作者：Koen Deetman

为什么你要写博客？在本文中我将分析为何写博客在游戏产业中如此有效的6大原因。

假设你是资深的游戏开发者，游戏制作人，发行商，二年级学生，游戏测试者，游戏设计师，程序员，美术师或者编曲者。你的爱好伴随着许多的技艺。每个人完成一款游戏的过程，方法都不同，这里也充满许多值得我们学习的有趣瞬间。当然你可以继续坚守自己的看法。但我还是看到了许多低调的开发者们在挣扎着。

blog-writing(from nycprgirls.com)

1.贡献

我的观点中最重要的一方面便是你对游戏产业贡献并分享有价值的情报。许多拥有博客的开发者会从世界各地获得许多读者，只因为他们在分享自己的想法和体验。写博客是一种个人行为，因为每个人的体验都是不同的。通过在游戏产业中分享这些内容，将帮助那些没什么经验并充满兴趣的开发者更加了解这个领域。

2.透明度

保密在某些情况下是有用的，如当你为最好的朋友或配偶购买了一份特别的礼物时。在这种情况下，保密将能够带给某些人“惊喜”，释放他们的幸福感。如果你是一名游戏开发者，有可能你会投入许多精力于第一件工作上（编程），投入适当的精力于第二件工作上（游戏设计），但却不擅长第三件工作（市场营销）。如此你将有可能不清楚怎么做而破坏了整体的游戏开发。通过博客传达自己的方法能够开启讨论并邀请人们提供给你相关反馈。这将在某些情况下彻底改变你的观点。

3.创造你自己的焦点

那些紧闭嘴巴的开发者是不可能被注意到的。当你能够面向公众说话时，你将能够创造属于自己的焦点。一开始你会因为刊登某些内容而感到不安，并且只会有少数人去阅读这些内容。虽然网页浏览数并不乐观，但是你至少迈出了这一步。在你运行博客的第一个月中，你将会看到自己所发表的内容在网络上具有“牵引力”。但是你可不要期待数字的疯狂增长。

维持你的博客页数很重要，这是你的首要权利。你也可以在像“Gamasutra.com”等网站上分享你的博文。这些都是游戏产业人士会关注的网站。它们允许你能够在这些平台上开始写博客。关于这些平台最棒的地方便是，当编辑看到一些有趣的内容时，他们有时候会想将其推动首页。受推荐是件很棒的事，因为许多人将能看到这些内容并去阅读你的博客。他们除了会推荐你，你也将成为他们的“博主资料”的一部分。许多人会检索这些资料并选取最棒的文章，我便是如此。

4.别人会感激你所提供的帮助

不久后你将获得评论和反馈。你会注意到自己写这些文章的努力获得了大家的认可，你将会发现那些花时间阅读博客的人数远多于愿意花时间写评论的人。我真心建议你能够回应这些评论。至少这些人是愿意付出额外的努力去回应你的内容。这些人有可能成为推广你的内容的大使！1%会提供评论的读者和粉丝是阅读你的博客的最重要的群组。他们会提供给你更大的“范围”。如果你不知道该回应他们什么，至少你也应该花时间去传达你的感谢。

5.交朋友

现在你的博客已经有了一定的基础，你将注意到一些“回头客”。做得好！这意味着你能够通过一些有价值的文章去留住他们。更棒的是你将能够开始于最忠实的读者进行交谈。了解他们并在他们有问题时花时间去帮助他们。交朋友是你写博客最大的收获之一。你将有机会去认识来自世界各地的不同人。例如我便遇到了来自世界的另一端，即美国加州的开发者Jonathan。

6.向他人学习

关于写博客的一大收益便是反馈，即别人提供给你的帮助。我经常基于一些特定的游戏开发主题去编写我自己的看法。有些人会表示同意，但也有些人会反对。基于你的主题去阅读别人的看法是件很棒的事，如此我们能够从中学到许多。有时候这也会改变我自己的看法，并帮助我通过不同的角度进行理解。

总结

写博客带给我的好处大大超过我一开始的想象。起初我认为与别人分享一些资讯是件有趣的事，但很快地我发现这一方法具有更多的好处。尽管有些文章比较突出有些比较平淡，这都没关系，只要你真正投入时间和努力于某个主题上，它最终都将发挥其影响力。你可以分享自己关于某些趋势的看法或描述你的工作流程，工具或解释开发的某些部分。也许你会想出一下全新的理念并开始新一轮的讨论。许多开发者会对你的想法感兴趣，但这是因为你还未开始写博客，我们能做的也只有猜测！最后，让我们大声地对公众传达我们的热情，并且永不放弃！（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

6 Reasons To Start Blogging As Developer

by Koen Deetman

Why would you consider writing a blog? In this article I will highlight 6 reasons why I think blogging in the game industry is useful in many ways.

