We were on a roll, able to compete with these giant companies. Top Stories about video games? Check. Able to get on Wikipedia as a source? Check. Expand and hire more aspiring student writers? Check. We got to a point where we ourselves couldn’t believe how fast we were growing. For a bunch of “kids” that basically did this because we truly enjoyed video games, with no prior experience, mentors, or big investors behind us, we were making it. Or so we thought.
June 2023 was the happiest for everyone. We achieved a 2 million traffic milestone, something that we had long been aiming for. Everyone was fired up and motivated to keep doing what we were doing, and everyone was pitching ideas left and right. In July, we were a few thousand shy of another 2 million traffic. In August, we saw a decline. Our traffic was 1.4 million. Still okay, but way below our target of a consistent 2 million. We had a meeting to talk about what happened and where we might have lost focus. Little did we know, the issue wasn’t internal.
Then September came
I’m sure small websites like ours can relate. September was the beginning of the end. Google released their latest HCU (Helpful Content Update) that killed many of us. Our way of living, our focus, our passion, our dreams. For weeks and months, we tried our best to fight our way through. What could we do and change to do better? Were we adhering to the latest guidelines that Google put out? What else could we do? One by one, we had to let go of our team members, who, over time, had also become family to us. Unfortunate? Yes. Heartbreaking? It destroyed us.
More than a way to make a living, we made friendships that went above and beyond. Over the course of three years, each of us went through a lot of personal challenges. Heartaches, health issues, deaths in the family, you name it. We were there for each other and knew that it was us against the world (or the internet in this case).
We knew that it was a mistake to rely on Google as our sole traffic source. The company had a Twitter account, but that was a completely separate entity. It was also a source of income for Pingal (Spiel Times owner), and for months on end, he used what was supposed to be his own savings to pay our salaries as we clawed our way up again and tried to salvage what was left. But that could only hold for so long before all of us were too broken and damaged to go on.
Against all odds
Soon enough, it was just Pingal and me. But even that proved to be unsuccessful. Writing this, I am still in the first stage of grief. It will take some time for me to reach the stage of acceptance. But beyond that, I am also very grateful for the experience and the people I met on this job. Not very many are able to do what they love and be given that chance and just be themselves without really adhering to a certain set of standards.
And maybe, that is also one reason why we are parting ways. Maybe we were too lenient. Maybe we really did need someone who has been in the business and technical side of running a video game website. Just maybe. But then again, we’ve read hundreds of testimonies from business owners that had those people behind their websites, and even they couldn’t save their companies from the nuclear bomb that Google had set off. Am I being bitter? Definitely. Do I blame Google for all of this? Definitely not.
Of course, I acknowledge that we could have done more. Maybe gone to social media more and put more effort into building our own separate audiences as individuals, but we can only worry about what could have been for so long. What’s done is done, and at the end of the day, the best way to take what happened is to use the experience that we did get and learn from it.
I have seen many previously running websites’ content, some even being mostly original, burn to the ground after the Google HCU. While Google maintains that they rolled this out to make articles more focused on people’s needs instead of SEO, we also saw how ridiculous the recent search results have been, especially after the disastrous AI overview. But hey, I am also someone who has very little knowledge about such technicalities.
A big sister, nothing more
I don’t claim to be someone I’m not. To be frank, I, in no way, deserve the title of “editor-in-chief” because I know there are those with degrees and decades of experience. At best, I am an editor. But in no way did I take that position for granted. I can say that I did what I could with the knowledge and experience I had. But, of course, I am in no way perfect. Not even close. What I can offer my colleagues is someone they can easily reach out to regarding any issues or troubles, be it work or personal, and they know that I will do what I can to assist them.
For years, my main role in Spiel Times has been to be a “big sister,” which is ironic because I’m barely five feet tall. I cannot compete with journalism degree holders and those who have mentors to look up to. What I know is a collective knowledge that I got from my time writing opinion pieces for a newspaper, watching SEO talks, reading forums, and taking notes from industry veterans. Sadly, that will never be enough without the “proper” training, and I accept and admit that. The internet is full of misinformation, and dissecting which to believe and which to dismiss can be a challenge, especially in the video game industry.
Please save gaming journalism
From my perspective, the internet is quickly becoming more linear. Linear in a way where only the giant corporations are being highlighted. Take the recent acquisitions of smaller video game websites as an example. Now that almost all video game outlets that I used to check and compare information with are working under one umbrella, I am unsure whether what I read about video games will be unbiased and not manipulated. They can tell me that they will still work independently, but I personally find that hard to believe. Those legitimate gaming journalists that want to keep their integrity intact have websites that are funded by subscribers, but even if I want to, I can’t afford a monthly payment of such. But I genuinely hope that they keep going and are able to share true and unbiased opinions about video games.
My journey at Spiel Times didn’t last until the moment that we got enough company funds to afford to send staff members to events for live and actual coverage. That was our dream and goal. And so I will be content sitting along the sidelines and supporting those who are able to keep doing video game journalism for a living. I will continue to support Spiel Times and the friends I made at this company, no matter what path in life that would be. I am, but an individual that was given the opportunity to be something, and I got the biggest bonus of having lifelong friends before it all ended. Love you guys! Thank you for being part of my journey.
