Life after gaming journalism: The top 6 career paths
By Shoe
A lot of people ask me a lot of different questions, but the funniest one to me is, “What are you going to do after this journalism thing?” As if this career of mine is just a stepping stone. This is what I want to do. I love writing, and I love editing and planning content even more. I don’t ask myself, “What’s next?” but honestly, this line of work does open up a lot of doors for a lot of different folks.
So in case you’re asking yourself the same question, here are the top six post-journalist/editor career paths that I’ve seen my peers take:
1. Full-time freelancer
See: Me, Crispin Boyer
OK, so this isn’t exactly “leaving the career” but this is a risky proposition. Give up a regular paycheck, insurance, and company-match 401K contributions, just to get sporadic freelance pay on a month-to-month basis? That’s crazy talk. But sometimes you just need new challenges in life. Plus, Crispin writes for other outlets beyond gaming, so he gets to expand his writing horizons.
2. Community Manager
See: Bryan Intihar (EGM previews editor turned Insomniac CM), Luke Smith (1UP news editor turned Bungie CM), Kathleen Sanders (GameVideos producer turned XNA Community Games Community Product Manager…if I wrote that right), and Che Chou (lots of hats at Ziff Davis turned CM at Turn 10).
This seems to be a very common route for a lot of my ex-coworkers…methinks because it’s a relatively easy transition. You go from writing or talking about games to writing or talking about a game (or in Kathleen and Luke’s case, a subset of games). Plus, these people are recruited in the first place because of their passion for certain titles or types of game.
I know some conspiracy theorists like to think that these writers wrote good things about certain products in order to get those jobs — that’s horseshit nonsense and really works the other way around.
We’re all gamers and will like some games more than others…and sometimes, companies notice that and go recruiting accordingly. Of course you’re going to want a car-racing nut like Che to be community manager for the Forza series….
3. Game designer/producer
See: Greg Sewart (EGM previews editor turned level designer on a Robotech game), Joe Fielder (EGM previews editor turned Medal of Honor designer), Kraig Kujawa (Official PlayStation Magazine editor-in-chief and EGM senior editor turned NFL Blitz designer), Jeff Green (Computer Gaming World/Games for Windows Magazine editor-in-chief turned associate producer on The Sims), and Shawn Elliott (CGW/GFW/EGM vet turned associate producer on 2K Boston).
Similar to the community manager, but this is an even bigger risk for the hiring developer to take. These guys won’t just be writing about games like they used to…now they have to design them! Pft, I’ve played a LOT of games in my life, and sure, I have some ideas on how to make them better, what not to do, etc. That doesn’t make me a game designer, though. But a lot of these guys bust their asses to do well, and sometimes, this even leads to better things….
4. Game company executive
See: Kraig Kujawa (OPM EIC turned Blitz designer turned Capcom director of design!).
Kraig’s meteoric rise through this industry is impressive. He’s now in charge of development in the U.S. and Europe for Capcom. While I’m typing out 1000-word stories at home in my ratty pajamas, I imagine him working in a high-rise corner office that looks more like a Skyy Vodka ad than a corporate work room, with beautiful models lounging around in skimpy cocktail dresses, admiring the man’s power-suit ways while he’s yelling “buy!” and “sell!” into his Bang & Olufsen phone. Way to go, Kraig!
Seriously, some journalists do end up getting sweet, high-up-there gigs at a game publisher. Blake Fischer (formerly of Next Gen magazine, turned Xbox worldwide content planner) is another example. Both Kraig and Blake look at games being developed around the world, then help decide whether their respective companies should publish them or not. They’ll also help put the right people on the right projects to make them better for public consumption.
And she’s not an executive per se, but recently departed-from-Ziff group managing editor Jen Tsao picked up a similar gig at Sega as an associate creative director. Cool to see her passion for gaming turn into something more productive than whatever the hell it is that I’m doing!
5. Mock reviewer/consultant
See: Me, Crispin, and plenty of others.
Here’s something you probably don’t know…a lot of critics are tapped to do “mock reviews” as a temp consulting project for game companies. Basically, they ask us to review a game before they give it to the general press. This pays a lot more than typical freelance reviews…sometimes up to 10 times as much! The trade-off is your review never gets published for anyone else to read. It’s just for that company’s own use to help make some last-minute improvements or to set internal expecations for how upcoming reviews will turn out.
This is a very dangerous gray area, however…since journalists are getting paid by the companies that they cover. When I was at EGM, we were given these opportunities, but we had to turn them down, obviously. We also made a rule for our freelancers (who tend to do work beyond EGM’s pages) that if one were to do a mock review, that person would not be allowed to cover or review that product or any competitive ones.
I was a bit iffy about doing them myself in my post-EGM life, but since I don’t review or formally cover games now, I figured I can do them for the time being. But like I said…it’s a gray area for sure.
6. Public relations.
See: Lots of people.
I can’t think of any specific ex-EGMers who have gone the PR route, but a lot of former journalists do. It’s similar to the community manager thing; since these people are already intimately familiar with the business and the PR-journalist relationships, it’s an easy transition for them to make.
After I left EGM, a few companies approached me about trying out PR for them, but I see it the same way as I see game designers. Sure, I know the biz and I know games and I know what it’s like working with PR people…but that doesn’t mean I know how to do PR well! Besides, I think I’d have a hard time being optimistic about every game that I had to represent for my job. (But then again, some of the best PR people I’ve worked with are the ones most honest about their products, good or bad.)
