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It's nearing two full weeks since E3 2014 came and went. To say it was another productive year of news posts might be a bit of an understatement.
Naturally, that didn't include the handful of additional news pieces I posted after that image was taken but you get the idea. It was an exhausting week. Not only did I try to keep up to date with the news as it was announced but finding direct feed trailers is always a trip.
Here's a brief bit of what it was like to post news during E3 (and usually for posting any news here).
Step 1 - The Forums
- Gather the information and type up a headline.
- Give the headline a once over (maybe change it later if I don't like how it reads) and then checking for spelling errors (and I usually end up missing a lot of them).
- Hit TAB to begin typing up the body of the news. In the case of the E3 news, it was typically just one or two lines during the rush.
- Seek out the direct feed videos from official channels. In the case of the E3 content those would be from PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and EA. The problem with Ubisoft and EA is the fact that a lot of their video releases aren't always up on their base channels given how many different studio channels and specific game channels they have. It's a bit annoying.
- I usually manually type in the CENTER and VIDEO vB tags, and just as the case is with the headline, I don't always type those tags correctly prior to submitting.
- If there are quotes or feature lists, I typically wrap those in the INDENT tags to set them off from the other content of the post. During E3, I didn't have time to do this but I usually try to find a static image to use for the banner image of a news post. This is for a few reasons.
First off, an image catches the reader's eye a bit more than if there was no image.
Secondly, if it's a post with just a video, the video takes the place of an image thumbnail on the main page. Unfortunately, if every post on the main page contains only a video, it makes the main page load really slowly. This happened during E3 and I had to temporarily cut back on how many stories showed up on the main index as a result. Video only news posts also don't translate well to social media posts. Images will show up as preview images on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ without issue. Again, it's a bit that catches the eye and may entice people to click and read the full article. If it's a text or a video only post, there is no eye-grabbing image. - I give it a quick once over to make sure it looks alright. I do less of a check during rush periods such as E3.
- I then have to click down in the TAGS area (since hitting TAB doesn't work for that in vBulletin for quite some time, though it used to). I try to think up some relevant tags to include, but I try to stick to commonly used tags that I've used in the past here. Obviously in the case of E3, each company or platform had specific E3 tags (ex: sony e3 2014).
I type each tag manually for almost every news post here, including the ones posted during E3. In fact, some I don't type manually are the ones for CS:GO updates. Since there are so many of those, I keep those in an easily accessible .txt file. I also have some common tags handy that are site specific (ex: "tgn, csn, csnation, cs-nation, total gaming network, totalgamingnetwork, etc.) for when I post exclusive content like videos, reviews, etc. I do throw in a few additional tags that are not as common when they fit and may be used in future news posts. - I then submit the news as a new thread in the forums. If I'm still oblivious to any spelling or grammatical errors, I then click on "PROMOTE TO ARTICLE" to begin the second major step of posting news.
Step 2 - vBulletin CMS
- Welcome to the vBulletin CMS page for Total Gaming Network! This is what I see after hitting "PROMOTE TO ARTICLE" on a news piece from the forums.
- I have manually edited a few default variables so that some of the settings on the right are set to what I want by default. Typically, "PUBLISHED" is defaulted to "NO" for some stupid reason. There were some other default settings that I had to invert just to make my life easier, but I cannot recall what all those were off hand at the moment. If I didn't change these settings to defaults that I need, I would have to manually change them for each news post. That would suck after a while.
- The TITLE and SEO URL ALIAS are automatically filled in from the forum post I made previously. The same thing for the HTML Title TAG (bottom right), Meta Description, and Meta Keywords. Unfortunately, those defaults typically suck and I have to change those.
- The first thing I do on this page is click on TAGS (top left). I then paste in the list of tags that I made for the forum news post of the news in the previous steps. From there I also paste those same tags in the Meta Keywords section after the last automatic one the system thinks is worthwhile.
- I then select the news SECTION when appropriate. It defaults to News as that is where most of the news is posted. After that, I select the appropriate platforms based on the type of news I'm talking about. In the example, Shovel Knight would get checkmarks next to "Nintendo" since it's on Wii U and 3DS, "Multi" since it's on multiple platforms, and "PC" since it's also on PC. In cases talking about Linux releases, I typically include those under the catch all "Other" category.
- Once the categories are selected, I type up a new Meta Description for the news. This is usually unique and typically includes a line or two of very specific information relevant to the news without giving everything away (if I can help it).
- I take that new Meta Description and I open up the TGN & CSN Google+ page if it's not open already. See, we have automatic feeds set up to push our news to Facebook and Twitter already. Nothing exists (that I'm aware of) that will do the same for Google+, so I have to do that manually for every single piece of news posted. So, what I do is copy the Meta Description from before and paste that as the body of the G+ post.
- Once that's pasted, I click on "SAVE" at the top of the CMS news post and it publishes it to the main page!
- I then copy the URL for the CMS news and paste it into the still un-posted G+ post. The problem here is that right after I submit the news, it typically doubles up on the SEO URL ALIAS section, so I have to selectively copy the URL before it repeats.
