Skill Up launches new ad-free video game website - This Week In Video Games.

I like Skill Up and all, and it sounds like a cool idea. But I just can't remember the last time I ever felt like I needed to go to some gaming news site to find out what games are releasing or reviews or whatever.
It feels like this sort of thing isn't needed that much in the modern day. I probably get more use out of reading Steam reviews for a game, than something written on a gaming website by a games journalist.
He's got an audience though, so I'm sure he will be fine.
 
TheAnt said:
Because I don't think I can be "challenged" by reading a review where I don't agree with the reviewer. I've nothing to "learn", it's just someone presenting their subjective opinions about the game. If they don't fall in line with mine, that's fine, and I'd gladly read the review if I find the content interesting. But if my goal is to get a sense of whether I'll buy a game or not, then reading a review from someone on whose opinions I don't usually agree with, makes no sense to me.

But just to be clear, I'm not saying I'm like the original person you've quoted, I watch a variety of reviews simply because I enjoy watching people talk about a game, and enjoy watching game's footage. I'm just playing the devil's advocate as to why I think people my prefer watching content from a reviewer they tend to agree with.
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What am I supposed to say to this?

Thanks for the update on your reading habits.
 
Sgt. Pinback said:
Never said they weren't. I have no idea what you're referring to here. You want to stay in your bubble? Do it, I don't care.
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Your response is waay too defensive man. I'm not attacking, just joining in on the conversation.

I didn't say I was in that same bubble lol, I just understand why they are.
Sgt. Pinback said:
I have no idea what you're talking about here. All I said was that only reading media that serves you up opinions that you believe you will already agree with is a waste of time. It's really not a difficult concept to understand.
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It's not. Regarding this part I was making a comparison. Something about what that poster initially said provoked you to post and question why he would want to read something in line with what he prefers.

I was saying it's similar to how RPG/Action/FPS gamers question why some gamers play cozy/easygoing genres. I found it interesting that he provoked that response from you.
 
I like his weekly Vid's, the podcast he does is boring as shit though.

May check this out from time to time.
 
March Climber said:
Your response is waay too defensive man. I'm not attacking, just joining in on the conversation.
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It's not defensive. It's disinterested. When you reply to a very simple proposition with stuff like this:

March Climber said:
I will say though, your argument reminds me of people here who don't understand the fun in walking simulators, Animal Crossing, and build/craft games, because those gamers aren't sweating to death on Sekiro or some CoD match.
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That's a really, really weird thing to say in response to a pretty basic point about avoiding being siloed online.
 
Good for him, ShillUp is easily one of the better reviewers out there and if a project like this can keep him independent and afloat then more power to him.
 
Seems like a way to make people backing a patreon think they are getting exclusive content and not a traditional games website. He just doesn't want to be reliant on youtube not pulling adverts on all his videos if he says a bad word or something.
 
I really don't get the addition of a gaming website. He's added a whole load of expense, staff, complexity (and presure). He was already doing away with sponsered reviews, no company backing, etc, in his youtube videos, using the same Ethos. So, his morality was already in check. He either has the extra cash to do this or is stuggling for a cash injection and is trying to produce another revenue stream. Good luck to him, but the more people you have to feed the more enticing those sponser dollars look.
 
TheAnt said:
Because I don't think I can be "challenged" by reading a review where I don't agree with the reviewer. I've nothing to "learn", it's just someone presenting their subjective opinions about the game. If they don't fall in line with mine, that's fine, and I'd gladly read the review if I find the content interesting. But if my goal is to get a sense of whether I'll buy a game or not, then reading a review from someone on whose opinions I don't usually agree with, makes no sense to me.

But just to be clear, I'm not saying I'm like the original person you've quoted, I watch a variety of reviews simply because I enjoy watching people talk about a game, and enjoy watching game's footage. I'm just playing the devil's advocate as to why I think people my prefer watching content from a reviewer they tend to agree with.
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Thanks for posting what I wanted to write.
Esepcially with reviews, I read/watch from people who I know will report to me things about the game I want to know and have - if not the same then at least - similar tastes to mine.
Why would I want to be challenged by a reviewer that doesn't align with my tastes or who spends 90% of the time talking about performance if that is one of the last things I'm interested in?
 
naguanatak said:
Thanks for posting what I wanted to write.
Esepcially with reviews, I read/watch from people who I know will report to me things about the game I want to know and have - if not the same then at least - similar tastes to mine.
Why would I want to be challenged by a reviewer that doesn't align with my tastes or who spends 90% of the time talking about performance if that is one of the last things I'm interested in?
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"Yeah, I'm going to read the review of this new Mexican restaurant by a guy who hates Mexican food. I love Mexican food and so do others, but I can't risk an echo chamber, I need to know what people who hate it think."
 
The Escapist guys did this when they founded Second Wind and it's been great - quality of the content and the lack of ads is fantastic. They still have sponsorship deals to bring in the bacon, but they edit these directly into the videos so you can easily skip. I'm only to happy to see creators give publicly traded monoliths the middle finger and make something for themselves.
 
