Archive for the 'Video Games' Category
Posted by Bloggeries in Video Games
If you are into gaming, then you may want to take a minute to check out Lagorama: Sucking Up Your Bandwidth to Discuss Mine… I have to admit, it took me some time to find out what this blog was really about. It doesn’t really say anywhere for us ‘non-gamers’, Hey! This is a Gaming blog! If you have any experience in gaming, then you know there is a tendency to fall into the lingo, and only fellow gamers, can speak and understand the lingo the way that you can. I do have acronymed convos myself in IM or the like, but this was a whole new world to me. Nothing wrong with getting an education though. The Lagorama blog is about a gamer that essentially got into the gaming experience, albeit ‘late to the party’ as he states. The game (I think) is called MMO, and like many other gamers, he was succumbed by its appeal. But this gamer took his fun and experiences a step further and uses his decades of experience in the broadcasting industry to start Internet radio broadcasting an Internet Radio Station called Paragon Radio to broadcast the gaming experience. It has been, quite a success. And you can read more about it through this bloggers recent bloggeries: A Brand New Day for Marvel Online, Chinese TV is Specced for Graphics Theft, Valkyre Needs Caffeine…..Badly, Starcraft online is a Definite Maybe, Shadowbane Starting from Scratch, The LagORama List of MMORPG Cliches, The Perpetual Lawsuit that Wasn’t, and Age of Conan Delays Release for Orken Army Time.
The blog is neatly laid out which makes it very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are centralized and there are both left and right navigation bars as well as a small top navigation system. Bloggeries are in black text on white background and the odd one is associated with a relevant picture. In the top navigation bar you will find the Home page, About page, and contact page. In the left navigation bar you will find Subscription buttons, Entrecard, AdSense, and Archives Menu. In the right navigation bar you will find email subscription links, ads, MyBlogLog Widget, Lagtastic Audio Menu, The ‘Must Read’ List, Things of Interest, Video Gamers Media Network, and Webmaster and Blogger Resources.
I give this blog a 3.5 at this point. My only complaint about this blog is that it is not initially clear what it is about. Perhaps this is intentional to get the stray reader to spend some time on the blog, but perhaps not, I am not sure. However, it did take some time for me to figure out this was a gaming blog as so many acronyms and game slang were used I honestly had no clue. The blogger could take advantage of the About Page to explain to new readers what the blog is actually about. Navigation and appearance scores were good, though I would suggest the use of more pictures associated with the bloggeries. I would also suggest adding a categories menu, as I think this niche is well served by a little more organization. The content is well done and is certainly active enough, so the blogger does not lose marks there. The blog clearly has a good readership as is evidenced by the feedburner and by the good amount of comments. I think this blog has nothing but continued growth in its future and could maximize that by making just a few tweaks to the blog.
-Chrissie
Posted by Bloggeries in Video Games
Here is a blog that anyone who enjoys gaming of any kind can and will appreciate, and it is appropriately named Game Addicts. The owners of this blog are self proclaimed gaming addicts and spend a lot of time not only playing, but coding games as well. With this blog they can add writing about games to their resume as well. The blog is very well written and hosts authors directly involved in the game industry and has credits from international press that puts them in an excellent position to report on the very latest gaming news. Their mission is ‘to report on the latest gaming industry news and play addictive games en route’. You can see they accomplish this mission very well through any of their recent bloggeries: Rumors of New Xbox 360 Bundles Afloat, Halo 3 sets New Entertainment Record, New PS3 Coming our Way?, Halo 3 Could Fire Microsoft to the Top, Pelican Controller Charging Station for the PS3, Burnout Paradise Confirmed, Eye of Judgement Priced, Shocked Three Times Over, Super Mario Galaxy Leaked, and Could Rumble be on its way for the PS3?.
