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NeoGAF: Feedback for the article "Video Games Journalism, As Told by Che Chou"
- Thread starter WasabiKing
- Start date
Musashi Wins!
FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
Great interview with a great "local" personality. I look forward to seeing what Che is working on as XBN and the 1UP Show were very positive developments for a certain segment of gamers attention...ie. mine.
Go NeoGAF.
Go NeoGAF.
OpinionatedCyborg
Member
Very interesting interview -- the behind-the-scenes details about vg pubs are always interesting to read. Hopefully more interviews in a similar vein will pop up from time to time.
Musashi Wins!
FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
Andokuky said:
I don't know you personally but I've read you on GAF and you're kind of a prick.
worldrunover
Member
Thumbs up on the interview.
UtadaBarkley
Member
WasabiKing said:
Wasabi: Great read man, who conducted the interview? Is this the sort of thing we can look forward to on a reglar basis?
Overall I'm pleased with NeoGaf, and I think this will further establish GAF as one of the premier sources on the net for gaming coverage - bar none. Now with this centralized location, it'll be muh easier to locate important content (I hope). My main complaint is the login issues, and the huge amount of slowdown. But I'm sure you guys will address this soon.
35k being a complete "noob" my god, I started for 0 and I don´t reach that now after seven years (I have to add that freelance has this type of concerns, I ignore how is paid one that spend the day in the magazine office in my country). How I envy you
The interview has been really nice. Kudos.
The interview has been really nice. Kudos.
dammitmattt
Banned
Andokuky said:
I make more than 30k a year and I bitch about it all the time.
Kabuki Waq
Member
great interview pretty candid but not enought mud slinging.
LoathsomeCorpse
Member
Andokuky said:
You survived on $15,000 last year? Where the hell do you live that you "get along just fine" on that salary?
KyotoMecca
Member
Che said:
LOL.
It must be a UK magazine-only thing.
For all those who are saying he is a prick for complaining about the pay...
Writing articles, reviews, etc takes a lot of energy even if its about a video game. Sometimes its harder than it looks especially if it has to do video games as he said sometimes you can't even finish a game to write the review. I say 30 grand a year is nothing, especially now a days. I think video game reviewers should get paid at least 50 grand for all the freelancing and all the hardwork they have to do from day to day...
I'll take myself as an example, I maintain fansite and its a lot of work. I applaud GAF for maintaining a great site for so many years and having their own ideals. I had taste of the action last year, when I went to E3, most of the public may see all the fun side of seeing the games or getting to play them... But if you go to E3 to do work. Then its a whole other ball game. You put more hours in writing a review or your own views about a game than actually getting to enjoy the game itself, especially when you analyze it to other games out there. Its not an easy job, if you think it is then start writing an indepth review about a game that you hate but still in the same genre.... Try it out you may even like it and become the next Che Chou. Good luck.
Nice review Neo GAF and good luck with the site...
Writing articles, reviews, etc takes a lot of energy even if its about a video game. Sometimes its harder than it looks especially if it has to do video games as he said sometimes you can't even finish a game to write the review. I say 30 grand a year is nothing, especially now a days. I think video game reviewers should get paid at least 50 grand for all the freelancing and all the hardwork they have to do from day to day...
I'll take myself as an example, I maintain fansite and its a lot of work. I applaud GAF for maintaining a great site for so many years and having their own ideals. I had taste of the action last year, when I went to E3, most of the public may see all the fun side of seeing the games or getting to play them... But if you go to E3 to do work. Then its a whole other ball game. You put more hours in writing a review or your own views about a game than actually getting to enjoy the game itself, especially when you analyze it to other games out there. Its not an easy job, if you think it is then start writing an indepth review about a game that you hate but still in the same genre.... Try it out you may even like it and become the next Che Chou. Good luck.
Nice review Neo GAF and good luck with the site...
Victrix said:
Sure I do. I don't care what you do or where you work because I know what he did and where he worked. He made more than most teachers do just deal with videogames and write about them. Furthermore, the work was not discussed, only how he managed to somehow scrape by on such a small amount of income. He must have been on 4 or 5 welfare programs. I guess it's kind of pointless talking about it here on this website now but oh well, I won't post about it anymore, we can just agree to disagree although I think if it were anyone else no one would be tangling their panties over what I said.
thestopsign
Member
Cheers for a great interview and a great new site.
