Game Journalism and Location.

[SoldierFella]

I know in today's day and age our tools and modes of communication would make it seemingly possible to pitch and write articles worthy of pay to the writer no matter our geographical location. However, for many of us video game diehards throughout the world, the game titles we enjoy reach us in places as desolate as a farm field in the Midwestern United States. Unfortunately for us many, the biggest store within a hundred miles is Wal-Mart.

I'm addressing this to the veteran staffed, freelance soldiers of journalism, editors, and aspiring journalists (even if you've never written a single article) alike. What suggestions, personal experiences, or concerns can you share with this thread to better educate and direct us newbies who may not live in New York city or Los Angelos? To the ladder of the fore mentioned positions in the discipline, what are your concerns or questions for these members of the industry?

In closing, what can us middle of no where geeks do to get a proper start in the video game journalism industry due to our location?

Thank you for your time.

[yaustar]

Heavily assuming that you already have the proper education in the form of a degree (if not, that is your first step) this really leaves two options:

Be prepared to move where the jobs are or go freelance.

[CKeene]

The best thing you can do, in my opinion, is visit online zines and other sites that report on games and hunt for a Writer's Guidelines page, or a Jobs or Staff Wanted page. Most places have them in some form or another. Write a query to the editor to pitch an article or apply for a position if you have the required experience. Start with small magazines and move up. Once you have credits and clippings under your belt you'll be in a better position to freelance.

[SoldierFella]

Thank you,

Are there any web zines that you would suggest as far as credibility is concerned when pitching article ideas? There are hundreds of web zines that I could find with a simple Google search however I'd like to work with zines that would be the most beneficial to my experience.

I'm not looking to make money at this point, only to get experience and meet some of the people in the industry. I'm going to be starting back at shool this fall. I've been out of the education loop since 2004 and have my G.I. Bill to burn so I will be enrolling into a journalism program. In the mean time I'd like to start getting a feel for the video game journalism world since the local university doesn't specialize in that form of reporting.

Thank you again for your time.

[Dick Ward]

Comes down to you soldier. Find something you're interested in (I'm sure you have particular genres you like better than others) and start there. Experience is the key to moving up, so don't be afraid to write for a less than amazing site at first. If you're good, you're the big fish in a small pond. Small zines and fan sites are a good place to start writing on a consistent basis and a good place to make and learn from mistakes.

[Beth A. Dillon]

If you're going to do event coverage style journalism (this is my main area), then it is best to be on the west coast of North America to more readily travel between the conference hot spots. However, having said that, you can get into event coverage from any location, but when you start off, expect to barely scrape by just making enough money from your articles to cover your flight and hotel costs. The real advantage is in the free admission and the journal access, which if used wisely, you can turn into a lot of knowledge to distribute or even a way to network (interviews, parties, etc.) until you find a place in-house doing whatever form of game journalism you'd be more interested in (reviews or industry news, for example).

- Beth