Hello there, everyone. It’s been a while since our last Editorial so I thought I should write one today to give you an update of what’s been happening. Now before continuing, DSOGaming is not closing or going anywhere. I’m throwing this right away so that I can save you the trouble of reading it. So, with this out of the way, let’s talk.
What really prompted me to write this Editorial was the layoffs I’ve seen on some other gaming media websites. No no, I’m not talking about what happened to The Escapist (the layoffs there happened for a completely different reason). I’m mostly talking about Kotaku and some other gaming media. These layoffs were most likely caused by a Google f’ck up. Yes, Google has been a mess for a while, and all gaming media saw a tremendous traffic hit. We might have an article to explain what has gone wrong with it in the past few months. To give you an idea, some websites got a 40% traffic hit, which is HUGE (we “only” got a 9% hit).
Now contrary to other websites, DSOGaming has not relied much on its Google traffic. So while we were also hit, that hit wasn’t as big as the one we saw in other gaming websites. Not only that but I’ve run DSOGaming with the worst-case scenario in mind. And this has paid off. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t expanded the team. So, even with this hit, we are still doing fine. We are not making a lot of money, but the site can at least maintain me and cover its expenses.
And I know, most of you would love to see more writers. Here is the thing though. If we had new writers, they’d be volunteers/freelancers. And I really hate this “freelancing” thing. In my opinion, writers should be paid. That, or they shouldn’t have any deadlines (or a minimum amount of daily articles to write). And that’s exactly what we’ve done with our reviewers. We’ve been buying them the games they want to review and paid a small contribution for their work, and we never set a deadline for their reviews. But that’s not enough to cover their bills so most of them stopped. And I get it. Spencer, Nick and Stephen still write reviews from time to time. And I’m really grateful for their work. But since we already tried to expand the team and it didn’t work out, I don’t believe it makes sense to hire new people. At least not until we’re able to pay them.
I also hoped that our Patreon would help us expand the team. Unfortunately, our Patreon was a colossal failure. And, to be honest, deep inside me, I always knew it would fail miserably. For those unaware, we launched our Patreon when we had some pop-up ads. The goal was to hit a milestone so that we could completely remove the ads from the website. A noble goal, right? Well, that’s not how things work in the real world. Why become a Patreon when you can use an ad blocker? And I have nothing against those using ad blockers. We’ll NEVER block our content to those using ad blockers. However, this is another reason why the team remains so small. Otherwise, we’d be also laying off some writers. I also don’t believe we have any intrusion ads. I’m not personally using a blocker and I don’t receive any pop-up or video ads. So, you should be safe without an ad blocker. Still, if you want to use one, you are free to do so.
Before closing, I should also note that we buy all of our hardware. Whenever we want to upgrade our PC system, we go ahead and purchase the hardware parts. If a RAM fails, we purchase a new one. And, since some publishers have blacklisted us, we also purchase a lot of PC games ourselves. This is another thing to keep in mind that differentiates us from everyone else. We don’t rely on partnerships. This is what being independent feels like.
The only company that currently provides us with free hardware is NVIDIA. To its credit, NVIDIA has never demanded “specific” articles. The main reason they got in touch with us was because we were already covering DLSS and Ray Tracing. That was in the RTX2080Ti days. And, if you’ve been a regular, you’d know that we’ve been talking about Ray Tracing since 2006. We’re also doing a good job at spotting graphical issues, which is why they’ve been asking for our feedback (regarding both DLSS and RT). So, this partnership started due to our passion for these techs. Hell, they even offered to send us a free video capture card. Our response? “No thanks, we don’t rely much on video content.” This should give you an idea of our principles. We’re not after free stuff just for the sake of it. And again, NVIDIA got in touch with us, not the other way around. We didn’t send them any email to get a free GPU or anything like that. So, if AMD one day contacts us, we’ll be more than happy to provide them with benchmarks or impressions about their tech.
In summary, we’re not going anywhere. Right now, DSOGaming is in an acceptable state. Unfortunately, though, with what has been happening lately, we won’t be expanding our team anytime soon. We also have no plans to change our gaming coverage. DSOGaming will remain a PC-only gaming website with benchmarks for all the latest triple-A games, and with a heavy focus on mods and fan remakes. So, if you didn’t like our content, why are you still here? 😛
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Keep at it John. DSOGaming is one my most visited daily websites.
