Hey, remember when ‘video game journalism’ wasn’t said with a sneer? I ‘member! When we would eagerly dash to the store to get a copy of Play Magazine. To me, becoming a video game journalist was a dream come true. I’m always ready to defend my passion and having a little soapbox to stand on was empowering. Once I even wanted to take on The Irish Times over something they’d written about video games. My colleagues got a good laugh out of that. It feels good to be around people who love the same things you do. In many ways, I’m closer to those people than my own flesh and blood. I guess that’s part of the problem.

I still love writing about video games. It’s something I doubt that will ever change. Yet, my experiences have put me off reporting on games. Honestly, writing about games for money is now a topic I approach with extreme caution because…

There is something wrong with video game journalism.

Too much to cover in one article. This rabbit hole goes so much deeper than the idea that video game journalists don’t play games. We’re talking about a system that doesn’t just abuse gamers, but the writers themselves. It can be frustrating trying to explain it. I remember being in a taxi with a good friend of mine of nearly double my age. I told him about how helpless I felt in the system. While he was sympathetic he couldn’t take it too seriously. After all, it was only video game journalism. Even among my friends, the talk often turns to how terrible video game journalists are and I confess it hits a chord with me.

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about corruption. As pervasive as it may be in larger outlets it is not the norm. People are only ever going to try and bribe the key players, not the bottom rung. Corruption is just a symptom of the sickness and if we could fix the system we could wash it out. Even the people I enjoy the company of don’t always understand. They’re often keen to blame video game journalists and I can only agree to an extent. Yes, they should know better. Yes, they should be better. Yet, it is the system that bred video game journalism to be like this. I don’t want to try and absolve people of responsibility. Yet, if we don’t fix the system it doesn’t matter how many good people go into it if they are under pressure to conform.

Video Game Journalism: The Art Of Selling Your Soul At A Discount

The highest paying job I’ve had in video game journalism to date was $4 per 500 words. I’m okay with that. Sometimes I don’t mind writing for free, video games are my passion after all. It’s also a mindset that’s hammered into journalists throughout their careers. The idea that I should feel lucky to be able to work. Video game journalism doesn’t pay well. I guess it comes down to economics 101. The demand for video game journalism is already met by just a few major outlets. One website could theoretically serve millions of gamers if the servers were up to snuff. Combine that with the fact that just about anyone can be a video game journalist and bam; the recipe for low pay.

Of course, low pay is preferable to no pay… or is it?

Writing For Nothing

This is the most common ‘pay’ system in Video Game Journalism. They’ll phrase it in different ways. Some will say that you will build your portfolio working there, or gain experience. Others will tell you that they will ‘pay’ you with review codes. It sounds like a good deal if you think of triple-A games and such, but you won’t get a sniff of those. The people who have worked for free the longest will get the best titles while you review indies. The worst companies will string journalists along with the promise of adding payment in future.

We cannot sustain ourselves on passion alone. Unfortunately, this system burns out some of the brightest writers quickly. They’re expected to do the same work as someone working a full-time job for nothing. This is especially true for reviewers getting ‘paid’ in the games they need to review. The deadline to finish your review is often just 4 days. Even when games are sent months in advance the same arbitrary deadlines are enforced. This takes all the fun out of gaming and doesn’t give writers enough time to master difficult games. It is little wonder why video game journalists learn to hate games. Wouldn’t you if this were thrust upon you and you were expected to feel privileged?

It’s not always doom and gloom. Some places are run more like blogs and thus working for free is genuinely just a little passion project. If the website is one of those easy going places that isn’t trying to keep up with the mainstream things can work out with this payment system. It’s just difficult in most situations.

Writing For Views

Perhaps you are among the people who believe pay per view is a good system. Surely it must be better than paying journalists nothing, right? It may be slightly better for a journalist’s wallet. Yet, this system is far more insidious than you may think. The system exists to get the largest number of views and thus profit for a website. It isn’t concerned with the people involved or the actual content. Theoretically, good content should get the most views. The system ‘encourages’ authors to promote their own work. This is two birds with one stone for the company. The system doesn’t work so well for writers, they end up as collateral damage.

Articles take time to write. There’s research involved and pitching and all kinds of hurdles. A News article may only take 2 hours to actually get pen to paper metaphorically speaking. After that, there’s at least another hour of editing. Not just spellings and grammar, but SEO optimisation and pictures. After all that, writers are then expected to promote their work over social media. Social media which also needs maintaining and growing. Do all that and you will be lucky to get 50c per article at the standard rate of $1 per thousand views. and SEO optimising and adding pictures. Reviewers have it a lot worse. Not only do reviews take a lot more time, they are worth a lot less. The payoff is often a lot less, closer to 20c.

