Becoming a reviewer..

[thatpixelflow]

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Daniel Humphreys, editor at, and reviewer at, pixelflow.xyz - a blog for everyone about everything.

I would like to look into reviewing games from EA due to their sheer audience and popularity. It would help out the blog and give the games good reviews.

Please could you advise me on how to become a reviewer,
Yours Sincerely,
Daniel.

[ivrognard · Accepted solution]

@thatpixelflow  sadly, that isn't exactly something that can be taught. Sure, you need good writting skills, but you also need to play a lot the game that you are about to review. That also requires a certain level of technological knowledge. You should be able to spot the performance issues, game bugs, if those bugs are general or are linked to your specific desktop configuration and be passionate about games. There was a reason why the old printed gaming magazines had on their payroll somewhere between 10 to 50 people. Each people would cover a specific genre, or a hardware PC and so on. Each person would play the games assigned to them quite a bit. Gamers are not exactly easy readers. They know their games, so your review has to be honest. Otherwise, your credibility will go down the drain fast and would never recover. 

EA has no partner program active at this moment, so i doubt that they can help you. I would suggest to read as many reviews as you can on more reputable sites. Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Shacknews, PC Gamer, Gamespot, IGN, DSO Gaming, Eurogamer are just a few of the more influential sites. That should give you a general idea about reviewing.

I wish you luck in your endeavour and i hope that someday i will see your name among those of the more reputable reviewers.

P.S.: i've visited your site and looked at your Battlefront 2 piece. 

A. Never, ever speculate. Use only the known facts. That might not be a popular approach, but when the others will go through all kind of griefs because misinformation, you will be safe.

B. if a game is not released and you write about it using a demo that is a preview. 

C. if a game is not released and you are using the press kit statements, that is under the news category

D. use only cold, hard facts. Good reviewers are also great journalists.

E. never use unofficial sources, unless the information can be confirmed through some official channels by at least three different persons (basics of journalism and history)

I could probably add more, but i think that an internship to a gaming magazine (offline or online) would help you a lot more.

[ivrognard · Accepted solution]

@thatpixelflow  sadly, that isn't exactly something that can be taught. Sure, you need good writting skills, but you also need to play a lot the game that you are about to review. That also requires a certain level of technological knowledge. You should be able to spot the performance issues, game bugs, if those bugs are general or are linked to your specific desktop configuration and be passionate about games. There was a reason why the old printed gaming magazines had on their payroll somewhere between 10 to 50 people. Each people would cover a specific genre, or a hardware PC and so on. Each person would play the games assigned to them quite a bit. Gamers are not exactly easy readers. They know their games, so your review has to be honest. Otherwise, your credibility will go down the drain fast and would never recover. 

EA has no partner program active at this moment, so i doubt that they can help you. I would suggest to read as many reviews as you can on more reputable sites. Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Shacknews, PC Gamer, Gamespot, IGN, DSO Gaming, Eurogamer are just a few of the more influential sites. That should give you a general idea about reviewing.

I wish you luck in your endeavour and i hope that someday i will see your name among those of the more reputable reviewers.

P.S.: i've visited your site and looked at your Battlefront 2 piece. 

A. Never, ever speculate. Use only the known facts. That might not be a popular approach, but when the others will go through all kind of griefs because misinformation, you will be safe.

B. if a game is not released and you write about it using a demo that is a preview. 

C. if a game is not released and you are using the press kit statements, that is under the news category

D. use only cold, hard facts. Good reviewers are also great journalists.

E. never use unofficial sources, unless the information can be confirmed through some official channels by at least three different persons (basics of journalism and history)

I could probably add more, but i think that an internship to a gaming magazine (offline or online) would help you a lot more.