PixlBit

Hey folks, I’ve got a big announcement to make!  This August, I will have been writing video game reviews semi-professionally for 20 years!  Yup, it all started back in 1996.  I bet most game reviewers don’t even last that long!  So in honor of that, I decided to write an article about it, and share with you all how I got started, what I’ve done in the past 20 years, and some of my highlights and favorite memories.  Oh, and I’d like to apologize in advance if this article sounds a little too self-absorbed and ‘braggy,’ as it is all about me.  I promise I won’t be like this all the time in the future.  But I figured that 20 years really IS a reason to celebrate, so I hope you don’t mind this, just this once.

Long before I even thought I’d ever want to be a game reviewer, there were little clues here and there that guided me to where I am today.  I’ve always had support from God, my parents, teachers, and friends.  You know how when you were a kid and sometimes have stupid dreams like wanting to be an ice cream truck driver or a Disney animator?  Well I had goals and dreams like that as a kid and no matter how stupid they were, my parents always supported me.  They didn’t try and change my mind and say things like, “Don’t you want to grow up and do something more marketable?”  I’m sure they WANTED to say that, but never did.  Now that’s undying support!

I’ve also ALWAYS loved video games, ever since I played my first game of Pac-Man at an arcade cabinet in a Kroger grocery store (I first thought it was a vending machine).  Even before then, we had Pong hooked up to our TV, but I never realized it was a video game because my dad built our first TV and he just attached a Pong game right into it.  But as a game reviewer, not only do you have to like video games, but you also have to like to write.  As a kid, I hated writing because we all had to handwrite all of our reports and papers, and I couldn’t stand that!  But once I learned how to type in middle school and high school, I discovered that I loved to write, and I made good grades in any writing classes after that.

As a kid I also loved to read game magazines and guide books.  I think I read those just as much as I actually played video games.  I even base my writing style after the style the authors of the Unofficial, Unauthorized Nintendo Strategy Guide books they had when I was a kid.  Anyone remember those?  They had weird artwork on the covers.  I also discovered how much I loved previewing games and talking with game developers at events as a kid, when I attended the Nintendo World Championships back in 1990 (I even wrote an article about it a while back).

Heck, even when I first entered college I didn’t know I wanted to review games.  I even started college as an Undeclared major (PROTIP: when you go into college, it helps if you know what you want to major in right away).  But I knew I was good at writing because in my Freshman English class, I made all 100’s on my papers.  And at the college I went to, Freshman English was considered a ‘weed-out’ class.  I remember when the professor would hand back our papers and people would shake their heads and mutter “How you are supposed to get a C in this class?”  My secret?  Learn what writing styles your teachers like, and write about what you know, if you can.

Anyway, so the first summer after I started college, there was an ad in The Dallas Morning News and it had Buzz Lightyear on the front and it said, “To Infinity and Beyond: Calling All Gamers!”  The newspaper was going to take submissions from people who wanted to write game reviews for the paper, and they’d hire the best ones.  Now, I think this ad was geared towards kids writing reviews, but that didn’t stop me from trying it anyway!  You had to write two reviews: one of a game you liked and one you didn’t like.  Since I was into 16-bit RPGs at this time, I wrote about Final Fantasy 6 as the game I liked and EarthBound as the game I didn’t like (yeah I think I’m the only one in the world who didn’t like that game as much).  Back then, we actually had to print off our review submissions and mail them in!  Email wasn’t as commonplace yet!

So that happened about late May, early June.  Later that summer, in early August, 1996, I got a phone call from one of the editors of the Lifestyles section of the newspaper that I was one of the ones chosen to write reviews!  That editor would be the one in charge of the game reviewing section.  So soon after that, I thought to myself, “Well that was easy, I guess I’ll major in Journalism in college!”  That may seem like a stupid idea now, but back then, it made more sense at the time.  But we’ll get more into that later, maybe.

One really cool thing about this is that I had no help whatsoever with submitting my try-out reviews and getting that job at the paper.  Now, granted, like I said earlier, I’ll always give credit to God, my parents, teachers, and friends.  But as far as submitting and sending off the initial reviews, I had no help.  I did it all by myself.  I didn’t even rely on any connections at the newspaper or anything.  That’s why getting the game reviewing gig at The Dallas Morning News is one of my most proudest achievements.

