Game Central: Year One

Chris: A whole damn year? Good golly Molly! We’re all old and junk now! My digits are prune-like and my diet consists of nothing but fiber and bite-size shredded wheat. Ahhh March of 2009… those were the days. My right shoulder was decidedly Quake tattoo-free, PAX and QuakeCon mere fragile whispers of the future, and Keenan was learning how to walk. (They’re so cute as toddlers!) Also, the day Game Central breathed its first breath of precious air, you worthy brethren single-handedly brought it to its knees with the insane amount of initial traffic volume! It was the proudest scariest day of my life. It was also the most aggravating day of life, as I missed the GC launch party due to my Hitler-esque 1980’s Soviet-inspired day job. Neat!

Keenan: That day was exciting. The amount of support the community showed by turning out to our Ventrilo server was staggering. And we’re still blown away by how loyal our readers are. We may not be the biggest PC gaming site (yet), but we surely have the best community around. I can’t imagine it getting any better than ours.

Chris: And the community’s really the stalwart foundation to the house of Game Central. Without you guys, without the strong supporting structure, we’d be back to the blueprint stages. But that’s not to say we’re done planning. Far from it! As stands, our proposed skyscraper’s got a handful of noteworthy floors framed, dry-walled, and painted. Only place to go is up! We’re looking to reinforce our existing analysis and coverage with more indie game exposure, more talented writers (including the addition of select monthly columnists), and more overall steady content. Plus, coming soon, we’re revamping the look and feel of the site’s layout with some serious ocular-sweetness. Consistent improvement isn’t just a vague semi-spoken concept here at Game Central, it’s an axiom.

Keenan: To hit more specifically onto what Chris is talking about… in the overall perspective of things, we aim to become something more than what is the norm in Internet-based games journalism. Rather than being the site constantly updating with the everyday-happenings of the ever-changing industry, Game Central takes a step back and looks at the big picture, assessing from there. In the end, we hope to have more concise and level-headed view on things, all the while promoting a good time.

Chris: Exactly. And we approach our published works as a think-tank collaborative process. There’s an unfortunate (but mostly accurate) stigma of sloppiness and lack of management that hovers over a majority of the gaming websites out there. From a gooey embryonic state, we’ve sought to attack this entrenched and insidious fallacy. At Game Central, there’s a distinct chain of command when it comes to the acceptance and editing of a given article. Often, a narrative piece will run the pointy-thorned-gauntlet of 3 or 4 staff reviews prior to going live. We’ve also recently implemented a semi-regular group examination of an article’s initial draft, where we tease out fresh ideas and brainstorm certain highlighted points. Have we popped a few boners here and there? Sure- we ain’t perfect. But it’s the pursuit of perfection that fuels our editorial desires. There’s no reason an online organization’s copy-edit process should appear inferior to its print-based counterparts. That’s just plumb stupidness.

Keenan: Last year was the warm-up for us; to get the wheels going- to get a feel of the racetrack. This year we hope to expand our repertoire on a much larger scale. We’ll be interviewing the biggest names in the biz, and the no-name bedroom programmers hoping to change the face of gaming. Our podcast will undergo changes to make it worth your ears each week. We’re in the process of redesigning the site (don’t worry, it’s not a complete makeover) to suit the advances made in web design the past year. And we’ll be putting assets back into the video portion of the site- we’re hoping to bring unique video content regularly.

Chris: The video production sphere is a sumptuous target, and one we aim to bull’s-eye. The all-encompassing plan of attack, site-wide, is a continued and ardent adherence to our core values and recently updated mission statement. To reiterate our stances: we seek to deconstruct, hypothesize, and report upon the pure fabulous spirit that’s the PC gaming specimen, all while entertaining with an easy to consume editorial demeanor and atmosphere. To coin a phrase once reviled as a young ‘un: it should be fun to learn (sort of like the Civilization series, but sadly- minus Leonard Nimoy’s ambient commentary). And at the calculated risk of functioning as a looped commentary track, we pride ourselves as gamers first, with a devout passion and platform second. Consequently, GC is all-volunteer, just as we think it should be. Of course, PayPal-ing us a cool million wouldn’t be totally objectionable…

Keenan: With all this said, we are in need of people to help us. There’s only so much a handful can do alone. So if you’re a writer, a podcaster, a video producer- anything that you think would help us- then feel free and contact us. We can’t let everyone on the staff; we need some level of organization. But go ahead and submit your talent resume to us—it doesn’t have to be an actual resume; we hate those things—and we’ll have a look-see to determine if you’re right for us. But again, remember, this is not for pay- this is out of pure passion for PC gaming.

Chris: As Keenan intuits: all talents are useful talents. Aside from the editorial sector, we also need some dedicated folks to run the important behind-the-scenes tasks that keep the fires burning strong (business development, graphic design, coding, Chris’s flip-flops’ shiner-upper, etc.). For me personally, Game Central has provided a wonderful stage to showcase my imagination and creativity, all the while introducing me to some great like-minded PC gaming folks. I don’t know where I’d be today without it. We hope you enjoy the years to follow, and we’d love to hear your feedback on the site so far. In the mean time, break out the crystal, pop some bubbly, and throw back a few swigs. It’s you—the readers and community—that have made Game Central so successful and enjoyable. My hat goes off to you, good sirs and madams! Your enthusiasm and support are the turbines to our proverbial airplane; cheers!

Keenan: This year is going to be an exciting one for PC gaming- why not spend it with us? Let the good times roll!