Good wholesome content doesn’t get clicks

When you’re competing in a market full of clickbait it is easy to go with it. Why should journalists even bother to write interesting pieces or thoughtful analysis? They can just give a dull article and interesting title and reap the rewards. After all, they only need one click to get that precious .001c in their wallet. It’s easy to say that journalists should be better and believe me I know we should. It just isn’t as easy to deliver that when you also have to eat. It isn’t even a conscious decision to be corrupt most of the time. we’re just learning what works to get views. we end up distancing ourselves from our readership, they are just numbers on a screen. Most writers don’t even get any comments on their post unless it is someone disagreeing with them or spamming.

I’m ashamed to admit I’m a writer who slipped.

I still read hundreds of posts every week on how to get more views and better engagement. I can’t deny that clickbait works. When writing a clickbait title it isn’t as if I’m laughing maniacally about all the people I’m going to fool. All I’m thinking of is “what’s a snappy or funny headline for this?” that’s it. I was actually insulted back then, whenever anyone pulled me up about a clickbaity title. It’s only looking back and cringing that I realise those headlines were clickbait even if they were ‘punny’. I never had any ill intent behind those headlines. I just wanted people to actually click my work and read it. After publishing an article, I’d be in the lobby, refreshing and watching the engagement.

I became aware that I was changing. No longer did I try to give my unique perspective and deliver great News. Instead, I went in with a singular purpose to get it finished as quickly as possible and start the next one before I had to sleep. It’s another form of burn out I suppose. I reached my limit and managed to stop before I broke. Only then did I have the perspective to realise I was getting too worked up over a pitiful $20 a month. That realisation allowed me to become way more laid back. It was shortly after this I discovered the other thing pay per view systems encourage. Sensationalism.

Controversy breeds views in ways you would not believe

The wrong opinion in the right place can generate a lot of views and engagement. Once I had eased up a bit and started writing less I got a little more brazen and started focusing on opinion pieces. I’ve always been sincere in my dislike of Anita Sarkeesian and her work so I wrote a piece about her trip to E3. I accused her of lying about the entry tickets and wrote a whole thing about it. This is long before I was ever a controversial figure.

The post blew up and I had no idea why. I thought nothing of it until the first email rolled in. It wasn’t intimidating to get threats, at the time I lived off in the rugged hills of Ireland. I was more amused that I apparently had such power over people to make them this angry. This person actually ended up being a stalker I still occasionally hear from. She was singlehandedly responsible for the article’s popularity. She was sharing it on various feminists forums such as Spacefem trying to generate hate. All the traffic was coming from these weird fringe Tumblrs and forums. I didn’t know quite what to make of it.

I ended up dubbing this the Profitable Cycle of Hatred. After writing a few more articles in a similar vein I knew I’d found a winning formula. I realised having a genuinely unpopular opinion that you could defend was invaluable. It didn’t matter that I was just a small-time writer, the idea of a woman against feminism was too much for some. People were losing their minds and I was making ends meet. It was great. If my favourite little stalker didn’t share an article for me then I’d just ping it into the lion’s den myself.

Despite having a lot of fun writing unpopular opinion pieces it opened my eyes to something. This system was easily exploitable, laughably so. All it required was someone to provoke the right people and get a reaction. The scales fell from my eyes at that point. I think of all the people working for gaming websites who seem to really hate games. I used to wonder how they got the job. Now I see that just because gamers are the target demographic doesn’t mean they can’t be the targets. After all, gamers are the ones who will be browsing gaming websites. It’s an organic entry point into the Cycle of Profitable Hatred.

I find it disturbing to see this system used against its own readership. It makes a lot of sense though, why else would someone criticise Bayonetta for being sexy? Anytime I think “This person can’t really think that” I end up speculating they simply don’t. Some people are sincere, but the people behind them and the ones who hired them probably aren’t. I feel like behind every radical feminist game reviewer there’s an editor with their head in their hands just going with it for views. The only way to beat the system is not to support it and even though it will be tough on journalists it is necessary.

Systems like Archive.is have been invaluable in this regard. Ever since archiving became a norm sites like Buzzfeed and EverydayFeminism have suffered severely. It reminds me a lot of a story about two wolves fighting. It symbolises the battle between good an evil inside someone’s mind. When asked which wolf will win the storyteller replies with “Whichever wolf you feed”. The difference is the viewership chooses who to feed.

Submission Style And The Importance Of A Good Boss

Personally, I find submission style is the best way for video game journalism. It usually has a flat rate involved like $12 per 1000 words. Sometimes for features, writers can even pitch prices and work it out with the site. This is great because it takes the pressure to get views off of a writer’s shoulders. It also allows for longer and more thoughtful pieces. A lot of submission style websites are niche and thus pay better than the average site. Some good examples are Narratively and Plus Mana. Submission style sites hold their content to a much higher standard. Someone reads each piece and decides if it is worth the money the writer wants for it ahead of time. The focus is placed on the quality of the content. Another great thing is that there usually aren’t deadlines.

