Congrats on hitting a whole year of awesome writing!
I totally agree with a lot of your points, especially that Substack isn't quite the best spot for archival publications just yet. But honestly, I feel like this is the only place where everything seems less like 'content' compared to other platforms. What I’d really love to see moving forward is a more effective way to find or read posts that match my interests, along with a better interface or tools to organize them.
Anyway, I’m excited to keep reading your new posts in the future. Here’s to year 2 and beyond. Cheers!
Congrats on a year of consistency and posting! 🤩🎉 great achievement and I look forward to what you do next.
I do agree with the “everything is content” type feeling. And I’ve even caught myself considering if I should be recording a certain activity or game play with the purpose of content rather than just enjoy it. 🙃
I do the same thing also. I have an idea then wonder if I should start a new Substack or Youtube channel instead of just enjoying an activity for what it is.
I've enjoyed all your writing and our discussions over games and look forward to seeing the journey continue. I sympathize with the frustration over lack of engagement. But it doesn't seem there are any easy answers.
Retro gaming discussion (like every other kind of Internet discussion) is now dominated by video, and I suspect the dominance of video has increased significantly even since the time you compiled Questicle. Gen Z seems particularly averse to reading, but I feel like a lot of people around me are reading less.
I much prefer the written word, but I'm an aging weirdo. Of course, I used to go to independent blogs, but now I just use Substack. So I think things have gotten tougher for the blogging world too. Yet I think you're right that Substack probably isn't ideal for this type of writing, as a format.
As an example, I used to visit this guy's blog -- https://www.rpgblog.net/2025/08/ -- but I stopped keeping up with it. He's an American fluent in Japanese who plays through many untranslated retro JRPGs. I actually met him IRL once, purely by chance, in a context that had nothing to do with retro gaming, but I asked him his hobbies and he mentioned his blog and I realized I had read it before. I suspect he kind of didn't believe me, because what are the odds? Incredibly, he's still posting regularly, after 8 years.
But I don't think he ever built up engagement. In fact, he probably lost engagement, from people like me who drifted away (in part because I got married and had kids so find less time to be able to read this sort of stuff). I guess he just finds the internal motivation to keep doing this with no external rewards, and I think that's where it has to come from to sustain a project like that.
I guess I'm confused sometimes as to what consumers are looking for. I agree, video is the clear winner, but there seems to be a bunch of readers still out there, craving written content. Perhaps not retro gamers, though? Perhaps they've all moved on and grown up and have busy lives.
Crazy story about the RPG blog guy, I used to read his work too some years ago. Yeah I get it, people grow up, move on, etc. I don't have any children so right there, I have more time than a lot of folks my age.
On some level, I certainly enjoy it enough for myself to keep doing it, even if few are reading. But on the other hand, my heart is to reach people, like any creator.
Congrats on your one year Substack anniversary! Reading through your posts on old Nintendo games while on the train to work has become a pretty solid part of my weekly routine, so thank you for all the work and care you pour into these posts.
But at the same time, you've gotta do what's best for you - and if that means publishing fewer articles because of life stuff, then that's totally understandable!
Just know, we're all here to support you no matter what! And as long as you still have that drive and passion for documenting Nintendo's software history, then that's the main thing :)
Congrats! Substack has provided a great platform so far but discovery, promotion and monetization remain challenges - which is true of other outlets as well. Keep up the good work. Lemme know if there’s any other way I can support your efforts!
Happy 1 year anniversary! It's been great to read your posts, along with other people's. I won't claim Substack is perfect, however I've never felt like I was connected with a small group of people who shared exactly my interests before. And that in return people would actually care about my opinions too.
To be honest, it's because everything is written down. And lengthy too, not just a pithy sentence that is meant to summarise the entire zeitgeist of the world at that moment. Mixing up social media into a blog style, I've felt more immersed than anything in a long time, because I can take my time reading it and I appreciate everything far more since I know it took whoever wrote it a long time to write. Someone said something about video content, but I can never really get into videos - I don't want people watching over my shoulder and interrupting me.
What am I trying to say here? 🙂 Maybe that I appreciate all your writing, and if there were an easier way to read your previous posts I would. I'm actually one of the minority who would actually do that kind of thing!
Thank you, Peter! Substack is definitely a unique place in the 2025 Internet landscape, that's for sure. Imperfect, but highly valuable when connecting with others with similar interests. Far more than any other social media that I'm aware of.
Congratulations and I fully agree on all your points.
The post that put me on the map was an off-the-cuff rant about cosy games and how crap most of them are and suddenly I found my writing mischaracterised by some and feeling utter disdain that the post about Resident Evil 4 I took a week to write in my early days to this day hasn't passed 30 reads.
Alternatively, Tumblr girl accounts with hundreds of subscribers that do nothing but complain about men while putting cleavage and posing in every photo and write all lower-case, high school-level poetry.
Hate the contentification of the internet, I'm forced to write narrow, samey titles just to get my posts discovered these days.
Always feels like the answer is to have industry/journalistic connections or as you say, embrace the slop, except we can't really create our own influencers because they rely on the 12-16 demographic who I doubt are on here.
Congrats on hitting a whole year of awesome writing!
I totally agree with a lot of your points, especially that Substack isn't quite the best spot for archival publications just yet. But honestly, I feel like this is the only place where everything seems less like 'content' compared to other platforms. What I’d really love to see moving forward is a more effective way to find or read posts that match my interests, along with a better interface or tools to organize them.
Anyway, I’m excited to keep reading your new posts in the future. Here’s to year 2 and beyond. Cheers!
