Updates and Content Roadmap
I'm back! Checking in after my latest defense of gaming went semi-viral.
Currently Writing: Elden Lore, Part 2
Currently Playing: Balatro, Infinity Nikki, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII
Well, looks like my recent… shall we say impassioned defense of gaming popped off a bit! I’m starting to think the Free Press should publish more misinformed anti-gaming broadsides, so that I can keep responding and grow my audience even more.
ICYMI, here’s the link:
So, if you’re a new subscriber who happened upon Game & Word through that post (or the many restacks and notes discussing it), let me be the first to welcome you to my humble corner of the internet!
You’re joining me at a great time, as I’ve decided to start publishing more regularly again. For this post, I’m going to lay out my plans for this newsletter in a bit more detail, including:
Additional Content Types/Formats
Changes to Paid Subscription Tiers
Planned Topics for the Near Future
But First, A Quick Check-In for My Readers
When I first started this newsletter, I went quite HAM on it, churning out 5k–10k words each week, in addition to the podcast, for about a year and a half.
Naturally, I burned myself out. And while I grew my audience beyond what I ever expected it to, I wasn’t able to monetize my content enough to sustain the amount of time and effort I put into it. So I stopped, got myself a day job, had another child, generally got busy elsewhere, and figured that was that.
But I couldn’t stay away. I love games, I love writing, and I love writing about games. Even if this publication isn’t my main source of income, I have to keep publishing because writing about games does something for me. It nourishes my soul.
That said, I’ve realized that maybe I don’t need to write 5,000 words each week to keep my writing muscles flexed, or to grow an audience (especially considering Substack’s network effects seem much more powerful now that their Notes algorithm has been doing its thing for a while).
So, I’m going to keep writing, purely for the love of doing so. If it leads to bigger and better things, awesome! But even if not, that’s totally ok. As long as I get to keep writing. And I hope you enjoy reading Game & Word as much as I do writing it!
Content Plans for 2025
Content Mix + Schedule
Going forward, I’m going to mix things up a bit at Game & Word. Don’t worry—if you subscribed for the really in-depth, longform analysis I’ve been exclusively writing up to now, you can relax, as I’ll still be doing plenty of that. I’ll publish these whenever they’re ready.
But I’ll also be doing more shortform content as well, in the form of weekly quick bites, about 1k–2k words each, which will consist of meditations on gaming and its deeper aspects, whether in a more general sense or related to games I’m currently playing.
These will mostly be free posts, with the occasional paid post depending on topic or circumstance.
I’ll also start publishing audio and video versions of my longform analyses, which I’ll also cross-post to YouTube. I might also do the same for my shortform content, if time allows. These will also be free, though the timeline for them will be a bit longer (video editing takes a ton of time).
To better keep track of all this content, I’m also mulling ways to better categorize and organize all this content. I might break out the weekly shortform articles and the longform analyses into different sections, for instance. I’ll definitely go back and apply tags to my previous content. I might also create an index page for all the longform content as well.
If you have any preferences or suggestions, let me know in the comments!
Lower Subscription Price + Paywall Removal
Oh, and another big change: after I implement the new organization schema, I will remove the paywall for most of the archive, only keeping it up for some bonus posts.
This means that paid subscriptions will be primarily meant as a show of support for the time and effort it takes to make this content, with the occasional bonus post (or exclusive subscriber chat) thrown in as an extra “thank you.”
To this end, I’m lowering the price of paid subscriptions to $5/month, effective immediately. I’m also introducing flexible pricing for Founding Members—if you really support my work and want to show it, but $210/year is not quite within your means, you can now name a price that works for you!
At the end of the day, monetizing my work is nice, but I’ve decided that the most important thing is that people actually read and enjoy my content. If enough people like and share what I write, I have faith that the monetization will follow, without me having to force it.
By the way, if you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s a good time to do so:
Content Roadmap
Anyhoo, what am I currently cooking up? Quite a bit, actually! Here’s a quick, high-level overview of what’s in store for you at Game & Word, in no particular order of release:
Elden Ring, Part 2 (Volume 5) — Almost finished, hopefully within a week or two! 🤞🏼
Balatro (Volume 5)
Outer Wilds (Volume 4)
Infinity Nikki (Standalone/Quick Bites)
Civilization VII (Volume 4, Quick Bites)
Elden Ring, Parts 3–5 (Volume 5)
Diablo (Volume 5)
Grand Theft Auto (Volume 3/Standalone)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Volume 5)
Game Development Meta + Technomancy + AI (Volume 5)
Audio/Video versions of longform articles, starting from Volume 1
Weekly Quick Bites
Occasional Bonus Posts
And, of course, at some point, I’ll also start planning out Volume 6. I’m thinking of doing Food & Drink in video games, but I’m always open to suggestions! Speaking of which…
Suggestion Box
If you have any suggestions for topics, formats, or anything you’d like to see more or less of, I’m always happy to hear from my readers! Just drop a comment below, or clicky the button to send me a message:
Remember to Like and Share!
Oh, and if you enjoy Game & Word, don’t forget to like and share! Even if you’re not able to spring for a paid subscription, clicking the “like” button and sharing with your network is still a fantastic way to show your support.
Every time you like, comment on, restack, or forward a post, you help bring the joy of exploring the deeper sides of gaming to new people. And nothing brings me quite as much joy as knowing that people enjoy my work and find it enriching.
So don’t be shy, and spread the word!
Until Next Time!
So, that’s all for now! Lots to look forward to in the coming months! As always, thank you for reading, and I’ll catch you next time.
Until then, I look forward to hearing from you in the comments! Tell me, which of my planned articles are you most looking forward to reading?
GGs all around,
~Jay
As a blind reader who came pretty late to your writings, the audio versions will be much appreciated... That said, given I sometimes struggle to stay focused when listening to really long audio book chapters or YouTube videos and find it difficult to find where I left off if I take a break, I'd like to cast a vote for offering the longer articles with file breaks at section breaks in the text versions. Runtime might be the same, but I have a much easier time consuming 4 15-minute videoes than I do a single 1 hour video...Also not sure how to address this, either in text or audio, but I've found it difficult to move back and forth between a footnote and the passage that references it, and of course, just reading the whole body and then the foot notes more often than not renders the footnotes incomprehensible without the immediate context of the passage they came from. Not exclusive to articles from you, but I figured I'd mention it while I'm here.