Forgive me if the YvoCaro Plays articles lately are a bit about reminiscing. It’s not like I’m stuck in the past, but behind the scenes, I am busy preparing articles on the topic of our 10th anniversary. When you’ve been plugging away for 10 years, it’s nice to look back on how we got review codes and started reviewing in earnest. And that brings back so many memories.
The First Review Codes
One of them was the first official review I did. At first, LadiesGamers was a personal blog; that’s how it started out. I did put my thoughts on games I owned on the site, but no official reviews; that wasn’t my intention. That came later because a fellow game writer, the late BriBri (Brian Cooper), asked if I wanted to write a review for his website, JapaneseNintendo.com. This links to his WordPress blog, don’t look for this former website though as it leads to a clickbait thingy.
I think it was 2017, and the first review was for Piczle Lines DX. He was in contact with several publishers and had no time on his own to review the games he got from them. An eye-opener for me, call me naïve but this world of review codes was entirely new.
After writing a few reviews for BriBri, I decided to be brave and venture out on my own in the world of reviewing. Successfully, the first contact I made was with Aksys Games, where a kind lady saw the potential of the blog. Or maybe she was interested in the venture of an older woman playing the game; I don’t know. It was also my first foray into the world of Otome because the review code I got was for Code Realize ~Guardians of Forever~. And I still remember the feeling of wonder as it turned out it was the full game that I got from her and not just a demo. I know, maybe I was indeed naïve about the wonderful world of video games.
An Excel Spreadsheet Full Of Review Codes
From that time, we kept on reviewing the occasional game for Brian. Meanwhile, I asked for review codes now and then; it was always a bit weird asking for a free product. That changed when our team grew, and Jonah joined us in the Summer of 2018.
Up till then, we had enough to write about demos that had been released, games we bought ourselves and personal thoughts on gaming. In 2018, though, four years after the start of LadiesGamers, our first Excel spreadsheet was needed as Jonah had no qualms about asking for review keys. I had to use the spreadsheet to keep tabs on which codes we got and who was reviewing what. No problem there, though, as I am a big fan of making spreadsheets and pivot tables!
The first code on that spreadsheet was for Animated Jigsaws, which we got from Rainy Frog. That year, we asked for 198 codes and, in the end, got 60% of them. Not bad for a first start.Â
Over the years after that, this percentage grew and keeps on growing, which is what we want to see, of course. It might be because Paula is behind asking for the review keys in full force these days! We still use an Excel sheet, and one of our team is just as passionate about them as I am. Lynne helps out by making sure the sheet is neat and organized and can be used in a pivot with no problems!Â
Celebrating 10 Years of Partnerships Too
As I alluded to in the intro, you can expect special articles after our 10th anniversary kicks off on April 25th. There will be articles from our current team and former writers, as well as an article about the results of our survey. Plus, as personal and warm contact has always been important to us, we wanted to include the publishers we work with as well. You can find the results for these mini-interviews, too, on the site after the kick-off.
Some PR agencies we’ve worked with for years now, some contacts are more recent, but all are very much appreciated! Great to see that we are still in contact with many of those publishers, like MMPR for Aksys Games, NIS America, Digirati, Stride PR, Decibel PR and Forever Entertainment. We have been working with others for a shorter amount of time, but the partnership is just as nice! Even though we are geared towards spreading the love for indie games, we are, of course, proud to be able to add companies like Nintendo, Bandai Namco, and Kairosoft.Â
Well, a lot to look forward to at the end of this month!
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Don’t you just love memory lane 🙂
Yep, I do! Have you forgotten about the paragraph for the former writers?