Thank you, friend!
I agree, Substack really needs to provide better discoverability for pretty much any Substack page in any category that isn't already popular.
I do concede that Substack is the best place to be for the moment, especially for community.
Congrats on a year of consistency and posting! 🤩🎉 great achievement and I look forward to what you do next.
I do agree with the “everything is content” type feeling. And I’ve even caught myself considering if I should be recording a certain activity or game play with the purpose of content rather than just enjoy it. 🙃
Thank you, Margot, I appreciate that!
I do the same thing also. I have an idea then wonder if I should start a new Substack or Youtube channel instead of just enjoying an activity for what it is.
Congrats on the year!
I've enjoyed all your writing and our discussions over games and look forward to seeing the journey continue. I sympathize with the frustration over lack of engagement. But it doesn't seem there are any easy answers.
Retro gaming discussion (like every other kind of Internet discussion) is now dominated by video, and I suspect the dominance of video has increased significantly even since the time you compiled Questicle. Gen Z seems particularly averse to reading, but I feel like a lot of people around me are reading less.
I much prefer the written word, but I'm an aging weirdo. Of course, I used to go to independent blogs, but now I just use Substack. So I think things have gotten tougher for the blogging world too. Yet I think you're right that Substack probably isn't ideal for this type of writing, as a format.
As an example, I used to visit this guy's blog -- https://www.rpgblog.net/2025/08/ -- but I stopped keeping up with it. He's an American fluent in Japanese who plays through many untranslated retro JRPGs. I actually met him IRL once, purely by chance, in a context that had nothing to do with retro gaming, but I asked him his hobbies and he mentioned his blog and I realized I had read it before. I suspect he kind of didn't believe me, because what are the odds? Incredibly, he's still posting regularly, after 8 years.
But I don't think he ever built up engagement. In fact, he probably lost engagement, from people like me who drifted away (in part because I got married and had kids so find less time to be able to read this sort of stuff). I guess he just finds the internal motivation to keep doing this with no external rewards, and I think that's where it has to come from to sustain a project like that.
Thank you, friend!
You're right, there are no easy answers.
I guess I'm confused sometimes as to what consumers are looking for. I agree, video is the clear winner, but there seems to be a bunch of readers still out there, craving written content. Perhaps not retro gamers, though? Perhaps they've all moved on and grown up and have busy lives.
Crazy story about the RPG blog guy, I used to read his work too some years ago. Yeah I get it, people grow up, move on, etc. I don't have any children so right there, I have more time than a lot of folks my age.
On some level, I certainly enjoy it enough for myself to keep doing it, even if few are reading. But on the other hand, my heart is to reach people, like any creator.
Congrats on your one year Substack anniversary! Reading through your posts on old Nintendo games while on the train to work has become a pretty solid part of my weekly routine, so thank you for all the work and care you pour into these posts.
But at the same time, you've gotta do what's best for you - and if that means publishing fewer articles because of life stuff, then that's totally understandable!
Just know, we're all here to support you no matter what! And as long as you still have that drive and passion for documenting Nintendo's software history, then that's the main thing :)
Thank you for all the kind words, I appreciate that!
Oh yeah, the drive still burns within. Can't stop, won't stop! But I can slow down, will slow down haha
Congrats! Substack has provided a great platform so far but discovery, promotion and monetization remain challenges - which is true of other outlets as well. Keep up the good work. Lemme know if there’s any other way I can support your efforts!
Thank you, JT! I really appreciate all your support. Substack really is the best platform at the moment, so I plan on sticking around for awhile!
Happy 1 year anniversary! It's been great to read your posts, along with other people's. I won't claim Substack is perfect, however I've never felt like I was connected with a small group of people who shared exactly my interests before. And that in return people would actually care about my opinions too.
To be honest, it's because everything is written down. And lengthy too, not just a pithy sentence that is meant to summarise the entire zeitgeist of the world at that moment. Mixing up social media into a blog style, I've felt more immersed than anything in a long time, because I can take my time reading it and I appreciate everything far more since I know it took whoever wrote it a long time to write. Someone said something about video content, but I can never really get into videos - I don't want people watching over my shoulder and interrupting me.
What am I trying to say here? 🙂 Maybe that I appreciate all your writing, and if there were an easier way to read your previous posts I would. I'm actually one of the minority who would actually do that kind of thing!
Thank you, Peter! Substack is definitely a unique place in the 2025 Internet landscape, that's for sure. Imperfect, but highly valuable when connecting with others with similar interests. Far more than any other social media that I'm aware of.
Congratulations and I fully agree on all your points.
The post that put me on the map was an off-the-cuff rant about cosy games and how crap most of them are and suddenly I found my writing mischaracterised by some and feeling utter disdain that the post about Resident Evil 4 I took a week to write in my early days to this day hasn't passed 30 reads.
Alternatively, Tumblr girl accounts with hundreds of subscribers that do nothing but complain about men while putting cleavage and posing in every photo and write all lower-case, high school-level poetry.
Hate the contentification of the internet, I'm forced to write narrow, samey titles just to get my posts discovered these days.
Thanks, buddy!
On one hand, it is what it is, and we all have to work around it.
On the other hand, it sucks and I hate it.
We press on!
Maybe one day we can actually have our own category
We need some legit influencers who can bring Substack a substantial amount of money, then we'll see it.
Always feels like the answer is to have industry/journalistic connections or as you say, embrace the slop, except we can't really create our own influencers because they rely on the 12-16 demographic who I doubt are on here.
happy anniversary!
Thank you Robert!