There was a time in my early teens when I thought that being a gaming journalist would be the coolest job in the world. How could a job that requires you to play the latest and greatest video games before they come out not be the coolest job ever? During my younger years of reading the golden age of EGM and Gamepro, I had dreams of being the next Scary Larry or Sushi-X.
In my own way, I’m closer to living that dream than ever. In Third Person is my venue to share my gaming-related writing to the world, which now receives thousands of visits a month. As this site has grown, I’ve seen a number of job postings for writers at some of my favourite gaming websites and blogs. Do I have what it takes to make that jump into gaming journalism? Or more importantly, do I even want to make that jump into gaming journalism?
There are definitely some upsides to switching career streams. Instead of going out of my way to enjoy video games, I can turn this hobby into part of my livelihood. Not only that, but the games I would be playing would be games that have yet to be released. I have had a handful of opportunities to play preview builds of games in the past as a consumer at an event, but there’s definitely an allure to me around playing pre-release versions of games. I think the coolest aspect for me would be the opportunity to work as a creative writer, writing about subject matter I love. I haven’t made a dime off of In Third Person (nor do I ever expect to), but I do this for the love of video games and the love of writing. Getting paid at a fair wage to do this would be the theoretical icing on the cake.
However, at this point in my life, changing to a career in gaming journalism would be harder than ever. Based on my understanding of how the pay-scale works for gaming journalists, I would have to accept an immediate pay cut the moment I got into the industry and run into a pay ceiling that’s notably lower than what I could make if I stay with my current line of work. While money isn’t everything, and I’m currently far from rich, I would definitely have to make some changes to the way I handle my finances should I choose to make this switch at some point.
As far as the scope of work, playing and games and writing about them is a fairly small set of tasks to do. In my current line of work, I’m responsible for completing a number of different tasks, which keeps the work interesting for me. Would I ever get bored or lose interest in writing about games in this manner?
Building on that last point, if I were to take up gaming journalism for a living, I couldn’t simply write anything I wanted. I’d be assigned to write specific pieces about specific games and be required to write these pieces to fit the overall voice of the outlet I was writing for. I love to write, but am I talented enough of a writer to conform to a style guide? More importantly, will I still have the same type of passion for writing if I have to work within another company’s guidelines? I don’t know.
I know that in the era of blogging, there are a number of gaming journalists who have the opportunity to work from home. Depending on who I’d want to work for, I may need to re-locate. Canada doesn’t really have any major online gaming publications that I could work at, so if I wanted to work for the likes of IGN, Gamespot or any other company that requires gaming writers, I’d most likely have to move. Most of the major North American publications are based out in San Francisco, which is a long ways away from where I live. Am I willing to pack my bags and trade everything I have available to me here to do this type of work?
The biggest question mark to me is probably the most and least obvious question to ask: do I want to make gaming my livelihood? I love gaming as a hobby and as something I do on my free time. But do I want to make it part of my job? As much as I love this medium, is there the chance that making it my job could taint my enthusiasm for it? It could. I won’t know unless I try, I guess.
Do I have any intentions of trying at this time? No. Do I even want to try? At this point, I have no plans on leaving the digital advertising industry to pursue a gaming journalist career. At this point in time, it just doesn’t seem like the right move for me. Will I rule it out forever? Maybe at some point in the future, it will be. Who knows? For now though, I’ll continue doing In Third Person for fun.
In Third Person 
Thank god you are still sticking with this blog, that is a real relief for me but I don’t know if I would give up a job as a gaming journalist if the opportunity revealed itself. Who would not want to play and follow video games for money? But then again the pay would probably be atrocious 😛
There’s a lot more to the job than just playing and writing about games. For instance, one of the major factors that’s given me pause about working in this business is the time commitment for some of the entry-level blogging positions. For instance, Joystiq and Kotaku have weekend editors, which usually are entry-level positions. Am I willing to sacrifice my weekends and work 7 days a week? I couldn’t just leave my full-time job behind to write for the weekend cause I wouldn’t make enough money to survive. There’s a lot to consider before making any sort of major career change.
Definitely, too bad some of us have to crack a few eggs to make a cake but I doubt that cake could keep you going. I would consider it as a hobby though.