I went to Gamescom this year and got to make many connections with devs, publishers, PR folks and content creators alike. As it turns out, however, LinkedIn is something I desperately needed to get… so I caved and made one, right here:
LinkedIn – I go by “Dan Dicere” there with “Dicere” just meaning “saying (sth)” basically. It’s odd that it needs a last name and I debated using my real name but I don’t think I’m ready for that just yet.
EDIT: This is incorrect now. I no longer have a LinkedIn Account.
Read this post for more info.
What’s pretty cool:
For what it’s worth, LinkedIn is built in the same way as other social networks but with a big focus on industries. Looking for a job? LinkedIn’s got a bunch of features for that.
You can “follow” other people or “connect” with them which makes messaging other people fairly easy which is gonna come in handy in the future when I wanna do more interviews without there being a huge convention or an afterparty going on.
Beyond that, though, I still have to get used to the site and how it works. For the time being, I created my page and made a first post, but I’m not entirely sure if I should share blog posts on there or not. Some folks spam posts. Other people’s pages are literally empty.
Connecting to folks feels easy enough, though. I get to see what folks liked or commented on. Companies they worked for. If I look up someone who sends me press releases, finding them is super easy most of the time, especially when I follow it up with their company name.
In that capacity, it does what it says it will: I feel pretty linked… in the industry. (boo!)
The fact I didn’t have a page like this was shocking to some devs, honestly, so I just caved… but now that I have it, I’ll have to see if there is any benefit to running yet another social page. I do have automatic posts on the Fediverse and Bluesky. I only really use Bluesky actively. Beyond that, I share all my posts on my personal discord and in some cases mail the coverage to whoever it concerns (like PR folks, devs and publishers who sent me a press release or review key).
LinkedIn feels very different though. Time will tell whether it’s worth using.
Beyond that, though, I’ll definitely have to invest in some business cards next year. Oh, boy. The judgment I got for having a notebook was insane, haha.
Something that put me off:
The algorithm keeps suggesting posts to me by industry folks who write about the happenings in the gaming industry… but I’m shocked at how much AI art is used for some simple cartoons.
It looks off and weird. There was one, for instance, with a comic of a patient refusing to get into an MRI because they don’t know what brand it’s from. The doctor was inside the MRI for whatever reason. Make it make sense?
I know folks claim that AI is getting better, but the art style you see so often for these is just so washed out and odd that it feels off. Similarly, the depictions make barely any sense and don’t prove a point.
More than anything, I think cartoons would just reach a better audience if it was poorly drawn but had character in them. Writing a prompt to generate the most generic art ever that doesn’t even look all that good feels so soulless… and what’s even worse is that it’s sometimes games industry folks who make use of it in this capacity.
Overall
I’m looking forward to seeing how much being on LinkedIn is gonna help me reach out to other people, although I will refrain from scrolling down the feed due to the many, many posts that use AI-generated content. At least until my algorithm realises that I don’t wanna see that crap on my timeline.
Call me a ludipe or whatever if you want, I don’t really care, but it really looks shit and is so darn soulless. It’s not a great look for creative minds in the gaming industry to use something so uncreative and unethical – something that uses stolen data sets to circumvent people’s copyright… not to mention the impact on the environment.
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
If you see this article anywhere other than Indiecator.org then this article has been scraped. Please let me know about this via E-Mail.
Indiecator 
it sounds so strange that ppl would ask for a LinkedIn lol, like I’d get if they wanted a portfolio and were open to anything as long as it was well presented but LinkedIn is…I have one but only use it to update my work experience and maybe crosspost my Netgalley reviews (they have a function for it so I figured why not)
if the notebook works, keep using it 👏 also I don’t think the link works? I clicked it and nothing pops up 👀
ugh I feel like I see AI images everywhere now, even in blog posts and I just click back automatically like I don’t want to interact w this 😭 maybe once you make a few more connections/follow accounts it’ll show less AI?? 😔
i briefly considered sharing my blog posts on there but all my connections are IRLs and just, I’d be too embarrassed 😳😂 even sharing my Netgalley quick thoughts sometimes makes me question myself xD but your blog posts I think would def work since you do features and interviews, etc! And that’s why you made the account:D
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Thanks for the shout! Yeah, it didn’t embed correctly for whatever reason but should be fixed now.
For what it’s worth, most people expected me to have a business card of sorts, so I’ll design those some other time… and since I didn’t have those, LinkedIn was the most common ask afterwards… which I didn’t have either, so I just wrote down my e-mail and blog URL, lmao.
Yeah, AI is everywhere. I just block the people that use it.
Oof, yeah, sharing what one writes with folks IRL feels like a big ask, especially considering what you write about :D
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I guess I understand business cards a bit more but wow, things are so fancy!
And yeah 🤣🤣🤣
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