Good morning, hi.
My name is Paweł Łeszczyński and this is the first episode of Loando Podcast about working in the largest fintech group in Poland.
In each episode you will meet one of the employees of LOANDO Group.
Today I am going to speak to Michał Krawiel- editor-in-chief of the Zagrano.pl [EN: PlayedIt portal]
We will try to find a spot for this gaming platform in the fintech environment.
At the beginning, maybe you could say a few words about yourself and tell us about Zagrano.pl
Hey there.
I am the editor-in-chief of Zagrano.
Previously, I worked in the journalistic industry.
Later I started working at Affiliate 44 as account manager in our fintech Group - LOANDO.
And just like that there came up this idea of Zagrano
and we wanted Zagrano to be a portal for mature players, but not only for the players, but for all recipients of popular culture.
That means that we also have a section on comics, series etc.
We want to achieve synergy between different areas of pop culture.
Zagrano is mainly associated with playing computer games, but we are going to treat this portal as something relating not only to games but to something more.
We will publish game reviews here, but you will also find reviews of series, publicist texts on comics or TV productions made by Netflix, HBO or Showmax...
You mentioned that Zagrano is normally associated with games.
But when it comes to LOANDO Group, then there quite distant associations between Loando and the gaming world.
Maybe you could tell us how it happened that the financial group made room for a portal about games, series, and comics?
I wouldn't probably say that they are very distant industries, because we work in this digital branch of the economy.
In other words, somewhere between the loan comparison site and a gaming site.
Well, there is a kind of divergence, but it's still the internet and we are developing within it.
Where did the idea come from?
From conversations, from the kind of openness of the board and also the possibility of using the skills we have beyond what we normally do as account managers.
I worked for 4 years as a journalist, for 1.5 years I was the publisher of a website, which had around 1.5 million users monthly, it was a large portal.
And as I say, I can use the things I've done before in the activities within LOANDO Group.
And I think that it is very cool that with openness come ideas.
There is a project, there is some intellectual or knowledge background and we can act in this direction.
Loando does not just close itself off in the world of finance.
So the idea for a portal comes from personal passions, from a hobby, right?
It can also be that we want to use these things that we can do and which we deal with as a hobby, but also professionally...
because if I was presenting games in a printed newspaper why wouldn't I be able to do it on a portal.
It's also about the skills we have.
It resulted out of loose conversations and it has already turned into a design of flesh and blood, which already has some form that we want to continue to shape.
So you managed to find within Loando some people you took aboard Zagrano?
Yes. When it comes to writing texts, it is Ewelina Zdancewicz-Pękala who works as a copywriter...
but with whom I also worked in Gazeta Olsztyńska before, for both the printed version and online,
so we also knew each other's work and know our skills, and also she is an avid player,
so it would be nice to use it and Piotr Binkowski, who also works at Affiliate44, this part of Loando dealing with affiliation and also writes texts when he's got some time for it.
This is very cool, because this pillar of the writer's team is from the company.
Of course, we ask freelancers to write texts as they are also like those contacts that have been established earlier in our other works.
We know journalists who are able to write cool texts and that's why we outsource.
Of course, LOANDO Group employees take care of IT or SEO services.
It is composed of our employees in 80 per cent.
And how do you manage to combine job duties in the affiliate network and work for the portal
Well, it's a bit of overtime work, but of course it's still a matter of organisation.
As the editor-in-chief, I try to write as little as possible, and really organise as much work as possible for others, i.e.
I am actually dealing with games, dealing with planning, what to publish, what texts to be commissioned.
And if I had to write regularly, that is, if I had to generate large amount s of text then it would be difficult to reconcile with other duties.
I would have to work two jobs, but at the moment I am able to work on these two projects without l osing any of them.
So maybe you could tell me how you personally got interested in g ames?
In general, it started very late, because I started to play before my 30th birthday.
I played very little before turning 30, but somehow my console landed in my rented flat when I was 28 years old that is…
It's never too late for games.
No, no ... What I really liked was this approach that I had when I started to play games at the moment when I had this kind of apparatus to analyse the culture I had learned during my studies.
I approached these games in a completely different way and the fact that I also use completely different...
What did you study?
Polish philology…
I could find some references in games to what I have read.
It does not mean that there are references to high or popular culture.
