It’s not a well kept secret that I had a brief writing stint at Planet Half-Life. As a matter of fact, it’s sort of how I ended up on Podcast 17. My inconsequential ramblings on the site led the two main co-hosts of the time, William and Phillip, to believe that I was reliable, believable, and responsible. How naive we were in those days.
Simpler times, they were. The podcast was usually just us three, a guy by the name of Thomas who you, rightfully, don’t remember, and sometimes Dave. Dave and I would race to see who could be the most pedantic about the most boring thing possible. Dave would usually win, but I’d sometimes put up a fight.
So, as a writer at Planet Half-Life, I learned a few things. One of which, was that it seems literally no one enjoys what they do anymore. The administrator at the time was working there purely for the paycheck, it seemed. This isn’t to say, he wasn’t great at the job, and wasn’t a fantastic guy. But the work had got to him – having to meditate between juggling what IGN said we could and couldn’t do, and writers who insisted on writing jokes about phalluses and Rip Taylor.
Phillip will never take a dime from a company in return for his word. William might, but Nic would probably rebel before it went on for too long.
And if P17 or Planet Phillip ever go away, the next generation will step in and make sites in their stead, but even better.
3 Comments
I to had a a time with PHL was told I could do my style (crazy and wacky) and would be paid but umm ya that never hap… I suck!
Interesting editorial. Maintaining a community requires effort, and if those sites went down is because the people running them deemed the rewards to be too little for their effort.
In most cases, there is no financial reward at all.
And in those cases, the only way for the site to survive is to be powered up by enthusiastic people. Like William. Like Phillip. And face it, like you.
Do you think there is a maximum “exposure” time for amateur and professional gaming websites? We are really still at the beginning of this industry and we really don’t know how things will go.
It seems to me that many of the early sites have gone and been replaced by others, but these others have lasted longer than before, but some will eventually fall.
The style of site will change, as have mods. More professional, more people on the team, more polished work. However, unlike the earlier sites that died when their leader moved on, these newer sites may continue as there is more depth of interest in working on the site.
In fact, I see that more people are realising that being a webmaster is itself an interesting hobby.
What will happen to PHL and the like? Maybe sites dedicated to one game or game series are not viable any more.