So you are an experienced game developer, a game producer, a publisher, a second year student, a game tester, game designer, a programmer, an artist or you compose compelling music. A lot of craftsmanship tailored or mixed exactly to your liking. Everyone’s process, way of working and road to a finished game is different and full of interesting moments to learn from. You could decide keeping all your knowledge to yourself. But I have seen many secretive developers struggle and I think one of the reasons is their silence.

1. Contributing

The most important aspect in my opinion is that you contribute and share valuable information with the game industry. Many blogging developers get readers from all over the world, just because they speak their mind and share their experiences. Blogging is personal because every experience differs from one another. By sharing this with the game industry it’s very helpful to other inexperienced or interested developers on the subject.

2. Transparency

Keeping things secret is useful in just a few cases, for example; when you buy a special present for your best friend or spouse. Here secrecy has a clear goal to ‘surprise’ someone, releasing their happiness factor at once. When you are a game developer, chances are you do more than a great job at one thing (programming), mediocre on a second (game design), and are inexperienced in a third(marketing). Therefore secrecy could harm your development without knowing it does. Expressing your methods through a blog could start discussions or could invite people to give feedback. It can seriously change your views on certain matters.

3. Creating your own Spotlight.

Developers that keep their mouth shut are simply invisible on radar. You on the other hand speak publicly and have created your own spotlight on stage. In the beginning you will feel uncomfortable by posting something, and it’s read by only a few friends. Page views aren’t impressive but you have to start somewhere. The first months when your blog is “live” you will see your posts get ‘traction’ on the web. However don’t expect crazy numbers yet.

Maintaining your own blog page is great and is your first priority. However, its possible to share your blogposts on websites such as ‘Gamasutra.com’. This is a website largely read by the game industry. They offer a possibility to start a blog on their website as well. The best thing about them is, when the editors see something interesting, they sometimes decide featuring it on their front page. Getting featured is really great, because a lot more people are able to see and read your blog. Besides them featuring you, you will always be part of their ‘bloggers feed’. Many scroll down these feeds to catch a great article, I do so myself. I think nearly 50% of articles I find interesting come from Gamasutra.com.

4. Your help is appreciated

After a while you will start getting comments and feedback. You will notice your effort to writing these posts is even greatly appreciated. You should understand that the percentage reading your blog is far greater than the percentage actually taking time to comment. I highly recommend to ‘reply’ on these comments. These people took an extra bit of effort to respond on your post. These people can turn into your ambassadors; spreading the word! The 1% of hardcore readers and fans who comment are the most important group of people reading your blog. They actually provide you with a larger ‘reach’. Don’t know what to reply to some of them? well, at least thank them for taking the time to read and respond!

5. Meet new people

Your blog now has a proper foundation and you will notice several people coming back to your page. Great job! This means you are engaging and encouraging them with great and valuable articles. A great thing is to start a conversation with your most persistent readers. Get to know them, take time to help them when they occasionally ask or struggle with something. Making friends is one of the coolest things you’ve caused by founding your blog. You get the chance to get to know people from all over the world! For example I have met ‘Jonathan’ a developer from California, USA. The other side of the world to me since I live in The Netherlands.

6. Learn from others

A great thing about blogging is the feedback, and the help some provide. I usually write about my vision and opinion on certain game development topics. Some of them agree, and some would disagree. It’s great to read their opinion on your topic and I usually learn a lot  from how others think about it. It sometimes changes my own views and helps me to understand different perspectives.

Concluding

Blogging brought me more than I could have imagined when I started doing this. At first I thought it was fun to share some knowledge, but I quickly learned it’s a positive thing in many ways. It doesn’t matter some posts are better than others, as long as you put time and effort in a topic, it will radiate through the post. Share your views on trending situations or describe your workflow, tools or explain parts of development. Maybe even come up with something completely new and start discussions. A lot of us developers are very curious about your thoughts, but because you haven’t started blogging yet, we can only guess! Lastly, something that goes hand in hand with ‘following your dreams’ and speaking publicly about your passion; do not give up.(source:gamasutra)