Yes, video game journalism is real

Whenever someone asks me what I want to do with my life, and I tell them I want to be a video game journalist, they usually laugh. If they know anything about video games or the video game industry, they know that video game journalism is thriving and, while it's competitive, there are a lot of jobs in the field. It's just like being a normal journalist, except you only report about video games. It's no walk in the park either, as I learned at the panel I went to at PAX East last week.

A lot of people have a misconception that video game journalism involves sitting in a room with your co-workers, playing video games and discussing them. Yes, that happens, but that's just a small aspect of the career. You go to events, like PAX and E3, and report news; you write reviews of games, systems, and accessories; you interview game developers and publishers...the list goes on and on.

A lot of video game journalists are freelancers, meaning they write for a lot of different publications instead of working for just one company. This is what I would like to do.

People laugh when I say what I want to do for a living, but they won't be laughing when they see my byline in Game Informer and @Gamer.

:)