Please support HG101 through your donations!

You may have notice the Donate buttons on the right side of this blog, and on the main page. I've been wanting to expand the site by paying contributors, but unfortunately the internet ad biz just doesn't pay remotely enough for that happen.

HG101 is work of passion. It takes a lot of effort to assemble an article, from taking numerous screenshots to digging up strange trivia to pouring through English forums and obscure Japanese databases. They are contributed by people who really love the games their covering, but ultimately this is a non-paying gig and it's hard to find people who are willing to work for free. We're aiming to change this.

Ideally, people should be paid for their work, right? But where is the money going to come from? In the old days people used to buy magazines and newspapers, but on the internet, everyone expects things for free. These online sites, including this one, get some revenue through advertisers, although unfortunately it's not very much, not nearly to the levels of print. This is why even big time media outlets are having problems, because they simply can't draw enough revenue. It's obviously worse for a smaller site like HG101 here, where we're lucky if we can generate enough monthly income can pay a single electric bill - and THAT'S in a good month.

So that's why we're petitioning you, dear readers, to help further our cause through donations. I've been wanting to expand this place for years, but this is all hard to do when you aren't paying your writers anything. And so, any money you donate will go towards content creation, attracting more authors, covering a wider variety of topics, posting more frequent updates and ultimately producing better articles. We are proud of this site and strive to offer something unique for coverage of titles outside of the mainstream media. We've got expansive articles on JRPGs like Shin Megami Tensei, Ys and Dragon Quest, shooters like Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, Gradius and Fantasy Zone. Classic action games like Mystical Ninja and Ninja Gaiden, graphic adventures like Quest for Glory and Monkey Island, and cult classics like Killer7 and Rez. Fighters like The King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury. We've got huge articles on Retro Japanese Computers and The History of Gaming in Korea, and profiles of niche developers like Nippon Ichi and Love-De-Lic. We've got coverage for doujin games like Chantelise and obscure Japanese classics like The Scheme and Almana no Kiseki. Just take a quick look at the full index. There are well over 1,500 pages across the entire site and hours upon hours worth of reading. Of course, all of the content will remain free and accessible, but any money will help improve the site for everyone.

We've set up a recurring donation scheme through Paypal, and set the subscription rate at $3/month. This is about half the price of an average value meal at a fast food place, or roughly as much as a fancy Starbucks coffee - it's quite cheap and we guarantee you'll get your money's worth for this. If you don't like the whole recurring thing, you can simply donate however much you feel the site is worth. This place currently covers well over a thousand games, with vast amounts of interesting and important historical data built over the course of nearly seven years, and we strive to improve that every day. Please consider helping us out!

If you don't feel like donating, please considering clicking an eBay or Amazon or Play Asia link, if you're curious about buying an item you've read about. These don't pay much either, but it does help contribute a little bit, and we will continue to analyze games critically, so we won't simply be hyping up games just to sell them.

Furthermore, while we're confident that HG101 offers some outstanding content, it definitely has room for improvement. Some articles could certainly use better proof-reading. Some older pieces are either outdated or don't meet our current quality standards, which are constantly evolving. These are issues we hope to be fixing, of course. What types of games do you want to see covered more often? What kind of articles are your favorites? Especially as a donator, you have a right to read the things you want to read - please let us know what they are, or post a comment below!