https://twitter.com/caraellison/with_replies

Thought about that LRT post a lot when I injured my hand

— Cara Ellison (@caraellison) April 24, 2015'you’re wasting years of your life because you’re stupid enough to care about something' http://t.co/s9QLJTnasw http://t.co/s9QLJTnasw

— Cara Ellison (@caraellison) April 24, 2015@cynixy @LiaSae I just need to not do it for a while. I'm p tired and I gotta consider whether it's worth it

— Cara Ellison (@caraellison) April 24, 2015@lesaboteur87 writing about games. Super tired

— Cara Ellison (@caraellison) April 24, 2015@caraellison I'm confused are you retiring from games writing or just doing the S.EXE column?

— Le Saboteur (@lesaboteur87) April 24, 2015

Well, it seems like the hand injury she suffered a couple weeks ago, her general burnt out feeling in regards to freelancing and being unable to get a stable job has caused her to decide to leave the industry, or at least take a very long break.

I can't say I blame her, a woman of her talent could probably find a good job writing about any other medium way easier than games, and deal with considerably less teen boys and man children getting up in arms over opinions.

Bummer, I like her writing.

Man, so many of my favorite games media people have gotten out this last year or so. It's really sad.

I really like Cara. it is sad to see her go. As to moving out of writing for video games, I think it is a brilliant idea. Long form writing is on its last leg in this industry and I would not be surprise to see it go in a few more years. Cara is amazing on the mic/camera tho, it is a shame (and border on the criminal?) that no one have offered or she have not found a job she like enough to settle on yet. GB East, I know you guys are going through some moving pains right now but HIRE HER. Damn.

I liked her in a lot of the video and podcast content she appeared in. As for writing it always seemed like she was writing around games instead of them. They were interesting and well written articles, but from what I personally read of them games themselves definitely took on a tertiary role. Weirdly enough for such a seemingly upbeat and fun person she appeared kind of abrasive and confrontational on her Tumblr, but who knows what kind of dumb stuff she had to deal with on there.

Hopefully she finds whatever it is that she was looking for.

I think it reflects pretty poorly on this industry that it's so hard for some of the best writers to hold down a steady job, especially even you look around at some of the "old guard" in the field who have held jobs for years and years.

@slang_n_bang: Could you link to wherever she announced this? That link just goes to her twitter page, and a quick skim didn't show a lot (other than this thing about games that she wrote today). I'm confused.

I've always sort of felt the same way, to be honest. She's clearly talented at writing in general, but considering how she constructs her articles, it's not exactly surprising to me that they never really found a huge appeal. Her audience always seemed like it was games critics instead of a group of normal website readers, know what I mean?

What's always struck me as odd, and honestly a little disappointing, is how so many talented female voices have never seemed to, like, band together to say "fuck it" to the male dominated sites they clearly wish to see change and try forging their own path in competition. Be empowered, take things for yourselves, be the change you want to see, force people to see the value of your work without waiting on who you criticize to give you a job, etc. etc. I say that with complete sincerity, fulling knowing how idealistic and impractical it is. For so many people to argue there's this vast, underserved market of the female perspective, any attempt to create a site specifically focused to those people must have been peripheral at best, because I've sadly never noticed it.

I hope she finds something that works for her in the end.

shame since she is very talented writer.

Side note: genuinely interested, when people talk about the "industry" in relation to people writing around video games, what specifically do you mean?

@owen99 said:

There's this fucking stupid idea that games writers are a part of the games industry, as opposed to being journalists who cover the games industry.

Best wishes to Cara. We had fun, and I'm sure you'll be successful wherever you land.

The issue is that they are writers, almost all of them. Video game coverage isn't about writing anymore, it's about being a personality on video.

It was inevitable, really, that she'd retire (although I guess she might just be on a long hiatus? She hasn't definitively said she's done with games writing). She poured so much of herself into the Embed With series that I'm surprised she didn't suffer an immediate nervous breakdown upon its completion (I know I would've). That no outlet saw fit to give her a regular-ass paycheck for her frankly incredible writing is a goddamned travesty. Then again, some of her best writing recently has been about stuff that's not about games (I loved her writing about Nathan Barley, for example, and her quietly devastating post on Scottish Independence) so I'm hopeful she continues to write things and post them in places where I can read them.

There's so many good writers leaving the industry, it's getting vaguely depressing to see. As for the state of the industry, I think Kieron Gillen already said everything about that there is to say (I remember him posting this, and it's apropos that Cara linked to it on her twitter earlier today).

Or making click-bait articles.

Shame... hope she eventually comes back. Can't blame her for getting burned out... freelancing is rough, regardless of talent.

