The current state of Game's Journalism.

A thunderbolt breaks through the clouds.

What I do bears very little resemblance to actual journalism. I happen upon topics I like regarding the game industry, quite often stuff that's already in the news, and just try to offer my own perspective on it or spin it in my own style. There's nothing journalistic about that, it's just blogging stuff. I don't even source most of my blogs unless I have something in particular to say about those sources, so if I was to sue for a career in freelance journalism there'd be some significant steps to take, stylistic at the least, in order to match the high quality standards that publications demand nowadays. These aren't the days of ragmuffin flatcab newsboys, flogging an armfull of rolled up papers from the perch of his soapbox, we expect our news to be respectable and demure. Except according to what the crème of Game's journalism; I'm literally one email away from being an IGN Freelancer, were it only that I possessed no self respect.

And you'd have to hate yourself at least a bit to self identify as a game's journalist; because aside from a handful of genuine standout individuals, the vast majority of the profession is ruled by the accumulated grime you find underneath the maggot hovels at the bottom of a dumpster that hasn't been washed in a couple years. (Hmm, I really need to work on my synonyms; I keep grossing myself out.) What I'm saying is that it's guttersnipe rubbish. Just article after article of substance-less rage-bait or hilariously uninformed opinion pieces disguised as proper articles. (I'm still waiting for the follow article that will explain to me all the instances of great fantasy worlds without any real world basis to them. I find the prospect truly fascinating.)

Games Journalism should be more, it should offer more to the reader. There are a wealth of great stories behind the ears of the imagineers who fuel our favourite games, and that avenue alone is largely untapped by the big three publications. There are investigative black-holes in knowledge that could be explored, you know before Paul Tassi or the other usual suspects swoop it up. Maybe these multimillion dollar organisations could actually be a little proactive in their reporting, rather than just spinning their wheels until a publisher blesses them with a story to write about? I'm not saying it's easy to find something to write about within just the gaming industry, but then I have been doing it myself for the past 3 years without break or a budget and incredibly my quality of story ideas is about on par with most modern publication staff. That shouldn't be a comparison that's possible to make, these people should outstrip morons like me, so why aren't they?

This of course spawned from a recent tweet out of a mysterious IGN employee, which I wouldn't have taken seriously given that it's not from their main account, but it's been a while now and IGN proper have seemed to have confirmed it in their response, so this is real. "IGN is looking for New Freelancers to assist with the daily flow of stories in games, entertainment, tech and science. $20 base rate per story." Now what an opportunity! Sure IGN might get bit of a bad rap but they're a big name, and I'm sure anyone who wants a start in this industry would love to get their name on a CV somewhere. Heck, I'd even be tempted to give it a shot were this the sort of industry I'd be interested. Except, hang on again- did this Tweet say '$20 base rate'? Thats- wow, do I get a slap in the face for free on top of that? Will you spit on me and call me a worthless piece of trash? Because that sort of price tag really feels like it should come with some freebies.

Now to get some sort of standard of what this price means, apart from that inherent tingle at the back of you neck telling you that this feels wrong; I hoped onto JournalResources.org which is a UK company that has done a bit of research for us to ascertain acceptable freelance rates, just so that we can pick out who's taking advantage here. I'll be honest, it was hard to find any rate this low. More reputable newspapers are looking at around £300 for a commissioned story per thousand words, and for that reputation they of course expect quality, and even SixthAxis, another gaming publication, offers £50 for gaming features. As for a $20 base rate (£15 in conversion currently) there is no real comparison. IGN, multimillion company that they are, are unique in feeding tablescraps so miniscule to their freelancers.

Now if we really break down what it is we're learning about IGN's pricing strategies, it really does start to elucidate the reason behind the... shall we say lax quality of IGN content? I mean what does the old expression say: "You get what you pay for." If IGN are paying less than is typically done by any other outlet out there, then it only fits they'll get crap for their troubles, why would anyone put in the effort for a price point like that? Now to be fair, this is a sliding scale, and IGN would be kind enough to even offer up to $300 for an fresh story with independent and multiple sources- although that appears to be for an entire high-effort story, rather than per 1000 words like proper non-gaming publications offer. Besides, establishing the bar so freakin' low lets us know what they're looking for at the $20 point. "No fresh news, probably a single bad source, and about two paragraphs long; there's your pocket money and we'll hear nothing more about it."

It all come back to ethical treatment within the industry and being willing to pay a fair wage. I can understand a scrappy start-up slapping such a small price point up on it's site to try and scout out some potential employees as they grow into the size they need to be, but IGN ain't no start-up. IGN is owned by J2 global who report around 1.4 billion in lifetime revenue. That's a decent chunk of change, and yet IGN are panhandling out in the alleys. So either IGN is really getting squeezed and what we're really seeing is a concealed call for help, or they're just being exploitative asshats, using their powerful name to try and fool young hopefuls into working for a pittance under their name. Honestly, being around the same industry as IGN for a while, I wouldn't put it past them. (Those folks get nasty.)

Long story short: IGN are a mess, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that it's their own damn fault. Games Journalism doesn't need to be a running joke like it is, but as long as it's big banner-head companies are setting terrible standards like this, nothing is going to change. Of course, this tweet in particular picked up a decent chunk of negative press, pressuring IGN to really look at it's own pitiful rates, but will anything substantial change out of this? My guess is that the next ad is going to say something like "$300 per story" with "per 10,000 words" scrawled in 8-size faded grey text in the bottom corner of the image. So if you're personally eager to jump in the journalism field, love gaming and thought you saw an opportunity here: my advice would be to shop around for a bit, see if you can't find another similar company here willing to at least buy you dinner before they decide to peg you.