Thanks for a great article John, and I salute you and your team, for doing things you do 🙌
Proud to be a member here and loved it since I found it, many years back!
Wish you guys, all the very best and I hope the financial stuff will work out. You truly are the best site, and place to be!
Keep up the good work. This Is Pc Gaming 👑🙂
You likely keep more viewers if the toxic commenters “disappeared”. The website title of “dark side” combined with the “Xphobic” bile spouted in the comments can be quite off-putting to a new visitor. Personally, I come back for the PC-only content, but I do spend a lot of time muting commenters, just to leave the on-topic/helpful posts, and to hide the “views” of those from those lacking a decent education/upbringing.
Couldn’t agree more. Not strange at all that some publishers has blacklisted them.
It has nothing to do with the comment section 😛
Find another site then, we don’t you here either.
Lol, it’s not everyone who admits being toxic. gg
There’s 300000 sanitized f*king websites you can visit that are heavy handed with moderation.
Why are you here? Go there!
You are engaging in conversation with a user who responded to his own previous comment. fray= Loxus
aw, did you get triggered in your parent’s basement because someone called you out, troll?
boy i cant wait for this site to be like pc gamer that there are 5 comments and all of them agree with the article and everything else gets deleted, who wouldnt want that and having the exact same opinion as every other mainstream site.
Agreed. Things get toxic and childish here. However that comes with the free speech territory . I’d rather scroll past idiot posts than be at a place with heavy handed censorship (which always just so happens to be offensive political hacks lording over the comment sections like with pcgamer and others)
I contribute monthly to the site, not much mind you but I urge everyone here to shell out at least $5 a month or more. There’s enough of us mouth breathers here every day to make a difference lol.
You gotta respect John’s lean business model and understand it can’t be easily profitable without bending over one’s a*s to the game publishers and tech corps. I found this place years ago after being disgusted with the shill sites out there, you guys know who they are who give glowing reviews on tons of horrible games, ignoring obvious performance issues, shadowbanning even the most mundane comments, etc. That doesn’t happen here. This is probably the most down to earth/honest gaming site imo.
id pay too if john upped the content of this site but the site has not improved for 5-7 years.
Why change something that is great. Stay the same 🙂
It’s kind of a damned if you do and a damned if you don’t. Some people complain that there isn’t enough coverage and some complain that there’s too much fluff when there is more coverage. You can never please everyone all the time.
Overall I am fine with the site.
Long live DSOG
DSOG is on my daily websites roster for the past 6+ years so it is good to hear the website is doing good.
It would be nice to get some new people in the comments or on the site in general but i guess most of them just watch youtube gaming news.
The most positive set of comments on this site I have ever read. So there are normal people here. That’s a relief.
is anything “normal” these days? Strange days. Good movie you should watch it.
Almost like this is one of the few places where people can criticize the awful state of the hobby without being censored.
You keep focusing on your own emotional reaction to the comments without thinking and analysing why people make said comments in the first place.
LEGIT, pc gamer comment sections are basicly non existent, few comments agreeing with the article and the rest are removed, at some point people stop bothering commenting all together.
We live in a world were social media hides the downvotes, so the snowflake is never confronted and think he is right all the time.
“People” hate to acknowlegde mistakes in the current world.
More corporations than people I feel like.
I was afraid reading through article you’d apply changes to your site or enforce bans upon people for commenting their views. Thankfully it’s not the case and youre keeping free speech alive in the comments. Much respect. 🫡
F*k jannies.
Lol, the comment section on this site is cancer.
Stfu f@g
HAHAHAHA, way to show I’m right 🤣
If you can’t deal with the opinions of random game enjoyers and it hurts your feelings, go back to Rock Paper Shotgun or Kotaku so you can mingle with all your alphabet friends and live in a delusional world where everyone goes out of his/her/its way to avoid stepping on your sensitive little b*tch toes.
thats the problem, there are no game enjoyers here lol, everyone just whines for the sake of whining
I think it’s funny ….. Lots of truly miserable people venting about things that aren’t real problems for 99% of people in the world so most if it reads like satire to me ……
To many of these people having to wear a mask in 2020 and 2021 was “adversity” but for someone like me who had to deal with REAL adversity growing up to me these people are really p*ssies if they think having to wear a mask is adversity ….. Adversity is not being able to afford both food and masks
I doubt most of them could survive real adversity ……
Hmmm that explains you nvidia bias. Anyway the site is one of the best PC gaming sites.
you might get a higher readership if you clamp down on the homophobics, racists and basement dwellers in the comments.
