Introducing: The Substack Gaming Digest.
Grab yourself a nibble of the Gaming Industry, a new weekly newsletter featuring news, releases, sardonic wit and more.
Gaming can feel weird when you’re out of the loop.
And quite frankly, who could be blamed for not keeping up? In 2022 according to Statista there were 10,644 games released on Steam alone. In one year. And I’m sure, yes, there are a chunk of those that are simply copycat cash grabs, but there are also a LOT of gems that you might not have ever heard of, and a lot of experiences that might just blow your socks off and inspire you in whole new ways.
But if there’s one thing about life, it’s that it moves on. You played far too much Pokémon on your Gameboy as a child, at University you spent far too much time grinding for a WoW mount you absolutely did not need, and in your early twenties you had the resilience of youth and the power of 24hr energy shots to push you through ‘til 4am to see in the latest Halo release. But eventually there can come a time where the spirit is willing but the body is metaphorically bruised and beleaguered by the demands of the average modern life, taking shifts to pay rent, looking after family and actually seeing the Sun every once in a while.
I’m hoping that’s where I can come in.
1. Great, but who the hell even are you?
My name is Leah and i’ve been a gaming content creator for a rather long time. I won’t throw a bunch of credentials at you as I find that rather gauche, but rest assured I bloody love games. All types of games, in fact. I spent some time working with Xbox UK for their Youtube and Mixer [RIP] channels, I do hosting and presenting for gaming shows here and there, but I was mostly known as a streamer for around 8 years. From hardcore FPS games to strategy to adorable cosy games and even roleplay, I dabble in a bit of everything because I literally cannot sit still for more than five minutes or I lose my mind.
When I hit the age of 30 I started realising how easy it was to let ‘staying in the loop’ slip out of your fingers when you’re not directly involved in the scene, and I had the canonical panic about ‘relevance’ and aging and fear for the future, which made me rethink how I wanted to go about things.
2. Ok so what are you doing here?
Well, in my time on the internet I’ve developed a lot of opinions, but I’ve also seen the internet devolve into a very black and white, us vs them-scape with vitriol becoming the mainstay for media. I find myself exhausted by the constant outrage clickbait, so maybe this is part of my attempts to remedy that, or at least, try and preserve my sanity by finding like-minded people who just want to stay in the loop and learn about what’s going on in gaming and beyond without having to crawl through the abyss.
The Gaming Industry is vast, it moves quickly, and sometimes you just want to keep your finger on the pulse without having to expend too much energy to do so. And even if you are able to play games regularly, you can’t play 10,644 in a year. Probably. Please don’t test me on that.
3. Why should I stick around?
Well, I’d like to think if you’re reading this, it’s because you love gaming and are interested in the gaming industry, but you just don’t have the time or energy to trawl through a bunch of twitter threads and bait to find out what’s actually going on. Here’s what I plan to do:
I will create a weekly digest where I break down what has been going on, what games have come out or been announced, what we’ve got to look forward to, and what the general news is. Less *reviews*, more throwing you some bones and letting you figure out if you want to crunch on them. But who knows - sometimes I get carried away, and I anticipate some deep-dives here and there.
I plan on throwing a few tidbits in there each week, maybe highlighting some new gaming or tech related fashion pieces, TTRPG systems, music and more. I’ll also throw in some sardonic ‘humour’ and maybe some cat pictures too, time permitting.
4. Alright fine, anything else?
I’m new to this whole substack thing (though, as a child of the internet I was around for the blogging and forum era and am slightly thrilled at even the mildest resurgence of long format, individualistic content), so bear with me as I poke about with formatting and finding the best way to give you information each week. I’m quite excited to give this a try, and I hope you find it interesting and informative and maybe even crack the tiniest grin every now and then. And if you enjoy it enough we might get more than simply stock images in here.