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Good to see.

But I can't read videogame news anymore without the GAF cacophony of hot takes, "were so back"/"we're so cooked" and general malcontent opinions. Everything I need is right here
 
March Climber said:
The site doesn't require readership numbers due to this which means that they don't have to constantly churn out meaningless articles and advertise companies (like the other guys).
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This is the way. For me at least. I pay 8 bucks per month for a German gaming website hosted only by a former editor in chief of one of the biggest German games outlet that got sold to a new parent company who fired everyone and is now spitting click bait and ads left and right. I come to hate this reach journalism everywhere, financed by lobbies, written with SEO in mind, and published by the hour to be the first one.

It's simply not honest. And this honesty is what I get when not lobbies and publishers pay the writers but the readers. If that's what SkillUp is also up to, I'm in.

I swear, IGN, PCGamer, Eurogamer, and co is melting my brain so it almost physical hurts to read that shit.
 
Eh, Shill Up. I'm not interested in yet another gaming website. Will continue to check his video reviews occasionally, but that's about it.
 
Why anyone needs this?
Game comes out, you play it.
If you need more there are forums and Reddit.

Visiting websites is so 2008
 
Not for me. I just check neogaf, rpgcodex, and some rss feeds on inoreader. That is more than enough.

Good luck.
 
BbMajor7th said:
"Yeah, I'm going to read the review of this new Mexican restaurant by a guy who hates Mexican food. I love Mexican food and so do others, but I can't risk an echo chamber, I need to know what people who hate it think."
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This was probably funnier in your head.

I cannot believe the chimp outs over suggesting that it's dumb to only want to hear from people you agree with. It's kind of funny to watch.
 
I like skillup for the most part. He seems like he really does like games. Sure as hell not paying for it though, the site looks nice however. I will check it out occasionally
 
Reviews are very mild. Clearly afraid to lose review copy access. They think a title is awful, but they review it with kid gloves to not burn a bridge.
 
A new video game website...

In 2025...

That relies on paid subscriptions...

Riiiiiight.

Seriously though, best of luck, but I'm just going to say, if this were my money, I wouldn't be investing in this project.
 
10 bucks a month? I like the idea and I like Skill Up, but paying 10 bucks a month to unlock a website is onlyfans tactics.

And putting up 20 bucks tiers is him taking advantage of his fans.

It should be like 2-3 bucks a month, and no "special tiers for superfans" tactics.

The website is also kinda slow and heavy? some elements load in later than others.

In some ways I hope it does ok because I like the concept, but I don't like changing out corporate overlords for influence peddling fans for monthly sums.
 
Save me Skill up!

WQhhjA9mxTNHZnhs.jpg
 
Sgt. Pinback said:
Why would you want that? You're only interested in journalism that reflects your beliefs back at you? What's the point?
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Is that so wild? It makes sense to me regarding unreleased games or something I'm interested in. Hell, it makes more sense to me than someone that has obvious bias or rates things poorly or in a manner I don't agree with.

Regardless, I don't let a reviewer's opinion affect my own. I'd rather just watch raw gameplay and go from there. I wish others would do the same.

But it's all subjective. You do you, and others do them. It's not that deep.
 
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That is a good idea. I will not be subscribing, but it will be interesting to see if going straight to your customer and asking for a subscription will work.


The ad model works because people normally do not want to pay directly for content.
 
I like SkillUp's content, don't usually agree with his take on things but his reviews are well argued and I can respect that. Don't really like the podcast though, the guests dont seem to gel well together to be entertaining to listen to, a lot of awkward moments. I'll give the website a go and I applaud his efforts, seems like a passion project of sorts.
 
He can have as many subscribers/patreons/whatever, he still craves access to early/press editions of games...and so the circle of shit continues.
 
I don't like this because it highlights how terrible my attention span is for reading online now. First thing I did was click on the Death Stranding 2 Review, hit Page Down to see if there was a score (there's not) and closed the page. FFS.
 
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Fbh said:
I don't really get the hate.
The site seems pretty decent, it looks clean and having written reviews I can actually read on my lunch break instead of some 45 minutes video is cool, and the release calendar stuff is actually really nice (better than what I've seen in most other sites).

I personally wouldn't pay for it, but I don't see anything hate worthy on the free tier.
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Its not that is hate, its just that I don't actually find justificable paying for gaming news, let alone any news. I appretiate his "thoughs" and takes on game news, but I don't think its worth my money. Not to mention the risk of going political or not covering specific games for reasons(Hogwarts as a prime example that he didn't cover because of lack of time I think, but nothing stopped him from doing review later which aways make this decision questionable).
Not trying to shit on him to be honest, but saying things about the current state of gaming, like being critical of layoffs, is not something difficult as basically any youtuber can do and youtube is full of them.
 
