GBAtemp Exclusive (Final day) Reviewers wanted! GBAtemp is hiring contributors

[Costello]

believe me reviewing games is not nearly as easy as it seems !

 

[Xzi]

believe me reviewing games is not nearly as easy as it seems !

Oh I believe it, that hardware review alone took me a solid 2-3 hours, and I didn't even pour nearly as much text into it as I thought I did. Was still enjoyable putting it together, though. I'll have to try to cram more adjectives and details into my game review.

 

[Stwert]

believe me reviewing games is not nearly as easy as it seems !

Ain’t that the truth. Especially if it’s a genre you’re not particularly fond of. You have to plug away at it anyway, remain impartial and find its good and bad points. Fun doesn’t necessarily come into it.

 

[pick421]

@Chary I do not have permission to apply. You can read my profile. I think you would love it. I'm on disability for the rest of my life and all I do is game while the wife works. This works in my favor quite nicely I may add. I currently have a library of 300+ games for PS4, 13 for Switch, and 24 for Xbox One.



Thanks
pick421

Current Consoles that I play:

PS4 Pro 2TB, 6TB external. I buy almost every game for this system. (Wife not very happy)
Xbox One 1TB, 3TB external. I only buy exclusives (Wife doesn't notice)
Nintendo Switch. Again, only exclusives. (Wife still not very happy)

 

[Deleted User]

For the average bear kind of a game it's around 40 hours, most of which is gameplay. Naturally you've got the odd 200 hour RPG that you'll have to speedrun, but you usually have around a week to wrap everything up.

Speed running Final Fantasy clones doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

 

[Scarlet]

Speed running Final Fantasy clones doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

My advice to you would be to pick up a new game (maybe look on the Switch eShop for something on sale, if you have a budget and want a suggestion for something cheap lemme know) and try to review it. You'll get the best idea of how long it'll take by just doing it. I kinda disagree with Foxi's assessment on how long games take, but you'll find it varies from person to person, so it's best to just give it a shot.

 

[Stwert]

@Chary I do not have permission to apply. You can read my profile. I think you would love it. I'm on disability for the rest of my life and all I do is game while the wife works. This works in my favor quite nicely I may add. I currently have a library of 300+ games for PS4, 13 for Switch, and 24 for Xbox One.



Thanks
pick421

Current Consoles that I play:

PS4 Pro 2TB, 6TB external. I buy almost every game for this system. (Wife not very happy)
Xbox One 1TB, 3TB external. I only buy exclusives (Wife doesn't notice)
Nintendo Switch. Again, only exclusives. (Wife still not very happy)

Oh how I envy you
I ended up disabled after an accident some years back. But I decided as no-one seemed to want to employ someone who might not be able to show up for work. And if they did, they’d be doped out of their mind on morphine and several other nasties. I’d teach myself a few programming languages and have a go at software development. Turns out I love it. But man does it take up a lot of your time.

My resolution this year though is to finally set myself dedicated time slots for my programming, gaming, writing and y’know actual life we’ll see how that actually turns out.

 

[pick421]

Oh how I envy you
I ended up disabled after an accident some years back. But I decided as no-one seemed to want to employ someone who might not be able to show up for work. And if they did, they’d be doped out of their mind on morphine and several other nasties. I’d teach myself a few programming languages and have a go at software development. Turns out I love it. But man does it take up a lot of your time.

My resolution this year though is to finally set myself dedicated time slots for my programming, gaming, writing and y’know actual life we’ll see how that actually turns out.

I envy you! I need something to do that has to do with the things I love to do and my accident took that away from me. So writing about games is my nitch also, I used to write complete guides for N64 games back in the day.

 

[Stwert]

I envy you! I need something to do that has to do with the things I love to do and my accident took that away from me. So writing about games is my nitch also, I used to write complete guides for N64 games back in the day.

I know how you feel, I was the same when my accident happened, life changed drastically and the first few months were a total nightmare.

Finding something to do to fill your time really does help, especially if it involves something you love. I started writing about games last year and I actually really enjoy it. I’d never really imagined myself doing it - not that I can’t write, it’s just not something I’d considered.

So, best of luck if you decide to go for this, you’ll likely enjoy it.

 

[pick421]

I know how you feel, I was the same when my accident happened, life changed drastically and the first few months were a total nightmare.

Finding something to do to fill your time really does help, especially if it involves something you love. I started writing about games last year and I actually really enjoy it. I’d never really imagined myself doing it - not that I can’t write, it’s just not something I’d considered.

So, best of luck if you decide to go for this, you’ll likely enjoy it.

I would love to do it in a second!

 

[Daisy]

My advice to you would be to pick up a new game (maybe look on the Switch eShop for something on sale, if you have a budget and want a suggestion for something cheap lemme know) and try to review it. You'll get the best idea of how long it'll take by just doing it. I kinda disagree with Foxi's assessment on how long games take, but you'll find it varies from person to person, so it's best to just give it a shot.

Adding onto this, the way I got started off with reviews is just reviewing games that I've already played to death. Will take less time to produce the review itself, as you may not need to dig as deeply as you would for something you haven't played.

