Monday, January 29, 2018

One Full Year of Writing

Man does it feel nice to be back in the comfort of my own blog where I can write whatever the hell I want. As you've probably gathered from the title, today marks the day of when I posted my very first article for this blog, which was effectively when I started writing about video games and anime in some sort of semi-serious fashion. Now that one year has passed I wanted to take a step back and reflect on where I've gone and where I want to go moving forward, and this post is sort of just a brain fart to get it all down in words. This will hopefully act as a self-binding contract so that I actually stick to the goals I set out.

The Written Word

This blog turned out to probably be one of the best ideas I had of the year. I initially started it purely to create an outlet for me to gush about the things I love. Even though I can't talk about games and anime that often with those around me, this blog allowed me to share my thoughts with those who do care. Because I started it for myself, I never really thought that it could lead to something more.

This blog was essentially my application for Goomba Stomp. Without it, there is absolutely no way that I would be writing in any professional matter like I am now. Writing for Goomba Stomp has been an eye-opening experience and has really helped me hone my written communication skills. It's taught me how to get to the point faster, trim the fat from my articles, and group pieces of information together in more concise paragraphs, among others.

Moving forward I need to do a better job of thinking up clever article ideas. I'm continuously impressed by the ideas my editors are pitching on a regular basis and to improve as a writer I feel like I can't always rely on them and need to really strive to come up with my own. Examining specific aspects of games and anime is all well and good, but sometimes goofy articles like my Super Mario Odyssey Anime Kingdoms piece are just as good. Coming up with those off-the-wall ideas is something I aim to improve on.

Relatedly, I will be attending my first US gaming trade show this April, being PAX East. I did attend Tokyo Game Show while I was in Japan but the fact it was all in Japanese and I was there as a consumer means that attending PAX East as a representative of Goomba Stomp will most likely be a very different experience.

My goal while I'm there is to not only cover the games I get to play, but also to forge connections with the various developers and journalists there as well. PAX East will be my first opportunity since starting to write for Goomba Stomp to do this and I want to take full advantage of it.

Goomba Stomp is a very culturally diverse team, with staff members from all around the world. This is great for getting a variety of perspectives on topics but it also means I'm pretty alone over here in Boston. Having more local connections to reach out to will surely go a long way in progressing my path in game journalism.

As for the anime side of things over at Goomba Stomp, I've been talking to my editor and some other colleagues and we're in the midst of getting something special worked out so look forward to that!

The Spoken Word

I also started my YouTube channel and producing video content last year, albeit in small quantities. While my first project was simply a video version of a post I had already made, each subsequent video was purely original material built from the ground up. I had a lot of fun making these videos but it's also clear I have a ways to go with them.

Producing more video content is a goal of mine for 2018. In addition to the video essays I've put out already, I want to get into vlogging. Vlogging has the advantage of being much more casual, so less scripting, and a lot easier to edit, since I'm not working with multiple clips of a game or anime. The downside to them is that I have to get used to speaking in front of a camera, and that will take some time considering I'm not even used to speaking in front of a mic yet.

One of my short-term goals is to buy a good quality video camera in February to start practicing live video material. Hopefully, come PAX East, I'll be comfortable enough speaking in front of a camera that I can make vlog entries on the games I played and the people I met in addition to written pieces for Goomba Stomp.

There is a huge potential for producing video content, especially when it comes to that of video games and anime, and I want to put forth a greater effort in trying to tap into it this year.

The Playable Word

Not many of you may know this but I actually started as a beta tester for Manga Gamer back in August. Manga Gamer is one of the largest localizers/publishers for Japanese visual novels in the West, a game medium that I think is vastly underrated. Being able to be part of that internal localization process has been incredible, especially when it comes to seeing all the tricks translators and editors use when localizing tricky lines. Heck, my name is going to be in the credits for Supipara Ch. 2 when that releases, and that's really fuggin' cool! I never saw myself being able to actually contribute to game development since I gave up on the idea back in middle school, yet here I am.

Unlike my writing gig at Goomba Stomp and my own YouTube channel, I don't really have any goals for Manga Gamer because I still don't know what it's capable of providing me. I intend to stick with it because it's still fun at the end of the day and if something comes of it, sweet. If not then I'm still having a good time and still contributing to the industry I love.


Here's to a New Year!

It's 2018! We're finally out of that awkward prime number of 2017 so we're already off to a better start! When I think back on how much my life has changed in that single year it astounds me. It astounds me even more that none of these are things I saw myself doing at the start of the new year.

With that in mind, I can only imagine what will happen in another year. My YouTube channel could end up taking off or it'll stay planted firmly in the ground. Goomba Stomp could lead to an even bigger writing gig or maybe the site itself will grow to an impressive size. Manga Gamer could lead to something in localization, or it could just remain a fun outlet. Or maybe none of the above will happen. Who knows? I certainly don't.

I published 38 articles, created four videos, and beta tested four games last year and I'll be damned if I'm not gonna work my ass off to make those numbers even larger this year!