Saber said:
Its not that is hate, its just that I don't actually find justificable paying for gaming news, let alone any news. I appretiate his "thoughs" and takes on game news, but I don't think its worth my money.
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You'll be lucky to know, if you watched the clip (which, judging by the comments here, very few have) is that he won't be the main "feature". He'll do a piece here and there, but the actual content is from other writers.
Saber said:
Not to mention the risk of going political or not covering specific games for reasons(Hogwarts as a prime example that he didn't cover because of lack of time I think, but nothing stopped him from doing review later which aways make this decision questionable).
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See, this I never got about the culture wars. People are supposed to support Hogwarts Legacy because of the author of the books. Yet the game is about as pro-trans as you can get. So in order to support an anti-trans viewpoint, you should support a pro-trans game? I really have a hard time understanding this.
 
Saber said:
Its not that is hate, its just that I don't actually find justificable paying for gaming news, let alone any news. I appretiate his "thoughs" and takes on game news, but I don't think its worth my money. Not to mention the risk of going political or not covering specific games for reasons(Hogwarts as a prime example that he didn't cover because of lack of time I think, but nothing stopped him from doing review later which aways make this decision questionable).
Not trying to shit on him to be honest, but saying things about the current state of gaming, like being critical of layoffs, is not something difficult as basically any youtuber can do and youtube is full of them.
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I would't pay for it either, let alone $10 a month . But if he has a big enough audience that's willing to pay for it then good for him.
And what keeps getting lost in the thread is that many parts of the site are completely free: The reviews and previews, the news and the cool release calendar thing are all available for free and with no ads. The articles and opinions pieces requiere a subscription, but if you don't think they are worth it then you can just not subscribe.

The subscription also includes stuff like an ad free version of their podcast, Q&A's and stuff like that, which are bog standard perks for most podcasts on patreon.
 
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March Climber said:
And when he comes away from those early/press releases with a video not recommending the game (which he has done multiple times at this point) does that hold any value to you?
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It's not a catch-all statement, I agree there, and it was not even targeted at SkillUp specifically. I get that the current system of access media has become ingrained in the industry. I just wish journalists/reviewers would band toghether and demand that either everyone, with credentials, gets a press release copy or the games-media as a whole would boycott the game in question. As it is now, where publishers can chose to blacklist you if you don't play ball on their big releases is just so shitty for us consumers.

And that's not even breaking into the release-events-wine&dine stuff they do. While not as bad as access media, it's easy to understand that anyone attending such a thing will be swayed, even if just a little.

Unless it's a truly trash game or from a small publishers, I feel that the only voices that are 100% truthful are either hobby-reviewers or other gamers/customers...on top of watching gameplay ourself.

A bit if a rant, sorry. 😁
 
I don't see ads on YouTube so it does nothing for me. Also stopped watching his "this week in gaming* segment lpyng ago because he likes to insert his opinion and politics into it too much.
 
I get my gaming news from here, twitter, and reddit. I just can't see myself clicking this niche site that has a paid tier and trying to find news about gaming when i have so many other options nowadays.
 
SomeNorseGuy said:
It's not a catch-all statement, I agree there, and it was not even targeted at SkillUp specifically. I get that the current system of access media has become ingrained in the industry. I just wish journalists/reviewers would band toghether and demand that either everyone, with credentials, gets a press release copy or the games-media as a whole would boycott the game in question. As it is now, where publishers can chose to blacklist you if you don't play ball on their big releases is just so shitty for us consumers.

And that's not even breaking into the release-events-wine&dine stuff they do. While not as bad as access media, it's easy to understand that anyone attending such a thing will be swayed, even if just a little.

Unless it's a truly trash game or from a small publishers, I feel that the only voices that are 100% truthful are either hobby-reviewers or other gamers/customers...on top of watching gameplay ourself.

A bit if a rant, sorry. 😁
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It's fine. Wouldn't this work in SkillUp's favor in this case? Because he doesn't use a score system, there's zero incentive to lower or heighten a value based on publisher pressure, which they have done in the past. He simply lays out the good and the bad, with gameplay clips to show each point, and then says if he feels who it's for and if it's even worth someone's time. He tries to approach things from as neutral of a point as possible for the average consumer, and I think that's why some of his content has resonated with me and why his viewership and support has been on a steady increase (though I also agree with people that his podcast is boring).

Also, haven't most publishers moved on from sponsoring traditional media to those same hobby-reviewers/gamers that you're mentioning? I think at a certain point it's up to the viewer/listener/reader to decide which voices they feel seem the most unbiased when it comes to these impressions and reviews, or as others have said here, check out a multitude of different sources to make sure if you might like to purchase a game or not.

There are so many different sources today, sponsored and non-sponsored, that it can become easy to figure out whether a game is great, good, decent, or bad at this point for most people unless they blindly follow a person who hates nearly everything or a person who likes nearly everything. However those two polar opposites are easy to spot.
 
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