My first review was actually Pokémon Moon for 3DS, and I wrote it because I was passionate about how much I hated it... After that, though, I did a few games that I actually liked, such as the Sonic Advance series and The World Ends With You.

This goes to everyone, but even if you don't get selected for this 'hiring' in particular, I wouldn't give up reviews if you're into the idea of writing them (and, honestly, if you're applying for the role you should be)! Make your own blog, practice writing reviews of games you're passionate about, and build up a portfolio of continuously improving work. Branch out, too, write some opinion pieces, etc.

That way, whenever another opportunity comes up, you'll be more than ready for it! (:

 

[thewarhammer]

Besides english not being my native language, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try an application. As I already have the consoles, it would be one less problem at least!

 

[Langers]

Any stipulations that you can't review for another site as I currently review Xbox One content elsewhere however I do also have a Switch and PC so was already thinking of the option of looking at other sites that have multiplatform, I just don't have a PS4 since it went bang a while ago.

Completely came across this out of the blue while I was reading up on Switch CFW

 

[pick421]

Adding onto this, the way I got started off with reviews is just reviewing games that I've already played to death. Will take less time to produce the review itself, as you may not need to dig as deeply as you would for something you haven't played.

My first review was actually Pokémon Moon for 3DS, and I wrote it because I was passionate about how much I hated it... After that, though, I did a few games that I actually liked, such as the Sonic Advance series and The World Ends With You.

This goes to everyone, but even if you don't get selected for this 'hiring' in particular, I wouldn't give up reviews if you're into the idea of writing them (and, honestly, if you're applying for the role you should be)! Make your own blog, practice writing reviews of games you're passionate about, and build up a portfolio of continuously improving work. Branch out, too, write some opinion pieces, etc.

That way, whenever another opportunity comes up, you'll be more than ready for it! (:

I'm definitely applying for the role if I can get into the application, and I had a blog for Everquest (Evercrack) that was in the actual Prima guide for a site reference. Of course it's down now but it was www.solusekro.com .

 

[Daisy]

Any stipulations that you can't review for another site as I currently review Xbox One content elsewhere however I do also have a Switch and PC so was already thinking of the option of looking at other sites that have multiplatform, I just don't have a PS4 since it went bang a while ago.

Completely came across this out of the blue while I was reading up on Switch CFW

I think you'd be fine given you don't use the same content across both sites.

 

[Langers]

excellent, I'll throw my name in the hat too

 

[Aldoria]

I will have to apply at some point. I am great at describing how I feel about games, and I have too much time on my hands.

y did you pwned me again

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

believe me reviewing games is not nearly as easy as it seems !

Well you got me there. It's hard enough reviewing a game you don't like, not because of the potential negative view of it and controversy for people who may like it or the developers hoping for a positive score. But also the idea of playing a game that you don't enjoy enough to write the article. I still consider Puyo Puyo Tetris the hardest review I had written here, and I like the game. It's just had too much stuff to explain with the various gameplay modes to detail, and all the context I had to make it easy to digest for the reader (Which is easier said than done depending on the contents) and trying not to seem like I skipped a bunch of important detail for the reader.

Sometimes you want to say everything on your mind, but realize it may be too much to throw at people all at once and you have to scramble to pick and choose what's relevant. Through some process it can even be a challenge to find descriptive words that convey exactly what you want. Or you took too many screenshots, now you can't choose what you should pick to be part of it. Or how bout just pressure in general. It seem like a lot of stuff, but I'm not making this up.

 

[Langers]

Well you got me there. It's hard enough reviewing a game you don't like, not because of the potential negative view of it and controversy for people who may like it or the developers hoping for a positive score. But also the idea of playing a game that you don't enjoy enough to write the article. I still consider Puyo Puyo Tetris the hardest review I had written here, and I like the game. It's just had too much stuff to explain with the various gameplay modes to detail, and all the context I had to make it easy to digest for the reader (Which is easier said than done depending on the contents) and trying not to seem like I skipped a bunch of important detail for the reader.

Sometimes you want to say everything on your mind, but realize it may be too much to throw at people all at once and you have to scramble to pick and choose what's relevant. Through some process it can even be a challenge to find descriptive words that convey exactly what you want. Or you took too many screenshots, now you can't choose what you should pick to be part of it. Or how bout just pressure in general. It seem like a lot of stuff, but I'm not making this up.

Its hard to convey what you want to say without overcomplicating it sometimes and when you are reviewing a game you really don't like you have to remember to remain objective.

A game you hate may still have a lot going for it with certain audiences and vice versa you need to not get caught up in the hype for some titles too and review them on what you actually have in front of you ignoring the promotion and influencing going on elsewhere

Reviewing games has also highlighted some websites that I used to read regularly and how they can be biased

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Reviewing games has also highlighted some websites that I used to read regularly and how they can be biased

Well when you are viewing someone's opinions on something, it is biased. It's just one person's opinion, no one is expecting them to have the same opinion. Of course it can just be about the game, explicitly talking about only that. But it's not really a review, it's just a description of the product you can find in a instruction manual or a wikipedia article.

The whole point is for a person to try something and let them know if it's appealing enough that they would recommend it or not. Sharing such things influence the the outcome of the product. People share the opinions to inform others on their decision or just to socialize about things of similar interest.