Game Over For Games Journalism

An anonymous reader left the following comment in response to my previous blog entry:

I've been where you've been. I've suffered rejections, silences, ignored emails, insincere responses from HR people that say one thing and mean another... I've had it all. In fact, I even got turned down for a tips/solutions mag, just like you.

It is hard to get a job writing about games.

It's even harder, though, when you've publicly cried about it and openly slated those in the position to hire you.

Had you not posted about any of this, you could perhaps have applied for the next staff writer job to open up at the company (they pop up all the time - Imagine suffers high turnover because of the below-industry-standard wages), and maybe you'd have been hired.We'll never know though, will we? Chances of you getting through the door ever again are slim. And, to be honest, it's unlikely anyone else will hire you while these posts remain on your blog.

My reply, intitally intended as a quick ‘thanks for the comment’, mutated into something a little more substantial…

Dear Anonymous,

Firstly, thank you for leaving a comment. It always feels like a small miracle when someone takes the time to read what I’ve said and reply to it. I totally agree with every point you've made. But I've also made it very clear as to why I'm calling it quits with regards to writing for a games magazine. For those of you that can't be arsed - and I don't blame you - to sift through the previous blog entries leading up to this one, I'll state my reasons here:

The Pay – The typical £12,000 annual salary you can expect as a Staff Writer is enough to deflate even the most enthusiastic of souls. Yes, I know it’s not all about the money, but there’s simply no denying the serious mauling your self esteem takes when you realise your 12 year old sister is pulling in more cash from her weekly paper round.

The Fear – I’m sick of the smothering silence that surrounds the industry. If you want to speak freely you have to either blog under an alias (The Ram Raider), or leave anonymous comments like the one above. If aspiring journos knew EXACTLY what was in store for them they may very well consider an alternative career path.

The Elitism – Game magazines seem to be run under an oligarchy – it appears that a small, elite segment of journos are the only people to be given regular freelance work (crucial if you’re to live on the appalling basic salary). The same names appear again and again. It’s all a little too incestuous to be considered healthy. New blood struggles to gain a foothold.

The Grudges – Even if I were to remove all previous blog entries relating to my misadventure with Imagine I’d still have no chance securing any future employment with them:

Don't want to worry you, but burning one bridge will have a similar effect to burning them all. There’s no point in taking the posts down –it’s not like they’ll be forgotten. Not how people hold grudges in this fucking business.

The Ram Raider

And seeing as there are only two main publishing houses – Future and Imagine - that cater for the specialist interest hobby of gaming I’ve just effectively halved my chances of employment. ‘So why not work for Future?’ I hear you ask. Well, believe it or not, I did. For two months. But declining readership figures forced me into redundancy. Which brings me nicely to my final point…

The Slump - Trying to make it as a videogame journalist must surely rank as the ultimate exercise in futility. A big fat ominous cloud hangs over the future of the traditional paper publication as the internet continues to erode its influence. Magazine sales are continually declining, and as circulations shrink there is less and less opportunity to actually work on them. Aspiring young journos have to face the unwelcome reality of a ridiculously competitive marketplace for a job. And as each year passes, that window of opportunity becomes increasingly smaller.

ConclusionIt’s hard to get a job writing for a games magazine – harder still if you plan to make it your career. Perhaps games journalism should only be seen as a transitional stepping stone to other, better paid, jobs – a horrible way to look at it I know, but when the uppermost crust you can expect to earn is £18,000 it’s no wonder that people are doing exactly this.

Believe me when I say there is NOTHING I’d rather do than write about games for a living - but there comes a time when you’ve got to be realistic.

Unless you’d like to provide some viable alternatives?

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