Ask Massively: Behind the scenes edition
While the Ask Massively mailbag has been overflowing the first few weeks, we have a light edition this time around with what are essentially two questions. Although one question has sprouted dozens of menacing tentacles attacking from all directions, like the Watcher in the Water grabbing at your pony. Or the team's only minstrel.
These questions all focus on the "behind-the-scenes" aspect of the site and what makes us tick. As we here at Massively love to share any info on how awesome this job is, prepare yourself for a long-winded answer, which you'll find just after the jump below. And don't forget to get your own questions in for next week's installment at either ask@massively.com or in the comments.
Absinthe asks: Seeing as there are so many mmo hoppers, what are a few mmos that broke your mmo hopping habits? (excluding WoW of course ;] )
I was born to hop MMOs, which also makes me born for this job. I really enjoy exploring the new worlds in every MMO I can lay my paws on, and discovering what it might be about them that sets them apart. That said, there are only a few that I am faithful to.
Guild Wars will always be my first love, and the fact that it has no sub fee allows me to return whenever I feel like it.
Lord of the Rings Online is another that I will always return to since I have a lifetime membership (soon to be obsolete), but I just really enjoy that game. It's also the only game in which I reached max level (GW doesn't count), although that's also obsolete since they raised the level cap.
But in general, I don't think anything will break my MMO-hopping habit. I enjoy trying them all out and finding their "hook", even if I don't end up liking the game.
Wild Colors asks: What's it like to be an MMO reporter? Do you play the games you report on a lot, and them try to sum up experiences that are unique or representative in your posts....or do you go into them with some sort of hypothesis or story in mind, and focus on those features....or a bit of both? Do the editors spend a lot of time out hunting for potential interviews, or do people come to you? How are interviews set up? Can you normally ask follow-ups and explore things the devs are talking about, or are they often just emailing a set of questions in and getting answers back? Do you take all sorts of notes and screenshots and such while you're playing a game that you're going to do a column on, or go back afterwards and focus on big picture stuff?
I realize it's got to differ for person to person and probably ends up being a combination of every reporting method under the sun. But I really have no idea what lies between Step 1: "I need to post a column this week" and Step X: "Here is my polished column on the use of puppy dogs in World of Tanks, and how this relates to the work of Donna Haraway and the field of post-modern technophilosophy in general."
I guess there must also be some back and forth between the editors and the columnists in there at some point. How does it all work?
Whoa, hold up there Walter Cronkite. Let's take this one step at a time.
To answer most of your question(s), I'll explain the process a bit. When there's a new game that peaks our interest, I'll usually assign that game to a writer for a First Impressions article. This is our own version of what others might call reviews (without any numerical score given, and no illusion about the fact that it's only what we think after the first few hours in the game). The person doing the FI piece approaches it with an open mind, simply looking to relay that initial experience for you, the reader. As with most articles, we try to keep these impressions below 2,000 words, so you're informed and entertained, but not bored to tears.
Whenever we do a FI article, dev tour or even guides, we certainly take tons of screenshots. I regularly take around 70-80 screenshots during dev tours, with around less than half being usable in a gallery. These shots help remind me of quest dialogue that will help me keep track of exactly what went on during the time spent in the game. Personally, I find it very easy to get lost in a game (if it's good enough) and forget that I'm supposed to be documenting it at the same time. But properly relaying that info back to you is part of what being a good reporter is all about.
As for interviews, those can vary quite a bit. Most of the time, we ask for interviews. That also depends on how large the company is that we're interviewing. Smaller studios will ask us, while we seek out the larger studios and publishers. Most interviews are done with a series of questions emailed to a PR liaison who emails them to the dev team and returns a few days later with the answers. Sometimes those questions aren't all answered, sometimes it takes weeks to get those questions back and sometimes they just never send them back.
Other times we can conduct interviews over Skype or the telephone, which is a much more organic experience. Questions and answers can go back and forth, giving a proper conversational tone to the interview. I prefer these to anything else, but they're just more difficult to arrange.
As for the communication line between editors and columnists, we keep that very open. The columnist will come to me (or I will go to them) with an idea and they'll write it up from there. All posts that hit our front page have to be approved and proofread before going live. We like to keep a light hand on a columnist's voice and style in their column, but want to make sure that the basics of grammar and spelling (and general reader interest) are always present.
This really is just the tip of the iceberg on the whole process, but it gives you an idea of how involved it can get behind the scenes. Like you mentioned, it does differ a bit among the many writers we have here at Massively, but it's up to our editorial staff to make sure there's still consistency and quality in every post.