When you see someone saying the "paid for playing games lucky bastard dadadaduh" you should know that is better leave him alone.
I have a little concern about Che vision of travels. Is great Ziff Davis have that policy, wish more companies have the resources and will to do it, but I don´t see how that could affect my view of a game. In fact they use to be quite stressful (you go to assist a presentation or playing a demo, and use to stay one day and one night, no more, I use to spend more time in planes that in the place). I know there are legends of luxury travels, and yes, there are, but few. Most of the times is just about choosing a city in which is comfortable for developers, producers and journalists from Europe to come.
For companies is cheaper and waste less time to make just a meeting with developers in one city of Europe than making 11 presentations in 11 different countries. So if we want to cover that presentation, we must assist. Mags in my country doen´t have as much resources as american ones, it would be impossible to cover that events without publishers assistance. So we let ourselves to get invited in order to cover that.
I think I´m very fair about reviews, and you can believe me that travels doen´t change my vision (in fact I have travelled to some places for a first look of games that at the hour of review got a meh score). But you can believe me or not.
meltpotato
Member
are people with these outlandish complaints just uninformed or naive? to think that 35k is not something to be bummed about is something that someone in high school and has no understanding of the world would say. or possibly someone who lives in some tiny middle of nowhere town. why can't people just be happy for the guy? jealous or soemthing?
great read and defintely a good way to start out the front page.
great read and defintely a good way to start out the front page.
Great interview. Excellent idea to interview Che to start everything off- like someone said, he's a "local" favorite, and he's also a very articulate and down to earth guy that always has something interesting to say. Hopefully he'll stick around and write a couple of articles every now and then.
As for the bitching about the $35k job- I'd say that's a long ways off from pitiful. I'd place that distinction on getting paid about $10k to $12k less than that for the same amount of work. You also have to take into account that video games journalism was something that Che really loved (to start off with, anyway)- which is more than worth the pay cut from a menial job like the one he described at Netscape.
I think a lot of people here get paid quite well and often forget what a pitiful paycheck really is. It can be somewhat frustrating to someone such as myself in that lower income bracket to hear about people calling their pay "pitiful" when in reality, it is far from it.
Now, that pay is obviously low in terms of the scale of games journalism- which is fine. I think that what's standing out in people's minds is the word "pitiful", whereas if Che had said, "The pay wasn't nearly as great as some people think", that'd be something different entirely, as it would imply that he meant "in his field" as opposed to the nationwide job market in general.
As for the bitching about the $35k job- I'd say that's a long ways off from pitiful. I'd place that distinction on getting paid about $10k to $12k less than that for the same amount of work. You also have to take into account that video games journalism was something that Che really loved (to start off with, anyway)- which is more than worth the pay cut from a menial job like the one he described at Netscape.
I think a lot of people here get paid quite well and often forget what a pitiful paycheck really is. It can be somewhat frustrating to someone such as myself in that lower income bracket to hear about people calling their pay "pitiful" when in reality, it is far from it.
Now, that pay is obviously low in terms of the scale of games journalism- which is fine. I think that what's standing out in people's minds is the word "pitiful", whereas if Che had said, "The pay wasn't nearly as great as some people think", that'd be something different entirely, as it would imply that he meant "in his field" as opposed to the nationwide job market in general.
Aruarian Reflection
Chauffeur de la gdlk
Andokuky said:
$30k is nothing, Che is right.
It was a pretty good interview, I like the direction the site's going.
WasabiKing
Member
Well, the author is the only mod/admin who outdrink all you bitches, me! Did the end not give it away? Who else would find a place in some article to pimp some beer company, lol.
The entire moderator and adminstration staff got together months ago to discuss the goal of NeoGAF. There are far too many sites out there that do reviews, so we kind of nixed that idea. So we decided to do something different. Also, remember that old interview request thread?
Just some thoughts: $35,000 is really nothing here in the SF Bay Area. Apartments can run up to $1200/month. So you're looking at $14,400 a year. Now, let's couple in food, utilities, and if you own a car, you get reamed by gas at $3 a gallon AND insurance. Again, I can't speak for everyone in San Francisco, but cost of living is atrocious, yet I can't see myself leaving.
