I've been lurking here for a while now, and I've finally decided to start posting. Let me start by thanking Mr. Asher and Mr. Chick for many hours of entertainment with this great site.

Now to my question: What is it really like working at a game magazine? As a reader, I usually daydream about what a great job it must be to play video games all day (as long as you don't get stuck with a crappy game). I'm assuming an actual work day involves meetings, phone calls, writing articles, and occasionally getting some time in on the game(s) that you're currently working on.

And how does freelancing work? Does the magazine just send you games with a word count and a due date for the review? Do they also freelance previews?

I'm just interested in what you actually do all day. Maybe I'll consider a job change if it sounds good ;)

I'm pretty sure I speak for all freelancers when I say that:

(1) I get a call or an email from an editor offering me a game;

(2) If the publisher of said game is an advertiser in that publication, a conference call ensues during which the editor suggests quotable phrases, the publisher's PR rep approves the ones he or she likes, and I write the approved ones down;

(3) I incorporate all the approved phrases and give the game a positive rating, submit the review, and invoice the appropriate amount;

(4) I get a check for this amount (prior to publication);

(5) After publication, I get a second check depending on how much the publisher liked the review. This check is drawn on a bank in the Bahamas and is the same no matter which publication ran the review.

For previews, I just get a press release for rephrasing, along with some cash in the envelope.

Hope that helps,

Bruce

Brilliant response, Bruce.

In terms of working at a magazine, when I was at PC Gamer it was basically two weeks on, two weeks off. During the "on" time we did the bulk of the work for that issue and during the two weeks "off" we'd play games, start prepping for the next issue, and kick PC Accelerator's ass in a variety of games.

That said, a lot of your work load is determined by your position on the magazine. The "lower" you are (meaning editorial assistant or assistant editor) the more games you play because you have less responsibilities and more time. Once you start to move your way up the ladder, though, finding time to play games can become quite difficult because your time is consumed by meetings, negotiating exclusives, traveling, etc.

Freelancing is pretty straight forward--an editor sends you a game and assigns a word count and a deadline. Mix, spin, repeat.

--Billy

The truth finally comes out. Jessica Mulligan was right! Bruce may need to watch his back as the gaming press mafia may put a hit out on him now.

BTW, Bruce, did you live in Washington DC during the early 70's? Do you know anyone named Woodward and Berstein?

-DavidCPA

Whoa Bruce... you mean you don't get a cut of the proceeds from all the copies of a game that are sold? I'm on the 2% plan myself. It's good money when you review a NASCAR Racing 4, but it doesn't amount to much when you review something like Road Wars.

That was one I gave a bad review to just to keep up the appearance of impartiality.

--Dave

Every couple of days my editor kicks out a "we just got ____ in." email. From the people who write back saying "gimme gimme" he picks a victim. Game arrives in 3 days. Occasionally, however, I send an email stating "I just bought ____, you want a review?"

So, once there's a review in the cue and a game in my hands, I set about finding things to do other than play the game. I break my car just so I can fix it again, crash my computer so I have to spend 3 days rebuilding it... that sort of thing. Because I work best under pressure and 2 weeks is just too long.

Once I have about 3 days left to write in, I start taking notes. Yeah, real notes. Some people call them screenshots, but mine are largely composed of words. Then I make an outline of what I like and dislike, and a list of topics I feel need to be touched in the course of 2000 words.

After I've got my battle plan, I hit usenet and look for any bug rants for things I might have missed - like, how many people have issue X and I don't. Then I'll write a draft and look around to see if any of the other sites have a review up yet. If they do, I'll take a skim though that other review and make sure nothing I've written sounds vaguely like a phrase from that other review. Also, I make sure there's not some completely obvious point that I've missed that they noted - a sanity check of sorts.

After that stuff is all complete, I'm sick of the game and the review... so I call my little sister and pay her $25 to write it. She's a liberal arts major, so she needs the money.

"So, once there's a review in the cue..."

Cue = queue?

Fag.

Funny reply, Bruce.

