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[Moobabe]

After a short hiatus from my blog to finish my semester, I'm back to sharing indie news.

Samurai Gunn
http://indiegameenthusiast.blogspot.com/2013/12/pc-spotlight-59-samurai-gunn.html

So good. I need this in my life. If only I had friends to play local with...

How important do you think 'face to face' interviews are for articles? I'm specifically talking longer, feature-length articles (I'd say 2500 - 3000 words in print, don't know what the online numbers would be like but it'd be around there).

The comparison is email Q&As and Skype Convos. I've done both, and they have their advantages and disadvantages; but somehow it's more difficult to feel like a journalist if you're not travelling somewhere to interview someone about something. Unfortunately this is kind of difficult since I'm in Australia and most people that I would like to talk to tend to be elsewhere.

As someone who works full time and does a little bit of this stuff on the side Skype and Email Q&As are my only real option unfortunately. That said I would love the opportunity to meet and greet people and actually CHAT with people about their stuff.

 

[Messofanego]

This is an awesome thread, bless you Moobabe!

 

[Moobabe]

This is an awesome thread, bless you Moobabe!

Thanks man! It's hard to keep track of it between work, the next gen hype threads and trying to get my website back up to snuff as well. We'll get there!

 

[Messofanego]

Thanks man! It's hard to keep track of it between work, the next gen hype threads and trying to get my website back up to snuff as well. We'll get there!

Now is the awkward time where we need to start calling it current gen, and I'm parked squarely in last gen. Will join others in the current gen sun probably when Quantum Break comes around.

 

[Moobabe]

Now is the awkward time where we need to start calling it current gen, and I'm parked squarely in last gen. Will join others in the current gen sun probably when Quantum Break comes around.

Ah yes - I've got a ps4 but only have AC for it along with the PS+ freebies. I still own about 200 games on Steam I've never played...

 

[Broken Joystick]

Not entirely sure if people in this thread are in need of work, but it's worth a post anyway.

IGN are looking for freelance writers: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/09/want-to-write-for-ign
Official Nintendo Magazine are looking for Staff Writers: http://www.yourfuturejob.com/job/staff-writer-official-nintendo-magazine-fp00485/

Was thinking about going for the IGN gig but I figured as soon as I settle into University later this year, I'm not going to have much time.

 

[Moobabe]

Not entirely sure if people in this thread are in need of work, but it's worth a post anyway.

IGN are looking for freelance writers: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/09/want-to-write-for-ign
Official Nintendo Magazine are looking for Staff Writers: http://www.yourfuturejob.com/job/staff-writer-official-nintendo-magazine-fp00485/

Was thinking about going for the IGN gig but I figured as soon as I settle into University later this year, I'm not going to have much time.

I think some people are - plus it always looks good on a CV if you get picked up for a few articles!

 

[Jintor]

Might apply for the IGN job, though I haven't worked a news beat in ages, and even then it was only a 1 hr p/day thing ==;;

well, worry about that if i'm successful, I guess

 

[More_Badass]

Not entirely sure if people in this thread are in need of work, but it's worth a post anyway.

IGN are looking for freelance writers: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/09/want-to-write-for-ign
Official Nintendo Magazine are looking for Staff Writers: http://www.yourfuturejob.com/job/staff-writer-official-nintendo-magazine-fp00485/

Was thinking about going for the IGN gig but I figured as soon as I settle into University later this year, I'm not going to have much time.

Tempting, but I like being an little indie site. No pressure, write what I want when I want. And I feel like I'm still a gamer first, writing about what I enjoy, rather than a journalist writing for some site

 

[Dawg]

Dawg - 4Gamers

Review stuff and write news.

 

[Moobabe]

Tempting, but I like being an little indie site. No pressure, write what I want when I want. And I feel like I'm still a gamer first, writing about what I enjoy, rather than a journalist writing for some site

Give it a shot man - after all, doing a freelance piece might open your eyes up to the possibility of doing it full time (or hating it and sticking to the way you do things now.)

Either way you're doing a top job.

