Segmented Gamers

There is such a thing as a well-written gamer, but for the most part the game itself is about the numbers and the key plays. That can be told just as easily, and IMO, more effectively, with what the original poster is proposing. The features and advances are where the good writing should be focused. As I said, it's a short-attention-span world we're living in, and you have to balance that and those who want to read good stories in the paper/ I think the game lends itself less to good storytelling.

 

On the SID side, this is similar to how we're doing gamers this upcoming season: 200 word gamer, 200 words of quotes and 200 words of notes. With 40 percent of our traffic coming from mobile users, it makes sense because it's easier to read

 

Sun-Sentinel, I think, did something similar.

Seems like they had two or three traditional gamers and instead of doing a roundup, they broke each game out and used a paint by numbers approach.

But I don't it had a traditional lead. Just a score, play of the game, player of the game, notable quotable and who both teams play next. More of a game sketch kind of thing.

You got more information that way, then a traditional roundup but it seemed like it would be a lot of work for the desk folks.

 

This is pretty much what we do. If there are a lot of schools involved, there just isn't enough space (or good writers) to do a gamer on every matchup. To my earlier points offered here, it matters a lot what kind of market you are in. If you only have a couple of schools, then a traditional gamer for each is just fine, and probably preferred by the readers. But if you have, say, more than eight schools in your coverage area, you are better off focusing on the best games and doing capsule style recaps on the rest. I am coming from the POV of a larger market with many schools to consider.