The great part of having this small website is that I can easily reach out the my viewers and say “hey, this is what is happening.” MMO Fallout started out as a pet project nearly five years ago, and while it hasn’t grown massive in terms of viewership, we’ve managed to carve out a fine niche for ourselves. Five years ago I barely knew how to run a Counter Strike server. As much as it pains my wallet to say, I have learned more from this website than the past four years of college have taught me.
MMO Fallout has also given me a lot of confidence that I did not have before. I can’t describe how it felt three years ago when I introduced myself via email to a rather prominent developer and saw in the response “we know who you are, we are a big fan of your website.” Numerous big name companies consider MMO Fallout to be a legitimate member of the press, so much so that I have received emails for the past couple of years asking if any of my employees would be attending conventions and trade shows, to set up interviews. I have no employees.
I should point out right about here that this isn’t a farewell address and MMO Fallout isn’t going away as far as I am aware. I want to address a few things that have changed recently as well as those coming hopefully on the horizon.
- The name change.
I did get a few people asking who Connor is, in which case shame on you for not reading the contact page. This all started on Twitter with me changing my username back to Connor, which I followed by doing the same here on the main website. This is all a continuation of making MMO Fallout look more professional, a trek which started with moving off of free hosting, setting up our own domain, a more professionally created design, and by revealing my real name and photograph. I feel it’s about time that MMO Fallout started shedding its last vestiges of amateur behavior.
Essentially, I want this website to be something that I could stick on a resume and say “I did this.”
- Consistency and schedule
This one has been the most difficult. The biggest problem that I have had working on MMO Fallout is the fact that I am the only one here, meaning that if I don’t do something, it doesn’t get done. It also means that I am my own boss, meaning I have only myself to answer to if schedules aren’t being kept to. I have made several attempts to create regularly scheduled articles, however they either mostly fell through or the traffic that they gathered wasn’t worth the amount of work required. What can I say? I am a softy. As a full time student often involved in multiple production projects at the same time, and one who works, MMO Fallout often finds itself on the backburner.
That being said, I am essentially going back to the drawing board in terms of regularly scheduled content. MMOrning Shots has been well received and while it occasionally does not run, that is more due to the fact that most of the screenshots come from press packets and are reliant on a steady flow. I will also feature more reviews, previews, and MMOments if nothing more than to prove that the segment is for more than simply showing my disappointment toward Defiance’s DLC.
I am going to be doing a lot of experimentation to see what works, what doesn’t, and what is sustainable over a long period of time or even better served as monthly editions.
- Not As Massive?
Not As Massive is one of the columns I started to keep myself from becoming a one trick pony and to prevent the day when I’d suddenly get fed up with writing about MMOs and up and leave. I use the MMO Fallout Tumblr account for the MMO Fallout Book Club where I occasionally review movies, and I still talk about new games every now and then here.
I can guarantee that you will never see talk about MOBAs here at MMO Fallout, unless I end up bringing in a new writer who has any interest in the genre. I don’t, and they are not MMOs in my opinion.
- New Writers
This is something that has been on my mind for a long time. I would love to see MMO Fallout expand and become something bigger than I had ever imagined, but I don’t see that happening for the time being. I have no financial interest in bringing new people on board, in case I haven’t been clear that Google ad banner in the top right brings in about ten cents a month. I haven’t made enough to cover a single one of website’s $5 monthly fee yet.
If I could get people on board just to write news, that would be great, but that involves convincing people to do work for no monetary benefit in the hopes that their experience might be beneficial.
- And more…
I couldn’t think of a way to end this article, so I will leave you on an obscure “and more to come.” Enjoy a photo of a kitty that stepped on a bee. He is just fine, by the way.
MMO Fallout 