am glad I asked. There are various advantages. Many people have complained that the news in Insert Coin is a bit chaotic, with a newspaper design you shall have a better oversight. Plus you can read immediately what the news is about without having to click on it, like you do now. So basically it will function like a real newspaper. Another complaint is that we have way too much news; hardly anyone read it all. In the newspaper we shall have less news than we have now, but the individual stories shall be much more detailed than just a title and sub-title. Another advantage is that it forces the newshound to read the news they are actually posting, I will admit that I self have sometimes only skimped an article. This will all lead to higher quality.
There is a disadvantage though. The newspaper will be released once a day and there shall not be updates per minute like we have now. All the news that is found after that shall be published in the next newspaper. But a small price to pay for all the other positive points.
So in short, we shall be more ordered, more pretty, easier to read for the lazy and we shall be updated once a day.
Is this not a bit too ambitious?
Well perhaps you are right, but this blog is about the long term vision and not something we have to do immediately. Maybe we shall never reach the goal, but at least we have a goal to work to. Maybe we will only get halfway or fail completely, but it is better than nothing.But remember the plan is to go slowly but surely.
Plan? What Plan?
Well it is not possible to immediately start to implement our plan, because we would fail harder than Ozzy will fail a drug test. Yoda is busy with marrying Steels sister, we have no artist to make the newspaper design and finally we have no experience running a newspaper across the net. So the best plan is to implement stuff slowly and surely. Small changes shall be made, than we test it out, and if satisfied the next change will be implemented. This is the plan
Step 1: creation of the forums and starting to write news stories.
This step has to be taken even if we decide against the newspaper idea. We need a forum for discussions and people are already drowning in the news. The schedule of news shall remain the same, but we shall make a short summery for each news story. The quantity of the news will decrease, but the quality shall increase. We shall not have any structure or newspaper yet in this step.
Step 2: Decide about the newspaper idea and decide on the collaboration
This shall be a difficult one. We need to decide what kind of collaboration we want, who shall be the editor, who shall be the news writers and what the deadline shall be.
Step 3: Implement the plan
This shall be the test of step 2; we shall have our news ordered in importance and topic wise. Still it shall not have a newspaper look yet. First we shall test if the collaboration works, if not back to step 2. Otherwise to step 4:
Step 4: Implement the aesthetic design
We shall need to find an art editor who will make all the news aesthetically like a paper. This step is not a really big one, it just making step 3 prettier.
Step 5: Decide on editorials and implement them
If we have passed step 4, we should be pleased with our self’s, but we could take it further. Each day we could let one of us write an editorial about gaming. It could be about 2D gaming, or why you like a certain game or it could be an epic rant, Whatever.
Step 6: Be professional
After gaming companies see how awesome we are, they will want to advertise on our site. We shall sell our souls for moneybags. We could have an advertisement page for our sponsors, and we shall swim in money.
Step 7: Get trophy wife(s)
But what to do with all the money, well yes get some one to spend it. That’s why we shall each marry a model that shall spent all our money and seed! The real rich one's shall have an extra lover on the side, that will also spent you money and probably give you a STD.
Step 8: Break up
Than we will find out that we are not paid equally. Jealousy will set in causing the site to shake on its very foundations. Gamingeek will be fired like Jeff and the whole site will turn into crap. After a year everyone is left leaving the site dead.
Feedback Please!
So that’s all folks, please let me know if you agree or not, and if there are any changes you would like to make. Speak up the future of our trophy wives depends on it.
Disclaimer: Some people might think I have insulted them accidentaly. Nothing could be further from the truth, all the insults were intentional. For the guys not insulted I hereby apologize and I will do my best to insult you in the future.
Main issues:
News write-ups
Right now GG Weekly is an aggregate of news. We're collecting news that already has been reported, reporting on the report would be pointless.
What I suggest is a weekly front page that is styled after a newspaper. This would contain the most important news of the week with a more opionated slant to the reporting. This could go along with a main editorial piece for the week.
Editors
This heavily depends on our format with the news and editorials. There should be writers who submit editorials and news write-ups to editors. I think we need an Editorials Editor who proof-reads, edits and publishes the editorials, and News Editor who does the same for the weekly news page (if that's the format we use).
Steps
The steps are mostly on my end, and on the technical side the order isn't going to work. What's going to happen is I'm going to have a big update for the transition once we have the idea in place, then improvements go from there.
GG Weekly
This leaves GG Weekly in limbo. From feedback the amazing aggregate work you guys all do is the centrepiece here. I think you've dismissed it a bit too quickly, though I understand your point.
The newspaper idea sounds cool, but it also sounds like a lot of work. I'm happy to help post news articles in GG Weekly since it's pretty fast and easy, but writing news articles isn't my cup of tea, so I won't be able to help out there. I'm too busy with school anyway.
