GRRR Squad Forum

there was also talk about a lan in CT, so that would be awesome (if i could get away)

but we will keep you updated in few

Alrighty then, I’ve now met with Martin, pressed the flesh, and had a good old chin-wag about gaming, Digital Life, and grrr. And where did it get us?

Well, to start off with, Martin’s quite a cool guy. The kind that’s reached middle age, yet managed to retain that sense of cool that most people lose in their thirties. So, with this in common, it was easy to see that we’d establish a good rapport

Martin brought a guy with by the name of Joe, who’s responsible for the website/online side of things. And of course I had the leg_end_ary Fly with me, to provide incisive questions, making sure that I didn’t miss any important details.

Okay, let’s get to it. What’s it all about?

Basically, Martin is one of those tuned in kind of guys that looks for synergies that he can exploit in order to grow his brand. Digital Life is a very broad publication, covering all aspects of technology, but focussing in it more from a lifestyle perspective, rather than from a geeky ‘technology for technology’s sake’ view. They have a rather active online presence, and the core of their readership is very online active, blogging, commenting and providing their views on technology and how it impact’s their lives.

Martin, recognising that gamers are a reasonably large portion of his demographic, has been looking at ways to tap into that group, and thereby increase his readership , as well as bring sales to his partners (those companies that provide much needed advertising revenue to the publication). His initial plan was to setup a competition, whereby various clans would be invited to compete in order to win a sponsorship deal with DL for a year. However, having now spent some time researching the gaming community, and speaking with clans, he has realised that this is probably not a great idea at this time, and has (based on recommendations from the community and discussions with Mike), decided that he would like us to be his partner clan for the first 12 months at least. Personally, I think that the reasons he didn’t go with his original competition idea are as follows:

• He has no experience in hosting this kind of comp
• What game would he choose? What clans would be invited to participate?
• What if the winning clan was one that did not fit well with his objectives, and weren’t able to give him the value add that he’s looking for?
• We have been recommended by the community, and we fit the type of profile that he’s looking for – I’ll elaborate on this in a second, because I think that it will be key to a successful relationship between us and DL

In order to achieve his goal, Martin is looking at the following process:

• Get us integrated into the Digital Life online community. Host our web presence for us, providing links to our portal from the main DL hub.
• Encourage us to add content. Blogs, discussion, reviews, videos etc. can be uploaded to the portal, and increase our exposure within the DL community
• Approach partners for sponsorship so that they might be linked in to the grrr/DL branding. Sponsors provide services/cash/products for us to use, and in return they get to stick logo’s on the website, include themselves in our signatures, get us to appear at LANs to endorse them, etc.
• Our presence attracts other gamers to the site, and thereby on to becoming readers of the magazine

Pretty simple, yeah? Effectively, he gets to outlay very little (web hosting and selling us to sponsors are his commitment), and we get to grow his brand for him. And the great thing is, it gives us tremendous benefits at the same time. We get to do what Lee wanted to do last year, grow the brand of grrr as a gaming brand, not simply a clan.

However, it won’t work if we aren’t prepared to contribute. Although there would be very little enforced participation, if we didn’t work to grow our presence within DL, sponsors wouldn’t shower us with gifts, other gamers wouldn’t start reading the magazine and we’ll be dropped faster than you can say ‘useless fucks’.

Martin gave us a few illustrations of the sort of things that we could get as sponsorships:

• Hardware from ASUS (yeah baby!!)
• Web hosting by DL (this is a given)
• Free Bandwidth from Axxess (moar pr0n 4 all!!)
• Vehicle rental for road trips (Mercedes Benz)/flights (Kulula)
• Effectively things that would make it possible for us to compete, and compete well

He also mentioned a couple of other really interesting things. They are forever getting offers to attend the latest launch of some product, or review a new piece of kit/game. However, a lot of these things are beyond their area of expertise/or just too much for them to cope with. There’s a new PS3 launch happening this month in JHB. Any of our resident grrr members fancy going along to check it out? Free food and drink? All you need to do is write a blog about it the next day/upload a video review of the new controller or whatever it is they were launching.

Apparently Joe has a pile of pre-release games that get thrown at him by publishers looking for reviews. But you know what? He hasn’t got the hardware to run them, or the knowledge to review them properly. Anyone in grrr fancy a pre-release copy of BC2 to do a review?

So far it’s all about writing skills, it seems? Well as much as that may excite me as a lover of extremely long posts, that probably doesn’t appeal much to someone like Stu (or even less to the editor who had to translate his writings into something that could be understood by the common man - ). That’s why, with their cutting edge web tools we can upload pictures, video, anything else that we want to use. We will also be invited to participate at LANs, do road trips and video them, basically all the kinds of interesting content that gets their website more hits, and earns us rep.

