How Has Content at Multiplayer Evolved?

It has been 7 years since I first started as a freelance writer at Multiplayer. Now I am the Content Manager but don’t worry, this piece is not about how I climbed the so-called ladder of success. There is nothing interesting about those anymore.

This is a story about the ever-changing “Multiplayer” and also a little bit about how it changed me while it continues to evolve.

Let’s go back to the beginning of my Multiplayer Experience.

I joined Multiplayer in 2014. At the time YouTube was on the rise, Twitch was at its dawn in Turkey and audiovisual content was becoming more popular by the minute.

I was an editor for our website and also responsible for social media management at the time. I was happy as an editor. Sure, the website didn’t attract much attention compared to what Multiplayer had on Twitch, but still, we did break some remarkable news and created a discussion platform for gaming communities.

But everything we achieved was short-lived because our audience consumed everything we could create in minutes and asked for more. There was no way we could compete as there was limited content we could create. Because we were focused on games, news, and editorial pieces. We were at breaking point for content creation.

At the same time, there was YouTube and Twitch. New kind of media where the content was not the games, but the people in front of the camera. Multiplayer Live (which was basically a group of people live-streaming on Twitch) was in the spotlight and created great content which happened to also put the human beings creating that content on a showcase. What we witnessed was that if you are the content, simply doing something (at least mildly interesting) on record was enough to sustain as a content creator. (Don’t take this as a tip for success, it is simply an observation of the situation.)

This is of course all too familiar for most of us today, but at the time it was not that clear. We were just trying to figure out how the new media shaped content. But we were sure that we needed to change and tried a lot of things, but the most impactful change happened in 2016.

How did Multiplayer change and what has it become?

In 2016, the editorial staff and approach of Multiplayer changed. I also became a video editor and the director of the Multiplayer TV Series. (Actually, I have a great story about this position change but it’s a long one so I’m saving it for another day.)

The biggest change was on our YouTube channel. Before, we were trying to do the similar editorial content we did for our website. After the change, our YouTube channel has become a little bit more like what new media requires. Our editors, including me, started to do content not only about the gaming world but also about our personal experiences, past, and present.

This was in accordance with what I’ve talked about before. We didn’t just share the content, we became the content via being in front of the camera all the time. With the attention brought by our new editor-in-chief, Enis Kirazoğlu, people loved this change.

But of course, Multiplayer is still a company and has to have a “personality” of its own. We couldn’t just be the content itself. We had to do something even if we were replaced. With this approach, we were able to create an in-between solution.

Today we are creating content not just tied to the people in front of the camera. While we do not stop being ourselves, we are talking about things that everyone who has the same interest can watch. Even if all the editors were replaced, there would still be a Multiplayer I believe. Granted, this kind of dramatic change can be painful, yet still can be managed.

How did all this affect me as a Multiplayer employee?

The point is, Multiplayer changed a lot over the years and I’ve tried to summarize content-based changes. I like to think that I’ve shaped and shifted Multiplayer in years for it to become what it is today. But it is a two-way street and it shaped me too.

Multiplayer’s weaknesses and strengths were also mine, as I was one of the editors for years and I’ve learned a lot from it. All those experiences showed me the necessity of doing things in a way that is accepted in both worlds of content. It showed me the importance of both being an editor and also an influencer and all of its advantages.

I confess that this mash-up changed the meaning of being an editor and also an influencer and sometimes it feels like a bad thing. But in the end, it’s ours.