Within days I was already writing reviews for the paper.  I think the first ones I reviewed were Lemmings Paintball on the PC and the SNES version of Ms. Pac-Man (a port of the earlier Genesis version).  The N64 came out about that time, too, and while I didn’t get to review anything for it right away, I still got to review Donkey Kong Country 3 on the SNES, which was still a pretty big holiday title.  That’s why it’s a special game to me because it’s the first “big” game I got to review.  A year or so later, even though I couldn’t afford it, I got a PSOne so I could review more games.  That was one of the smartest gaming purchases I ever made because after that, I was reviewing games left and right!

My reviews were first in the “Today” Lifestyles section of The Dallas Morning News.  But later, they added a new section to the newspaper, called Person@l Technology.  My reviews were in a section called “Electronic Adventures.”  (I didn’t choose that name) Later on, I even wrote reviews of game accessories under the “Gadgets and Gizmos” area of the tech section.  I reviewed a lot of controllers and even memory cards in that section.  One time, when Tomb Raider was first starting to get popular, a company made a PSOne memory card shaped like Lara Croft.  Well I got to review it!  I really wanted to say in my review that it was “the only memory card with boobs,” but I declined to do that, even though it sounded funny.  I really wanted to write educational kids game reviews for the newspaper, too, but they already had a staff writer doing that.

I wrote game reviews for The Dallas Morning News all through college.  I felt very successful considering that most other people in my major hadn’t even been published yet, and here I was with several articles with a major newspaper under my belt.  I also wrote game reviews for The University of Texas at Austin’s college newspaper: The Daily Texan.  I did that for about three or four semesters in college.  In their Lifestyles section, they had a huge area for music reviews called Sound Bites.  For my game reviews, I named that section Game Bytes.  I stopped doing it when the cool editors graduated and the new ones were jerks.  They treated me poorly and even questioned the importance of having game reviews in ‘their’ newspaper.  So I figured that wasn’t worth the measly paycheck I was given and I stopped writing for them and continued to focus more on the major Dallas newspaper.

I have a lot of reviews at the Dallas newspaper that I’m especially proud of.  One time, as a joke, I turned in a review of Chex Quest.  It was a free game that came in boxes of Chex cereal back then.  I didn’t think they would publish it, but they did and I got a lot of positive feedback for it!  When the live action Grinch movie came out, they made a game of it that I reviewed on the Dreamcast.  And in Seuss fashion, I wrote the review entirely in rhyme!  I don’t remember the whole thing, but it started out, “Presenting for the first and maybe last time, a game review written entirely in rhyme.”  I got a lot of praise from readers and staff about that.

I’m also proud of some of the major games I got to review at the newspaper.  Especially my reviews of Pac-Man World and Donkey Kong 64, as I also got to pick out the artwork and design the layout of those reviews, and they really stood out.  I also reviewed both Banjo-Kazooie games and some of my reviews even got front page blurbs in the tech section, like Kirby 64.

One of the first years I went to E3 and saw how Nintendo was going to market the new at the time Pokémon franchise, I immediately told my editor that I wanted to cover all things Pokémon.  He was like, “yeah sure, whatever.”  But after reviewing the first Pokémon games, I was designated as the resident Pokémon expert and was writing tons of articles about the craze and attending all sorts of Pokémon related events, from card game tournaments to preview events like Pokémon Stadium mall previews.  I even got to go up on stage for that one!  I actually got paid for writing reviews back then, so while I was writing tons of Pokémon articles, I liked to say that Pokémon helped pay my way through college!  I stopped being the Pokémon expert years later when one of the editor’s sons was old enough to review Pokémon games.  Don’tcha just love office politics?

I’m also proud of all the times I got to go to E3 while at the Dallas paper.  This was when E3 was a huge spectacle, and I got the red carpet treatment a lot of the time.  I have so many good E3 memories that I could write a whole separate blog about them.  In fact, I think I did a few years ago.  One time, there was a local tech convention and The Dallas Morning News had set up a booth there, and I even flew home from college to help run it! 