I would suggest more Unreal posts though, those are fantastic to wind up the idiots.
low effort bait
that’s exactly what your parents call you i bet.
Go back to twitter and stay there.
Keep to your bubble, you authoritarian pr*ck.
cry more.
Oh, it’s another latex sockpuppet
i thought this was a joke post but this gay clown downvoted me for saying that at least a game that doenst use unreal engine will run on a old pc. So he does believe what he says
learn to spell, you illiterate mama’s boy.
no
DSO is the only gaming website I go to. Even have it on my Bookmarks Toolbar. Keep up the great work. Best gaming news site imo
DSO is the only gaming website I go to. Even have it on my Bookmarks Toolbar. Keep up the great work. Best gaming news site imo
I’ll keep coming so long as this site doesn’t get cucked.
DSOG is one of the few genuine gaming avenues on the internet, in a time where everything is being sterilized by faceless corporations.
Thanks John!
DSOG is honestly one of the best sites I’ve ever been on. I know I and a few others have been really f*king chaotic as hell (even under my previous name Shadowed Heart), but I enjoyed your articles and this site, along with Niche Gamer are the only websites I ever visit. Keep up the work.
F*ck (((Niche Gaymer)))! These Islamophobic homosexual cawksuckers kept censoring my comments where I said “f*ck LGBT!” YET comments spewing “f*ck Islam!” And outright blasphemy against Islam (namely from a Jew named (((William Craft)))) were 100% kosher and never got deleted! “1 sHeKeL eVeRy mOnTh tO gEt aCcEsS tO oUr fAkE fReE sPeEcH cOmMeNt sEcTiOn! PlZ gOyIm wE’rE bEgGiNg yOu, iT’s jUsT 12 sHeKeLs a yEaR eVeRy yEaR fOr a sTuPiD cOmMeNt sEcTiOn tHaT sHoUlD’vE bEeN fReE iN tEh fIrSt pLaCe eSpEcIaLlY iN tHeSe dIfFiCuLt tImEs!” Yeah not falling for this trap, I’ve been on their k*kehole site long enough and know too well that you’re STILL gonna get censored in the comments.
Motherf*ckers hope they suck d*cks and NEVER recover from AIDS so they can truly get a taste of their wonderful Islamophobic f*ggotry.
EDIT: Keep downvoting you brainwashed Islamophobic homosexual cawksuckers and enjoy your wonderful “civilized” (((Western))) death cult and its AIDS, packed with grooming children as an unlockable bonus.
isnt niche gamer full of sexy stuff?
Yeah but still it’s so pathetic that it literally and CONSTANTLY censored comments to defend the child grooming homosexuals.
As of now it seems so but it was defending homosexuals in the past.
Islamophobia is good, actually.
Then go suck d*ck and enjoy your AIDS, STD and eventually KYS because of your wonderful homosexual “lifestyle!” Just saying, silly goy.
I’m not homosexual, sand monkey.
The term is wrong, though. We don’t fear it, we are disgusted by it.
But, yeah, islamophobia is the way.
Niche Gamer put the ability to comment on articles behind a paywall.
Yeah, that’s sadly my only problem with them. Unfortunately I don’t know of any other good additional alternatives unless I’ve been living under a rock, and I’m not gonna post on their Twitter since I left that hellsite to focus on my mental health.
too much competition, too much throttling in google, too many crappy games, too many unoptimized games, at some point people get tired of it, i get the feeling that this site is not as alive as it used to be, less comments less interactions, why? Because gaming sucks now so people tune out, hard to care about the latest crap when all i do is play old games, many just have closed communities in discord instead of being in the open, the world is changing and its getting worse.
yeah I’ve been just playing older games I have backed up like the bioshock series(pre launcher versions btw), Alan Wake 1 gog version, emulators and more. Only new game I’m really wanting to release this year is silk song, prob start a replay of hollow knight soon.
you and i have very different definitions of old games.