@marokai: I believe Leigh Alexander started an outlet for marginalized voices and the articles I've read on it are quite good http://offworld.com/. Unfortunately getting the word out about new game sites without having some notable defector from a hugely successful established site is rough. I don't know how the funding for something like that would work and considering how little money there is in the most successful game sites, I don't see how you could pay a bunch of the most talented writers a fair wage. To be fair it seems like almost no one is getting paid a fair wage in games writing, so maybe people are willing to make way less than they're worth to write about what they love.

I think it is freaking depressing that someone who traveled the fucking globe doing freelance work and surfing couches never found a real stable job. Like say what you want about meritocracy and hard work, but Cara Ellison was one of the fucking hardest-workingest people in the game industry and it never clicked for her. The saddest thing is that she is likely going to be more successful and more appreciated in literally any other field of criticism if she continues to pursue writing. You know an industry is messed up when a person retiring is the best career move they could make.

Bummed about Cara getting out. She's been talking about it vaguely for a while. I can see why though. She's super talented and deserves a different kind of audience than video games can currently give her. Hopefully she writes that novel she sometimes talks about.

Maybe Cara could be the next Charlie Brooker? Dude was writing for PC Zone years ago, now he's the dude who made Nathan Barley and Black Mirror.

Be yr own Kerouac, Cara!

Thats more or less what Leigh Alexanders Offworld site is. It's still early days for it, I think it's only been going a couple of months, but you should check it out. They have some really good stuff.

GBeast's next hire?

@sterling: would be nice to have more written articles on the site.

Welcome to the creative industry. It's not a guarantee she'll be successful in another area of writing at all. There might be more stable jobs to apply for when she's not limiting herself to one area, though.

That's kind of my point. I like video too but the way that more and more sites seem to want to completely phase out written content is a bummer. Reading a well-written article about a game can tell me a lot more about it on a much deeper level than just a video of someone playing it for a bit.

I'll miss her writing a lot.

My dream team of Vinny, Alex, and Cara-chan will never be.

:*(

Seriously though, I've always liked her games writing, and it's sad to see her go.

its happening everywhere, in the UK a lot of traditional newspapers online sites are becoming subscription only(of limited views), because ad revenue for articles just doesnt bring in as much as it used to. Whereas video and buzzfeed style articles seem to be a lot more popular, (or easier to monetize maybe)

id be interested in giantbomb style site (monthly or yearly sub), but built around mainly written articles, would be cool i think,

@owen99: If you want to see written content on this site, I recommend the community spotlight on Saturdays. There are a bunch of good pieces there every week.

Maybe I'm just extra depressed about it because I feel like I've heard Dan exclaim the virtues of hard work (and its rewards) in this industry every few weeks, while female writers doing good work are dropping out of the industry like crazy.

Also I feel like I'm not doing enough personally to support people like Cara and it hurts. Like how can I expect people to support me one day when people like her are so much more devoted to the hustle than I am? How do we fix this problem? Or are we just going to lose critical game writing jobs because people would rather watch a live stream?

@planetfunksquad: I think it's only been around for a month. There have already been some interesting perspectives and I'm glad Offworld exists because fresh perspectives are great. And lets be honest, more websites would probably benefit from not having comment sections.

It's really sad if Cara is done. Her writing was brilliant. Her S.EXE columns usually either shined lights on games I'd have never come across or took a different view on games I had played, and the Embedded project was incredible in scope and in the gonzo-style writing that resulted. It's a real loss for games coverage if this turns out to be more than an extended break to refresh the batteries. Hopefully whatever she does next she lands on her feet.

cheers will check it out

Honestly, I don't think I finished reading the majority of her articles. She just goes on too many tangents and can't stay on point, and even the points themselves seem kind of superficial. She talks too much in first person, "I know Y" or "I love X", I think I see the appeal for people who like narration but I'm definitely not one of them, I like prose or depth in my readings, not narration(some very rare minds manage to mix prose and depth).

There's so many people who want to do journalism for video games(because many people love the medium) that its close to impossible to be successful. Supply and demand works people, if people get extra "utility" from writing about something they love then this "utility" will be reflected in lower salaries, which will eventually reach a level that is too low to sustain a living(which should signal people to move somewhere else).

An unfortunate reminder that in tiny, competitive fields, most who try shall fail (not to say no one should try, of course). Compounded by the fact that much of her output had limited "mainstream" appeal, this turn is sad but not entirely surprising. Pessimism and all that.

That said she is charming and skilled, with a unique voice. There still may be a place for her in Games if she chose to keep fighting. Whether she ultimately moves on or not, best wishes.

Best of luck and all my love to her. Rock on, Cara.

That's a damn shame for all of us who enjoyed her stuff. Her type of work embedding with devs was something I'd never seen before in games (seen similiar stuff in Music and Movies etc) and was a welcome evolution of G journalism.