 

[More_Badass]

Give it a shot man - after all, doing a freelance piece might open your eyes up to the possibility of doing it full time (or hating it and sticking to the way you do things now.)

Either way you're doing a top job.

writing stories based on press releases provided by publishers, you’ll also be tasked with hunting down breaking news each day and digging for additional information, plus finding relevant media assets.

Oh god, that sounds so boring. Press release articles are the driest most generic pieces I've seen, just copying whatever info is in the press release.

Think I'll pass. This is more of a hobby anyway, and I'm just fine without needing to work with IGN.

 

[Jintor]

Yah, well, I need to eat, and that's the long and short of it

 

[SirCrush]

What a cool thread concept. I don't know how I missed it until now

I am still at the ground floor of this whole gaming journalism thing but have had some modest successes. My friend and I have built a website centered around...well, writing about games! Novel idea, right? I've managed to have a couple of pieces eclipse the 1,000 view mark, mostly through Reddit and N4G, but our google search results are improving and even a few of our pieces that have a few hundred hits got most of their exposure through google and yahoo.

I hesitate to name our site here. I promised myself that, no matter how tempting it may be, I wouldn't try to gain exposure through NeoGAF once my account was activated here. As you can see I am still a Junior Member and don't even REALLY know what that means other than "newb." I've only been here a few months but have been writing for much longer.

Anyways, my 2 cents on a couple of subjects from last year's posts here: I like game review scores and write them into my own reviews but I am starting prefer a 5 point system over a 10/20/40/100 point system. I just find that the 1-5 number is more indicative of the body of work a game presents while also tempting the reader to explore the actual text involved in the review as a means to understand the finer points of the game.

I, too, applied for that IGN freelancer thing but I don't expect much. I tried to "stand out" in the body of the e-mail but opted for a more standard approach to the 3 press release samples. I think they were going for the reciprocal and even if they weren't, they tend to pay more love to avid users of their community and blog system. I just use their comments sections.

I did want to pose my own topic of sort here: I am seeing a huge shift in the popularity of multimedia "reporting." I personally think that this is where EVERYTHING is headed on the internet - especially with video game journalism - so I have been practicing some video editing skills. Do you guys agree that this is going to be a vital part of the future of games writing? I always planned to take some broadcasting and video production classes anyways. People say I've got a "radio voice" so I have been honing that craft for a few years now but am trying to implement some video skills. That's been a rough ride but also just another self-taught skill that is going to be useful in the coming years.

Anyways...I'll check this thread frequently. Sorry for the long post. Maybe we can get some back and forth going at some point. I read all 5 pages before I posted this and there looked to be a few near-convos started. Here's me throwing my hat in

 

[More_Badass]

Hey, welcome to the thread.

Let's see
- When I first started, I had submitted some articles to N4G but then eventually they were getting blocked because you can't post articles from a "personal blog". That's mainly why I started using Twitter. For a while Reddit was my biggest source of page views, but now Google searches are, followed byTwitter. I guess that means my blog is becoming more well-known.

Wish I could see exactly what search terms led people to my site. Are they actually searching for my blog or is just that they're looking of a game and my blog is one of the results?

- I think I had asked before, but what's considered a good amount of page views? I get from between 100 to 300+ views a day which I think is fantastic, at least personally. I don't really have a metric to compare that to.

- Still haven't warmed up to scores. Here's the thing: I really don't like being negative about games. I don't really see myself as a "reviewer". I write impressions. I started my blog to help indies and devs with exposure, not damn them by saying a game is crap. Now if a game has flaws, I mention them. That's not a problem. I've played games with some fundamental issues. But I tend to only write about games I know I'm probably going to enjoy.

I guess that's the advantage of being a small solo site. If I was writing for TA or IGN, I'd need to review poor games, IAP-heavy freemium IOS games, etc. But here, I can be selective and write about the games I like and enjoy.

What do you think about that? Is that a poor attitude to have as a journalist?

 

[SirCrush]

Our site isn't a personal blog site. I mean, it's built on WordPress but we've adapted it for multiple contributors and have set everything up, including a .net URL, to be more akin to a "real website." Again, we're sort of ground floor but always improving the layout and such.

