Ask Enormously: Why isn't this news?

Welcome back to Ask Immensely, the part of Vastly where you ask us arbitrary items, we give you answers, & you yell incomprehensibly at us.

natecantbefound asked: Why are you guys reporting this crap [a League of Legends video] when Darkfall has a new video out?

Short answer: Perspective.

Long answer: Since Darkfall is not the center of the gaming world.

Numerous years back, we began to broaden our MMO coverage beyond what most people would give consideration to classic MMORPGs. Like it or not, the definition of MMOs is more often than not changing; there is a truckload of games that reside in the grey location between "genuinely immense" and "MMO-like," and the audiences overlap seriously. So as most wise publications did, we adapted and started covering MMOFPS titles, mobile MMOs, & MOBAs, especially League of Legends, which as the biggest Darkfall gold game in the world even earned its extremely own column. (We'll be reviving MMO Burnout soon as well; it focuses on non-MMOs that MMO players may like to hear about.)

Darkfall, by comparison to LoL, is an tremendously minimal game, the nichiest of the niche. It's got a lot working against it in the popularity department: It is a sandbox, its playerbase is teensy, it is got mainly open PvP, it's made by an indie company, it isn't new, & its credibility has been damaged as a result of revamp delays. That does not mean we will not report on it. We've & will continue to do so due to the fact we like sandboxes, we like indies, we like old games, we like PvP, & if we ignored every MMO with a little playerbase or late patches, we'd run out of items to write about within 2 days.

But let's keep many perspective, shall we? Darkfall is small next to LoL, & even nonetheless, Aventurine's sandbox wrings far more posts out of Vastly than its size might merit. That doesn't mean you need to like every game we write about. I do not even like every game we write about. Go ahead & crush on a niche game, but be aware that you will bump into posts about other games when you're surfing a general MMO weblog. Possibly just skip anything you do not need to read, even "crap" like a video about the aforementioned biggest game in the world.

You need to probably also figure that what you bear in mind worthy of our attention is not necessarily something that other men and women care about. Not everyone who reads Enormously is going to agree on what constitutes newsworthiness. I offer the following illustration as example:

How is this news... why is this not larger news... whiplash! Here's one more 1.

Alejandro wrote: I know you guys love to post mainly negative stuff about Blizzard, although honestly, how did you let this one fall by means of your cracks? Amazing story.

That was an astonishing story... back in March. The cool factor about Blizzard is that the company does this stuff all the time and doesn't at all times publicize it, so it doesn't on the whole leak out to the blogosphere.

& hey, we do not "love to post principally negative stuff about Blizzard." I hate to see Blizz and World of Warcraft bleed subs; I hate to see non-MMOers use WoW as an example of a "dying MMO genre." Plus, I truly like WoW and nonetheless return to it on occasion. Yet our ability to cover WoW is limited by the reality that we have an entire site in-network known as WoW Insider. We are frequently allowed to cover only the exceptionally greatest news, & where Blizzard & WoW are concerned, the greatest news is really unflattering.

Although not normally. In the last couple of months alone, we posted about Blizzard's Hurricane Sandy relief charity & published a friendly overview of the DFUW gold game for its anniversary. Blizzard's third quarter reports were extremely promising as well, especially for WoW subs. Then there were a bunch of neutral stories, like Project Blackstone, the authenticator lawsuit & response, Mists of Pandaria's holiday offers, the crackdown on Diablo III cheaters, and so on.

Do commenters respond negatively to posts about Blizzard? Generally; we are a site that encompasses everything nevertheless WoW, so our readers are predisposed to hating on WoW, & I'd bet most start thinking about themselves WoW refugees. Though don't conflate the readers and the writers.

It's all a matter of perspective & what you selectively choose to read & bear in mind -- or don't.