I can't fault her at all, at some point you need to eat, have some stability and prospects of reliable income. Games journalism seems to be very terrible at providing any of that save for maybe 2-3 dozen people. And even many of those seem to encounter rough professional early ends even if they do manage to string out a decade in the business.

Gjourno seems to just churn people up and destroy them. Been doing that for as long as I can remember. The fact that no outfit had a salaried position for her after all she produced, is an indictment on the entire industry itself.

I think there's an interesting distinction to make, though. The kind of writing we're talking about here isn't really just an "article about a game". That shit still exists everywhere. GameSpot and Kotaku are rife with that everyday.

What Cara excels at is a very specific kind of autobiographical games coverage. She elucidates the impact of a game on her life and experiences and explores its place in the wider world through her own very personal lens. It's far beyond the burgeoning kind of "subjective" criticism that allows for a reviewer to critique a game according to their own tastes, rather than a "general consumer". It's more like gonzo diary accounts of a person who also happens to play a bunch of video games.

A lot of that doesn't appeal to me, honestly, but it's undeniably interesting. At the same time though, I don't think it's too big of a stretch to say it's undeniably appealing to a pretty small number of readers. She herself, along with other similarly styled folks (Jenn Frank. etc.) have written about how slim the margins are for any kind of writing these days. So when you're a writer (in an ever more video focused medium) whose work has an extremely narrow audience, you're just kind of boned.

It sucks, and I think it's more of a general capitalistic problem than anything else. (having to maximize profits from creative work leading to stifling unique ideas) But overall, it's hard to blame larger game sites that already aren't hugely profitable anymore for not hosting content that only a miniscule fraction of their audience would engage with.

I'd never seen that Offworld site before this thread, and that seems awesome. Not sure how they're funded, but some kind of Patreon situation might help these voices from disappearing. Hopefully?!

Regarding what I said above. Dan and Cara are both "game journalists", but the content they create is just fundamentally different. Dan is a master of dumb shit, in an industry that can't get enough of it. Cara is a master of pensive explorations of the personal affects of games. There's just an exponentially smaller audience for that.

I think it's more of a messed up economic problem. The fewer folks an artist's work appeals to, the less viable it will be to continue making it. But still, as I said above, there can be some hope in that Offworld site possibly subscribed to like GB, or supported in a Patreon way. All hope isn't lost. It's just frustratingly hard to find it sometimes.

@thatpinguino said:

There's a lot of things going on all at once that are contributing to this and I'm glad some people are picking up on that. It's the story of writing and making a creative living on the internet writ-large, where the audience is going in terms of attention in games, and the specific and messy history of different kinds of writing in games running up against both of those factors. No one is immune but adaptations are harder to come by than others, especially for someone as bold as Cara's approach to writing.

Personally I'm betting she'll start making games full time rather than just writing in another field for its own sake. She may also write on the side as well but you can tell the girl caught the game making bug even if she felt unable or unwilling to do it before. For all know she's already decided against this and knows its not for her but I wouldn't be surprised if we heard she's writing and designing her own games.

Also I do want to say, even though it's a formality, if we're absolutely sure this is happening. The link in this thread is inconclusive as far as I can tell but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

I am a big fan of Cara's writing, and her twitter feed! Hope she stays in the game cause we need some voices like hers ringing out.

How out of the loop am I to not know who she is?

@joshwent: But then how do you reconcile that perspective with sites like Grantland and fivethirtyeight? Both of those sites have oodles of articles that fit into the type of writing that Cara and Jenn Frank do, but because they are tied to established brands both sites have found a sizeable audience. You could argue that both sites would not exist without the personalities at their center (Bill Simmons and Nate Silver respectively) and the deep pockets of ESPN (and by extension Disney), but both sites have grown to appeal to people in their own right. I am a much bigger fan of most of the writers on Grantland than I am of Bill Simmons at this point and that is because he used his position to elevate a bunch of strong writers that he had faith in. To me, many of those writers are in the same position that Jeff was during his Gamespot days, I'll follow them wherever they go because I like their work.

So I think there are places for this kind of writing, but it has to be attached to a bigger brand with deeper pockets. Kind of like how GB is grafted onto Gamespot and both feed off of CBS. I certainly think that you could attach a boutique writing arm onto something like IGN or Gamespot and support the writers that haven't found a home yet (assuming that there are people interested in that sort of thing).

@supersambo: Same. I've heard the name before, but never frequented any place she's written for, so have zero knowledge of her work.

@joshwent: Yeah, I fully realize that long, in-depth articles aren't exactly where most of the money is right now and like I said, I still like Quick Looks and all that too. I just wish there was more of a balance and more analysis in general. No offense to the people who do it but plenty of people can write a review telling me that Mortal Kombat X plays well and there's lots of unlockables and it's a fun game.

I'm increasingly bummed that Patrick never got that freelance budget he wanted approved before he left.