We just got things going again recently and have about 50-100 daily visits despite being off for several months. When we were really rolling with daily content, we were in the 300-500 views range and that was easily traced to N4G, Reddit, and google. I don't know which search terms were used (that is-I don't feel like going back and checking) but I do know that among the few web developers that I know personally, it is a good idea to keep your SEO up to date so I spend about an hour a week fine tuning that. We have a tool that shows the exact searches that were used to connect to our site so that's been quite useful. I wrote a piece about The Last of Us possibly having co-op and got a lot of hits through google using "the last of us coop." Probably about 300 on that term alone. This was prior to finding out that TLOU did NOT have co-op but the piece still gets hits based on those and similar search terms.

Your journalistic attitude is garbage! No, I'm kidding. I think it's fine actually. I am learning as I go here so maybe you have a better approach than I do. I personally prefer seeing a score on reviews and I assume most others do too. The idea is to draw eyes, isn't it? So having scores does that, if you ask me. But maybe there is an audience for non-scored material or maybe your focus on indies differs from my own focus on more mainstream, console gaming. I really don't know but if you like what you do, keep doing it. At least that's what I keep telling myself!

 

[More_Badass]

Well if you read through the thread, you probably saw my stance on scores. It's more of a personal ideological reason why I prefer not to use scores or rankings. As a reader, I like scores and the thrill of seeing a game like I get great rankings. But as a writer, I like IndieStatik's and RPS's approach of just writing about the game. Because then the focus is on the game and its content, and not the final definite "This game is a 8.75".

And games grow and evolve over time, especially IOS games and definitely alphas and betas. A score at one point in time may not be representative of a game's condition weeks or months later

 

[Moobabe]

Hey, welcome to the thread.

Let's see
- When I first started, I had submitted some articles to N4G but then eventually they were getting blocked because you can't post articles from a "personal blog". That's mainly why I started using Twitter. For a while Reddit was my biggest source of page views, but now Google searches are, followed byTwitter. I guess that means my blog is becoming more well-known.

Wish I could see exactly what search terms led people to my site. Are they actually searching for my blog or is just that they're looking of a game and my blog is one of the results?

- I think I had asked before, but what's considered a good amount of page views? I get from between 100 to 300+ views a day which I think is fantastic, at least personally. I don't really have a metric to compare that to.

- Still haven't warmed up to scores. Here's the thing: I really don't like being negative about games. I don't really see myself as a "reviewer". I write impressions. I started my blog to help indies and devs with exposure, not damn them by saying a game is crap. Now if a game has flaws, I mention them. That's not a problem. I've played games with some fundamental issues. But I tend to only write about games I know I'm probably going to enjoy.

I guess that's the advantage of being a small solo site. If I was writing for TA or IGN, I'd need to review poor games, IAP-heavy freemium IOS games, etc. But here, I can be selective and write about the games I like and enjoy.

What do you think about that? Is that a poor attitude to have as a journalist?

I can help you here I think:

Search terms can be pretty vague - SOMETIMES I can see what people are searching for to find my site, other times I just get a vague "unknown search terms."

And your page views are great - seriously. A one man run, edited, written website? 2000+ views a week? You're doing something right - I've had to start again from the bottom and I'd very much like views in that sort of range again.

 

[MC Safety]

As someone who works full time and does a little bit of this stuff on the side Skype and Email Q&As are my only real option unfortunately. That said I would love the opportunity to meet and greet people and actually CHAT with people about their stuff.

You know this already, but avoid e-mail interviews whenever possible. I hated doing those even when the developer was in Japan, or it was the very last resort.

It's easy for PR people to vet e-mail interview questions and simply ignore/rewrite the ones they don't like. And it's easy for the "subjects" to farm the work out to subordinates, give answers without being specific, or for the PR folks to answer the questions themselves. And, of course, sometimes the PR people will have to approve the answers, and who needs that?

