I came across this article by general freelancer Melissa Brewer while surfing the Web the other day. It's a little outdated, and the main focus is on writing for games rather than writing about them, but it still provides a good outsiders look at what it takes to break into video game writing.
Surprisingly, Brewer seems convinced that many game story authors use review-writing as a stepping stone towards a job in the game industry. Is this true? I know OldManMurray's Erik Wolpaw went on to help write Majesco's Psychonauts, but I don't know of any other examples of someone jumping from game journalism to game development. Is this a common goal for game journalists? Should it be? These are not rhetorical questions... leave some comments!
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Developing games was my main focus when I started college, but that changed as soon as I started writing about them.
ReplyDeleteSo I spent four years getting an IT degree and now all I wanna do is write about the games I used to dream about making. I shoulda switched to journalism.
But I do know that many game reviewers go on to positions in the industry. Dan Electro from GamePro works for Take Two I believe. And I know there are others but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.
So many people have jumped from games writing to development that it's not even funny.
ReplyDeleteMike Doughty was a music reviewer for a rag in New York before hitting it with Soul Coughing. Cameron Crowe did music stuff for Rolling Stone mag before jumping to Hollywood (and then did a film about it called Almost Famous). Roger Ebert even got in on the act when he wrote a screenplay for a film.
ReplyDeleteIt does not appear to be unique to the video game industry, though I wonder if it's worse.
--T.
Shows what I know... I knew about the examples from other industries, but didn't think it happened as much in games. Can anyone give some more examples?
ReplyDeleteI personally know a large number of people who have made the move from writing about games to a development, marketing or production-related role.
ReplyDeleteI think the main factor in this is that the career path of a games journalist tends to end pretty abruptly - mostly in their late 20's once they reach editor. After a few years of low pay (and, recently, layoffs), development probably does sound like a good option.
Frank O'Conner (multiple magazines) works for Microsoft, Jim Preston (PC Gamer) is at EA, Kevin Perry (some old PC game magazine) worked for Red Storm and EA... there are lots of people who crossed over.
ReplyDeleteLots of web guys made the move too.
I went from EGM to game development. Todd Zuniga went from OPM to game development. Joe Fielder from EGM is now at EA working on the Medal of Honor series. Ethan Einhorn went from GameNOW to Sega PR (who knows where that will lead). I think there are still a fair amount of old EGM/GameFan/GamePro/etc dudes floating around in game development.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite common :)
- Sewart
One of the biggest problems with current games journalism is that very few people who are games journalists want to be journalists. Aspirations are usually set on getting into development. And rightly so, making a living as a Games Journalist, even at a number of a the bigger publications is difficult, as from what I understand, the money just isn't very good.
ReplyDeleteKyle,
ReplyDeleteRemember Cory (Corey?) from IGN Cube?
He used to be the Asst. Editor on that site along with Matt Cassamassina but he left to take a public relations job with Nintendo.
That was a couple years ago though...I'm not sure what he's up to now.
Jason Gallagher
(I'm the douche that contacted you about writing for my site)
Well, I blog about games, and if you ask me, that definitely means I should be writing for video games. In fact, I'm expecting an offer from EA any day now, in exchange for my talent and my eternal soul. I can't wait!
ReplyDelete