Previews are freelanced just like reviews, although the mags tend to do a lot of the previews in-house -- at least CGW seems to.

What's freelancing like? Back when things were going good, it was pretty hectic. I spent more time researching and writing than I did playing games.

The best thing about freelancing is arranging your own hours. The worst thing is what's going on now -- not enough work.

I spend all day with Outlook and Word open, occasionally jumping into Excel to update some scheduling documents or video card benchmarks or something, or Paint Shop Pro to tweak the gamma on some screenshots or whatever. I typically have three or four web browsers open, too. Then there's phone time, travelling to see products, stuff like that.

I would say that in a typical week, I spend about two or three hours tops actually playing games at the office. Maybe a little more if I'm reviewing a game that we need done in a hurry to make the issue, and many weeks I don't fire up any games at all. Half the time I do, it's just to get some additional screenshots or something.

Lots of the work tends to come in waves. Sometimes I'll have no hardware and I'll work on some previews or a review or write up news bits for the website. Other times I'll get several things in and spend all week in another room in the office running benchmark after benchmark - which is really mind numbingly boring after the 500th time you do it.

The vast majority of the actual game-playing time I spend is done at home, and I often do a little "work" there too.

My family still doesn't get it. Nearly four years I've been doing this full-time and they still think I play games all day.

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The worst thing is what's going on now -- not enough work.

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(5) After publication, I get a second check depending on how much the publisher liked the review. This check is drawn on a bank in the Bahamas and is the same no matter which publication ran the review.

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LOL Bruce. Do you ask for extra money if the game contains elves? Also how many good reviews do you have to produce to get a booth babe?

So working for game magazines is depressingly like real work.

I do like the sound of that pseudo 2 on, 2 off schedule Billy. My old job was 6 weeks work, 6 weeks vacation. The 6 weeks of work sucked, but you can't beat a 6 week vacation.

-Trevor (not the Shoot Club one)

"So working for game magazines is depressingly like real work."

Well, this is why I start each and every day with four shots of Jameson. That way, no matter what I'm actually doing in the cubicle, it'll sure *feel* like I'm playing games all day!

-Thierry

On a related note, how many of you have non-gaming day jobs?

- Alan

"how many of you have non-gaming day jobs?"

I sometimes feel like my day job is gaming related, but I guess it's not.

My day job isn't like a game yet... but one day soon, somebody's going to make the mistake of touching that little blue flag on top of my monitor. Then, it begins.

It should be mentioned, at this point, that Aszurom is technically a postal worker.

-Andrew

Systems Administrator by day, freelancer by occasional night. It's a living.

--Dave

"I believe Mr. Bub mentioned in an earlier thread about doing some non-gaming work due to the closure of several gaming outlets"

Basically, you're not supposed to be able to be self-sufficient as a full-time freelancer. In fact, outside of the business world (who uses plenty of outsourced writers) it's supposed to be the rarest thing of all.

Happily for me and many of us here synchonicity gave us the Internet and a jump in game sites, at the same time! Not to mention the venture capitol needed to pay use remarkably well. That is to say, as well, often better, than print.

Then we lived and toiled for years making great money writing (which is rare) because our little niche of publishing was flush, gaming was growing and competition kept rates high. Lovely years.

What a lucky time. So sad it ended. So glad it ended after I'd already gained a foothold.

I wouldn't recommend anyone get into this kind of work right now. Had this crunch happened at the beginning of my career, mine would probably be over and done with now. I was lucky and foresaw the crash, or at least had a feeling it would happen, so I diversified last year into TV writing, Movie review writing, and tech/hardware tweak/help/exposition articles. I also remained with existing game coverage as best I could (thank you CGM) and write product blurbs for whomever wants them. Lately I've built up a small reputation in Milwaukee as a game expert but the local news hasn't called for my "take on violent games" yet. Because of that, and contiued weekly effort, I'm able to drum up a comfortable wage despite the ruin around us.