Because some games simply consist in pressing buttons, but it is created in a way that there are simple things, there are things more complicated and there are different types of recipients of each title.
Well, I got into playing that way.
It started quite normally and then I played more and more.
Later we managed to push the idea of writing through in Gazeta Codzienna and Regionalna about games and the portal, so I also started to make money of my interests.
And the second important part for me in Zagrano are comics, and I loved comics from a kid.
Later I had a break at university, I did not read.
I returned also at around 30.
It may also be a financial status, it is now easier to just allow yourself after getting 30 to buy albums than you did as a student.
I had different priorities then.
So Polish studies weren't helpful for reading comics?
Well, they were not at all helpful for reading.
After so much time passed, I can say that I read the least during my studies.
And when it comes to some game titles, do you remember any breakthroughs, after which you entered this world?
The most important games, which were just like a breakthrough for me, was The Last of US - a game about the post-apocalyptic world referring to Cormac McCarthy and...
to many other stories about the apocalypse.
The first such mature plot that I played.
Such a mature film plot, that is, where the action stops, and at the same time the creators focused on the relationships between the characters.
A very large inversion game.
I finished it in two attempts in 17 hours.
I cannot play for so long.
Of course, the Witcher 3, which is our Polish production.
The games are divided into those before The Witcher and those after The Witcher, i.e.
when you played the Witcher, other games will be different for you.
I play a lot and at the moment I realised that I am playing too much and I have to do it in smaller doses, because it's hard to talk about something really cool, because I have so many things in my head that I could talk for 2 hours straight.
Ok, so maybe then tell me about something else.
What are the Zagrano development plans for the next year?
For 2019?
For sure we would like to raise the awareness of our audience, because even this is like a project that is still in its infancy, so there are still many things to be done...
And when did the portal start?
Officially in September, and for real, two months ago, and we've been working on it since July, so it's just that these texts are made, but there is still something there.
This is quite a difficult area, because it seems that everyone can write about games...
and there is plenty on the net.
And we would just like to become a little bit more recognisable, that it would be known that if someone wants to find the review...
then they will enter Zagrano and I would like it to be this way – that there are not only reviews, but also for example a nice critical text...
because I think there should be something for an older, more mature recipient ...
Or something touching upon a specific issue, for example I don't know ... about some theme in computer games or for example something at the junction between, for example, films and computer games, we would like to start writing about these interdisciplinary topics...
So here there is also a balance between what is supposed to be light, easy and pleasant for everyone...
i.e. reviews, news plus texts, which need more time to be written...
and it is like a development plan, that is, we want to increase the number of entries, our recognisability and produce better and better content,
find cool reviewers and female reviewers - new people who have some potential there, who can write, but if it is difficult for them to find their place somewhere else.
I would love to uncover such gems of gaming journalism in our country…
Are you more likely to focus on long-term cooperation or are these guest appearances?
We have a group of people we work with. They are permanent.
Of course, when someone speaks to me, I check First and foremost how they write, secondly the topics, or rather if they can search for topics.
The topic must be interesting, because not everything that is interesting to me will be interesting to, I don't know, several thousands of people.
It is also necessary to have this sense, but we are still looking for some collaborators.
We have here a kind of permanent composition, but we commission these texts as much as possible.
Not everyone knows everything, so it's nice to have a few specialists.
We need a text, for example, about this and about that, and here we have separate orders, so we're looking inside the company.
It would be great if we found a few other people willing to write.
I mean, not only about games, because it's more than just games…
These days probably everybody watches series…
Yes, this is also the tendency - the gaming portals are opening up to other things related to popular culture.
Well, now I've also heard about Netflix's plans to make interactive series and that the next Black Mirror series has a few alternative endings.
Netflix signed it a couple of years ago, or two years ago with Mark Miller - comic book author.
He's the author of the script for, e.g., the Kick-Ass or the script for the Civil War-hero comic, which has been transformed into a Marvel movie, he's the top comic scriptwriter.
He signed an exclusive contract with Netflix and there should appear ... Netflix will be
publishing his comics, and there will also be exclusive TV series on Netflix, so it all overlaps.
Okay, in that case, we'd like to wish you good luck in the future.
Thank you for this interview.
I would also like to thank our listeners for their time.
The next episode will appear in 2 weeks.
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