Sorry, more from me:

The other thing with Reso, I think, is that we had a pretty strong base for it all. It wasn't just me deciding to start a site one day. It was the collective venture of myself and a handful of friends and peers. We came together through a common ideology of what we thought our ideal games site would be, our noticing that there wasn't too much like it, and our group decision to start something. If you've already got a solid group of people working towards a common goal, you'll find everything slots into place nicely. Otherwise, it's you against the world, and you've a problem from day one.

(And publically bashing your current staff probably isn't the best way to present that image.)

(Also worth noting that Barry upthread usually only takes on paid work, as you'll be able to tell by his comments.  He was one of the people that approached us about volunteering.  He's a really talented writer with a phenomenal portfolio, including work for one of the most established and thoroughly fantastic (and highly-paying) games sites in the world.  But he wanted to work for us, for free, which I'll inflate my ego over as it seems to suggest we're doing something right.)

Your integrity is staggering. Seriously? That bolded bit: NO, NO YOU DON'T.

Are you the cancer that is killing gaming journalism, or am I? Now I'm not so sure.

It's nothing to do with integrity. If the magazine is aimed at thirteen-year-olds with a penchant for mindless shooting, it would be irresponsible to recommend a text-heavy, slow-paced, stat-laden RPG. Okay - my wording was poor - I wouldn't say a whole genre was rubbish. But you get what I'm saying, surely. You always answer to the specific audience you're writing for.

I think it was Leigh Alexander that summed this up pretty well. You're writing a games article for a mag aimed at ten-year-old girls. Which do you recommend: Hannah Montana - The Game, or Fallout 3? You recommend the first one - not because it's a better game, but because it's more suited to the audience.

I suggest you get off your high horse a bit, you know. "The cancer that's killing gaming journalism?"

If I had a ten year old girl cousin that wanted to play a video game I'd hand her my NES and Legend of Zelda and say have at it. Why do we have to give these kids something new. /grumble grumble.

Writing for your audience is one thing. Getting yourself into a situation where you actually have to target that audience is another.

And writing for thirteen year olds is not gaming journalism. Those kids haven't even had meaningful summer reading assigned to them yet.

Wow, I go away for a few days and things get all fun in my absence! I'll throw my hat in here. I'm not going to knock volunteering for folks who are into that thing, but volunteer sites don't tend to keep folks beyond a certain point simply because they eventually realize they could be making some money for all the ass-busting they're doing. It's not impossible to find dedicated folks who will write for a site for free and do a decent job, but there's only so much you can expect from volunteers.

I often hear the argument that people volunteer to write about games for free just for the fun of it and because it's something they love, etc. Power to them if thats what they want to do, but the louder I hear that trumpeted, the more it sounds like trying to defend and justify the fact they're not making a dime for all their time spent. Does that mean that folks who do this full time don't do it for the love of videogames? Absolutely not. I love writing about games and gamer culture, but I also love not being homeless and being able to eat, among other things. When writing is what you do for a living and you've got to pay the bills, doing freebie work is about the worst business model you can follow. (Although, writing free stuff for your own website or other personal projects that boost your own endeavors is fine.)

I built my chops as a reporter for a weekly newspaper for over five years, but initially took on some volunteer work for a game site for a few months on the side to build some gaming-related clips. It didnt take long before I got some paying gigs and built up enough work to ditch my day job and do freelancing full-time.

I imagine that's how a lot of folks intially come to volunteer - either as a hobby or in their spare time to build up clips. Some are content to keep it that way, but that just doesn't work when writing is your profession. When that's what pays the bills, it doesn't make sense to do freebie work for most folks. Furthermore, neither does taking on paying gigs that offer rates that are significantly below what your lowest paying client pays.

@Eric

"Writing for your audience is one thing. Getting yourself into a situation where you actually have to target that audience is another."


Spare us the bullshit please.

I volunteer for undercover-gaming, since I have to travel a lot from school to home I can write loads of articles (which I do). But since I don't have internet there I can't search for actual stuff at Kotaku or some sort, so most times I write a lot of articles in a week/month, but the news is staggering.

As for motivating in a crew-member it's most times personal, some people like to game and talk about it and other just like to write. Tough some people have times when they want to write a lot and post news all the time and the next day they don't want to do that. I think that a senior person must respect that people aren't always in the mood to do the stuff they must do and if you force them their results are only dropping down. Just back off from them if they have a hard time, since we already lost some crew-guys because they had it too busy with school and other AND had to write for UG.

I'll bite. Care to explain how that's bullshit?

Yes I know that people don't wanna volunteer for ever and eventually they want to get paid. I also know that they owe me nothing. I know all this and realize this. I'm simply saying, I know a lot of sites that don't pay their staff but their staff still stick around and work hard and are dedicated.

The staff I have had so far are for the most part not like that. I have found some new staff now though and hopefully they will work out. I am still looking though.

It's not even always about cash - it's about incentive. Why do I want to keep writing here? If the only reward I'm going to get is seeing my editor condemning my dedication, or the dedication of other volunteers, why would I want to write for you? Coming here and talking shit about how useless your team is isn't exactly the best way to keep them motivated, or convincing anyone who comes through here to lend a hand.