Bump on a Blog is a new feature on useful or interesting sites across the internet. I spend a ton of time each week looking for headlines for the show or ways to increase At the Buzzer’s networking, and certain places have popped out due to their strong writing or utility. I figure those places deserve a shout-out.

Little Sister Gaming

I’m constantly on the lookout for sites with good video game content, because it’s one of our main focuses here. After all, video games was a big enough area for At the Buzzer that it had to become its own category outside of Entertainment — and either Shaun or myself tend to write about them every other week or so.

Sometimes I’m looking for a news aggregate to help me keep in touch with what’s happening in the world of games, kinda like IGN but less awful (just kidding, IGN! Sponsor the show!). But there are also times when I’m looking more for the human element, the experience of gaming that keeps millions of people from age 2 to age 80 coming back for more. And that’s where Little Sister Gaming comes in.

Laurie writes about the experience of growing up as a little sister in the gaming world and her opportunity as an adult to either go back and replay the games she shared with her brother (awwww!) or finish games that he beat before she had the chance (boooo!). It’s a unique perspective, but what really makes it click is that she has a strong voice.

Quick tangent: No, I’m not talking about singing. For those not familiar with journalism or writing in general, “voice” is essentially the personality you inject into your writing to make it your own. Back in my editor-in-chief days, I interviewed a ton of college freshmen who wanted to write for the newspaper but had varying levels of experience (read: usually very little). Because we tried to welcome as many new people as possible, experience wasn’t a huge factor — but voice was. I wanted people who were passionate about what they did, because while technical writing skills like grammar and spelling can be taught, fluid, interesting writing is hard to come by. Anyone can write — and that’s part of what makes blogging fun — but few can capture an audience’s attention just by being themselves.

Point is, Little Sister Gaming has that covered, which is why I’ve been following her posts since stumbling on her blog a few weeks ago. She’s trying to get a job in video games; maybe it’s only a matter of time before someone at a gaming company has a similar evaluation of her talent.

As an added bonus for me, I’m the other side of the coin: I’m the big brother who tried to get his own little sister into gaming when she was young, keeping her alive in the original Super Smash Bros. while we teamed up, or letting her stay up past her bedtime to watch as I played things like Wind Waker. So I’m a little bit biased. But it doesn’t matter — this site is still worth checking out.