Hey Jared, What's it like to be a game reviewer?

Why, I'm glad you asked! Ok, so maybe you didn't ask, but I get asked this question all the time. For those of you that didn't know or just started reading my blog, I also review video games over at leftstickdown.com. I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and I've been asked hundred of times by my friends, family, and fans of the site a number of questions about it. I thought I'd share some of my experiences thus far, and answer some of my most frequently asked questions.

Do You Make Money?

Currently no. I've spent two years doing this at the "hobby" level. This has been partly because up until recently I was so busy with other things that I didn't have time to post content more than once a week. The other part was that I didn't have the fan base to make money yet. That's because the only way to make money doing this if you aren't hired on by a professional site is to use ads. You need to have daily consistent traffic to make money with ads, hence the need to build a fan base. 

How awesome is it to get free games?

Pretty awesome usually. We get a lot of small developer and indie titles, so sometimes I get some off the wall stuff. It's cool to open myself to new genres though, and I've played a lot of really awesome games that i never would have tried  before. On the flip side though, at any point in time I'm four games behind, meaning that if I really take the time to enjoy a game I fall behind schedule. It's caused me to look at games from a much different perspective, and so a game has to be extremely good for me to play it for more than the time required for me to write a review. As a side not, it's always AWESOME to get games before the release date. I have 3 games right now that unless you are a developer, you can't play them. That always makes me feel special.

Whats the process of writing reviews?

It depends on the game. Assuming a game is good, I'll play it for at least 10 hours. That's enough to beat the story for most games, learn the controls, examine the details of the game, and pick out a good substantial list of good and bad points to write about. If the game is super short, or super bad, I'll play it for as long as I can until I'm bored to death or ready to pull my eyes out. After my playtime (good or bad) I sit down and write my introduction and my list of good and bad points, and then leave it for a day or two. I think about the game and come up with reasons why things are good or bad, then I come back and write until I feel I've covered the topics in full. My average word count for posts is between 700-1000, but sometimes games get more or less. Depends on length and quality of the game itself. 

Can I write reviews for your site?

You can, but they will have to be approved by myself and my partner. Even then, there is no guarantee we would use a review you wrote, and we definitely would not be paying you. We have a posting schedule, format, and rules we've established already for writing and posting content. We also have a very lengthy backlog of games to review. If you want to write for us full time, then you'd really have to impress us, and then we'd let you in on the schedule and let you start writing what we have scheduled.

But I don't want to write about what you want me to!

That's fine. Start your own review site. It's super easy with cheap or free web design sites, or you can even use blog websites to do it. That's exactly how we started. Over time you'll build up enough fans and press coverage that you can start getting games for free too.

Has reviewing games done anything for you personally?

A few things actually. Because of writing game reviews I developed a much better writing style than I had before. It became less rigid, and more of a reflection of my own personality. Before I wrote like a college student (which I was), and while there is nothing wrong with that, it wasn't me. It also helped prompt me to create this blog. I wanted to talk about more than just games, and so I needed a new outlet to do that. It also got me involved in freelance journalism. Something that does have real potential to make my family some money. I say potential because the only real offer I've gotten so far is in limbo, but the fact that I've gotten an offer holds promise for the future. Plus it has let me live one of my childhood dreams. I always wanted to write game reviews as a kid so now I'm doing so. That itself is pretty awesome!

Conclusion:

Writing game reviews is fun, and I love getting free games. I hope to get paid for it in the future, but I"m ok with not ever making money doing it. It's been a fun experience that I plan to keep up for most of the rest of my life. Feel free to ask me any more questions in the comments below, and go check out leftstickdown.com We've got lots of cool stuff there.