An example of what I mean is this. Look at the above image. It's for the Shovel Knight trailer. The moment I hit SAVE it takes me directly to the news post I just made. The URL reads:This is still a valid URL and will work. In fact, everything after the number in the URL does not matter. It's just for SEO purposes and it makes it easier for people to know the basic content of the news post if they're looking at the URL elsewhere on the web.Code:http://totalgamingnetwork.com/content.php?1414-This-is-the-Shovel-Knight-Launch-Trailer-This-is-the-Shovel-Knight-Launch-Trailer
Sure, I could copy and paste the full thing since it does not matter in the least, but I like to keep things a bit tidy. In the example above, I manually select it so that it reads simplyand paste that into the Google+ post. That additional bit on the URL disappears after I navigate away, so it's a total non-issue, just one of those little quirks of the CMS system.Code:http://totalgamingnetwork.com/content.php?1414-This-is-the-Shovel-Knight-Launch-Trailer
I don't know why it does it since it doesn't show up like that at any other time. - I submit the new post on Google+ and that, as they say, is that.
For those keeping count at home, that means that I do two main postings for each news item on the site. And then I do the additional manual posting on Google+ for each news item I post here. Now, imagine having to do that for 100+ items over about three days for E3. It was and will continue to be an incredibly exhausting period. Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, and even PAX are sometimes just as hectic.
Why don't I simply cut my work in half and post a new article directly to CMS? Well, when I do that a few things happen and none of them are good.
If I posted first to CMS, I do have the ability to have it automatically create a discussion thread on the forums. That would be great!... except that it doesn't bring over the actual content of the CMS article as the first post for that discussion thread. All it does is say something akin to "Shawn Zipay posted a new article. Click here to view it" and it's just a link that takes you back to the main page. That's just terrible. I like giving you guys options and not having to force you to post with the main page interface if you don't want to.
Secondly, if I posted first to CMS, every single section would have their forum comment threads in one area and one area only. That means main page news about Battlefield or Call of Duty would have forum threads in line with non-game specific news pieces. And yet again, those would all be completely worthless since the OP for each of those threads would just be a link back to CMS. Lame, right? I think so too.
Upcoming Reviews? Let's Plays?
So, what's next for content on Total Gaming Network now that E3 2014 has come and gone? Well, now that I finally have some free time again, I will be getting the review up for Among the Sleep. I would have loved to have gotten it done prior to E3 but it just didn't happen. I then did not want to get it up during E3 since 1) It wasn't done yet and 2) It'd have gotten lost in all of the E3 news.
I am also working on a review for Wildstar, but don't expect that one for a while yet. It's another MMO and those take time, a lot of it. I'm still just playing it and haven't even started to write anything for it yet.
I've also thought about some of the "let's play" type videos that I haven't done in forever. I know I need to play and finish The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead Season 2 as I know I'm a couple of Episodes behind in both of those now. I just have a few issues with those videos.
I could either play and record those videos the day that a new Episode is released and get the content out mere hours later (provided editing, encoding, and uploading go smoothly). I have an issue with that because it's not typically fair to developers since it removes some of the incentive for some people to get the game and play it for themselves first.
Not only that, but that's what everybody else on YouTube does. My videos would merely get lost in the shuffle. I don't have some sort of persona with a quirk that entices people to want to watch my videos. I don't have some damn Bro Army, I don't squeal, I don't act like a child. Simply put, I don't have a schtick that would bring viewers. Because of that, it's just a bit disheartening that I can put so much effort into making a video that only gets a few views.
I know I can't have it both ways. I also know that even if I wait on publishing content, it isn't going to be any incentive for people to go and play the game for themselves. It will merely push them to find another person on YouTube that they can watch instead.
I still don't get many views but nothing I can really do about that. It really does just boil down to the lack of views and my wondering why I should even bother. It really breaks my spirit when I put so much time into playing, recording, editing, encoding, and uploading only to see that my hours of work netted like 3 views total. Or a handful of views but a lot of thumbs down without a single reason given. I assume they are just trolls but if not, just give me a damn reason why you thumbed the video down so I know what I can work on to improve for future videos. Then again, I said a lot of this in the last Dark Souls 2 LP video I uploaded (Dark Souls 2 - Finale), but seeing as how that only has 21 views (most of which are probably from people looking for the ending to the game), I doubt you heard any of it.
Of course, the same could be said for the lack of views on news posts here, especially with how much of my time and my life I've invested into trying my hardest with next to nothing to show for it.
Even with that said. I will finish the let's plays of The Walking Dead Season 2 and The Wolf Among Us. I said I would finish them and I will stick to it, eventually. I have also been thinking of maybe doing something like BioShock or BioShock 2 since I never beat either of those despite having started both. If I did those, or if I did something else, I'm thinking that maybe it shouldn't be as uncut as the other let's plays were. I would edit out deaths or periods where I wander around. Maybe that would be more enticing for people. And then if/when those still don't result in more views, then I just stop making let's plays.