GameSkinny: A Contributor’s Testimony

Man… it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that green and gray logo. Way back in the summer of this year, I came upon this fine site by accident. I had realized the site I had been writing for was on a downward spiral, and I had no idea where to go from there. It’d been a lucky bunch of coincidences that had gotten me my first gig, and I didn’t want to go back to regular ol’ blogging. I wanted to find work for another site. It didn’t matter if I was paid or not, just so long as I could work with a great team and help provide some new perspectives.

Thank God for GameSkinny, because I couldn’t have found a better place to help me improve my writing and get a new start. The months I contributed here, it was like a breath of fresh air. On most sites, you’re either a full-fledged member of the staff, or at best, you can blog independently amongst the community. Beyond that, only a few gaming sites try to encourage new contributors.

After I got set up at GameSkinny, I tried to post as frequently as I could. It was here I pushed myself to try new things I wouldn’t have even considered before, with a lot of previous stresses off my head. Because everyone’s doing something on GameSkinny, you get that chance to toy around with your reviewing style and try out new things like making slide shows (and apparently now even video content! An addition I’m happy to see.)

The staff were (and still are) all great here at GameSkinny. I got a lot of helpful feedback from everyone, and I still love the approach GameSkinny has taken to games journalism. There’s no other site where you can write up an idea and within the day, get free editorial feedback and helpful suggestions, and maybe even end up on the front page.

What’s best about this is how the staff even brings on people from the community. While I never got to join in on the JTP due to my new job, I still strongly encourage everyone try to get in that can devote the eight weeks. It’s a splendid idea that will help get your feet wet and help identifying your strengths and improving on your weaknesses.

Also, I have to sincerely believe the entire editorial team are vampires. I know no other editors who can edit so many pieces without tiring out. Or perhaps they’ve had their blood swapped with coffee. Coffee vampires? I’m sure that’s already a series of novels.

Plus I can think of few communities that try to be as constructive as GameSkinny’s. You might have a few disagreements, but that’s the worst I had here. I’ve had much worse on other sites, especially in their comments sections. It’s impressive this constructive atmosphere’s lasted for as long as it has, and I hope it goes on for years to come.

So what are you doing? Why are you sitting here, listening to me blather on? Register! It’s free! Write something! Get feedback! Improve! Show the world what you’ve got to say and why they should listen. Blow the internet’s mind!*

*Preferably not literally, that’d be very expensive to repair, but you get the point.