Long ago, back in the year 2013, Samual (moving), Sam and I discussed our mutual love of gaming outside of Pokémon and talked about opening a site that covered all gaming news. Although I bought the domain in March of last year, I didn’t start working on it for several months. We opened up the forum to some members from Mt. Moon Community and our Facebook page (fan perks I guess) and got some initial feedback. Then I got busy again and we started covering news related to Pokémon X & Y. After that was over though… and our semester had finished… we began work again on the site. I had wanted to reveal this on the first of January, but we decided we wanted more time to fix things 🙂
What is Retry Level?
A community-centric gaming site
Although there are a lot of game news sites out there, I felt that they lacked a real sense of community integration. Over the years, PokéJungle (the site, not me) has really inspired me to focus on new media in a way which draws the reader in and makes them a part of the site they’re visiting. To this end we’ve created a gaming site which will (eventually) feature content hubs based on both news AND community threads. They will open in several weeks after we’ve had time to fill up the forum a little.
An independent unbiased source of news and commentary
There’s also the issue of independence which is an important one for me personally. I’m not a fan of sites which are run by large corporations and are driven by how much profit they can milk out of their media properties. I’m not interested in plastering ads on every inch of Retry Level and I want our team to be able to fairly review and comment on games without working about reprisal from advertisers. There have been several incidences on gaming sites in which a reviewer’s score has been called into question.
What are some cool features?
Steam integration
We’ve invested in some plugins which allow our members to login with their Steam IDs, as well as areas of the site on which you can view other gamers who are currently online and what they’re playing. Big plus for PC gamers (like myself).
Twitch integration
Game streaming has become a phenomenon. We allow our members to add their own streams so other members can watch and comment on them. Currently the PC and PlayStation 4 support Twitch streaming and the Xbox One will as well within several months.
News from your favorite PJN staffers!
If you like how we do things here, you’re going to love Retry Level as well 🙂 The tone is a bit more professional, but we’re definitely the same writers and with the same intense passion for Pokémon and gaming! A cool thing about Retry Level for us is that we’ll get to see some of our regular commenters here also post on our gaming site. Which will make us very happy 😀
We’re just getting started!
It’s true! So don’t hesitate to offer feedback! We’re guided by your opinions so be sure to share them. This is definitely an exciting time for us and we’re very happy to be branching out into the general gaming field. I hoping you all will support us and help Retry Level to become a successful gaming news site that rivals any of them currently out there. We can do it!
Thanks for all the support, not just in this endeavor, but also right here at PokéJungle. Without the experience of running this site and the encouragement of all my visitors I wouldn’t be who I am today. I really owe you all a lot and everyone here means so much to me. You guys are great!
<3 PJ