Live interviews are preferable. You can gauge reactions, ask follow-up questions, and set a scene for your readers. Plus, it's just good to be able to learn how to do interviews when the subject is right there in front of you.

 

[More_Badass]

You know this already, but avoid e-mail interviews whenever possible. I hated doing those even when the developer was in Japan, or it was the very last resort.

It's easy for PR people to vet e-mail interview questions and simply ignore/rewrite the ones they don't like. And it's easy for the "subjects" to farm the work out to subordinates, give answers without being specific, or for the PR folks to answer the questions themselves. And, of course, sometimes the PR people will have to approve the answers, and who needs that?

Live interviews are preferable. You can gauge reactions, ask follow-up questions, and set a scene for your readers. Plus, it's just good to be able to learn how to do interviews when the subject is right there in front of you.

I don't have the opportunity or means to do live interviews. Email Q&As have worked for me so far. Maybe because I only interview small indie dev teams?

 

[Brazil]

This is an interesting thread. Are Brazilian peasants allowed in the club?

I write for UOL Jogos, gaming branch of one of Brazil's biggest news portals.

 

[MC Safety]

I don't have the opportunity or means to do live interviews. Email Q&As have worked for me so far. Maybe because I only interview small indie dev teams?

I'm not chiding anyone for choosing that route. E-mail interviews are often quickest and easiest for all involved.

I just prefer live interviews, even if it means poring over notes and transcribing MP3 files.

 

[Moobabe]

This is an interesting thread. Are Brazilian peasants allowed in the club?

I write for UOL Jogos, gaming branch of one of Brazil's biggest news portals.

Everyone is welcome friend!

You know this already, but avoid e-mail interviews whenever possible. I hated doing those even when the developer was in Japan, or it was the very last resort.

It's easy for PR people to vet e-mail interview questions and simply ignore/rewrite the ones they don't like. And it's easy for the "subjects" to farm the work out to subordinates, give answers without being specific, or for the PR folks to answer the questions themselves. And, of course, sometimes the PR people will have to approve the answers, and who needs that?

Live interviews are preferable. You can gauge reactions, ask follow-up questions, and set a scene for your readers. Plus, it's just good to be able to learn how to do interviews when the subject is right there in front of you.

I do know - but like Badass it's my only real option for some people on the other side of the world and given I work 10 hour shifts throughout most of the day. I'd love the opportunity to sit down and chat with people but for now it'll have to do - luckily I haven't had to deal with any PR - I focus on games that I want to write about and people want to talk about. Demigod, Shattered Horizon, Krater etc Hidden gems.

I'm not chiding anyone for choosing that route. E-mail interviews are often quickest and easiest for all involved.

I just prefer live interviews, even if it means poring over notes and transcribing MP3 files.

I'm going to try this route for talking about Krater if I can - I think it's the best option for Fatshark given they're still actively making games.

 

[SirCrush]

My personal preference is to also do live interviews only. Over the phone/Skype seems to be a good option as well. Everyone has a phone or Skype account so that can be a sensible alternative to long distance. In person is always the best, though. Interviewees tend to be a bit more candid when you can provide a relaxed setting and sit with them face to face.

I actually have only done a few Skype interviews since I began writing games but I used to do in person interviews quite frequently when I was an MMA writer. Actually looking forward to sitting down with a human again someday soon

 

[Jintor]

tell me about MMA writing! Sports reporting is a foreign land to me

 

[Vice]

Hello, I'm the editor of two weekly newspapers in central California. They're both very small. Games writing is what got me interested in writing as a profession but, I've had almost no luck covering games compared to hard news. I also do some freelance writing for a regional lifestyle magazine.

I'm hoping to change that in the near future though. I've been writing material for a gaming blog I'll be starting soon.

 

[GDJustin]

I did want to pose my own topic of sort here: I am seeing a huge shift in the popularity of multimedia "reporting." I personally think that this is where EVERYTHING is headed on the internet - especially with video game journalism - so I have been practicing some video editing skills. Do you guys agree that this is going to be a vital part of the future of games writing? I always planned to take some broadcasting and video production classes anyways. People say I've got a "radio voice" so I have been honing that craft for a few years now but am trying to implement some video skills. That's been a rough ride but also just another self-taught skill that is going to be useful in the coming years.

