How to Become a Game Journalist

[Lucas Jordan]

This is what we call in the industry the Herald Sun school of Journalism

 

[Mopbucket]

Anyone notice he starts making mistakes immediately after he claims it's good to be a bad writer? In the next paragraph, he incorrectly spells "poseur," fails to separate two strong clauses with a comma at the coordinating conjunction, and then later in the article uses sentence fragments.

I wonder if it was intentional.

 

[xdiesp]

However it's completely true that many news editors are deranged drunkards.

 

[thiosk]

The jaw droppers are relatively few and far between

That's because I have not yet finished my 15,000 word mix between article and fanfic on the topic of "sexiest videogame characters", which I've been working on since 2001. It is very epic and very good and it would make a great recurring feature. I haven't sent a preview to you because it's not yet perfect enough, and because I would like to add some poetic interludes between its chapters first. I am not a very good writer, but my work always has potential and a powerful, vibrant energy to it. With your help as an editor, we can certainly fix it and make it shine!

The sad thing is...it's not the first time I've heard pretty much that.

I found your perspective from the editorial side of publishing to be the most interesting part of the discussion. I rather liked the panel as well.

The biggest influence I had as a technical writer-- I do scientific research and then write articles about it for a living-- was a close personal association with the chief editor of a scientific journal. As in I was signed up in a graduate program working under him, and he paid me to do research, so it was in his personal interest to make sure what I was producing wasn't complete garbage. It took years of practice to move from the self-confidence instilled by receiving A's in every writing assignment in highschool and college, to the gut-wrenching realization that I was a horrible writer for the level in which I wanted to compete and to produce. It helped to see things from an editor's point of view; I now view the entire scientific process from the perspective of publishing, something that will be a rather powerful boon to my eventual career.

I expect that the cream tends to rise and the whey gets flushed into the septic system rather quickly, without the nurturing that goes on in a graduate program in the physical sciences. Do you ever take new writers under your wing and help them to develop their writing? Or is this simply impossible given the time and financial constraints of the freelance world of journalism?

 

[Susan Arendt]

The jaw droppers are relatively few and far between

That's because I have not yet finished my 15,000 word mix between article and fanfic on the topic of "sexiest videogame characters", which I've been working on since 2001. It is very epic and very good and it would make a great recurring feature. I haven't sent a preview to you because it's not yet perfect enough, and because I would like to add some poetic interludes between its chapters first. I am not a very good writer, but my work always has potential and a powerful, vibrant energy to it. With your help as an editor, we can certainly fix it and make it shine!

The sad thing is...it's not the first time I've heard pretty much that.

I found your perspective from the editorial side of publishing to be the most interesting part of the discussion. I rather liked the panel as well.

The biggest influence I had as a technical writer-- I do scientific research and then write articles about it for a living-- was a close personal association with the chief editor of a scientific journal. As in I was signed up in a graduate program working under him, and he paid me to do research, so it was in his personal interest to make sure what I was producing wasn't complete garbage. It took years of practice to move from the self-confidence instilled by receiving A's in every writing assignment in highschool and college, to the gut-wrenching realization that I was a horrible writer for the level in which I wanted to compete and to produce. It helped to see things from an editor's point of view; I now view the entire scientific process from the perspective of publishing, something that will be a rather powerful boon to my eventual career.

I expect that the cream tends to rise and the whey gets flushed into the septic system rather quickly, without the nurturing that goes on in a graduate program in the physical sciences. Do you ever take new writers under your wing and help them to develop their writing? Or is this simply impossible given the time and financial constraints of the freelance world of journalism?

I do sometimes, sure. I work extensively with everyone who does features for The Escapist, and there are other new writers that I just plain want to help out. Part of why I do panels like the one I linked is to try and help people in a larger number. Obviously, people want to deal with their own specific cases - which is why I always include Q&A in the panels I run - but even general advice can be helpful.

 

[The Thinker]

I'm going to do the exact opposite and land a plum job.

Psh. How dare you question The Mighty Yahtzee?! His advice in this article is obviously priceless at face value!

 

[Slayer_2]

This reminded me a lot of Cr1t1c4l's tactics for picking up chicks, as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io3FmKVtqok&list=FLM9OQ7E9wx9RgxBvbg8xIiQ&index=3&feature=plpp_video

(The pickup tactics start around 1:00).

 

[Shavon513]

I'm not sure if this article was supposed to be as humourous as it came across. LOL

 

[TheUnbeholden]

Looks like I'm set for life *****! In your faces! You to Yahtzee!! notto seem ungrateful but I'm off to Las Vegas baby, eventhough I don't have much money I will spend it all (I'll do that before sending my bad writing multiple times to the editors), cause I know they will accept it.