New RPG News Site

[AnthonyRoberson]

With the demise of the Gaming Report, I have decided to put my toe in the water and reserve www.roleplayingnews.com. My initial thought is to build the site with WordPress and use some sort of 'news' theme, but I wanted to throw it out there to you guys.

What would you like to see in a general RPG news site? Aggregaters/feeds? What general format/layout? Anything else?

I want your opinions!

 

[Mark]

News like this? -

Dungeon Mastering 101: The Fanboys Don't Give a DA@N

 

[AnthonyRoberson]

News like this? -

Dungeon Mastering 101: The Fanboys Don't Give a DA@N

How is this relevant? That link is to a blog post that reflected an opinion that I had back in April. I plan to run a roleplaying news site, not an op-ed column. Have I offended you in some way?

 

[weem]

Your site still propagating?

I'm getting the godaddy page...

 

[Crothian]

I'm not sure what important news comes from the RPG Industry. There are plenty of press releases I guess but they just seem to announce new books and games and the like. It seems like passive reporting. It would be interesting I think to see someione take an active role looking for RPG news and doing a little more then just reporting on whatever the publishers say.

 

[Mark]

Mark, what you're doing pretty much defines thread-crapping; it's no more okay than if someone muddled up a Creative Mountain thread based on something you said that they disliked. Please don't do this.

Carry on with the original thread, please, folks. ~ PCat

How is this relevant? That link is to a blog post that reflected an opinion that I had back in April. I plan to run a roleplaying news site, not an op-ed column.

So you won't be editorializing? Just stright news dug up by you or submitted news, as Crothian points out, which is primarily really publisher PR?

Have I offended you in some way?

That seems a strange question. I followed the link in your sig to see what sort of reporting you do on your blog, to see if I could get a feel for the tenor of your proposed news site, and saw that as one of the features on the front page.

Honestly, EN World serves the purpose you propose to handle (it's one of the reasons, I am sure, that gamingreport.com died its slow death). There are a handful of others "news" outlets, mostly associated with one venture or another, that do a similar job. I'm not sure I see the need for a(nother) flat publishers-submit-PR-news site. Unless what you are planning to do has some real editorial plan and reporters-in-the-trenches efforts going on, like podcasts with interviews and video blogs at conventions, it just seems kinda pointless, IMO.

 

[AnthonyRoberson]

Your site still propagating?

I'm getting the godaddy page...

Just reserved the domain name. I was trying to get some feedback about what content and/or format potential visitors wanted before I started building.

 

[weem]

Yea, news is tough as mentioned above - but if you WANT to do it and would have fun doing it, then by all means do it

I had one a long while back (around when Eric Noah was getting this all going) - it was weak and not viewed by a TON of people, but I had a blast doing it and learned a lot!

 

[deadsmurf]

You might want to take a look at what I'm doing at www.4espoilers.com as an idea - my site is building slowly (despite having a huge Gen-Con Weekend) - I decided to not cast my net so wide for all RPGs, and kept it to a specific subset of information, that of D&D 4th edition stuff, specifically stuff that hasn't come out yet.

 

[Maggan]

What would you like to see in a general RPG news site? Aggregaters/feeds? What general format/layout? Anything else?

A general RPG news site I would read would combine several sources of material, and present different takes on news.

1. Press releases. Clearly branded as press releases, from every RPG company that puts out press releases. It would be great to have a central repository of those.

2. Analysis of press releases. Commentary on what is not said in the press release, maybe with some more background on any issues. E.g. the recent WFRP announcement, while interesting as a press release, it gets even more interesting with added commentary from knowledgable sources.

3. Product catalogs. What's up for Call of Cthulhu? Exalted? D&D? WFRP? Lists of upcoming products for every system imaginable. With status trackers (In development, Late, Released, In limbo and so on).

4. Where is designer X now? A bit on the industry. Who is working where? What has he/she done before? Put faces to the people in the industry, present them to us, let us know who they are and what they're up to.

5. Sales numbers. I know it can't be done properly, but if a news site would find a way to report sales numbers, it'd be a winner for me!

6. Movers and shakers. What is company X up to now? What happened to company Y?

I admit that what I'm looking for is probably out of reach for the average blogger, and a lot of work, so I'm not expecting you to deliver my dream blog, but these are some of the things I'm interested in reading about.

/Maggan