IGN doesn't hire full-time editors that aren't multi-disciplinary at this point. If you make it to the interview stage, a camera test is part of your interview.

Video editing is a plus and I would say half of the IGN editors have been cross-trained on doing simple editing (clipping out the beginning and end of gameplay footage, dropping in name bars, etc.) but it isn't a requirement.

 

[OmniAvenger]

I'm the self-described Head Writer (and co-founder) over at The Armchair Empire, which has been running in one form or another for more than 13 years. We switched to a blog format about a year and half ago and started doing more YouTube stuff.

Recently I started another site -- Gaming Enthusiast Press Awards -- in an attempt to recognize great writing about video games and the industry at large. I just announced the 2013 (and inaugural) winner and honourable mentions.

Not sure if any of that legitimately attaches me to JournoGAF because it's always felt a little like an out of control hobby more than anything else.

 

[Moobabe]

I'm the self-described Head Writer (and co-founder) over at The Armchair Empire, which has been running in one form or another for more than 13 years. We switched to a blog format about a year and half ago and started doing more YouTube stuff.

Recently I started another site -- Gaming Enthusiast Press Awards -- in an attempt to recognize great writing about video games and the industry at large. I just announced the 2013 (and inaugural) winner and honourable mentions.

Not sure if any of that legitimately attaches me to JournoGAF because it's always felt a little like an out of control hobby more than anything else.

I have a full time job that prohibits me playing or writing as much as I'd like to - so I very much consider this an out of control hobby! You're very much one of us here.

 

[More_Badass]

My short Q&A with Joar Jakobsson about Rain World
http://indiegameenthusiast.blogspot.com/2014/01/q-joar-jakobsson-on-rain-world.html

 

[Moobabe]

My short Q&A with Joar Jakobsson about Rain World
http://indiegameenthusiast.blogspot.com/2014/01/q-joar-jakobsson-on-rain-world.html

I saw this man, was a great read!

In other news a friend and I are starting a new website from scratch. There's a lot on the backend of the old site that doesn't work, the twitter is flooded with fake followers so I can't gauge the impact tweets have either.

I'm excited!

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

Dropped by to share my new article:

The Most Memorable Things About My Journey: An Examination of ThatGameCompany’s Masterpiece

I wrote it for a new site called Artistry in Games. The site focuses on the artistry (visual art, audio, game design, user-interface, user experience, etc.) of games and the people behind it. It mostly contains feature articles and editorials and I think it's a pretty nice alternative to the more traditional video game sites.

Hope you guys check it out.

Thanks!

 

[More_Badass]

Dropped by to share my new article:

The Most Memorable Things About My Journey: An Examination of ThatGameCompany’s Masterpiece

I wrote it for a new site called Artistry in Games. The site focuses on the artistry (visual art, audio, game design, user-interface, user experience, etc.) of games and the people behind it. It mostly contains feature articles and editorials and I think it's a pretty nice alternative to the more traditional video game sites.

Hope you guys check it out.

Thanks!

Thanks for the link, you made my day. I have a thing for art and visuals in games. There's something so engrossing how a game can capture you with atmosphere and tone or wow with abstract and minimal styles. I'd definitely be frequenting that site

 

[More_Badass]

I think this is the best written piece I've written for my blog so far. Hope you guys enjoy it
http://indiegameenthusiast.blogspot.com/2014/02/ramblings-why-im-indie-gamer.html

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

Thanks for the link, you made my day. I have a thing for art and visuals in games. There's something so engrossing how a game can capture you with atmosphere and tone or wow with abstract and minimal styles. I'd definitely be frequenting that site

No problem. I'm glad you liked the site's content approach.

Anyway, Is it okay to create a thread about a new gaming site you wrote for?

 

[Moobabe]

No problem. I'm glad you liked the site's content approach.

Anyway, Is it okay to create a thread about a new gaming site you wrote for?

