At the start of 2023, we asked our audience to complete the survey Super Proud to be a Gamer! In the first article (which you can find here), I gave you feedback about your gaming habits, what kind of games you like and how you get our information.
This second article is about LadiesGamers itself, what kind of articles you want on the site and the special comments you left for us.
You probably already know this if you are a regular to the site, but LadiesGamers has existed for nine years now….that is a long time for a blog that started under the title “A Lady and Gaming Plus”. At the start, it was nothing more than a place to vent my enthusiasm about the game I was playing at that time, and to keep track of where I had left off. Over the years, it evolved into the site you know now, with a team of 10 people who work on keeping our passion project going.
So let’s see what you all had to say!
Point of Entry
Of course, every site likes to have a good position on search machines like Google so that people can find us in the first place. Meanwhile, we know that a part of our audience is returning visitors. People who have been there since the beginning or found us along the way and keep tabs on what we do. Some 15% are returning visitors, and we want to cherish them. Of course, reviews or guides are found on Google and bring in many views. But we know the returning visitors love us not only for our reviews or guides but also because of our personal stories and personal touch.
It’s interesting for us to see what brought you all in and what your point of entry was.
28% of you entered because of a review, 7% because of a guide for one of our games and about half of you remembered what specific game it was. What stood out was that 10% joined us because of our cute, cosy and wholesome content. One reader mentioned that her family teased her that she only liked rainbows and unicorns; not true, of course, but when you play relaxing games after a hard day at work, you come to the right place with us.
It’s nice that 9% found us because they knew one of our team members, and 6% liked us because we have a focus on female gaming and being women-led. Some of you also mentioned liking us because of the atmosphere we create and that we manage to strike an inviting tone. I was particularly happy when I read that people feel that visiting us is like having a conversation with a friend, while they feel many of the other gaming sites feel distant and sterile.
More Reviews, Guides, Lists and Personal Stories
This Survey was a nice way for us to check if we are still on the right path. One of the questions was whether we should change the mix of content types. Sometimes, we feel as if there are too many reviews on the site.
After all, if you aren’t looking for that specific game, chances are you won’t read the article at all. But, surprisingly, 71% of you still felt there should be even more Reviews! Most people told us that they love our in-depth reviews.
Some readers had very specific wishes for the reviews. Including what type of timing system each simulation game has, like real-time or how many minutes in real time a day in the simulation game is. Now, simulation games are, of course, one of our speciality genres, so we will work on that.
Several of the responders asked if Xbox and Playstation reviews could be included. I’m afraid we won’t be able to do that. We can’t ask our writers to own all kinds of consoles, and to be honest, Paula and I don’t own them either. The upside is that these days, most games appear on Steam and consoles. And Switch is often one of the consoles new games release on.
Another reader said it would be nice to see more reviews on the Steam Deck. The problem there is that we often get one code to review a game with. And if it doesn’t run on my Steam Deck, I don’t have a good alternative to review the game. The publisher gave us the code and does expect a well-rounded review. So most of the time, other members of our writing team review Steam games, and they can’t test if it works on the Steam Deck.
56% of participants thought we should publish more Guides. We will try, of course, but the thing is: our guides are a labour of love. We could never make a guide for a game that we weren’t in love with, and not all writers like writing guides, as it’s quite a big chore. However, we will do our best to find more time to make guides, as we also recognize that they draw a lot of views. Guides generally provoke a lot of interaction, too, with our readers, and that’s, of course, what we like!
Every month Paula and I make a List of Upcoming Games on Steam and Switch. 50% of respondents want us to make more of them. Currently, they are tied to the upcoming month, but one of our readers suggested making lists of games that are already out. Like lists of Two Thumbs Up games, lists of games in a certain genre etc. We can do that; it would mean extending the Best of… lists we already have.
The fourth item that was chosen a lot was Personal Stories, which pleased me a lot. Sure, this might not be to everyone’s liking, but they make LadiesGamers just so much more…personal. From the start, we have always aimed to make the site accessible, going for the feeling as if you are having a cup of tea or coffee with a good friend. And articles about how our team experiences Christmas, the holidays or what their first gaming memory is helping with that. So I’m glad you like them too!
Interviews, Surveys, Quizzes and News
There were some votes, too, for Interviews, Surveys, News Articles and Quizzes. Interviews shouldn’t be a problem; we are always looking for people to participate in our interviews. Several series are already running, like Ladies in Gaming Biz, Gamers like You and Me and the Indie Dev interviews that are specifically for our patrons. News Articles are already back; every Friday, I talk about the news that stood out to us, and I’m helped with input from the entire team.
Surveys and Quizzes are very interesting. I myself love filling out surveys, too; I had no idea there were more enthusiasts like me! We will just have to find more topics to send out surveys for! Lastly, the Quizzes. So much fun to try and a lot of work to make. But I like the idea; we have had a few on the site before, but they are long gone. We will discuss making a new one in our team!
Other Suggestions
There was room for your own suggestions as well. I’ll pick out some answers:
One of our readers mentioned that the personal stories would be lovely as a youtube video. Good suggestion, as I know many people consider watching first and reading later. As much as we would like to oblige I don’t think we will follow up on it. It would mean each of us needs to have a capture device and be tech-savvy to make that happen. Plus, some of us are a bit camera-shy…
Another suggestion was more convention coverage. We will keep it in mind as it’s a good one but do understand that we are spread worldwide and often not in the position to travel to the big conventions. Much as we’d like that, mind you!
Another tip I really like is to have a way to search by recommended games, for example, a list of all the two thumbs-up games. I know exactly what you mean. We try to make collections of data that you can find in the menu bar (above the page if you’re on a Computer or under the pull-down menu on the top left if you are on mobile.) Those collections are made by tagging our articles; if we tag them right, you can see the right content in the collection.
We have the reviews compiled into genres; we used to have them compiled to console/device too. The thing is, nowadays, a lot of titles are reviewed on Steam and later come to Switch too, or to mobile. That is something we can’t keep up with, checking back on articles in hindsight; that would mean that we would need a much bigger team. What I will look into, though, is making a compilation in the menus for the rating too. It might take some time, but we will get there!
Comments for the Team
Well, I must admit, when the answers began rolling in for the survey, it really made my day and Paula’s too. We got such nice additional comments! Generally speaking, a lot of our audience is very happy with the work we do.
Our reviews are invaluable to some of our readers, who check daily to see what games we mention. Often we cover games extensively that are hardly mentioned on other gaming sites. The word trust is used by several respondents, and we are very thankful for that. Even though we get the review codes from publishers and developers, you can indeed always depend on us to tell you how we truly feel about a game.
It also stood out to us that other lady gamers found us. As one of you commented, the gaming community is getting older, and they like having a place like LadiesGamers to go to. And we love having you over!
I love articles about upcoming releases or post about gaming news and i love reading game reviews.