…long live Zombiegamer?!
This post is a milestone post, and one that marks a metaphorical start of a new beginning for your favourite “gaming site in South Africa with ‘zombie’ and ‘gamer’ in the name.”
This post is the 10,000th post on the site. Yes. Ten thousand articles have been published under ‘new management’ since May 2009. That is an extraordinary number of articles when you consider the majority of contributions have been from only two writers, with guests seemingly coming and going and some – like that Zombie of Doom character – hanging around undeterred even after all the abuse.
It’s also taken a heavy toll on us. Life (or undeath if you prefer) is catching up, and we’re finding it increasingly difficult to get back to the standards of news coverage we had up until around a year ago. It’s also no secret that we’ve refocused our efforts on South African gaming, the community and eSports especially. Sadly, it has seen a drop in international visitors to the site. Not sad to us really, as we’ve seen the percentage of South Africans visiting us increase, but it seems the distributors prefer ‘raw’ numbers generally.
Of course, we’ve also been actively engaging our audience in the real world by hosting (and assisting others) with a variety of gaming events – both competitive and social. We’ve had a kick doing so, even if some don’t notice the omnipresent zombie lurking in the corner.
So now what’s this post all about? It’s a thank you to everyone that has supported us throughout the years and the humans and honorary zombies that have contributed in any way or form. It’s also a statement of intent. And as good a time as any to contemplate change.
The plan for Zombiegamer going forward and over the coming months is to change the site and the way it operates. We want people to start using us as their gateway to what’s happening in gaming – specifically South African gaming – and we will be doing so by ensuring we will be the one-stop shop from which you will be directed to the news you find most relevant – be it SA eSports, gaming news, social activities, online events and more. This will take effect later in the year – as soon as we can get our undead heads around making it work properly. In the interim, the site will stay relatively unchanged to the average human user.
Where we plan to make a number of changes is in the events. Promises of online tournaments in the eSports realm will start to become a reality as the site is altered. We will continue with offering a variety of community level social and competitive gaming events. However, the truth of the matter is these are done at our very own cost and with very little return, making it increasingly difficult to continue doing indefinitely.
To start getting the equipment to pay for itself we (at least this Cape Town-based zombie) will run the Cape Town branch of TGN Racing Simulators, which will ensure you will get sick of seeing the undead in some shape or form everywhere.
One of the programs we’ve been operating (and are most proud of) is our school’s program. And this is where we will make the change that may surprise many (considering this post). After much soul searching and negative responses from many headmasters who see gaming as “for children”, we have come to the realisation that we need to convince schools of the legitimacy of gaming and eSports. Several surveys of pupils revealed that colours are more important than prizes and these factors have meant that we will have a division affiliated with the MSSA to further the school’s program via Provincial and Regional authorities. And before everyone loses their heads, let’s be honest and say there’s no-one able to legitimately offer colours other than the MSSA right now.
We’re also keen to hear from any readers, visitors, supporters and – should they exist – haters what they would like to see us add or remove from a gaming website that they would happily visit daily. We have loads of ideas – contrary to the human belief that zombies are braindead – but we need reigning in, so feel free to comment so that we can be the best that we can be. And writers, we need writers. If you can articulate yourself better than any of us can (not that difficult to be honest) and are willing to work for the love of gaming (or any other noble cause), drop us an email.
Some of the changes will happen within the next few days (in fact, TGN Cape Town is now open for business), while others will roll out over a slightly extended period. But let’s be fair, perfection (or at least a zombie’s loose idea of perfection) takes time – and only a bullet to the head stops that for a zombie.
Zombiegamer is dead. Long live Zombiegamer.