But of course, my time at The Dallas Morning News wasn’t always a bed of roses.  My editor wasn’t very nice to me.  I hate to say bad things about him since he has since passed away, and I can’t figure it out since in his obituary, it said that everyone liked him and he was nice to everyone.  But he must’ve not liked me for some reason.  Sometimes people are like that.  I remember one time after I graduated from college, I went up to the newspaper office to help my editor distribute games to the other reviewers.  I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to get to know him and show him that I would be good to hire.  But he told me in his office right to my face that I didn’t have what it takes to work there.  That really hurt my feelings.  But I did end up continuing to write there for another year or so, and have been reviewing games in other places since.  So if I don’t have what it takes, I must be doing at least something right, maybe.  My editor at the Gadgets & Gizmos section was nicer, but still tough!  So why did I put up with so much crap from them?  Because it was the freakin’ Dallas Morning News!  I guess I did learn a few things form my editor, like how to request review copies of games and what to do at conventions like E3.

And I guess majoring in Journalism wasn’t such a good idea either.  In fact, college in general hasn’t helped me AT ALL in real life.  But in my defense, it did make sense at the time, since I had articles in that major newspaper nearly every week.  And when I got out of college, at first, publications and news sites were emailing me, asking me to come write for THEM!  One in particular I remember was a business that was making a web site called Zgadz.com, and it would specialize in game reviews for kids.  Sound familiar?  They even printed off business cards for me to hand out at E3!  Unfortunately, when I got back, they backed out of the deal, since this was about the time of the dot com bubble bursting.

In late 2001, I was let go from the game reviewing gig at The Dallas Morning News.  My editor moved to the Home and Garden section, so they let go all of the free-lance reviewers like myself.  They did hire one person from the bunch to write for them full time, and it was someone who was there half as long as I was (told you my editor didn’t like me).  While I was really sad about this, in a way I’m glad I got let go, as it taught me an important lesson in humility.  No matter how big and important you may feel you are in a company, you can be easily replaced.  It kept me from getting too big of a head, and taught me to always have a backup plan.

One cool story came out of this, though.  While writing for the paper, I got to really know the team who made Pac-Man World.  I was let go at the time that Pac-Man World 2 was coming out, so I wrote the team a letter telling them to not send me a review copy of the game, since I didn’t have an outlet to review it on.  Well they sent me a copy of it anyway and they all signed the cover.  I thought that was really nice of them and it really meant a lot to me.

2002 was a pretty rough year for me.  I was having trouble finding a good job after college, and I even had a small bit of family problems as well (not anything really bad, so don’t worry too much).  But I still count it as a year that I reviewed games because I wrote a few on a friend’s now defunct site. 

But when you hit bottom, the only way to go is up, and in 2003, I certainly did just that.  That year I got my first real full-time job at a church and I mostly enjoyed that job.  Also, that was the year I started writing for GamerDad.com.  And as you can tell, I’m still doing that today!  The GamerDad site has changed a lot since I first started, but it’s the perfect place for me to write.  Most of the games I have an interest in reviewing are also good picks to feature on the site, and I have a lot of freedom here.  Heck, even though I had more clout and was actually paid at the newspaper, you know what?  I actually like writing for GamerDad.com much better than I did at The Dallas Morning News.  The head guy at the site, Andrew Bub, THE GamerDad, is a heck of a lot nicer of an editor than the one I had at the newspaper.  And so are the other folks who have been involved with the site over the years.  The cool thing is that at GamerDad.com, I’ve still gotten some chances to go to E3, and I’ve also gone to a new convention for several years called PAX, which is probably the next best thing to E3.  And I’ve had lots of good memories at both places.  

