Something went wrong. Try again later

Spence_5060

This user has not updated recently.

414 170 30 55
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

How do you expect to play games as a job?

I know I haven't made a blog post in a few days and I'm sorry for that. This mid-week has been busy for me. But now with a surge of followers and a little free time on this lovely Friday I had an inspiration for a new post. It was more of a rage that now I have to let steam out, but I think it is definitely an interesting one. 
 
What I was so mad about is that from what I heard today. First, let me back it up a little bit. I would like to consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of podcasts. I like all the popular podcasts and even some hidden gems out there on the I-Tunes world. I even discovered Giant Bomb's website from their podcast which is definitely one of my favorites. But back to what I'm trying to get at. What I heard today from a viewer question of a podcast I was listening to was a question I hear all the time that keeps making me mad. The question was something like: How do you get into the gaming press and/or the gaming industry in general. Now this question makes me mad all the time because for one, it is frequently asked where you are given pretty much the same answer, but it is still constantly asked after wards. It could be because other people just haven't heard the answer yet and are genuinely perplexed, but I think it's just because they don't like the answer given and ask other people the same question to hopefully get a better suited answer for them.
 
The other thing that bothers me about this question is that it people for some reason just expect i to happen to them. When ask that question the answer is usually to keep writing on your own, either with blogs or whatnot, and also to hopefully get lucky and find an opening somewhere to show your writing skills and work. Generally the advice is to just keep typing and writing about game to keep your writing skills up and even make them better. But another question I hear a lot is how did you get into the gaming industry. And the answer to that is usually by accident. I do hear people say that they were able to start out as an intern and that should be the more normal route, but I seem to hear a lot that it was by accident from a lot of people. I hear that they say somehow they got a job interview in some crazy way and that that was how it happened. Now this troubles me because I seem to see that other people almost expect that to happen to them. People think that if it could happen to this guy then it could happen to me. I hate how people think of themselves of being special over the rest. It doesn't really sicken me per say, but it definitely disappoints me.
 
Now I think this line of work is definitely a hard line of work to get into. You have to be a popular site or news source to get any kind of coverage or if you want to a job with a more popular site then you have to wait for an opening, which almost never happens, and when it does happen it is very hard  to get it because you are definitely fighting for that job with many others that may very well be better than you. What I'm trying to say is that you have a very large amount of people who want into this business with very low availability, especially now. And I hate how people are almost just expecting this to happen for them or I see how they open up their own sites and at least hope for some recognition and become a popular site. This doesn't bother me as much because it does show that it they are at least trying, but what does bother me is that there are so many of these sites that it almost becomes just cluttered full of wannabe journalists that just take news off of other sites and put them on their own.
 
Now I may just be mad about this because I'm just jaded and am at the same disadvantage of everyone else. I hate how the circumstances have stacked themselves into this. Now I haven't made my life decision yet and decided if this is the line of work that I want to get into. Because this business is so hard to get into  is a definite contributing factor of why I haven't chosen. But all I can do is keep on writing and hopefully get better and see what happens in the future. I just want to stop hearing other people ask on how to get into  the business when they think that if they get the training for it then they will somehow magically get in if a job opens up. Again this is probably just me hating the fact that there is a lot of competition out there for this kind of job.
 
Now what I want hear is how do you expect to get into the gaming industry? How are you gonna make it in and what are you doing now to make that happen? I can say I have at least made this blog, which I can't say is much, but at least can say is something.
 
Now to do a bit of promoting. Please follow me and see my work come out on my blog posts regularly. I know this is my first one in a couple days but I am trying to do one as regularly as possible. Come see my other work that's already out and feel free to comment on anything. Thanks for reading and make sure to comment on this one for interesting talk.

2 Comments

2 Comments

Avatar image for mosdl
mosdl

3422

Forum Posts

2951

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 5

Edited By mosdl

While I have no insight into the gaming industry, when it comes to software development, to me at least its increasingly becoming a "who do you know" kind of thing (linkedin plays a big role) where 
a recommendation from a shared acquaintance has a lot of power.  I assume the same is true of other industries.
 
