Venture Forth unto the Industry!

I absolutely love writing and I'm a huge fan of the gaming industry. By "industry" I don't just mean games, I mean that I love the ins and outs of what's going on in the evolution of this medium and I love the type of coverage here at giant bomb. I want to, in some way, involve myself in this wonderful industry, but I'm not quite sure where to start. Does anyone here have any tips?

I do suspect that I should simply start writing. I should start working on writing reviews, make regular blog posts somewhere and overall just build up some sort of loose portfolio and practice. I suppose I'm just finding it hard to put one foot in front of the other.

I'm currently in college (just started recently) and I could go a lot of ways with it. I've got 120credit hours to work with so I'm going to push as hard as possible to do something I love and I want to start now.

I know that this may not be the best place to post this, but it is a community that I appreciate and have drawn inspiration from for a long time. Frankly I'm not sure where else I would post this. I know that I do have some natural skills in writing and developing opinions, but I don't know where to use them in a way that will push me into the industry.

Well, do you think you have more skill than the other bajillion people trying to step into the industry?

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@Axxol:

The short answer: From what I've read, and who I've talked to, yes.

The less short answer: I do think that I take to writing and understanding games better than many of the people trying to write reviews. I've read more than a few magazine articles and websites that proves this to me. However, I'm not sure that matters as much as I'd like. There are many people who review games that are absolutely fantastic at it that have never made a dime doing it. There are also many people that have more passion and understanding tham ,pst, but never get far enough. Those people are then replaced by other, far less skillful people simple because they had the correct connections and a good resume.

There's more to it than skills and that's what I'm trying to eye out. Many of the people trying to get into the industry have a generally average determination. I want that to be one of the things that sets me apart. Regardless of how hard I work, if I can be involved and make a living then I'll be happy.

Write more, work for a local or student paper, write more, get edited by a professional, write more. If you can't get published for free in a local paper or such, don't bother. If you can though, work your way from there.

I do not recommend it unless you have rich parents.

@Ertard said:

I do not recommend it unless you have rich parents.

Shwa? I can't have a job while I'm writing to build credentials?

You don't write to build credentials. You do that to get internships or work full time for free. When you've done that for a year or more, you might have an abysmal shot at getting a full time decently paid position.

@Ertard: I'm not in that position, but I would still work hard and have a job on the side. I refuse to be shut out because I don't "have rich parents". I am with someone who is working full time, but we both have to make our way. I do wish you'r'e tone was a bit less... ravage though.

Wing it. Do something that motivates you and uses your set of skills.

If you just started college and haven't decided what to do yet then I'm going to suggest marketing and public relations. Your writing ability would be put to use in writing business proposals and advertisements. Marketers have one of the best jobs in the industry. They are paid to talk about their game and get others to talk about their game. They do that by hosting all these bat shit crazy events that the gaming press always talk about. They get to go to E3, PAX, Gamescom, GDC, TGS, etc just to talk about their game. If you don't get to work in the game industry then you've still got a degree that can be applied to many industries so you won't be starved for work.

I'm also going to suggest taking a second language. Learn Japanese or German and you'll be a huge asset for companies that are trying to do a worldwide release for a big title. Not only do games need to be localized but their advertisements do as well. They need to be tailored for their audiences. I'm sure an american marketing firm looked at catherine and had no idea how to sell that game to America.

@mosespippy: Whoa! Deeply considered! I really didn't consider that side of things though it is a perfect fit more me. I'm learning conversational Mandrin right now actually (I have a close friend who speaks it so I decided to learn). I honestly can't thank you enough for the suggestion as it fits me better than I can explain.

Making a decent portfolio is a good start. Write as much as you can here, expose your work to the public, get feedback, and improve yourself. Prove you're better than the competition. From an observer's point of view, it's a hell of an industry to get into. It won't be an easy time. A lot of people at one time or another want to get into the gaming industry, and writing is one of the choices many people go for. That's just to get your foot partially in the door. After that know you will be stuck in internships and crappy positions for quite some time. Sounds like you know all that already though. If I remember right, Dave wrote a nice article on whiskeymedia for people who want to get into these kinds of things. He didn't write it just for journalists, but it covers a lot of important things.

@MentalDisruption: I appreciate the feedback. I'm very much willing to push myself if it means coming out on the other end alive. I do want to play smart and not hard though. The marketing paradigm might be right up my ally though as it's not cloed to one industry and you come out of university with something useful that looks good to executives ;]

I'm already working a job and a half and going to college, I'm not too worried about some hard work.

@Koshka said:

@MentalDisruption: I appreciate the feedback. I'm very much willing to push myself if it means coming out on the other end alive. I do want to play smart and not hard though. The marketing paradigm might be right up my ally though as it's not cloed to one industry and you come out of university with something useful that looks good to executives ;]

I'm already working a job and a half and going to college, I'm not too worried about some hard work.

Thats good :D

Here's the article I was talking about if you want to give it a read. It was pretty helpful for me in figuring out what I should be doing to help further myself. Like I said it's not completely directed to writing, but it can be applied in the same way.

http://www.whiskeymedia.com/news/you-have-excellent-taste-now-make-something/16/

@MentalDisruption: That article is absolutely excellent! Thank you very much. I appreciate the help, even if a lot of it is offhand. It's important to me.

@Koshka said:

@MentalDisruption: That article is absolutely excellent! Thank you very much. I appreciate the help, even if a lot of it is offhand. It's important to me.

No problem. Here's another article that I came across when I was asking myself the exact same questions you probably are now. This one is directly related to game journalism.

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/295/so_you_want_to_be_a_games_.php

Good luck!

@Koshka: My tone is what it is because I did break in to it and I did work near full time for a year before quitting, as it simply was not worth it any longer. I also felt I was doing a worse and worse job as well as failing exams in school. For example I had to review Dragon Age 2 in three days and write a 1800 word review in that time as well. I played and wrote 18 hours a day. This was during an exam week. I failed the exam and was paid 0 dollars. This was for a big, big network, though it was in Europe.

That's why I can't recommend it. It's a fun dream to fulfill, and going to events is cool the first time, but it quite simply is incredibly fucking hard to get to a position where you actually make _any_ money. There's not much cash in games journalism. I strongly suggest PR. At least my experience will probably land me a good job there, so.

A decent and perhaps easiest way to actually start working in the industry would be to take computer science courses. Programers, web designers etc are in bigger need than journalists and ''art designers'', so a degree in computer science would likely give you more chances of getting into a company connected to the gaming industry and you will have more job security in general.

@Mageman said:

A decent and perhaps easiest way to actually start working in the industry would be to take computer science courses. Programers, web designers etc are in bigger need than journalists and ''art designers'', so a degree in computer science would likely give you more chances of getting into a company connected to the gaming industry and you will have more job security in general.

This is a decent suggestion, but also potentially a dangerous one. Don't do this unless it's interesting to you, otherwise you'll find yourself with the wrong kind of experience for the job you actually want and it'll just require that much more work to get into it.