Now you may be thinking (as I did) that writing reviews for a magazine kinda sounds like a job, and surely if I were to do that I’d want to be paid for it? Well yeah, except for a couple of things:

• There are no requirements about having to write anything, or if you do, what you write
• Reviews/articles etc are in blog format, not formal writing
• The author gets paid for every hit on their blog

Yep, cash for your writing. Not a bad thing. BTW, if anyone thinks I’m a little over excited about this, Martin did mention showing my email to one of their editors and her first question was to ask if they could get me to write for the magazine. So personally my ego is well and truly stroked

Oh, and of course there were a few other questions that we needed to get answered:

• The web hosting is non-conditional. We get to keep our own moderators, and control our own content. Swearing is fine, no-one is gonna censor that shit. There is a basic code of conduct that we would have to adhere to, and that will be provided for us to agree with before going any further. We will also be able to create private forums and discussion areas where we can be more extreme if we so wish.
• Joe spoke about all of the cutting edge toys that their web servers have. I didn’t understand half of it, but we’d be able to do loads of stuff that we can’t do now
• It’s locally hosted, fast and with no space limitations
• Should things go South and we decide to part ways, they will provide us with a backup of our entire site, and we can take it back to wherever we like

Okay, that’s about the meat of it for now. There were a few other points mentioned:

• Timelines – The deadline for completion is end of April. This is so that announcements and stuff can make the next issue
• We’d look to get a proper introduction into the Digital Life community – thinking is possibly to do interviews and player introductions in that issue, possibly linked to a review of EA’s latest online MP title – something called Bad Company 2...
• As such, the terms and conditions of the agreement will need to be finalised by this time.
• Martin is currently putting together a prospectus for investment partners, and will let us know what kind of interest he gets over the coming weeks.
• He has committed that the agreement will be for at least 12 months. Whether or not it is extended for a further year will largely be dependent upon us and how well we represent ourselves, DL, gaming and the sponsors.

I have asked them to provide us with the following as soon as possible:

• A bullet point list of the sort of things that they may want us to do in order to grow the brand, so that we can be sure that these activities are things that we are prepared to do.
• The code of conduct to their website – a very important piece. Without the website hosting, this goes nowhere. We need to be amenable to their terms and conditions in this regard.
• Ideas for an official launch. Martin has already mentioned reserving a page in the hard copy mag for the next issue. We need to decide what would go in there.

Okay, I need a rest now and to let you all say your piece. But before I do, here are my thoughts:

• This thing is real, people. At the very least, we get free web hosting for a year
• We can’t really lose. All participation is on an individual choice basis. Having said that, if people don’t contribute, this will fail
• I’m very keen to see what other bits and pieces end up on the table.
• Clearly we will require a legal contract once everything is finalised. We will probably need to formalise our structure, and procure the services of a lawyer.

This is it. A chance for us to grow the grrr brand and turn it into something special. Not only as a gaming clan, or even as gamers. But across the technology arena as a whole. And, we will all be rewarded for our efforts. Win!

Of course we are nowhere yet. But I must confess to feeling a lot more excited about the prospects now than I did this morning.

Take it away... (and Mike, please add anything that I may have missed)

WOW! This is truly terrific stuff Jarrod. I can see why the would've wanted you as a writer

To be honest, when today's Newsletter had news from the Mobile Conference in Barcelona, I absolutely lost it (in a good way)
To be in touch with the mobile industry these days is a feat VERY few companies have. I actually had to take a breather when that mail hit my Blackberry..

This is going to be epic. I, for one, can definitely make a bit of time to post on a blog or review an piece of software/hardware/game

(that being said, I have food poisoning and a fever at the moment, so I am heavy drugged on Bascopan, Chamomile tea, Corenza's and Disprins.. (i am not a medicine person, so understand...)
When I am compos mentis, I will post my full flurry of fascinating info.

Thank you Mike and Jarrod, this is really awesome stuff.

Was there any mention about them hosting a grrr gaming server? I think this wil be the fastest way for the word to spread...

I have read it and can I just say ....... I like it!!!

Grrr are full of great people and games. And most of the games out there see us as a great group of people just wanting to have a lekker time playing! Serious or not, we play as at team!
This will only make us a better clan and better friends! ( More piss-ups i mean Lans! I'm all for that! )

So to Drag and Fly. We could not have had better blokes sorting this out! As for me, I would not mind getting involved in all this! Meaning!!..... The Clan will have my support for anything and i will do what is needed!

I have said it before, but I LIKE IT!!!

