Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Sticking to our corner

cliffski

They say that there are 800 million people on the web, and google claims to have indexed over a trillion pages now. Anyway you look at it, the web is a BIG place, with tons to offer, lots to do, and bags of opportunity. The web is the very first real worldwide marketplace, where anyone (even a guy in his bedroom in England) can sell something he creates all over the world, to an audience in the hundreds of millions. Surely there is a catch?

Yes.

The catch is, that those 800 million people aren’t looking for what me or you makes, and even if they did, it’s not easy to find us. I think part of the problem is that as human beings, we haven’t really adapted our brains or our attitudes to the web. We are still thinking like apes, clustered together in our own little social groups.

Think of the last time you read the world news online. Think of the time before that, and the time before that. I’m 95% likely it was the same sites all three times. Right? I know I get my news from the same place (BBC news), despite the fact that I could just as easily read it here or here or here. And that’s just the Uk take on the world news. Maybe I want a US view? or maybe Australian? How about a totally different point of view?

I don’t go to any of those sites often at all. I stick with what I know. So do most people, for news, stock market information, travel information, the weather, and for entertainment.

If people get their games news from a site that doesn’t ever feature indie games, they may never hear of my games. If they buy their games from Steam, I’m invisible to them. If the maybe 0.01% of games sites that i advertise with arent on their radar, I am invisible. Obviously that’s bad for me, but it’s also bad for them.

When was the last time you went to a totally new website that you haven’t visited before? and what percentage of your surfing is truly exploring what’s new, as opposed to rechecking the same 20 URLS in your bookmarks? And most relevantly to me, where do YOU get your games news, reviews and demos?

6 thoughts on Sticking to our corner

  1. I follow links in sites I do read, so I get to new stuff from there from time to time. I’m willing to bet 90% of my webbrowsing is in my bookmarks though.

    As for games news, mostly Kotaku and a little Gamasutra.

  2. In some ways I think the Internet is too big for it’s own good. You can guarantee that if you want to sell something online, for example, that there are probably at least a couple of hundred sites out there already selling almost exactly the same stuff. A couple of years ago I was thinking about making an online games site, but I thought that there would be no point seeing as there are already so many.
    In my humble opinion, the only way you can really succeed on the web is by investing a lot of money on publicity.
    However, there are a few havens for some free success, like ModDB.com, which is a site where you can upload your mods and games for free and get a huge amount of publicity.

    And in answer to your question, I get reviews from Eurogamer.net

  3. StumbleUpon is a good way to see sites you wouldn’t ordinarily see.

    It is also a good way to lose huge chunks of your life to just one more click.

  4. > When was the last time you went to a totally new website that you haven’t visited before?

    I do it almost every day, but I always get there using Google. Search engines are the key. If somebody was searching for political games, would they find Democracy?

  6. It always cheers me up when I see a D2 ad somewhere! :D I’ve never seen a single google-ad of yours, though.

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