Coming up is our first annaversery and I need some help. Along with a new design there will be a handful of new sections to the site, the more assistance I get the more I can create. Right now Im flat out primarily on miscellaneous things that involve managing the site, getting more visitors and writing the current content.

There are no newsletters going out, no reviews to launch a review section and not enough user submissions. I hope this will change with the official request for help on the front page.

Is there anyone willing to volunteer time to Economical Gamer? You can choose what you do, and what level of involvment you have.  The site is growing in popularity and it should be a good basis for anyone who wants to some day get paid for writing. Please let us know what you are interested in helping with.

Vacant Volunteer Positions:
Chat room operators    [4/6]    Anthony, NaTHaN`, Cameron, mak404matt
Newsletter operators   [1/4]    Anthony
Writers                [7/10]   Dark Moogle, NaTHaN`, downsys, Belgavion, sagara0510, astarlia, mak404matt
Editors                [2/4]    Dark Moogle, CHWong
Graphic desigers       [3/3]    Anthony, CHWong, Segax
Podcast hosts          [2/5]    Anthony, astarlia
Early catalogue access [1]      Belgavion

Awesome If you want to review something go right ahead. We need to know what game you feel enthusiastic enough about to review so we dont double up and I we need to discuss review schemes.

Im confident the site will pick up. It has huge potential. So far so good, things have unrolled just as planned. Right now the site is compared to small-time amateur hobby sites and while this means we get loads of positive feedback (which is always encouraging), it means the next step is to break that barrier. Over the next 12 months I hope to show people the site mean business.

What Im trying to say is, if you are worried the site wont pick up and your work goes unnoticed; dont be.

I doubt even in 10 years time the site will be making enough revenue to pay writers. Being realistic the most we can hope for are free review copies of games for reviewers (do not hold me to this). If you feel like writing a review at this point Im willing to accept anything. Choose a game and let people know so we dont double up. We should discuss review styles too.

Sure. Wouldn't mind lending a hand.

Just say who should do what, when and how.

Hans.

Well, apart from the fact that it seems that the site is a one man job (what with you being the only one who posts important info currently) I just see the site as in need of some publicity and notice by Aussies and even foreigners. Getting the once in a while link from Kotaku Aus is alright, but most Aussies that read Kotaku skip the Australian version since the US site gets news earlier and has a better comment section. Perhaps making deals with other Australian gaming sites to get linked by them and some more readers just might come flying in.


It sounds like you don't have a very clear idea with how to get this up and started. Might I suggest gathering all possible writers (either for a cup of liquid of some kind or in a big IM chat) and discussing what could/should be done? If newsletters are kept as simple as links to weekly content on the site, I'm sure that even I could do that once a week but then they also appear to be as pointless as Gamespot weekly newsletters.


As I said previously, if you aren't comfortable setting guidelines yourself, you need to have a discussion with the potential writers for the site. That idea only popped into my head because I almost never buy games new, so that window for launch reviews is always missed and it then feels pointless to try. There IS potential for this site, and perhaps keeping to the idea that 'not everyone is buying AAA+ games in the first week' may prove to be a successful idea.


Well odds are I wouldn't be doing anything too drastic as in submitting them to Gamespot/IGN but maybe slimmed down 100-150 word reviews with slightly similar content to other smaller sites wouldn't hurt at first? Again, all just small stupid ideas floating around in my head but you do get these kind of thought looking at various forums around the net.

EDIT: Yea, MSN group chats seem like a good idea. If some people don't want to download/install MSN however might I suggest Digsby? Its an IM program that lets you import lists from all the major programs (MSN, Yahoo etc.)

Hi Anthony,

I'm a gamer from the southside Brisbane area and I am also an occasional blogger in my spare time.

I would be happy to volunteer to help out with your site and to bring it some publicity.

If you need someone to compile newsletters, I can give that a go. Just let me know how often you would like them and what sections of the site it should cover.

I am also good to do reviews for the Nintendo DS which I'm a big fan of. Regarding review styles, perhaps we should develop some kind of review template to make review posting easier. That's just an idea. I'm not really for or against using a template but perhaps we should specify an ideal length.

I do also scour my local EB's/Kmart/whatever for bargains, even though I'm not much of a buyer nowadays since I don't have much time to play.

You can contact me via email on charlsy@gmail.com for now. Cheers.

Wow, looks like this is already attracting a few new users by itself LOL

downsys: We wont get permission to link to larger sites, but they wont mind at all. Although I dont want to do that. The site is going to continue to do what it is now, but will have a few small extras.

CHWong: Ill send out another newsletter soon, make sure you are signed up and give it a read. If you think you could produce stuff like that on a bi-weekly basis then Ill give you the green light.

Nathan: Could you let me know what site you write for and what reviews you wrote? Whats your opinion on a good IRC server?

Everyone concerning reviews: We have a thread about a review template, drop by and leave any opinions. Ill have to put up another discussion about who will do what game reviews.

hey guys i know im just a newbie but i'd love to help out as i think this site is tops.

i've been playing games for over 10 years so i think i can best help out with reviews and/or editing.

i've dabbled a bit in but i don't really have the time to do it anymore.

also if you ever need any forum moderators i'd be happy to help out as i used to moderate a fairly large community over at http://www.jay-chou.net ... if need be i could probably even get a referral from the admin there >.<

but yeah back to the games. i mainly play 360 and PC games. on the 360 i play pretty much anything ranging from FPS to RPG to sports and on the PC its mainly RTS games.

i plan to get a ps3 later this year (prob when MGS4 comes out) and a DS Lite so i might be able to help out in those departments later on.

cheers!