Here on
Volatile Mode, I'm trying to bring in as many unique perspectives into the discussion of gaming as possible, solely for the betterment and improvement of this industry. As such, I'll be pleading with prominent gaming journalists and bloggers to do an interview relating to any number of subjects. For the first one, Jim Rossignol, British gaming journalist extraordinaire, answered a few questions about his writing habits and life as a niche writer for the PC exclusive site
Rock, Paper, Shotgun. (It's an awesome site so go take a look.)
VM: What are your methods to get in the writing mood? For example, I drink a cup of coffee and have the TV on as background noise. It is surprisingly effective!
JIM: I don't really have a writing mood anymore. I've been doing it for so long that it just happens. But I drink a lot of tea and listen to lyric-free high-tempo electronic music.
VM: What is it like writing for a PC exclusive site? Do you prefer the focused platform, or sometimes would you wish RPS covered the broader industry?
JIM: I love it. The PC is busy and diverse. There's nothing I miss about writing for consoles, although I do play games on consoles all the time. Setting up RPS was the best decision I ever made, and I would never change its remit, except maybe to write a bit more about MMOs, or even hardware.
VM: How did you get into the industry? It's often the case writers for popular websites already have connections, so was this the case for you?
JIM: I first worked for
PC Gamer UK. I applied for work there as a staff writer, and since I had some tech knowledge and a really solid grasp of online gaming, they hired me. After three years there I knew enough to go it alone and eventually conspired with Alec Meer, John Walker and Kieron Gillen to set up
Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I didn't have "connections" to get into the industry in the first place, just a good degree and six months experience working for the financial press. The connections I subsequently built up were, however, vital to making
RPS a success, and having people take our work seriously.
VM: What advice could you give aspiring journalists (like myself) on breaking into the industry? Please interject personal experience!
JIM: Write, talk to people, play games, write more. Talk. Write. Write more. Apply for every job you can. Do as little free work as you think you need to do to get profile. Be good. Read. Read more. Be better. Read all the pieces linked here:
http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?p=1192 (this link is to Kieron Gillen's blog, a fellow writer at
RPS). Don't give up. Don't say to people "you will probably think this is rubbish" or anything like that. Believe in your work. Fight. Never surrender.
VM: How did you discover your undying passion for gaming and what is your all time favourite title?
JIM: I think
Eve Online was the most interesting game experience in my life, although that love affair is now at an end. I discovered I had a passion for gaming when the kid next door showed me Elite when I was seven years old. I subsequently played games almost every day for the twenty-six years that followed. Numerous high points followed:
Speedball 2,
Syndicate,
Chaos Engine,
Hired Guns,
Doom,
System Shock,
GoldenEye,
Half-Life,
Quake III,
Eve,
Stalker. Each one confirmed to me how important gaming was as an experience.
VM: Being a UK-based site, is writing primarily for British gaming fans at all different than for an American audience? And do you feel the European and North American gaming cultures are equivalent or not?
JIM: We are a UK-based site, but we write for ourselves and everyone seems to like that. We don't really aim at a British audience, we just write as we would because we are British. US and European readers either appreciate that, or don't. You have to be faithful to yourself and your obsessions and not worry too much about who you perceive the audience to be. Chances are the people you think are reading won't be. It's the internet. This stuff is wide open.
Out of curiosity, I also asked him if
RPS was looking for any contributors. He mentioned the site recently did a call-out to applicants and the position was filled. I guess I was too late on that one! I'd like to thank Jim personally for the honourary first interviewee here on
Volatile Mode.
Hopefully more interviews follow. According to Mr. Rossignol, I'll be featured on The Sunday Times over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun! This is big news guys. For people just discovering my blog for the first time, why not subscribe? :D
No comments:
Post a Comment