Delving into the World of Blogging - "What makes an INTERESTING blog?"
Evening everyone, welcome to Talk with Tony, a small blog series I intend to run for the next few months. My area of specialty is regarding anything involving technology, media, and video games; very run of the mill if you ask me. Thank you for taking the time to read, I really appreciate your viewership.
You know, diving into these kind of writings out of the blue can seem to be a bit daunting at first. Believe me it's extremely daunting to write professionally for anyone. It's always important to have some sort of reference: people who's writing styles speak to you as an individual. That way you can culminate the the admirable flow of their styles and incorporate it into your writing.
Let's take a look at 3 different sites and how aspects from separate authors inspire how I myself want to convey information.
GameSpot - Jason Fanelli
While doing some reconnaissance on this writer's pieces, I noticed a pattern in Fanelli's writings, that being of their more, whimsical and playful writing style. Something akin to being transported into a fantasy world, where their strong use of descriptive language allows people to truly visualize stepping into these foreign lands, or to paint an image in your head of what these games they review. They do all this while maintaining themselves in this sort of air of sophistication, not taking away too much of the necessary information for their language use.
While doing some reconnaissance on this writer's pieces, I noticed a pattern in Fanelli's writings, that being of their more, whimsical and playful writing style. Something akin to being transported into a fantasy world, where their strong use of descriptive language allows people to truly visualize stepping into these foreign lands, or to paint an image in your head of what these games they review. They do all this while maintaining themselves in this sort of air of sophistication, not taking away too much of the necessary information for their language use.
Another aspect of Fanelli's writings is their use of some casual undertones as well, as if they were talking with a colleague or family. It gives you this sort of connection that I want to embody in my own writing. Something to make the reader feel at home while they read the information and reviews provided. Although this seems like an amalgamation of different writing styles, they all somehow mesh very well with each other.
"At the risk of sounding cliche, Sea Of Stars made me feel like a kid again. And I really mean that; while playing this game, I warped back to an era where I'd turn the TV to channel 4 to get my Nintendo games to appear on the screen before I'd dive into games like Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. Developer Sabotage Studio's ability to conjure the feelings of the past in a modern game astounds me, but it's obvious a lot of hard work and due diligence has paid off here." -Jason Fanelli
It definitely seems to have attracted a sizeable audience, as they regularly post to GameSpot, as an officially hired writer for the platform. For me, I usually like to keep track of some of the daily happenings on their Twitter account, as well as many of the articles and reviews he writes. Again, like the aforementioned, the writing style has made me a fan favorite of theirs. The Verge - Monica Chin
I'll be honest, I didn't keep up with The Verge until recently, probably a month or so ago after I decided to go down a news rabbit hole and ended up there. I'll be honest, a lot of the stuff here felt like word dumping or full of wording to inflate how much about the topic is said, but there's one writer I found that caught my eye in terms of their writing style, and that was Monica Chin.
Monica uses a mix of informative storytelling and a digestible way of understanding it. As The Verge is a more sophisticated and professional news outlet, Monica, as well as other's styles of writing allow anyone to understand the whole image. On top of that, Monica's ability to be quite thorough and analytical with topics allow the reader to gain a deeper understanding of issues that may be plaguing the tech world.
Game Informer - Brian Shea
As for the final piece for today, we arrive to Game Informer, a gaming news / blog that is widely known in the industry. Personally, it was the only outlet I listened and read on a consistent basis, as I always received their brochures and magazines in the mail.
While browsing the site I came across Brian Shea's articles that instantly caught my eye. It conveyed the same sense of whimsy and wonder that Jason Fanelli from earlier conveyed in his works. It truly feels as if you were brought into the world of the game, whichever he may be reviewing, and fully immerse yourself. Brian Shea is very thorough with his research on certain topics of game design and game mechanics, quickly familiarizing himself with the media he's presented with. It allows him to convey that sort of information in a way that makes it engaging for the reader to view, and pick up a copy for themselves.
"Much of my hands-on time with the game comes in World I: Pipe-Rock Plateau. The first stage, Welcome to the Flower Kingdom, gives me a solid introduction to the way things work in this new adventure. Talking Flowers, like the ones prominently shown in the reveal trailer, are ever-present during the adventure. They commentate on the action, cheer you on, and sometimes even crack jokes. From my experience, they inject a ton of personality into each stage, which is further accentuated by how expressive the characters are in the refreshed art direction." -Brian Shea on the latest Super Mario Wonder game.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and hope you have a pleasant rest of your day!
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