I'm not so sure - a friend and I are starting up a new website too, but I'd imagine they've got rules against that sort of thing here. That said - I'm checking out the website now!

 

[More_Badass]

I'm not so sure - a friend and I are starting up a new website too, but I'd imagine they've got rules against that sort of thing here. That said - I'm checking out the website now!

So what's up with the new site? Said you were going to go into more details

 

[More_Badass]

So, Toucharcade's Editor in Chief Eli Hodapp messaged me over on the TA forums (I've been active in the forums there since 2012), saying he digs my blog, and wanted to know if I'd be interested in writing similar posts for TouchArcade

You can imagine my reply.

 

[Imbarkus]

So, Toucharcade's Editor in Chief Eli Hodapp messaged me over on the TA forums (I've been active in the forums there since 2012), saying he digs my blog, and wanted to know if I'd be interested in writing similar posts for TouchArcade

You can imagine my reply.

Congrats man. That's cool.

 

[Moobabe]

So, Toucharcade's Editor in Chief Eli Hodapp messaged me over on the TA forums (I've been active in the forums there since 2012), saying he digs my blog, and wanted to know if I'd be interested in writing similar posts for TouchArcade

You can imagine my reply.

First of all that's awesome - congratulations on that!!

So what's up with the new site? Said you were going to go into more details

Scores are back (it wasn't my call but.. I can see the appeal, for pubs/devs as well as readers, so I've let that one slide.) Having a couple of people on board is allowing me to do more stuff that I like (interviews, editorials etc) while they do stuff they like - newsbeat sort of stuff.

The premise of the site is something pretty simple, easy to navigate, and something that is quick to read IF you want it that way. Something you could quickly check up on a review on your lunchbreak or whatever. It'll all make a bit more sense when I can show it...

I've wrapped a pretty hefty interview to go live alongside the launch as well - It could be about 3000 words... should I cut it in half and run it as two separate pieces?

 

[Moobabe]

Double post

So - the new site is live. It's doing pretty well on views/visits already, even if that's not demonstrated by the little "eye" icons under the posts themselves.

I've just put out the biggest (and hopefully best/most important) piece I've written in a long time. An interview about Shattered Horizon - what went right, what went wrong and what might have been.

 

[Imbarkus]

So - the new site is live. It's doing pretty well on views/visits already, even if that's not demonstrated by the little "eye" icons under the posts themselves.

I've just put out the biggest (and hopefully best/most important) piece I've written in a long time. An interview about Shattered Horizon - what went right, what went wrong and what might have been.

Nice site and article, man. Good read, only thing that stood out to me as weird was the sentence that ended "World's Greatest Game!"

 

[Moobabe]

Nice site and article, man. Good read, only thing that stood out to me as weird was the sentence that ended "World's Greatest Game!"

But it is!

Yeah my style is rusty - I need to do next to no writing in my current job (need a new one badly.)

This popped up recently though - an interview about Terra Nova: Strike Force from Looking Glass Games. SUCH an amazing piece from Alex.

The kind of thing I might make a thread about on GAF if it wasn't my own.

 

[Adahn]

I’ve been following and enjoying this thread for a while now, and apologies for not contributing until now but hopefully this will pose an interesting question for some.

I’m the editor of a UK based gaming website. We’re firmly in the enthusiast/voluntary sector, but hopefully towards the higher end of that in terms of writing quality. I think that’s demonstrated by our inclusion on Metacritic and other aggregation websites, although I appreciate that that’s not exactly accepted as a consistent mark of standards by GAF

Anyway, one thing we really seem to struggle with is recruitment. We don’t have a very high turnover, but when we do have someone leave it’s quite difficult to replace them, and I’m not entirely sure why. I can fully understand why someone would opt for a paid gig over a voluntary one, but I also see us as a good stepping stone between, say, a blog or a slower voluntary site and the big boys. We are fully set from a PR perspective, and writing for us would get at the very least a few Metacritic reviews on a writer’s CV. I also like to think that we are quite a good place for people to develop their skills – we’ve had more than our fair share of raw recruits that we’ve trained up over the years, and we’ve even had people leave us and move on to paid work.