Didn't you just reconcile it for me there? Maybe I missed the point. But I totally agree with what you're saying.

I'm sure Kotaku gets some fuel from having its content shared with other Gawker sites (they have stuff on i09 and jezebel regularly). Maybe that Offworld site could likewise "team up" with a larger games coverage site with a built in audience, but keep it's funding somewhat separate, just like what GB has done as part of CBSi. I happily pay for this site knowing full well that it's not only me keeping them afloat.

You may be aware, but she's actually already made a few games. One of them, Sacrilege, being quite popular.

@slang_n_bang: Thanks for including those tweets, but "I just need to not do it for a while" is miles away from "I'm retiring." You may want to change the thread's title. It's seriously misleading.

@milkman: Where did he say that he wanted a freelance budget? I never heard anything about that.

@milkman said:

Yeah, that was a huge bummer. I've always thought that GB's subscription model would give them latitude to have a really cool, non-exploitative freelance section. Oh well.

@thatpinguino said:

He started talking about it a couple years ago but nothing ever came of it. I guess CBSi said no.

@joshwent: Yeah when I started writing I didn't know where I was going so I answered my own question. I suppose Kotaku fits the bill a bit and Polygon seems to have a home for longer form stuff as well, although there isn't enough space on either site for individual writers to get a ton of breathing room. By combining news blogging with long form articles, both sites kind of wash away the cream from the front page with all of the chaff. Grantland mitigates this by having a pretty strict publishing schedule that ensues that every article is on the front page for some amount of time and they really focus their front page so things are easy to find. Compared to the mess that is Kotaku's layout and the busy layout of Polygon, the elegance of a site layout like Grantland's really jumps out.

@joshwent: I'm not quite sure of the details, but Offworld is either owned by Boing Boing or they invest in it heavily. Either way its hosted by Boing Boing, so it is in effect the kind of thing you talk about. Larger site (not quite sure of exactly how large BB is) hosts smaller, focused site.

Dan's a special case, he got where he wanted and so he can tell people to "Follow their dreams and work hard" because it worked for him. Talk to any successful person in any creative field and they'll say the same thing. A major problem is that schools are taking on way more students than there are jobs in their respective creative fields, and so a lot of people are going to fail no matter what.

Writing about games isn't on the rise. There's a very small audience for in depth articles like Cara writes, and the fact she has an audience at all is a testament to her skills. There's an inherent problem with writing about games, as games are a visual medium and you can understand way more from seeing a game in action for 10 seconds than you can reading even a paragraph about its mechanics. It's not like the audience for reading in-depth articles about games is getting all that much smaller either, it's just that it doesn't require the knowledge/interest in gaming to check out a video of a game you're interested in.

I think seeing a game being played is waaaaay more informative than reading about - at least, if your primary concern about the game is how much it will entertain you.

If you want to talk about some BS like the philosophical implications of a game, then maybe the written word is better for that - but I don't think there are many people that care about video games on that level.

Sociopolitical/philosophical critical analysis has never been a major part of the gaming press. You look at old print magazines and they are 95% nuts-and-bolts reviews about how entertaining a game is to play, previews, and interviews - all of which work better as video content.

It's not like there was some huge, viable audience for video game think pieces that is suddenly disappearing. Only in the last few years has that sort of critical writing been viable at all, and was always destined to be a niche because most people simply don't care about an entertainment medium on that level - and I don't really blame them for it.

The people in games press that are still employed in writing only positions and write think pieces also do their fair share of top 10 lists, meme reposting, "look at this thing on YouTube" posts, and other intellectually devoid click generators to pay the bills.

Yeah... duh, that was actually the first thing I noticed when I clicked that link, and somehow instantly forgot. Thanks for reminding me! :)

I know Boing Boing has been around for a while, but I have not idea what it actually is. I think I discovered it years ago when they were hosting a bunch of Make: Magazine videos, and years later I saw some lady with dyed gray hair (before it was cool) interviewing David Byrne and Les Claypool. I guess they're... eclectic?

Nonetheless, as you said, it could already be that dream scenario I mentioned, and someone like Cara could fit in there perfectly!

I don't think the industry itself is to blame because the audience taste have shifted. It's people that don't want to read long articles, not game site that don't want to write them. There is a reason why a non technical site like GameSpot does graphic comparison videos. Pointing the finger at the industry as a whole and bemoaning that fact that esoteric games writing has an incredibly niche audience is a little unfair. You unfortunately need to evolve with the times. Danny O'Dwyer has found the happy medium of exploring original thought in a popular format. He still has to write a good script, but it's not presented as a 5,000 word essay but a well produced video which is obviously more appealing.

Also I would staunchly disagree with what you said about articles versus videos. A 10 minute video of raw gameplay footage can be infinitely more illuminating than a well written article, because the article is written from the subjective perspective of the author while the video presents the game as it is.