A forum sounds like a good idea if it can be done easily. I'm sure that's a big reason why some of the Gamespot faithfuls won't post here now.
Proof
http://www.gamerzines.com/360zine/
^^^Go to site and download an issue.
Also come on even Gamingeek said that he dislikes this sites name.
@GG
Better start reading soon, or else!
@Punk
Well the name "Gaming Planet" sounds better than Insert Coin, don't you think?
Hmm, magazine format also a good idea, will check out Superplay and N64 magazine for inspiration. These magazines had a sick style.
@Ravenprose
Well you might be right, but be not so quick to judge just yet! First this newspaper idea is long term and who when we will implement it. And second who knows how many writers we will have when we implement it.
And maybe we will implement something else. I understand your concern is my biggest too.
@Darth
Thanks, I can't wait to get my trophy wife
@Yoda
Kept the best for the last. I am glad you like the logo, it is stolen fron N64 magazine, the best magazine ever!
Thoughts about you issues
News write-ups
I was thinking doing like GG does when he discusses something. He just copy paste the most important part of the text. For instance if we do a review of IGN, we just copy the conclusion.
About your idea, well maybe we could do only a front that shows the week most important news. This will lighten the workload. Not sure about writing an opinionated slant. I like us to remain a bit more neutral, but I would like to hear more about it!
Editors
Yee, this will be a bitch to handle. We also need reliable people, not quiting when you do not feel like it, like hapened with the news update. Urgh I worry the most about the organisation and mentality.
Steps
Okay, yea you are the technical guy, but watch out changing to fast might work from your side, but the people updating might have problems. So that's why I suggested small steps so that we can easily adopt.
GG weekly
Well Gaming Planet will replace GG weekly, but I have another idea now.
The front will be newspaper-like and contain the weeks/day most important news, the rest will contain all the other news and will kinda be inspired by advertisements page in a newspaper
2. Does JJ even do anal? I haven't seen it. Link or it didn't happen.
3. Having the front page look like a newspaper is cool idea but in practicallity there is too much news per day on insert coin to have that layout. Essentially all we post is headlines, we would then have to start writing blurbs to fill up the space and make it look like a newspaper. We would need a combination of headline stories with blurbs and listed news in a bar on the other side of the front page.
4. Hey, The Gaming Planet was my idea. Yours was the Gaming Times. I also thought up the The Gaming Globe. Now my e-penis has diminished!
5. We can't just rip the old N64 mags guy. Maybe we could rip the globe from the Wii weather/news? Or have one of the planetoids from mario galaxy there?
6. Editorials are what I would want to dig into, but we would have to schedule them and space them out and have a team to arrange things. Otherwise what you have is front page blogs that everyone posts randomly and talk over each other.
7. "A better idea is the post the more beautiful pic" this is what I used to do on the old GGWeekly at 1up along with descriptions and blurbs for things that needed explaining. I think one screen, then the link to more.
8. I like the idea of embedded videos but unless a source actively encourages embedding their own videos like ign or gamekyo, I can't back ripping their videos and having them here as our own.
9. Having a release date would be a bit pointless as often there isn't a set date and often it changes.
10. The front page idea is good, but then it follows that there should be a second page. Perhaps an arrow you can click in the corner tab to turn the page over and it peels over in a cool effect. Again though the problem is that with the volume of news we post, literally every day would be stuffed with this format.
11. Doing content on a daily basis is unfeasible, editorially. We all have other commitments and content would just be passed over for the next best thing. I would have no more than two editorials per week, maybe even one and have a steady stream from different writers.
12. Having different people cover sites will make it ridiculously easy for some and ridiculously hard for others. Also who decides who covers what platforms? There would be a fight over who does what. The e-peni would fight like sabres clashing in the night.
13. I really like the idea of putting everything up in one update for a daily edition. At the same time though given the nature of the internet, our news would become old news while other sites would update immediately. The way newspapers work it would be like posting about yesterdays news today. I'm conflicted on this one.
STEP 1 Agreed on all counts, I think we've all been moving towards this, forums etc.
STEP 2 This is going to be difficult. The collaberation you are talking about is hard enough if you work in the same office, I know from experience, in fact I'm doing it now professionally. It took a few weeks to even get people here to give me the right info to form a posting schedule.
I would be fired like Jeff?? I wouldn't last long. I just don't see it as very feasible. I love this whole plan but it is exceedingly ambitious given our resources. It's the kind of thing that requires a dedicated team in one office, being paid and having access to all the latest games and companies if you really want to pull it off well. Yodariquo is the only coding guy here and putting all this on him, seems harsh.
I can't even manage to get info and arrange on online smash bros match with you guys as you dont even get me the info I need after repeated requests. In an editorial situation I can't just shout across the room to people or phone you. Collaboration takes dedication and things like HiRes disappearing just emphasises that to me.
NOW I WILL READ ALL THE COMMENTS
1.Legally can we copy or mimmick the look of a popular newspaper?
