Does anyone know any gaming magazines that employ freelance writers?

Do you mean Roleplaying Games or others games such as Crosswords?

There is a "Games" link further down the page for RPGs and there is also http://www.gamesmagazine-online.com/

PatrickH said:

I mean games as in videogames -- with the E3 conference happening this week, I've been on top of the new developments and thought writing about it would be fun.

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When you say employ freelancers do you mean as stringers or you're looking for a monthly gig or just someplace that buys? Do you have clips in some other area? That's a really competitive market to try to get into.

I don't know those mags at all but if you've got clips and some ideas can't hurt to query some of the bigger ones?

I know The Escapist takes freelance pieces and pay money, though they can be a little slow about it. I've also written for Gamasutra in the past, but I don't think it paid. You might also query Kotaku, the Penny Arcade Report, and Destructoid, or at least look for a submission policy. Forbes and Wired have a lot of games writing. There are also a million tiny review and rumor sites that almost certainly don't pay in anything but perceived glory.

But... for E3 coverage in particular, most of the sites have their writers on the floor as it happens. Unless you're on the scene you're going to be at a decided disadvantage. And as cornflake says, games journalism is really hard to break into, because so many people think writing about games is fun. And... tough love here... if you need to ask about what sites you could write for... that doesn't speak well to your knowledge of the industry, which in turn is going to hurt your chances of making an impact.

What about Dragon magazine? For years, it was in print, but now it's an on-line publication. I believe they pay, too. Good luck!

What is your definition of "atrocious?" I used to write for free for a game website, but I would get free games to review. I could either keep the games or sell them for around $50 on eBay. I wouldn't normally write for $50 but reviews are pretty easy writing IMO.

The website I wrote for isn't around anymore. But it was a pretty small operation just me and a couple of other of guys I met at gametz.com. This was about 10 years ago, we were pulling in around 5k-10k visitors per day which was enough to get most publishers to provide us with free games.

I'm sure we could've taken it further and made more money, but.. just didn't.

Newsstand gaming mags are... kind of dying. Unless you want to churn out content mill-type articles and shallow reviews for terrible pay, but you've already recognized that that's kind of terrible, so.

The real action in games journalism is happening online. So step one: start a blog, find your voice and your angle, and write about everything you play. Do it well and consistently. I'd recommend against reviewing; instead, take a more critical or experiential approach. The (very positive) trend in new games journalism is that it really emphasizes individual writers' voices and tastes.

Here are some references to get familiar with. Some might pay for articles, but I'd expect them to be very competitive as most are run by tight-knit communities of games journalists. Use this list instead to get an idea of the kind of writing I'm talking about, and how that writing is presented and marketed:

• Gamasutra (the game dev industry standard)
  
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun (brilliant PC-focused commentary)
  
• Kill Screen (beautiful print mags, weaker online content)
  
• reAction Zine (fresh games culture and criticism)

Some prominent games writers have released print books, mainly focused on aspects of gaming culture, which have done fairly well:

• Rise of the Videogame Zinesters (Anna Anthropy)
• This Gaming Life (Jim Rossignol)
• Killing Is Harmless (Brendan Keogh)

So that's a potential avenue as well. And of course, nobody says you can't self-pub such books. (In fact, one could argue that we're seeing the very beginnings of an emerging market, here.)


Most of the prominent writers in this space are extremely active on Twitter. Consider reaching out to them. I've met several, and they're some of the most wonderful people: if you're polite and professional, I'm sure you can get some traction.