I'm not going to call on anyone specifically, but I'd like to air some grievances things I've seen and experienced in my brief time trying to get into game journalism.
I am currently trying to get my foot in the door when it comes to games journalism. I hate using the term though because I'm clearly not a journalist, as I haven't been trained in or studied writing aside from the gen creds needed for my eventual graduation from the local university.
My first experience as a gaming enthusiast writer was a short entry I wrote on the GamesBeat community site almost a year ago, in an effort to win a Nintendo eShop card. The article was about maturing into Wind Waker. Mission successful, it was the sweetest ten bucks I ever received. Since then, I've tried blogging and was invited to write for several small sites as a volunteer contributor.
That was when I started to learn that people can be real shady and dicks when it comes to writing about video games. It feels like small sites in particular are keen to chew people up and spit them out. The website gamejournalismjobs for example is like the game journo equivalent of a puppy mill, as I learned through firsthand experience.
Just a few of the things I've experienced in less than a year of trying to make my way to anything significant:
People will invite you to write for them, offering a review copy of a game and/or a few dollars in exchange for writing articles that will get them views, but throw you under the bus to avoid too much backlash.
Sometimes this is up front and feels like you're being given a job as a pro wrestling heel, others they just try to strong arm you into changes. For example, I received a copy of Alien Isolation for review. I was told I couldn't disclose I received a copy, and then I saw they made some substantial edits...
They changed my review score by 4 points and removed many of the positives I listed while keeping all of the negatives. Luckily, I saw this before it was published and raised a fuss. I returned the whopping 5 dollars I was paid and sent back the review copy.
The "Volunteer Contributor" role can be awesome or it can be awful. I currently write for a web site as a volunteer contributor. I feel like I'm learning a lot, it varies depending on the editor. I also get review copies and can get press passes.
That said, some places will treat you like crap. I once told the head of another website that I was a full time college student with a job and could only contribute about 2-3 times per week. He told me that would be fine. Less than two weeks later I was given an ultimatum to write 4 more articles per week or leave because I was dead weight,
Can anybody explain to me how someone voluntarily contributing to a small website could be dead weight, barring articles that would damage the website by how bad they were?
Turnover can be crazy, and purposefully so. Some sites will pay for featured positions on gamejournalismjobs and just pull in as many people as possible. They get a few articles from each, then cut them. I guess if you can't pull in tons of views with well written articles you can just spam articles and make ad revenue that way?
It's extra shady when the site keeps telling mew members to buy their merch too. They get free ad revenue from the work these new recruits do, then squeeze out some more money by convincing them to buy a dumb shirt or mug with their logo on it before they get the boot.
That really turns my damn stomach.
I imagine that's the kind of crap you only have to put up with when dealing with low tier garbage sites as opposed to the bigger ones. Oh man, please tell me crap like this doesn't happen if you end up writing for larger sites. That might be the final straw for me.
On another note, I'm glad to see other people feel the same as me on the critic topic.
Metacritic is completely useless on the individual consumer level. People should learn how to pick a handful of critics to follow instead of looking at aggregate scores. Find critics with similar tastes to you, and weigh their opinions when considering whether or not a game is worth your time.
I don't share similar tastes with Dan Stapleton, thus his opinion means virtually nothing to me. Why would I want to see an average score from dozens of other people who also may not share my tastes? I don't ask vegans about steaks.
Movie critics and fans of the original source material hated the Bay's Transformers, but I went in expecting a big dumb movie with fighting robots and explosions. It scratched my itch. The same idea goes for critics in every field.