 Internships are one way to start getting contacts, but they hard to get.
 
The other question to ask is, what other skills would help?  Would a game reviewer who can help with developing a website have it easier than one who doesn't?

Avatar image for spence_5060
Spence_5060

414

Forum Posts

170

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By Spence_5060

I know I haven't made a blog post in a few days and I'm sorry for that. This mid-week has been busy for me. But now with a surge of followers and a little free time on this lovely Friday I had an inspiration for a new post. It was more of a rage that now I have to let steam out, but I think it is definitely an interesting one. 
 
What I was so mad about is that from what I heard today. First, let me back it up a little bit. I would like to consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of podcasts. I like all the popular podcasts and even some hidden gems out there on the I-Tunes world. I even discovered Giant Bomb's website from their podcast which is definitely one of my favorites. But back to what I'm trying to get at. What I heard today from a viewer question of a podcast I was listening to was a question I hear all the time that keeps making me mad. The question was something like: How do you get into the gaming press and/or the gaming industry in general. Now this question makes me mad all the time because for one, it is frequently asked where you are given pretty much the same answer, but it is still constantly asked after wards. It could be because other people just haven't heard the answer yet and are genuinely perplexed, but I think it's just because they don't like the answer given and ask other people the same question to hopefully get a better suited answer for them.
 
The other thing that bothers me about this question is that it people for some reason just expect i to happen to them. When ask that question the answer is usually to keep writing on your own, either with blogs or whatnot, and also to hopefully get lucky and find an opening somewhere to show your writing skills and work. Generally the advice is to just keep typing and writing about game to keep your writing skills up and even make them better. But another question I hear a lot is how did you get into the gaming industry. And the answer to that is usually by accident. I do hear people say that they were able to start out as an intern and that should be the more normal route, but I seem to hear a lot that it was by accident from a lot of people. I hear that they say somehow they got a job interview in some crazy way and that that was how it happened. Now this troubles me because I seem to see that other people almost expect that to happen to them. People think that if it could happen to this guy then it could happen to me. I hate how people think of themselves of being special over the rest. It doesn't really sicken me per say, but it definitely disappoints me.
 
Now I think this line of work is definitely a hard line of work to get into. You have to be a popular site or news source to get any kind of coverage or if you want to a job with a more popular site then you have to wait for an opening, which almost never happens, and when it does happen it is very hard  to get it because you are definitely fighting for that job with many others that may very well be better than you. What I'm trying to say is that you have a very large amount of people who want into this business with very low availability, especially now. And I hate how people are almost just expecting this to happen for them or I see how they open up their own sites and at least hope for some recognition and become a popular site. This doesn't bother me as much because it does show that it they are at least trying, but what does bother me is that there are so many of these sites that it almost becomes just cluttered full of wannabe journalists that just take news off of other sites and put them on their own.
 
Now I may just be mad about this because I'm just jaded and am at the same disadvantage of everyone else. I hate how the circumstances have stacked themselves into this. Now I haven't made my life decision yet and decided if this is the line of work that I want to get into. Because this business is so hard to get into  is a definite contributing factor of why I haven't chosen. But all I can do is keep on writing and hopefully get better and see what happens in the future. I just want to stop hearing other people ask on how to get into  the business when they think that if they get the training for it then they will somehow magically get in if a job opens up. Again this is probably just me hating the fact that there is a lot of competition out there for this kind of job.
 
Now what I want hear is how do you expect to get into the gaming industry? How are you gonna make it in and what are you doing now to make that happen? I can say I have at least made this blog, which I can't say is much, but at least can say is something.
 
Now to do a bit of promoting. Please follow me and see my work come out on my blog posts regularly. I know this is my first one in a couple days but I am trying to do one as regularly as possible. Come see my other work that's already out and feel free to comment on anything. Thanks for reading and make sure to comment on this one for interesting talk.