You will find navigation on this site very easy as the site has a clean well organized design. The theme is white text on blue background and links are highlighted in fluorescent green and blue which is well in line with the gaming theme. There are two let sided navigation systems and bloggeries are right marginalized. In the far left navigation bar you will find a categories menu, latest posts menu, subscription options, affiliate links, and fave sites menu. In the right navigation system you will see AdSense that is very well blended with the overall theme of the site. There is also a top menu that contains a Home link, About page, and Contact information for the blog. Almost every post contains excellent pictures or graphics to add relevancy to the post and adds a dimension of meaning to the content. And given the gaming nature of the blog, the pictures are well in line with what gamers would expect and are of excellent quality. The blog also offers a Game Addicts Forums section where Games Addicts fans can meet with fellow gamers, coders, or game designers.
I will go ahead and give this blog a 4.5/5, it is clearly doing very well and there is little that I can offer as far as improvement would be concerned. The blog scores perfectly on all criteria with its excellently written content and easy to navigate layout. The blog also is very aesthetically appealing, and while this sort of theme may be difficult on the eyes for some blogs, it fits very well with the overall theme of the blog and it blends in beautifully. Navigation is so easy on this blog it deserves nothing less than perfect scores, and the same goes for Activity with its regular content that clearly keeps the needs of addicts met. If you are a fellow gamer, this is one blog you definitely want to keep an eye on as I see nothing but continued success for this site.
-Chrissie
Those little widgets have the right idea by making quality content / products easily accessible. You have a great blog but you should make your older content more accessible than just browsing through categories which are quite long at this point. I would also recommend some more content and maybe a photo to your about us page. I wanted to give you 5 but without the search I had to modify Chrissie’s 5 to 4.5.
Discuss this review and many others in our blog forum,
- Rob
Posted by Bloggeries in Reviews, Recycling Bin, Video Games
If you are into gaming, then you may like this site, it is called Lifetime Gamer and is meant to include anything and almost everything. From first glance it is pretty difficult to determine what the true intention of this blog is about. The layout is somewhat cluttered, but I will get to that later. Reading through the posts this blog is what is says it is, a blog about gaming. The most recent posts include Ever Wondered What Games our Fellow Russian Arcade Gamers Played?; Mr. Robot Review; The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Degrees and Careers; Gromit of ‘Wallace and Gromit’ Fame is the new ‘Top Dog’ for RCA; Blogger.com riddled with malware, yep you hear it correct; and Commodore looking to dip into video gamers wallets. I like how the site covers gaming in general, and not simply the topic of online gaming which is such a huge industry in itself. The blog opens up with some discussion on arcading and great pics of a Russian model of one of those old arcade systems. The Robot review post is also an interesting one if you are into futuristic technology, and if you aren’t, it works for a great read either way.
I need to be frank about the navigation however, if you are a gamer you will have some problems with this site. The posts are centered down the page and there are two navigation bars on either side, each with an assortment of “stuff” as the author titles. The left navigation bar includes an assortment of link menus – featured games, ebay auctions, online games and stuff, arcade stuff, gamers site stuff, unsigned bands free flash games, CD’s and stuff, friends and stuff, and a LOT of advertising stuff. You will also find on the left side the handiest archive tool I have seen yet – a drop down menu that allows you to locate specific dates for posts. On the right hand navigation bar you will see links and menus for da computer stuff, mo computer stuff, science links, geek people stuff, funny stuff, and yes, more advertising stuff. The unfortunate thing about both navigation bars is that it will take you some time to find all of this ‘stuff’ simply due to the exorbitant amount of advertising. I also wouldn’t mind seeing an About Me page on the blog, as there isn’t one currently. I think a categories menu could be added as well as that will simplify the blog a bit more and make it a little more apparent what the ‘stuff’ of the blog is about. Also the bloggeries themselves should be hyperlinked to open up that individual page.
The content is well handled, this blog definitely has a personal voice and some quips in and out of posts make that obvious. The writing is well done, but this is not a very active blog. The 6 posts on the main page included all blog activity since March 5, and while there was a June entry, I think more blogging is necessary. Another glitch is one post is missing a headline, which is obviously an oversight but when posts are few, the error glares on the page. Pictures are relevant and there are enough of them, however the advertising on this blog is excessive to the point of distraction. Unfortunately however, I can’t give this blog more than a 2.4 due to the aforementioned issues. A little cleanup and some regular content however I think will give this blog much success. If it was cleaned up and alot more active it could score well.
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- Chrissie
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