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Ask Massively: And the money will follow
A reader named Josh recently wrote to Massively to ask about the viability of a career in games journalism. He's not a kid with stars in his eyes; he's an adult who works for an elite tech company, and his dad is a published journalist himself. He once focused his MMO hobby into a livestreaming channel and blog but shut them down because of the time involved, and now he's considering whether a career shift to doing what he loves might be worthwhile. As a 30-year old with a family of three, I have a feeling that it would be very difficult to transition into the world of technology journalism. My impression is that it is an industry that does not really pay that much, and therein lies my quandary. My question for you at Massively is whether it is really possible to pursue the field of technology/gaming journalism and still support a family? And what traits are desirable in a technology journalist? Do editors look for people who have journalism degrees and existing experience, or is it a situation where you can step up to the plate and impress someone with your existing skill? How many of you that work for Massively actually support yourselves and your families based on your journalism, and what did it take to get to that point in your careers? Unfortunately, Josh's gut feeling is correct and terribly timely.
Ask Massively: Grand conspiracies
Earlier this week, Massively's Mike Foster penned a Soapbox editorial that argued against obsessing over the definition of MMO to the exclusion of debating good game design. If you liked it, awesome. If you hated it, then take heart; next week, Brendan Drain will be arguing the flip-side of Mike's article. That's what our Soapbox is all about: writers talking about game-related things they're interested in or passionate about. It's a soapbox mounted by a different author every week, not a notarized declaration of the site's purpose and intent. We've intentionally collected a team with diverse opinions, and we rarely all agree on every opinion published on the site, especially the Soapbox, and that's the whole point. If we all agreed, we'd be boring. Plus I'd never get to waste an afternoon debating video games with Eliot in chat, which is tremendous fun, incidentally, and I highly recommend it. This week in Ask Massively, I want to address the conspiracy theory proposed in the wake of that Soapbox as well as a few other bits and bobs from our comments.
Massively is looking for San Francisco freelancers
If you follow Ask Massively, you're probably aware of Massively's ethics policy -- you know, the one that keeps us from accepting awesome "free" trips to check out awesome games from awesome developers in awesome cities where we do not happen to have staff. That's where freelancers come in. This round, we're looking for a freelancer in San Francisco, California, to attend events for us on occasion and write about the games previewed there. It won't be a full- or part-time staff position; you'd just be called on for these special events when they crop up. We'd like to think it'd be a nice way for a local to get some industry experience, have some fun, and make some pocket change. Here's the skinny on what we're looking for and how you can apply.
iRatchet - invoicing and billing
The billing and invoicing shareware space sure is heating up lately, what with iBiz (my personal favorite), Billable and now iRatchet from Pretty Good Software. It has a nice array of features, including the typical Address Book, iCal and Spotlight integration, as well as mileage tracking, "robust" tax support, international formatting and - a pleasant surprise - .Mac and local backup support.A demo of this Universal Binary is of course available, while a license costs $45.[via Iconfactory Links]