I guess where I’m going with this is I’d appreciate some idea of what you guys do when the time comes to recruit – do you just stick a post up on your front page, or are there certain industry forums that you haunt? I look back to when I was at uni, or fresh out, and I think if I saw an opportunity then to review games and write about them I’d have jumped at it, and yet we can’t seem to find or connect with these kinds of people now. More than happy to share which site it is if people are interested, but like others before me in this thread I’m initially loathe to as I’d always seen my GAF (junior) membership as more of a personal account.

 

[More_Badass]

Personally I've had a few sites personally email or message me, asking if I wanted to write for them. These sites had found me either because they read my blog regularly or because they had seem my posts on forums (i.e. Reddit, Toucharcade).

Not sure if that answers your question or helps in any way, but that's just my two cents from the "potential recruit" perspective

 

[Messofanego]

Dawg - 4Gamers

Review stuff and write news.

Your Watch Dogs coverage and interview has been super great, thanks!

Alex Connolly (self-banned Pylon_Trooper) wrote a pretty great retrospective + interview for Terra Nova, a game I've never played but was worth reading just because of the great writing. Also, that's his art!

 

[Liamc723]

I’ve been following and enjoying this thread for a while now, and apologies for not contributing until now but hopefully this will pose an interesting question for some.

I’m the editor of a UK based gaming website. We’re firmly in the enthusiast/voluntary sector, but hopefully towards the higher end of that in terms of writing quality. I think that’s demonstrated by our inclusion on Metacritic and other aggregation websites, although I appreciate that that’s not exactly accepted as a consistent mark of standards by GAF

Anyway, one thing we really seem to struggle with is recruitment. We don’t have a very high turnover, but when we do have someone leave it’s quite difficult to replace them, and I’m not entirely sure why. I can fully understand why someone would opt for a paid gig over a voluntary one, but I also see us as a good stepping stone between, say, a blog or a slower voluntary site and the big boys. We are fully set from a PR perspective, and writing for us would get at the very least a few Metacritic reviews on a writer’s CV. I also like to think that we are quite a good place for people to develop their skills – we’ve had more than our fair share of raw recruits that we’ve trained up over the years, and we’ve even had people leave us and move on to paid work.

I guess where I’m going with this is I’d appreciate some idea of what you guys do when the time comes to recruit – do you just stick a post up on your front page, or are there certain industry forums that you haunt? I look back to when I was at uni, or fresh out, and I think if I saw an opportunity then to review games and write about them I’d have jumped at it, and yet we can’t seem to find or connect with these kinds of people now. More than happy to share which site it is if people are interested, but like others before me in this thread I’m initially loathe to as I’d always seen my GAF (junior) membership as more of a personal account.

I'm currently in my first year at Sheffield Hallam University and studying Journalism, and I would jump at this opportunity. Are you looking for anyone right now?

 

[Dawg]

Your Watch Dogs coverage and interview has been super great, thanks!

t-thanks messofanego-san

 

[Messofanego]

t-thanks messofanego-san

senpai has noticed you

 

[Cyrano]

Double post

So - the new site is live. It's doing pretty well on views/visits already, even if that's not demonstrated by the little "eye" icons under the posts themselves.

I've just put out the biggest (and hopefully best/most important) piece I've written in a long time. An interview about Shattered Horizon - what went right, what went wrong and what might have been.

Moobabe, would just like to request, please don't post ambiguous article titles like this: http://www.coffeebreakgaming.co.uk/pc-games/dark-souls-2-pc-delayed/

I know this probably wasn't you but yeah, I think for something like release delays in particular it should be as specific as possible with its titling (unless it is a general release delay, of course).

Like the new site, though the images on the front page seem to load a bit slowly.

edit: with regards to the rating bar on the front page, it might do to make it a bit more clear with regards to the user ratings and editor ratings. 9:6 is a bit confusing. (Is it a 96? A 9.6? Two editors? Users and editors? editors and users? etc.)