Now I'm looking forward to see how all this is gone fall into place!!

SOON Grrr will go Global!!!

Exited.....Exited.....Exited.....Exited

Once again thank you to Jarrod and Fly for all that you have done so far.

My thoughts on this are (if I understand correctly) that basically we can make as little or as much of this sponsorship as we want. As Jarrod "Hemingway" Mchin-I-don't-know-how-to-Spell-it said we get free web hosting, an introduction into a network of sorts and then from there our hard "work" will pay off.

The more we are involved the more potential there is to get more out of this venture but if we don't put any effort in we gain but lose nothing as well. So basically it boils down to us and where we want to take it.

Also, and this may be very premature but I think we should try get Jules back into the clan or at least guest write some reviews. I am sure anyone who has read his stuff agrees that it is almost as good as Jarrod's writings (yes that is right I am sucking up).

I am not sure how keen he would be but maybe we should put some feelers out once this has been formalized. I am just saying is all.

OH MAI HAT!

Everything i dreamed of in 09!

I'm truely stoked. You know i'll be putting 200% into this endevour.

I've got all the website stuff ready to shoot - I can't get over this excitement, this has been a dream of mine for years.

I think ALL of our members (past and present) have had their bit to play in making this happen, in fact, anyone who appeared on the Video's - which personally i think is what took us there, illustrating living the Digital Life. (along with the obvious gaming market they wanna tap). With not a single other clan, that i know of making a road-trip type video, i think kudos must go to all o us from the 1st r@ge session who MSNd the one night and cooked up the idea.
So big ups to everyone who is a member of GRRR, we're here because o you.

FFS, lets finalizor it all ASAP, I'm sick of paying for this website!

I was chatting to Mike just before your meeting and I must say, I think i was spot on in my thinking. This isnt about a sponsorship to WIN WIN WIN, it's about the Digital Lifestyle and we all live it, now with just a few silly posts / blogs / writeups. We can take it from paying for it, to being payed - ZOMG.

A couple of years ago when Mega Fired up this website, the cogs began turning in my head, I hoped to find a way for us as a clan to make money off doing what we love.
Here we have it boys and girls, here's the way.

Mike, you are a local hero for fininding this deal, Jarrod for sealing it, GRRR for being the cool kids who made this a reality.

I'm to excited to make string things together and make sense so I'll post tomorrow once i've had more time to process....

Great stuff Jarrod! I'm buzzing with excitement. It's really happening!!!!!

I'm especially excited about the blogging idea. Have loads of interests and topics to talk about.

I guess we need to keep it pc related, but no harm in spreading a little interest around.

I've never worked with a blog. Hopefully someone will be able to provide initial support with setting up etc.

Can't wait!


Thanks again! You guys are awesome!

GOLLY would you mind if i tried to interupt while you are talking

its a real pleasure to be invvolved with this guys

drag, you pretty much covered everything.
Martin didnt commit to any other lans other than rAge and his DL expo a month after rAge, thats not to say he wasnt thinking about it, but i think we should perhaps consider something like skoups and witbank as small side lans to keep things interesting from an information/blog/review point of view. there may well be a more official LAN in CT but if we present with ideas, he gets the idea we are serious.
For all we know a sponsor or two will also have idea for us to show at.

I know i am committed to doing some write ups of whatever they throw at us, even some lymericks will come in handy
i tried to put it another way half way through the meeting, and i have twisted my words again for now -
we offer him a certain amount of street cred and in return he gives us hosting for our forum, and in return we blog, review, coment, (LIVE TECHNOLOGY) and in return he finds us sponsors, and in return we show our faces with relevant branding etc .

live is an intended pun above

we would still need to figure out the details of how we would represent the sponsors online (sigs, forum etc) but it doesnt sound nearly as "serious" as Gravies deal.
we will not be expected to win at all costs, but to represent his brand and sponsors.

Paul wrote:Also, and this may be very premature but I think we should try get Jules back into the clan or at least guest write some reviews. I am sure anyone who has read his stuff agrees that it is almost as good as Jarrod's writings (yes that is right I am sucking up).

Was my first thought when I thought of write-up talent. Both Jules and Drags have the best write-ups around.

I've been so excited about this that I forgot to congratulate the guys who started the whole thing.

I don't think Jonny and Geth pictured this when they first sat together as room mates, having Doris say [grrr] when deciding on a clan name.
And, thanks Lee for the efforts of that video. Serious talent there. I'm sure that video was a huge factor in this deal getting this far.

Suggestion... Admins, could we have a new sub-forum in the private section for "Digital Life" please.
This is a long topic already and maybe we could highlight some main points and deal with each in its own topic.