Feature: Making a Game of Gaming Journalism? Subscribe to this RSS feed
Celebrities and public figures are being created in daily life due to the massive popularity of reality shows like American Idol and Survivor. Similarly, the internet is a constant breeding ground for the "next big thing", where hundreds of websites compete the attention of millions of readers. Now both methods of instant celebrity are converging on the gaming media.
Gaming journalism isn't the easiest industry to break into. There a millions of gamers and thousands of them can write pretty well. Comparatively, there's probably about a couple hundred people worldwide who are lucky enough to make a living out of covering the gaming industry. As a result, the game media is quite incestuous, with writers often jumping to and from various outlets and--occasionally--gaming PR. While the hiring pool may be deep, there's not much of a patio to party on. Breaking into the industry is no easy feat and getting a job is tough when many writers sport resumes a mile long.
Only one of you will review the next Pixar movie-turned-game.
How can one weed talented newcomers out of the pack of hungry gamers and guarantee the writer will connect with audiences? Here's a clue; you can find out by watching The CW on Wednesday nights. Yes, the new wave of game journalists could be coming to you, picked from the same template that made Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson superstars, and it couldn't make any more sense.
A trend has been growing in the gaming media in finding new blood--contests, competitions and public auditions that borrow as much from Survivor and America's Next Top Model as they do from a traditional suit-and-tie sitdown interview. Instead of looking through countless cookie-cutter resumes and taking a gamble on unknowns, editors are adapting to the internet and putting potential employees front and center, often making use of readers to determine the new hire. The editors who have put these together wear their influences on their sleeves, both EGM and Wired's Game|Life made the mother of all reality gameshows the namesake of their public job interview processes
