News
How We Do It at Family Friendly Gaming
Cordova, TN; July 31, in the year of our Lord 2015--Family
Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family
friendly video games is giving all ya’ll a peek behind the
curtain. We are explaining how we do what we do. There has been
some confusion among PR folks on what we cover, and what we
don’t cover. Or maybe they don’t care since their clients pay
them to get coverage. There have also been PR folks that try
manipulative tactics to get their way. Those manipulative
tactics fail with us. We are not gaming cheerleaders. We are not
bloggers. We are card carrying, US Patent wielding members of
the media. We are one of the few conservative Christian video
game websites in the industry. Part of a small percentage that
brings the voice of diversity to the video game industry -
especially in the gaming journalism sector. We also refuse to
participate in the culture of corruption.
There are plenty of questions we ask as any content is provided
to us. Is it family friendly? This may seem like a no-brainer,
but we get all kinds of press releases, videos, screenshots, and
more with grossly inappropriate materials. What is even worse is
when they check back and have to be told (yet again) it is not
family friendly. Another question we ask is: does this fit into
what we cover? You might be laughing about this one, but
remember most PR folks do not respect us, see us as their
slaves, and could care less if they are properly targeting. From
a re-organization at a music company to thermal detonators we
get all kinds of odd content we don’t cover. What makes matters
worse is if we are nice to them and run with something out of
our scope, they send us five more stories. They expect we will
just give them their way all day long. As if they are the only
person on the planet. It is very nice there is an orchestra
event in New York City, we are not publishing it.
Once we get past the preliminaries and decide we will finance
the publishing work on content a company sent us then we have to
determine where it goes. Remember they send in no financially
backing for the work we do. The majority of PR are moochers
making massive profits for these companies and getting
financially rewarded themselves. Sharing is not a word in their
vocabulary, unless they use it to try and belittle and demean
the publishing work we do. Kind of like when they insult us and
call us bloggers. BTW bloggers only work on what they are paid
to work on. Really lets the air out of their balloons since PR
never pay us anything, no matter how much money our work makes
them. We look at where we have a need. Do we need a News story
online? Do we need images in an e-magazine? Where something ends
up many times has to do with what holes we need to fill at that
time.
Take for example Tuesdays and Thursdays. For some odd reason the
majority of press releases come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Some stories we hold off until Wednesday, Friday, or even
Monday. Maybe we have already paid for the publishing of a story
on that product this year. You would be amazed at how excessive
some PR folks get with products. Some expect us to publish work
for them three times a week. The excessive abusers get written
down, and checked. We also check how many times we have
published coverage of a certain product. If we are tired of
hearing about a certain game, we figure you probably are as
well. This PR Piecemeal strategy is one of the worst things any
PR firm can do. The lack of respect for our time and our
resources is highly offensive. We have stopped working with
certain companies because they are excessive abusers. We have
also stopped working with those who support the culture of
corruption.
We gauge our interest level in a story. We give so many PR folks
so many opportunities to present something of value. Not
everyone is equal in this regard. Some press releases contain so
much propaganda, lies, and twisting of the truth that it costs
us too much to edit it. Some companies are control freaks and
demand we use their Youtube channel (without paying for the
advertisement), or their blog. We don’t do that. They lose their
opportunity to be covered. The same goes for those who ignore
our company policies on advertisements, Kickstarter, and Free
Apps. Those policies were put in place for valid reasons so we
can continue to exist. Some press releases are so short they do
not warrant the cost of building all the pages out. We also get
rehash all the time. Meaning we already published the story and
we get the exact same story again. An expectation that we will
constantly check a companies press site for new stories instead
of receiving an email can slow down or even completely lose
coverage for a company.
The things that can also reject the publishing of work is an
entitlement mentality from PR folks. Also PR folks that act like
this is a one way street where we do everything for them, and
they do nothing for us. We have lowered coverage for some
companies whose PR representatives can not act professionally.
Some PR folks fail to reply, lie, and fail to keep their word.
Some have tried to get us to be corrupt. Some PR folks have been
hate filled. Some have been arrogant. Some have been selfish,
self-centered, and self-absorbed. Some PR folks are harassing.
Some try to force the idolatry of political correctness down our
throats. Some PR folks throw threats at us. Some have tried to
manipulate and control us. Some PR folks are supporting bigotry
against Christians. None of those evils work with us at Family
Friendly Gaming. We take the path of light against all of that
darkness.
Once we get past all of the rejection phases of what we do, then
we begin the work on the story, image, video, etc. For a press
release we begin the editing process. We read through the press
release looking for errors. We add: “IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD,”
right before the year. We remove propaganda. Notice how every
single company claims to be leading? We actually published that
for all of these companies in the past to see if anyone noticed
it. I love it when a press release claims something is award
winning. Not with us, so why would we include that phrase? Pages
are built, uploaded, and then checked online for any errors that
were missed in the creation process. For a video we watch the
video, and then upload to Youtube. We get the embedded code from
our channel and use that on the pages that are build. For images
we look at the pics, and use the amount we can handle. Some
companies send us over one hundred pics for a game and expect us
to pay for all those hours to build all those pages and then
verify all of them. We work to keep it to fifteen images or less
in an online page per update.
Reviews are one of our most interesting processes. We receive
the physical copy and start to play the game. For the dreaded
download codes we download the game, as long as it won’t give us
ISP fines for data usage. A twenty gig game can really hammer
the Internet usage agreements. Which is one of the reasons we
are such supporters of physical copies. Being able to sell,
trade, and give-a-way a physical copy is another reason. Notes
are taken as the game is played, and checked against the Review
Scale. Multiple members of Family Friendly Gaming check out the
game and give opinions. A discussion between someone who has
played, and someone who has not played is enacted. We find it
beneficial to have someone who has not seen the game to ask
questions. Many times additional references are put in a review
based on those questions. The game is played again checking for
any additional questions. Finally the review is written. It is
then proofed, and edited by two different editors. Finally the
pages are created, and published online.
There you have it. A behind the scenes look at what we do, and
how we do it. It may sound simple on paper. We are constantly
finding new things, and ways to improve as time goes on. We are
also facing different things in different time eras. From death
threats to discrimination because we are Christians. From
massive support to tons of products coming in for our review. We
even reject some products due to a lack of resources.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Family Friendly Gaming