Also, EviLore is the Editor-in-Chief, and we've got some interesting pieces lined up. I'm still only a marketing guy, so this was like, a special instance. I don't think I'll be writing a ton, this was just a fun discussion, if anything. Then again, I did say that I wouldn't get involved with moderating politics, lol.
Thanks for the kind words. We appreciate the feedback.
The entire moderator and adminstration staff got together months ago to discuss the goal of NeoGAF. There are far too many sites out there that do reviews, so we kind of nixed that idea. So we decided to do something different. Also, remember that old interview request thread?
Just some thoughts: $35,000 is really nothing here in the SF Bay Area. Apartments can run up to $1200/month. So you're looking at $14,400 a year. Now, let's couple in food, utilities, and if you own a car, you get reamed by gas at $3 a gallon AND insurance. Again, I can't speak for everyone in San Francisco, but cost of living is atrocious, yet I can't see myself leaving.
Also, EviLore is the Editor-in-Chief, and we've got some interesting pieces lined up. I'm still only a marketing guy, so this was like, a special instance. I don't think I'll be writing a ton, this was just a fun discussion, if anything. Then again, I did say that I wouldn't get involved with moderating politics, lol.
Thanks for the kind words. We appreciate the feedback.
Really nice article. You should go after some of the other NeoGAF posters who are in the industry. Such as I would love to see if you guys could get an interview with Gaybrush Threepio who works at Nintendo of Europe like ask what he does, what a daily work day at NOE is like...etc
I guess that means I'll be checking the front page more often.WasabiKing said:The entire moderator and adminstration staff got together months ago to discuss the goal of NeoGAF. There are far too many sites out there that do reviews, so we kind of nixed that idea. So we decided to do something different. Also, remember that old interview request thread?
*subscribes to RSS feed*
Kabuki Waq said:
He was being diplomatic. He who slings mud oftentimes has it hurled back in his face.
As for the salary debate, writing and editing is hard work, regardless of the subject matter. Video game magazine and web site editors are often paid very little to do what they do with the idea being if they don't like it, they can get the hell out.
Most game magazines and Web sites are also located in San Francisco, which is one of the world's most expensive places to live. As an example, it's almost impossible to find a studio apartment (let alone a one-bedroom) for less than $1,000.
KyotoMecca
Member
MC Safety said:
Double that for London, where journo wages are nonetheless pretty much the same as Bay Area.
evilromero
Member
In all my many years here I truly have to say this is a great change. And I really do enjoy the format. Go Go NeoGAF.
meltpotato
Member
MC Safety said:
HAHAHAH!! 1000$ one bedroom? i dont think we even have those at the older rent control places. im absolutely dumbfounded by some of these claims about salary.
WasabiKing said:Well, the author is the only mod/admin who outdrink all you bitches, me! Did the end not give it away? Who else would find a place in some article to pimp some beer company, lol.
The entire moderator and adminstration staff got together months ago to discuss the goal of NeoGAF. There are far too many sites out there that do reviews, so we kind of nixed that idea. So we decided to do something different. Also, remember that old interview request thread?
Just some thoughts: $35,000 is really nothing here in the SF Bay Area. Apartments can run up to $1200/month. So you're looking at $14,400 a year. Now, let's couple in food, utilities, and if you own a car, you get reamed by gas at $3 a gallon AND insurance. Again, I can't speak for everyone in San Francisco, but cost of living is atrocious, yet I can't see myself leaving.
Also, EviLore is the Editor-in-Chief, and we've got some interesting pieces lined up. I'm still only a marketing guy, so this was like, a special instance. I don't think I'll be writing a ton, this was just a fun discussion, if anything. Then again, I did say that I wouldn't get involved with moderating politics, lol.
Thanks for the kind words. We appreciate the feedback.
I think the mimimum wage set by San Francisco is $11.75/hr, which (with a 40 hour work week) translates into $22,560. That's still over $10,000 below what was described in the article.
I'm not trying to argue that $35k is a "ton of money" by any means- I'm just pointing out that those of us on the low end of the pay scale find it frustrating when people refer to a wage that high as "pitiful", when in reality it is far from it.
All that aside- great work. There's a reason GAF is thought of in such high regard, and you are only continuing to improve on it.