There were a few times at GamerDad that I tried to branch out and write for other sites.  There was a year that I also wrote for GameHelper.com.  That was fun at first, but later on, I turned in some reviews only to have a new editor just butcher them in the edits, and it made me feel like a horrible writer.  I imagine I’m probably not as good of a writer as I was when I was in college, but I wasn’t getting paid at GameHelper.com and since it stopped being fun writing for them, I quit after that.  I also tried to apply for many jobs at 1up.com, but never made it.  I don’t think some of the editors there liked me very much. Although I have to say that even though I didn’t work there, I think I still had a fairly big presence at 1up.  Interestingly enough, both GameHelper.com and 1up.com are now both defunct, and yet GamerDad.com is still around!  GamerDad.com may be a small site, but lots of people have heard of it and it has surprised me sometimes.  Many times when I talk to game developers and companies, panelists at PAX, and even the founders of the National Videogame Museum, they’ve all said, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of GamerDad!” 

So that’s really my history of reviewing games for 20 years.  I have some concluding paragraphs, both negative and positive.  We’ll start with the negative stuff first so I can finish this on a positive note.  When I first started doing this sort of thing, I had all sorts of good advice to give to people who wanted to become game reviewers.  But unfortunately, with the way things are now, my advice is not as good.  I basically say, “Don’t do it.”  Things have changed a lot since when I first started, and unless you’re as stubborn as I am, it’s really not that lucrative anymore.  Chances are, you’ll never become the next PooPooPie or whatever his name is on YouTube, and don’t expect to make game reviewing be a full-time job that pays the bills.

Speaking of YouTube, I have to say I’ve fallen a little behind on that trend.  For the past nine years or so, YouTube has grown in popularity, and a lot of game reviewers are migrating toward it as an outlet.  But during all that time, I was working at a full-time job and didn’t have much extra time to mess with YouTube (they don’t call it a full-time job for nothing).  So when I lost my job late last year, as I was looking for new work I had a bit more time and it really hit me on the head just how popular YouTube has become.  I’d like to be part of that trend myself, but unfortunately it’s just not in the cards right now.  I have a new job so I don’t have enough time to do that, nor do have I have the money or proper equipment or the knowhow to do things like that.  And if I did do that, I’d want to do it right.  I don’t want to be one of those folks on YouTube who just sticks their face in a laptop camera and talks while you can see up their nose.  And for that I’d need help from others, too.  Plus, I’d have to worry about all sorts of legal things that I don’t have to normally when I just write, and a lot of YouTubers seem to be more concerned on talking about games rather than playing them.  But even so, if I had the help and equipment and knowhow, that would be something I’d like to try someday.

Anyway, I’m so sorry for being so negative in those last couple of paragraphs.  I just wanted to show that reviewing games hasn’t always been a bed of roses for me.  But I’m still thankful for all my accomplishments.  I bet not many people have been able to review games for 20 years.  And I bet there aren’t many gamers that have been lucky enough to experience as many things as I have.  Writing for a major newspaper and recognizable web site, being able to go to E3 and PAX, being able to talk to industry professionals and celebrities, they’re all feathers in my game reviewing cap.  Heck, even this year alone I’ve had many accomplishments.  I’ve gone to PAX South, got accepted into the National Association of Video Game Trade Reviewers, and I’ve volunteered at the National Videogame Museum. 

While I’ve worked hard to be able to do all this, I certainly couldn’t have done it without the help of others.  So I’d like to thank all the people in the game industry who have helped me, as well as the PR professionals.  Also thanks to all the editors I’ve learned from over the years, as well as teachers, my parents, and most importantly, God.  And I’d also like to thank all the readers who have checked out my reviews over the years.  If I didn’t think anyone read my stuff, I don’t know if I’d still do it.

So you may be asking, why do I still do this?  I’m not famous and it doesn’t pay the bills.  But I’ve worked so hard over the years to be a game reviewer, a dream that I’ve had since college.  And if I just quit something that has been a dream in my life for so long, it would be like I’m quitting on life as well.  Plus, it’s hard to quit something that you’ve done for 20 years!  I hope I can continue to review games for as long as I can.  I’m a little worried about being able to do that for much longer, since all that VR stuff is becoming popular.  I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth, and may not be able to play the VR games that are coming out.  But I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.  I hope you all enjoyed my trip down game reviewing memory lane, and I hope you all continue to enjoy reading my reviews and articles in the future.  --Cary