So this topic is going to be a bit different...or maybe not. Anyways I love videogames, I enjoy playing video games, I'm opinionated, I review, analyze, and even try to play as many genres as possible. However, I could never do this job professionally and there are many reasons as to why.
1. I'm a lousy editor and typist- I'm not bad at spelling or even bad at forming a coherent sentence. But I am not one for reading over my works and will often either miss something or in my typing frenzy missplace something. I just don't have that kind of attention span to check for that crap and well...if you have read my blogs you've probably seen the mistakes...heck there will probably be one in this blog.
2. I'm a procrastinator- I usually put off things until the last minute if I deem them unimportant. Now I pay all my bills and stuff on time, go to work on time, and for me gaming is a hobby I like to partake in. If I started to make it into a scheduled routine I'm not sure I'd have the same fun with it. And at times I have zero attention, so I may start a game and play for hours only to set that very same game down for weeks as I start a new game up.
3. I'm Biased- I love Nintendo...Not saying they don't have bad games, but I generally find myself being a little more forgiving to them. I also enjoy Sony. However, I absolutely hate Microsoft and anything associated with them. I'm not sure why exactly I hate them...I just do and I have yet to touch or play a Microsoft game or console. Sure you can go on and on about how great Halo is..,.but simply put I'm not playing it nor will I because I'm biased. So...ugh....yeah... sorry.
4. Scoring- I'm not a fan of scoring a game. I find it sort of a problem. Yes I have reviewed games and what I try to do is cover a wide range of what to expect. Everyone has a differing opinion. I might love, absolutely love Chrono Trigger....but someone who dislikes rpgs may not. Or let's put in something that overall got a mediocre reception like Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers...I loved that game. So that can be another reason.
5. A lack of Appreciation- And finally I feel as if it were my job to write about video games....I'm not sure I'd have the same love for it. Again meetng deadlines or reviewing games within a deadline, or just deadlines in general....I'm a procrastinator like I said. And let's say I get a microsoft game to review....I don't want to be that guy who goes "Well it's from microsoft herego I hate it." and then nitpick everything I can find wrong. And then when you turn something from a hobby to something you do...it takes a considerable amount of investment. I gotta admit I try to be active. At my job at CostCo I'm sitting at a desk half the time...it's boring, monotonous, and mind numbing. I gotta explore and talk to employees. I gotta make sure I'm out on the floor everyday maikng sure things are being done safely and properly. I even exchange in conversation with customers to provide feedback. So if I had to sit on my couch or computer and review games 1/2 the time....I might lose my mind.
Now I would love to get into video games professionally. It's a very difficult thing though. Journalism in general is tough, so when you slip into a sub genre of video games, news, reviews, and playthroughs you gotta rely on companies to give you that access. It's a great field I'm sure and I give props, kudos, and gratitude to those who do it. And whether it's a large publication or a great website like Pixlbit (Yes I'm a suck up lol) I truly appreciate the investment and time put into it...because I'm not sure I could lol.
i relate to most of these reasons, and I don't think I could do it either. I write for Pixlbit but that's different. I did once almost get a job at Gamepro back in my twenties in the late nineties, but they didn't hire me. I interviewed though. Would have been interesting....
Yeah I can imagine the aspect of writing professionally for games and what not. It's always fascinated me. Sucks you didn't get that job then, but there's the silver lining of writing here.
I'm glad, honestly. I had other paths to take.
I do want to work on media and gaming journalism. Seems like something good to me. The thing is that I also have some of the problems like you do (except the scores and bias) and I do feel that I can't express myself originally on why I love/hate a thing, since I have an opinion in mind, but except on certain ocasions, I end up writing something that doesn't match with what I was hoping and isn't of the lenght I was hoping, coupled with the fact that I don't want to leave an opinion on just two lines, but can't seem to find something to complete.
Yeah it's a difficult balance I couldn't find myself doing, but so many sites predicate themselves on scores. So I'm not sure if you could just writ a review and let readers decide what is best. Who knows? Opinions all vary.
I know what you mean, alhough 1 can be taken care of with a good editor to look over your work; you don't make that many mistakes or I would know; and 4 can be taken care of by just not giving scores to games and letting reviews speak for themselves.
Having said that, I'm not really that biased against Microsoft (now; age 11 was way different) and I like structure, so I think I could do a job like game journalism. I do hear what you're saying about "what if I wind up not liking games," though.
And I could never review JRPGs cause I'm so biased against them.
See the problem is everything is predicated on scores or quotes. You might think that a game is great or phenomenal or vice versa, but what weight does it hold if there is no score or rating? I mean gamers don't like it, but often find themselves buying games based off that.
For me, I will use ratings like Rottentomatoes as a general guide, but the text is more heavily weighted in my decision-making.
I like writing abotu games just as much as, if not more than, playing them. Unfortunately it's near impossible to make a career out of it. I've been trying for more than 15 years and haven't made much headway. Although I have had a lot of great opportunities and memories writing for newspapers like The Dallas Morning News and sites like GamerDad.com.
Well it's good to make head way somewhere at least, even if it's just small. I would hope that you find a way into it somehow though if it's something you want to do. I think everyone has a tough time getting into the video game realm because it's a small sub culture of sorts.