The request for hardware from AMD and Intel to do your job is unrelated to principles.
I think the mods coverage is good, it points out major ones and just that there are mods for certain games that make them better. The emulator stuff is great, and usually in front of the curve. The technical stuff is fine and appreciate the older cards still in there and different cores/threads. Still would like to see cards tested that are on the steam survey like 1650, 2060, but of course you can interpolate roughly. I think the UE stuff is overdone and come on, you’ve gotta be getting payola there! Maybe you could sell dsog branded tshirts/merch.
The comments I don’t like are the ones that are just trolling, 2-3 words. If there’s real criticism and constructive it’s fine to disagree but I think there also are AIs to elicit an internal conflict in the subject under attack, we interact with mostly AI on the internet and it’s easy to think that “real” comments are the exception. With disqus and everywhere else we are training AI in visual recognition and likely more, for free, under the guise of “security” etc At least here we don’t just get the obvious manipulation that studios and others buy to promote their games and lots of other stuff, in various places. Reddit is a joogle product and is used for this purpose almost exclusively, it’s pushed by joogle started by two “russian” jews, we never heard about that w the ukraine is the “good” one thing did we? The other big gaming sites are proven circle jerks only comments section for the most part, aka just selling.
Keep doing what you’re doing John as long as you have the passion. Wish we still have news and good games like we used to have in the past.
John, turn this place fully radical. make funny political articles about woke vomit infesting the gaming world
just look at youtubers who are going against the marxist narrative in gaming, they have views in the hundred of thousands. you’ll be the only conservative PC gaming news site KA-CHING!!!!!
John has left the chat.
I wonder what could increase the conversion rate of people who reached the site to keep them coming back, or to at least not be put off…
I juuust wonder…
Boobs? Boooooooooooooooobs. And more Unreal Engine 5 articles 😛
Boobs is always the answer…
But on a more serious note, you just wrote this article and it wasn’t great news…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55d00216620a70ac92c53d31e3eff353df7fc31c18977cc4e6f3a609203d6b3a.jpg
I’ve noticed jonnys not had any nude mods articles lately? what’s w that lmao!
I try and turn off my ad block when I visit the site but not always. I will try to be more diligent about it in the future.
No wonder nvidia’s mindshare is bigger than amd’s
Hey, if you’re really in a tough spot, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows an AI from the future. It can get you tomorrow’s lotto numbers.
Also, I’ll turn off my ad blocker for you guys.
DSOGaming is the only site I whitelisted from adblockers, and it’s the only site where I feel like I’m not being taken for an idiot.
Thank you John for all your efforts and openness!
Same. Lovely to have a cozy place like this on the internet. Sücks to be on the same place as that @disqus_cU1EF1xrNf:disqus morön, though.
Jk, I love all degenarates from here. Even Fernanbot.
He’s still here? I’ve blocked him years ago.
hello, not only i am here but i get the most upvotes. Someone tell him about it.
He was talking about Fernando you git.
why did he tag me then?
you upvote my posts all the time.
Here’s another.
You’re a funny lad sometimes. Most of the times you just talk shït, though. Not that I care, I’m not your parents.
I like that your reviews and performance insights aren’t on a strict deadline. Because the website where they are: they often have glaring mistakes in their write ups.
Where else one can talk freely about its passion without a
gehminority coming to cry and be offended about?This site DESERVES to be withelisted.
Cheers, Johnny the Perv, get up with the
nude modsgood work.This was a great article, keep it up John, I can only imagine what it’s like to be an essentially ” one man band ” :O
Kotaku and Escapist firing people? Lets DRINK FOR THAT.
Those are Liberal woke hell holes
I was so impressed by your candor I turned off my ad blocker for your site.
I don’t do that voluntarily very often …..
Idiot still hasnt worked out that if he wasn’t actively embracing the moronic incel basement dwellers he’d be doing a lot better. You pathetic forever alone scum are why this place is a little known corner of pathetic losers. Then again, maybe that is what John wants. Maybe that is what John is.
Mad respect for the work you’re doing, even if it might feel like a heavy burden sometimes.