As a hobby, I'm writing Children's Books for my 1 year old. They're brilliant... she tells me (it sounds more like "boufsch" but I grok her crazy talk).

In short, I'm still a full-timer and probably will be for a long, long time. Unless another downturn hits.

If anything I mourn and miss some of my best editors. They were good bosses, good to me, good people, and it sucks they're out of work (some of them).

Chris, Bill, William, Paul, Glenn, Charles, Avi, Erik, etc.,

I raise my 1/4 now full glass of 10 year old Innverarity Scotch to you and hope you land safe (nearby where there's some work that needs a freelancer's touch)

-Andrew S. Bub
PS: My point is, if you want to freelance and you don't have a "day job". You'll likely spend most of your time drumming up work to survive. The sad thing is, over-aggressive drumming can alienate potential sources. It's a balancing act. Now there are exceptions to this rule. Writers who sit at home and people pitch to them (it happens to me about 25% of the time) but those writers are exceedingly more talented that I (or they have sown up and become an expert in a niche).

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On a related note, how many of you have non-gaming day jobs?

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... but one day soon, somebody's going to make the mistake of touching that little blue flag on top of my monitor.

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I jumped into freelancing out of pure necessity when I was laid off from CGM. Writing about games is what I've been doing for almost three years. Suddenly cut off, sent adrift in the game-hostile environment of Vermont with a new family to support, what else could I do? This ain't New York or LA. Besides, I came up here to raise a family in a clean, safe area. Sure, there's plenty of jobs paying $8 an hour, but do I really want to rake cow shit for a living? Been there, done that. I'm a writer for chrissake. Been writing since I was 13. A "pro" since 1988. It's what I do to keep sane. It's my life.

Yes, freelancing game articles is not a way to make a living, not anymore (much to my bitter surprise) so I've had to branch out into multimedia scriptwriting, selling fiction for pennies, recreation/travel writing, editing some poor slob's 1000 page novel about the angst of a Maine lobsterman's illicit love for his sister-in-law, and starting an editing and writing tutorial service.

Frankly, those ads for mercenaries in the back of Soldier of Fortune are looking pretty sweet right now.

I've freelanced for OPM/EGM/DCM/Pocket Games, and it's a lot of work. I'm a software developer by day, which already incurs late hours - you come home at 7, snag the FedEx package full of beta CDs for preview, and slowly grind your way through a lot of stinky game design. Sometimes, they'd fly me in to the ZD Oak Brook offices, which was alright, because at least I could get a little sympathy. The folks at the ZD console mags put in long hours, to their credit, although the look of grim fatalism that many of them possessed made me wonder how ANY game could get a decent score.

One thing that wasn't touched upon is that when you freelance, especially for the "mainstream" console mags, you very rarely get good games to cover. I usually got the "Best Of" 989 Studios, Take 2, and 3DO - and in beta form, no less. I sure as hell didn't get the Square titles, the Konami titles, the Capcom titles, or the top-billed first-party offerings. Those went to the full-timers, of course; we freelance peons were left to squabble over Army Men Air Attack and Twisted Metal 4. Booya!

Trying to write 450 words of preview for a shockingly banal title without lapsing into a grand mal of sarcasm is pretty durn difficult - especially when the title involves snowboarding. I dunno if you PC gaming folk noticed, but there was a stretch of time between 1997 and 1999 where EVERY FUCKING PLAYSTATION GAME involved snowboarding. I have no idea what started it, or who is responsible, but if I *ever* have to see that many grainy white textures speeding by at 15 frames per second, accompanied by the badly compressed strains of Fear Factory's remake of "Cars" (the ubiquitous title track for all of these games), I WILL SEEK THE DEATH OF MANY.

"I dunno if you PC gaming folk noticed, but there was a stretch of time between 1997 and 1999 where EVERY FUCKING PLAYSTATION GAME involved snowboarding."

Heheh.. this seeems to be re-curring with the Xbox and PS2. Lots of Snowboarding games on the way.

Just to keep this on topic: I will never depend on freelance anything; I like to know where my next meal is coming from.