I’ve been on my path to becoming a gaming journalist for close to a year and a half now, meeting challenges seen and unforeseen, but one I haven’t expected is how tough it is to write about videogames. Specifically, how to write about videogames without sounding like an undistinguished fan site. I do my best to read high-quality sites like Polygon and Penny Arcade Report, but I still have a ways to go before I can stack my works alongside more established genres of writing.
I have high standards. It’s not just wanting to write like imaginary “real” writers; I have a very specific goal in mind. I want to command my words with authority like Roger Ebert, and I want to display my personality while keeping my writing informed like Tim Brayton. My problem, so far, is that I lack good writing habits and a sufficient vocabulary for discussing games. I can write about movies till the cows come home; a steady diet of Ebert and Antagony & Ecstasy have blessed my with a greater understanding of how to discuss movies and, as a result, appreciate them as craft. Yet, despite consistently trying to read gaming articles online, I feel that I lack an academic way to discuss games. Invariably, I feel like I’m spouting off marketing lingo when I launch into a discussion about a game’s features; I blame my years of reading Nintendo Power. Granted, I haven’t given my Game Informers a decent read in a while; I have a mental block on reading print journalism/books/anything on paper, and I feel like I might improve my craft if I can actually sit down and learn by example. Still, gaming journalism lacks a generally-accepted model for discussing games in a scholarly manner—either that, or I’ve sorely missed it so far.
I would much prefer to attempt to write about videogames for a living (cripes! If I think there’s a ton of would-be game journos, there must be way more when an actual precedent for Pulitzer-winning writing exists), but like I said, I have a few hurdles to overcome. Fortunately, most of them are mental blocks I need to push past, but if I want to push my way to the top of the journalistic stack, I’m going to have to find a way to assert myself as a better writer than the average Mario fansite, and without an established model for how to improve writing about games outside of general writing tips, I’m going to have to act like an even more creative schmo than usual.
Still, it’s not like I’m unwilling to meet the challenge. I’m just saying it’ll be a bit of a struggle; we’re still in the days where discourse about games writing is still evolving and improving, and my generation—aka, the guys who grew up reading Nintendo Power and EGM2—are on the spearhead of trying new styles. It’s even more fortunate for someone like me: a new, unique style would be worth its weight in page views, and even help push discussions in reviews, editorials, etc. Writers like Jenn Frank and Patricia Fernandez are continuing to advance the field of New Games Journalism, Simon Parkin and his crew crank out kickass long form features, and Patrick Klepek and Jason Schreier hold it down for hard journalism amongst so much fan writing. The future is more crowded than ever, but now’s the time to try something different and become noticed. I’m just going to have to try harder, you know?
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