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- My Job
- Print, Online
- About Me:
- Hey there! My name's Andy and I write about games! More specifically, I'm currently a staff writer for Gamernode.com, and a copy editor for The Gamer's Quarter. By day, I'm a Journalism student at Columbia College Chicago.
I also do a lot of writing in the traditional press as well. I'm currently working with a suburban Chicago daily newspaper, and with Mint Magazine, a horrible wretch of a monthly freelance gig that involves lots of writing about things only middle-aged women care about (e.g. having kids and a husband), but the pay is phenomenal so I don't mind.
Also, I'm not sure if this counts as "traditional press" or not, but I recently got a job as a copy editor for Georgia Today. Well...probably not the Georgia you would imagine. Think less east coast of the US and more South East coast of the old USSR. It's an english language weekly published out of Tbilisi. This job got a lot more involved and challenging since, y'know, the Russian Army invaded. Much of the staff is hiding out in their home villages which leaves me as the steward to several staff positions until this conflict subsides. By the way, don't believe American media. They want to paint the Russians as awful and the Georgians as heroic underdogs fighting against injustice. However, the Georgian government isn't exactly 100% peaches and cream.
I'm also passionate about the semi-colon. Subtle yet refined, It may be the most useful piece of punctuation available.
- Website:
- http://GamerNode.com
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As for whether J-school has helped me with game journalism specifically, it's a tough call because I'm relatively a newcomer, and most of my writing hasn't been for the so-called "enthusiast press" (The Escapist is about as close that gets for me). But I like to think that my skills apply to any kind of journalism, and at least they separate me from the fanboys. Reviews are sort of a different story, because they didn't teach that in school. As a journalist I try to stick with reported stories, or at least add reporting to my opinion pieces, since I think it's something extra I can bring to the table.
Anyway, I've never had the problem you're describing, probably because the publications I've worked with pay by the word. I guess it's just a matter of who you're writing for.
Imagine that! ;)
Thanks for the errata, I appreciate it, though I didn't particularly notice you going over the edge like, er, a certain other fella who's basking in his own glory of being where he is. ;)
The trouble is, my real career sucked. Tied to desk in a lonely room -- working on Access databases -- slowly started making me hate my life. I never really put forth the effort to become a freelance writer, and I always regretted that. So, early last year, I decided to give it a second chance. Because GamersChronicle.COM has since been taken over by some portal site, I decided to get GamersChronicle.NET and hope maybe some of my old contacts would remember me. Unfortunately, 7 years later, no one does. The entire world has changed in that time. I mean, the Dreamcast was still around and the Playstation 2 was brand new back when I first registered that domain, so, things are a little different now. I remain optimistic, however.
Every now and then I submit something to The Escapist, PC Gamer, etc. I never really hear back from them. I'm either a terrible pitch man or my ideas are just bad, so I kinda keep them to myself and write about it on my own blog. Right now, actually, I am working on a piece for Game Tunnel. It's an interview with an independent developer, so hopefully, my luck is changing and the timing couldn't be better because I'm getting on a bus in 2 days and moving to Seattle. Any work I can get is good work. :D
How about you? I see you're going to college for journalism. Did you go to college specifically to write about gaming or were you going to college first and then got into gaming?
Thanks for adding me to your list!