The Big News (TNL is black. And this time... it's personal)

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Originally Posted by Biff

I have no doubt this is true, however, you require a degree to work in my field. Now, that's not a rip, but it does limit the applicant pool. For every Neo and Fahs (and yes I like your stuff) there are 100 idiots who get paid to pen retarded reviews that either A) Don't correlate with the score given or B) Remind me of my 3rd grade story a wrote about a lion stealing a house.

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Look, for every Robert DeNiro, there's a Keanu Reeves, but don't act like it's easy to be a professional actor just because you can out-act Keanu. AND, don't act like Keanu isn't a pro himself just because he isn't very good.

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Originally Posted by burgundy

i really think you are overestimating how many people are getting paid to write reviews. there's no shortage of crappy writers who are happy to write reviews of games for free product, or nothing at all.

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This is also true.

I can tell you've never seen Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

exactly, you don't have to be sir laurence olivier to be a professional actor

anyway we are arguing over semantics, i'm done

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drew's sense of noncomedic timing is impeccable

Woah

<3

And I thought I'd lost touch!

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

I don't think you understand how competitive writing jobs are. I can pretty much guaruntee that any job at IGN gets more applicants in one week than your job would in a month.

This shit's cutthroat, and don't forget it. The number of people writing about games full time for a living without a day job is probably not that far off from people playing major league ball. It's a small niche.

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Let's not kid ourselves here. Writing about videogames is every slacker/undergrown adult/kid's dream. But just b/c lots of ppl want to do it doesn't mean it's a profession.

Neither is it a joke job. Guys who can write well and get paid are truly hard to come by and should be accorded the respect they deserve.

Part of me will always snicker at the "professionals" that get paid to write (many times, poorly, imo) about videogames. But we shouldn't impugn their livelihood.

If writing in the industry is what you want to do, more power to you. Not all of us can be x-ray HR bean-counters for GE (or whatever Biff does).

The problem with being an industry writer is that every kid with a B in Junior English and a Zboz thinks he can do your job...and will, for free.

I have friends who are (true) professionals in the newsrag industry who have legit journalist training/exp and have a hard time keeping their jobs. What will videogame writers do when their competition is even more voracious?

A profession is something that pays the bills. It's something which is more than a part-time job. This is all. Someone who does my job for free is not doing my job.

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Originally Posted by The_Meach

I have friends who are (true) professionals in the newsrag industry who have legit journalist training/exp and have a hard time keeping their jobs. What will videogame writers do when their competition is even more voracious?

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Hopefully, the industry will up its standards and require a degree or formal training so people like me will have less competition. :D

The fear is that the more Blogs start coming out. The more NORMAL journalism will fade.

There was a news article about it in Philly.

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Originally Posted by Advocate

The fear is that the more Blogs start coming out. The more NORMAL journalism will fade.

There was a news article about it in Philly.

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This is exactly right. You know why? Because "trained," "legitimate" journalists are being outpaced by assholes on the internet.

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Originally Posted by The_Meach

I have friends who are (true) professionals in the newsrag industry who have legit journalist training/exp and have a hard time keeping their jobs. What will videogame writers do when their competition is even more voracious?

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Don't give me that bullshit about how just because you write for a newspaper you're "legit" and videogame shit isn't. There are a lot of hacks and a lot of talented people on both sides of the fence. I guarantee you I fact check better than half the assholes at the Post. I see fuck ups in mainstream journalism on a daily basis. Half the newspapers out there write shitty one-sentence paragraphs and are no better at expressing themselves than the average IGN writer. They deal with the same shit we do. This is EXACTLY why the mainstream media is being nipped at by amateurs. Degrees don't mean shit, it's what you can do.

I understand the arguments that newsrag journalism is more important and all that, and it is, and I respect that if that's what you want to do. I write about games because I'm selfish. It's what I know more about than anything else, and it's what I know I can do better than most other people. But it's just subject matter.