Portfolio - Videogames Journalism

Welcome to the videogames section of my portfolio. One day, during the spring of 2008, I was feeling a bit dissalusioned with my course and was unsure what I wanted to do after university. I happened to be reading a games magzine at the time, and then suddently it hit me: "wait a minute... this is journalsim!". Ever since then, I have been doing all I can to orientate myself for a job in the videogames journalism industry.

I have tried to do a bit of everything, from blogging or standard reviewing, to event coverage and feature pieces. Below is a comprehensive overview of everything I have done so far, with links and/or downloads available where needed.

Should you have any questions regarding any of the content here, feel free to contact me on: Joe [at] just-communication.co.uk

Platforms owned: Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Gaming PC, Nintendo DS
Types of articles covered: Reviews, Previews, Features/Editorials, Event Coverage

Employment History

Strategy Informer (May/June 2008 - present)

This is currently the main website that I do freelance work for, and the source of the bulk of my portfolio. I have done everything from event coverage to news to reviews with Strategy Informer, and whilst officially I am paid on an article-by-article basis, you could say that I'm a regular.

Trade Events: During my time at Strategy Informer, I have had a considerable amount of experience in covering press events, however the majority of these were the usually small preview gatherings around the UK. In August 2008 however, I attented my first major trade event: the Leipzing Games Convention. Over 4 days, I single-handedly provided coverage for Strategy Informer by attending press screenings, interviews and talks, and produced a considerable amount of content over a short period of time. Since then I have also attened the Cologne GamesCom in 2009, and aim to keep attending the big trade events, eventually making it to E3.

Latest Article:Napoleon: Total War (Review)

GamesTM (October 2008)

For two weeks at the beginning of October '08, I did a work placement at one of the UK's leading multi-format magazines - Games TM. During my time, I helped out with a variety of tasks, and had several items published in Issues 76 and 77 of the magazine. These included: a two-page 'Discuss' feature on Digital Rights Management, a one-page review of Trackmania (DS), and several news articles. Due to Games TM's credit policy, my name is not directly attributed to my work, but Rick Porter (the editor of Games TM) can confirm my involvement.

(Note: Due to a printing error, my name is not actually in the contributors section for Issue 76, but it is there in Issue 77. Again, the Editor can confirm this.)

Xbox 360 Achievements (Summer - September 2008)

After deciding I wanted to get into games journalism, I tried working for a number of different sites so that I could get a full range of experiences as quickly as possible. I started working for 'X360a' around the same time as I did for Strategy Informer. In contrast however, I mainly helped the guys over at x360a with their daily news content over anything else. This position was voluntary.

Miscellaneous

Other websites I have worked for in the past include: AvidGamer, Gameslave.co.uk, and TalkXbox.com.

Note: Samples of work from all of my work placements so far can be found in the documents section.