Jason Brown Editorial Intern	Now Playing: Freelancer (PC), Command & Conquer: Generals (PC), Dungeons & Dragons (Table), and Birthright (Table) Now Working On: GameSpot Freelancer guide, the Stratos Group, and producing the film American Yearbook

Being a GameSpot Intern: A Do-It-Yourself Guide

It feels like I just got here. But, unfortunately, my six-month internship here at GameSpot has drawn to a close. As many of you can imagine, working here has been like living a dream. However, I like to say that I am a happy man if I can enjoy these three simple things: Fresh bread, nighttime drives with my sunroof down, and the company of good people. Though I don't know about the fresh bread part (we do get bagels delivered every Friday), GameSpot certainly provided many opportunities to drive home very late at night, after working later than I should have. On the count of "the company of good people," GameSpot really hit hard. The GameSpot style of maturity and professionalism that you might have noticed imbued in the site is also something those behind it share, though the people at GameSpot obviously know how to have a lot of fun too, and they have a great, often overlooked sense of humor and are also extremely intelligent and genuinely kind.

If it weren't for a game of Dungeons & Dragons, I wouldn't be here writing this.

Perhaps I should elaborate. Being the intern at GameSpot wasn't my first jump into game journalism, and everyone at GameSpot has an extraordinary amount of experience that has brought them here. No matter what road you might choose, no roads to GameSpot, or any game publication, are short.

My official start in this industry came from writing the strategy guide to Baldur's Gate II for GameSpot those few years ago. But I didn't just walk into writing that guide, either. For a couple of years before that, I had been writing regular game reviews for the site Gone Gold, as well as for some other places around the Internet. After I gained a good amount of experience, and after learning a lot about the ways of English and reviewing, I started working for the Stratos Group. After laboriously writing reviews for them for a good long time, I happened to be one of the lucky couple of people chosen to write the guide for GameSpot when the Stratos Group landed the job. Take note: To this day, the Stratos Group accepts writers looking to gain some experience in game journalism.

Let's remember, though, that a job at GameSpot, and any other game journalism outlet, is a writing gig. Above playing games, above going to events, what we do at GameSpot is write. If you don't truly love writing, and if you aren't very good at it, game journalism just isn't the place for you. Maybe it's just my friends, but a common misconception about GameSpot is that we're paid to play games all day. You can tell by the amount of content that goes up that that just isn't true. While it may be true that if I'm assigned a preview, for example, I get to spend a couple of days playing the game, it's also true that I spend an equal and often greater amount of time writing the article. Playing the games is rewarding, but the writing brings the fulfillment.

One of my first projects was to write the official guide for a rather massive, but thankfully linear, RPG.

After writing the official guide, I did some work for a local paper in the San Francisco area called the Contra Costa Times. As with most of my early work, I didn't get any money for it. Key in my journey to GameSpot was that getting paid was never on my list of priorities, so I was happy to write and review games for the sheer fun of it for many years before anything official worked out. At the same time, I was able to make the mistakes and learn the skills necessary to make the leap to a place like GameSpot. I'd advise that you have to be willing to accept a similar reality before anything like GameSpot could ever work out; it's fundamentally necessary to practice, learn, and gain experience.

With the experience under my belt from the official guide, the GameSpot guide, the articles for the Times, and reviews around the Internet, I tried to get on with one of the big boys. As luck would have it, after pestering the editor in chief at Computer Gaming World for about six months with 13 e-mails, I got on board as their intern/CD-ROM editor. One thing led to another, and as I got to meet people, my path crossed with a longtime CGW and GameSpot contributor who happened to run a game of D&D at the GameSpot offices every week. I like all manner of games, D&D included, so I joined in. I heard about GameSpot's internship position through the game of D&D, had some friends at GameSpot because of it, and the weekly game even provided an easy interview time and location. So if anyone ever says playing games never gets you anything, I stand to the contrary.

If you're looking for some honest advice about how to get into game journalism, I have a few recommendations. The first would be to do a lot of writing--and do it everywhere you can. That's probably a no-brainer, but if you're looking for an outlet for writing about games, you have many opportunities at your fingertips. You could submit a GuestSpotting column right here at GameSpot. You could start submitting really good user reviews. The folks here at GameSpot often read the reviews and take note of the better writers. I've known of at least one person who ended up at GameSpot by writing killer user reviews. Or you could try looking to your favorite fansite to see if it's in need of help. If you don't need any money, chances are you'll find many places eager to let you help. The one constant is that you have to look, you have to make the opportunities, and you have to get out and do the work without anyone asking you to.

I found my heart in San Francisco.

There are some other odd psychological considerations about this line of work too. Gaming for you is a hobby. It is for me too, but it's also a line of work. When gaming becomes work, all of a sudden, at least for me, I can't always look to gaming for relaxation. Because I spend so much of my day gaming, I have to look elsewhere for my entertainment. Oddly, getting so heavily into game journalism can lose you a hobby. Not that it's a bad thing that this happens, but it's weird, and it's very easy to hit gaming overload.

Looking back on the years before GameSpot, I can hardly believe it worked out the way it did. A combination of persistence, determination, a lot of learning, and a good deal of luck happened to work in my favor. Like most people at GameSpot, though, I never thought I'd end up here.

My truest recommendation is to continue dreaming about writing for GameSpot, or another gaming publication, if that's truly what you want. I still dream about being at GameSpot because it's barely set in that I've actually worked here. GameSpot has always seemed unattainable, a place out of the reach of someone like me. I never thought I'd end up here, and I often think back to my days of amateur reviewing, amazed at how I ended up at GameSpot. I can't get over it, and I still can't believe I'm someone who can give some kind of advice in this area. I'm still the little kid who plays games for fun and goes to tell all his friends, and anyone else who wants to read it, what's good and what's not. But, fundamentally, that's really what GameSpot is, just on a more sophisticated level.