A Website Is Only As Good As Its Ethics

The problem with some submission style websites is that there is one person running the show. This person is usually the boss and the person reading submissions. This means no matter how true an article is if it is against someone’s belief it may still get rejected. This on its own is not much of a problem. You can always post your article somewhere else after all. The real problem comes when you actually work there. Many submission style places have a position of Staff Writer. You earn this by performing well and writing regularly. It often includes certain rights such as better pay and access to private chats. It also gives you more to lose.

There Is No Job Security In Video Game Journalism

I, unfortunately, have personal experience with this and it can be devastating. It is important to realise that video game journalism is as competitive as it is cutthroat. You can lose your job overnight without warning or explanation. You’ll just wake up and find that the password to the WordPress has changed and no one will reply to your emails. Relationships become a lot more important. If everyone likes you, you’re a lot less likely to get fired. This also means that if you have the wrong opinion on something you can lose your job in a snap. This is part of the reason video game journalists stick together like glue. The friendships made in this industry last until you leave it and then some.

There isn’t a governing body that watches over video game journalism. If you are unfairly dismissed you are usually SOL. Getting unfairly dismissed in video game journalism is a nightmare. You lose the ability to respond to people on your articles and over the articles themselves. This means the content can be changed by the owners of the website and can reflect badly on you. The worst thing is that future employers often ring up or otherwise contact your old place to find out more. Someone who has unfairly dismissed you is not going to say that and the lies can be fairly devastating. Imagine my surprise at finding out my old boss had told someone enquiring after me that I was actually a man. Fortunately for me, the employer had already spoken to me on Skype and thus knew my old boss was lying.

Video Game Journalism is lawless and that is a big problem. I wouldn’t object to having a governing body that held video game websites to a higher standard. It isn’t just the content that needs examining it is also the treatment of the staff behind the scenes.

How Video Game Websites Make Their Money

I’ve talked a lot about how video game journalists get paid and how that affects their writing. Let’s chat about how video game websites make their money and the effects that can have on how a website runs. Feel free to skip this little bit, I just want to try a dispel some ideas people have about it.

Ads

Most websites use a simple ad-based revenue structure. There will be ads in the banners and if you click on one the website might get a little revenue. More often you actually have to make a purchase and the website will get a cut. In an age of ad blockers, this can cause websites to block users who block ads. If a website has control over what ads are showing up then they have a reason to make that product seem appealing. Usually, the journalists themselves aren’t aware of what ads are playing. People higher up deal with that. All the journalists would know is that articles about X are worth more money.

I only mention this because many will go after the writer when they discover this happening. The journalist more than likely knows nothing about it. They’ll think you are a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist and tell you that themselves. At best, you may foster a little doubt in their hearts, but they’re unlikely to dwell on it long.

Websites that use ads emphasise viewership. This means they are more likely to be pay per view websites.

Sponsored Content

A company or business may approach a website and ask them to write an article for a fee. This article is usually to promote that company or maybe a study related to that company. Websites should tell users about sponsored articles. Some try to hide the fact by putting the notice somewhere unexpected on the page. I actually have no problem with sponsored content that tells readers what it is. If a website is being upfront about which articles are sponsored then it usually isn’t a bad place.

The thing about sponsored articles is they’re biased. The journalists writing these are fully aware of what they’re doing. Sponsored content only really appears on successful websites with a good reputation. The emphasis is on content and views so it is hard to determine what payment system they use.

Affiliate Links

Especially for websites that do a lot of reviews. Affiliate links are just links that lead you to a product page. If you purchase the product the person who sent you there gets a cut. Just because an article or review has an affiliate link doesn’t mean it’s untrustworthy. Many websites have the journalist write a review and then the editor adds affiliate links to it after. If a website adds links to everything even if it has given it a bad score, it’s probably trustworthy.

Affiliate links are usually added to finished articles. The emphasis is on content. Affiliate links are the staple for blogs and low-income websites.

Patreon and Donations

These sites are supported entirely by the people who read. It works pretty much the same way as a magazine subscription. Websites that use this model are going to be focused on pleasing their readership. There isn’t much to say except they are more than likely submission based. They may even have regular writers on a salary. Patreon run sites are usually niche and avoid ads and affiliate links if they can.

After Notes

If you like this or have any questions be sure to let me know. I would like to continue this series and slowly deconstruct the problems. Maybe if we lay them all out we can find a way to build a better future for video game journalists and gamers. As always, Patreon subscribers will get previews and updates before anyone else. Patreons can also question me directly and pitch ideas directly to me. If I write about something you’ve pitch you’ll be credited as a pitcher in the article. If all that sounds good, then head over to the GG Spot. You can also find me on Minds.