Almost a Year Later..

Tumblr fails. Just sayin’.

It’s been almost a year since I have been at Vagary.tv. I tried to open a Tumblr to mindlessly ramble about things I work on. Reading a review is a good way to gauge a game, but there’s always other things to be talked about that just don’t fit into the restraints of a review. 

The past year has been a crazy rollercoaster ride. Luckily, my wife has fully supported every step I have made with Vagary and I am very thankful for that. She also has this way of picking me up when I’m down, and keeps me motivated to make that next step.

So what has happened over the past year, you ask? Well, last time I posted here it was about the opportunity ahead. I took that opportunity and ran with it. I was basically given free reign to do my own PR work. After some grooming from one Mr. Greg Hutto, the site owner Ryan Kenward and our current Editor in Chief Kyle Baron, I found great success with my communications with PR firms and publishers. I may not be the most eloquent writer who uses big words to dazzle people, but I am quite savvy at the keyboard and I know how to butter people up. 

The VERY first game I got was Disgaea 4 for PS3. Over the course of the following four months, I received dozens of games and gained a good reputation for myself by handling multiple games at once and still having the reviews done before most people could handle a single review. 

Being overworked is exhausting, I will fully admit that. I also can’t complain much because I do it to myself. Not sure what will actually come in (I get about 80% of what I request), I sometimes book multiple reviews just so I am guaranteed some work. People warned me about burning myself out, some insisting it was bound to happen; a year later, and I beg to differ. 🙂

Back on point though, I was making quite a name for myself both internally and to my contacts (more on the latter later). I suggested to Ryan that I do everyone’s PR work, as I didn’t mind doing it and to be honest, it was my favorite part of the job. He agreed and I started getting our writers material to work with. It’s a rewarding feeling when someone gets excited because I got them a review copy to work with. Of course, excitement varies from person to person. Generally though, everyone is appreciative of what I do and show it in different ways.

I started doing a release list, which went through a few revisions before I settled on what I have now. You can see an example here with last week’s list. I started doing a regular editorial that publishers seem to love, detailing the progression systems in newly released online shooters. I organized a “Release Radar” that is a HUGE hit. The current one for Q3 has only been up for three days, and is already the third most-read article in the past 30 days.

Before I wrap this up, I wanted to touch on E3. I met some great people, including people I had been emailing for the past eight months. The coolest part was when they recognized me by name, hell, one of them actually recognized me before my brain registered who it was. That was easily my highlight of the show.

Stay tuned, and I’ll do my best to throw together some half-assed pieces on things I am working on. I love Vagary a lot, but am very hopeful and happy to resurrect Gameciety for any length of time I can. This pet-project was what got me where I am today, mind you.

With love and stuff,

~~~ Don Parsons