2. Does JJ even do anal? I haven't seen it. Link or it didn't happen.
3. Having the front page look like a newspaper is cool idea but in practicallity there is too much news per day on insert coin to have that layout. Essentially all we post is headlines, we would then have to start writing blurbs to fill up the space and make it look like a newspaper. We would need a combination of headline stories with blurbs and listed news in a bar on the other side of the front page.
4. Hey, The Gaming Planet was my idea. Yours was the Gaming Times. I also thought up the The Gaming Globe. Now my e-penis has diminished!
5. We can't just rip the old N64 mags guy. Maybe we could rip the globe from the Wii weather/news? Or have one of the planetoids from mario galaxy there?
6. Editorials are what I would want to dig into, but we would have to schedule them and space them out and have a team to arrange things. Otherwise what you have is front page blogs that everyone posts randomly and talk over each other.
7. "A better idea is the post the more beautiful pic" this is what I used to do on the old GGWeekly at 1up along with descriptions and blurbs for things that needed explaining. I think one screen, then the link to more.
8. I like the idea of embedded videos but unless a source actively encourages embedding their own videos like ign or gamekyo, I can't back ripping their videos and having them here as our own.
9. Having a release date would be a bit pointless as often there isn't a set date and often it changes.
10. The front page idea is good, but then it follows that there should be a second page. Perhaps an arrow you can click in the corner tab to turn the page over and it peels over in a cool effect. Again though the problem is that with the volume of news we post, literally every day would be stuffed with this format.
11. Doing content on a daily basis is unfeasible, editorially. We all have other commitments and content would just be passed over for the next best thing. I would have no more than two editorials per week, maybe even one and have a steady stream from different writers.
12. Having different people cover sites will make it ridiculously easy for some and ridiculously hard for others. Also who decides who covers what platforms? There would be a fight over who does what. The e-peni would fight like sabres clashing in the night.
13. I really like the idea of putting everything up in one update for a daily edition. At the same time though given the nature of the internet, our news would become old news while other sites would update immediately. The way newspapers work it would be like posting about yesterdays news today. I'm conflicted on this one.
STEP 1 Agreed on all counts, I think we've all been moving towards this, forums etc.
STEP 2 This is going to be difficult. The collaberation you are talking about is hard enough if you work in the same office, I know from experience, in fact I'm doing it now professionally. It took a few weeks to even get people here to give me the right info to form a posting schedule.
I would be fired like Jeff?? I wouldn't last long. I just don't see it as very feasible. I love this whole plan but it is exceedingly ambitious given our resources. It's the kind of thing that requires a dedicated team in one office, being paid and having access to all the latest games and companies if you really want to pull it off well. Yodariquo is the only coding guy here and putting all this on him, seems harsh.
I can't even manage to get info and arrange on online smash bros match with you guys as you dont even get me the info I need after repeated requests. In an editorial situation I can't just shout across the room to people or phone you. Collaboration takes dedication and things like HiRes disappearing just emphasises that to me.
NOW I WILL READ ALL THE COMMENTS
"We're collecting news that already has been reported, reporting on the report would be pointless." tell that to CVG
I agree that we are an aggregate news gatherer at the moment, but a proper site would have to write a bit more. A lot of websites report on reported news. In fact everyone does it really. It's a lot of work and that's the balance you need to strike between more news and less news that it highlighted better.
"What I suggest is a weekly front page that is styled after a newspaper. This would contain the most important news of the week with a more opionated slant to the reporting. This could go along with a main editorial piece for the week."
Not sure what you mean on opinionated slant but this idea is a more acheivable to me.
I'm currently the features editor on a local magazine we are putting out, that covers all of the roles that Yo speaks of, but it's a little more involved than that even and people might be annoyed by having their articles re-arranged or re-written.
GGWeekly would have to die unfortunately. With forums and a more focused news function we would have a better site but GGWeekly would become pointless. I'm not oppossed to that, I would have been a while ago but it was set up for a specific function and things change.
OVERALL
I suppose I like the idea presentationally of a news paper like look, I like the idea of a name change and a logo, I'm all about branding stuff like I do with my sigs etc.
I think there has to be a balance of content and tight organisation. I suppose what I would do is have a front page that constantly updates with major news stories highlighted/stickied and by that I mean in bigger boxes with descriptions and small pics/backgrounds. The daily news would still update super fast in a small bar at the side just with headline links as we have at the moment but smaller.
Then space for a single editorial per week that would update on the monday and have room for comments at the bottom.
We could still use presentational updates on reviews and we can start doing rolling previews, which is sort of like an updated blog like format that tells our impressions as we play through a game for the first time. Almost like a diary preview.
I think we need to really put some emphasis on blogs as users like control of their own personal spaces. Put in an about you section, allow people to control the type face, colours etc, put in their own banners/permanent pics etc. Start rating their games.