What is 2old2play all about?

Ive spent a few days working on the Content & Media division business plan for 2old2play and over the course of the last couple days Ive done some competitive analysis on our site compared to similar sites on the Internet.  Ive learned more then I thought I would.  At first I though "Were like everyone else but were poor and have no full time workers besides our Web Admin"

As I went through the comparisons, our obsticles to breaking into the industry, and "what we do" differently or better then our competition I noticed on glearing difference.  Where IGN, GameStop, and others are massive media outlets for gaming and much more - we are more of a "country club."

Why?  Because we offer much in the same areas of a true country club besides the massive fees:

• Community: We have a community of people and 80% of them share similar interests.  We may not all be Xbox 360 gamers, true, and we may not all be PC gamers, again true.  We are, however "gamers" at heart and much of what got us here in the world of gaming, at the core, is the same.  And even with those differences we share a great deal in common with the circle of forum friends in our respective areas.
• Advantages: We all come here to meet up and get friends for online gaming, but we have other advantages.  We can sign up for contests, as we are doing now, we can share the same news media coverage from the homepage, we can sign up for tournaments, we can chat on IRC, submit editorials and opinions, blog and watch some videos.  We also can subscribe to our magazine and/or podcast.  So many unique areas!  We might not have tennis or a restaurant, but we have other entertainment mediums.
• Central meeting point: We have a well known place (or URL) to go to hangout.
• Exclusive Access: No plain joe can register and be part of the club.  They must be twenty-five or older to mingle with this elite group.

I spent some time on IGN, which Ive not visited in years.  Theyre so friggen huge.  They have a TV site, a DVD site, they even have a site dedicated to babes.  WTF?  "Imagine Games Network" has this "G" word which once stood for Games, now it must stand for "Great, where the fuck am I in this media array of chaos?" - true each site has a consistent look and feel, but its out of hand... I have to watch ads before I can go to the site?  And once Im on the site by clicking through or staring at the mountain dew bottle screaming "BUY ME" I have a site that is almost 80% ads right on the homepage.  I dont want to read reviews of the latest DVDs on the market, nor do I care what Britney fucking spears is doing, and whos got what ipod in their hooch, I want games dammit.

Second site of interest: Gamespot.com.  Again I have to watch an add before I hit the homepage.  This ruines any community atmosphere that may have existed before hand.  Imagine everytime you click on 2old2play.com you had to sit through an ad or click-thru.  Thats just annoying.  Second issue, on my laptop display (1024x768) all I see is ads... I have to scroll down to find content, literally I have to roll my little mouse wheel 5 times before I see a bit of useful information.  Apparently this site has forums too, but I have to do a search on the page with CNTRL+F to find it...  too many damn buttons.  My TV remote doesnt have this many buttons... and one more flashing ad and Im going to kill someone.  Do I have to have ten seizures just trying to click the button that says "news"?  Robots running at my face, guildwars people swinging swords at me, enough already.  I want games.

So, now that I got that out in the wind (couldnt exactly write it in the proposal right?), what do they have that we do not?  Besides funding from an obvious overuse of ad space?  They have interviews - sit down interviews, with game developers, they have the "exclusive access" to games yet to be produced, they have alpha previews, they have pre-release games to spent days on before writing a review AND STILL the review hits weeks before the game is on the shelf.  This is stuff we need.

What do they lack?  Personality.  The sites are media bombardments of the mind.  Yes, they covered E3 live streaming, and yes I watched it, but no I do not visit this site to catch up on news.  I believe TANK probably does, but hes able to withstand the forces of chaos like no other mortal man.  Secondly, they lack community.  They have forums, somewhere, but thats not what this site is about.  This site is about hardcore advertisments.  Considering a review is really an advertisement, what else do they do? Nothing.

We review games, true, and yes its an advertisement.  I can attest to this, because Ive been handed plenty of CD keys, game boxes, and retail stuff to review.  Is it a bribe?  Sure it is, but you know what?  You take what you can get.  If Rockstar hands me Table Tennis to review for the site then I will do it, and sure Ill give it a good review.  Why? Because its a good game!  We went to them personally, they did not come to us (how cool would that be though?).  Its a part of media, and people need to know about games to come and games on the market.

The last thing these sites miss is editorials and fan fiction/non-fiction/art.  That is part of the missing "personality" - they do not care what their community thinks unless it brings down their hit rates which drops ads which causes funding issues.  They care just enough to keep you coming back so they can bombard you with ad information.  We care in a different way.  You want something new on the site, we work for it.  You want coverage on something, we try to get it.  You have site problems or issues with a specific personalities on the site, we handle it.

Anyway, this is why I see 2old2play as a country club of elite friends and family and less a media hurricane.  Yet, we can still be successful, because we have a nitche market.  We cater to Todays demographic, the older gamer, and we do it like no other fucking site on the internet.  Screw them!

CodeMonkey