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[Something that inspired me to write this was all the amazing work I see being done in games media by a whole bunch of writers doing what they can with a bad situation. This whole thing you’re about to read is my rant and ramblings about how things suck, but there are so many writers out there I look up to because they make this media landscape suck a lot less. Because I don’t want those names I’m trying to highlight behind a paywall, here they are. This list is in no particular order and I encourage you to look up all of these writers and check out their work. It’s not all encompassing, I’ll definitely be missing a few people, but the extent of this list and the fact that there are more shows just how many people there are still doing great work:
Rebekah Valentine
Kat Bailey
Brendan Sinclair
Levi Winslow
Alice Bell
Alyssa Mercante
Ethan Gach
Jason Schreier
Kirk Mckeand
Jordan Middler
Andy Robinson
Chris Scullion
Tom Ivan
James Batchelor
Chris Dring
Veerender Singh Jubbal
Nick Calandra
Carolyn Petit
Ashley Schofield
Brad Shankar
Jon Lamont
Jonathan Ore
Steve Vegvari
Steve Saylor
Lex Luddy
Sam Cormie
Echo Apsey
Aaron Bayne
Gene Park
Rob Zacny
Patrick Klepek
Janet Garcia
Luke Plunkett
Nathan Grayson
Chris Person
Gita Jackson
Riley MacLeod
Megan Farokhmanesh
Tom Warren
Ash Parrish
Stephen Totilo
Shannon Liao
Austin Walker
Reid McCarter
Yussef Cole
Sophie McEvoy
Cecilia D’Anastasio
Chris Kerr
Kenneth Shepard
Zack Zwiezen
Willa Rowe
Moises Taveras
Matt Kim
Michael Higham
Khee Hoon Chan
Josh Broadwell
Stacey Henley
Jade King
Hayes Madsen
Isaiah D. Colbert
I don’t know about the rest of you on this writing-focused platform, but I wanted to be a writer when I was younger. I thought that would be a pretty cool way to make money. I also wanted to be an actor. I still want to be an actor, though now I don’t picture it the same way. Like a lot of creatively inclined people, I think it would be cool to try and express that creativity in a lot of different ways. We can all have our favourites, but the more you branch out the more you’re forced to think in different ways, and through this diversification you become a better creative. You get so many more experiences you can pull from going into your next big project.
I think having a career where you’re able to try so many things is the ideal life for a lot of creative people. I sort of see it as my ideal, but in a very focused way. I love writing, it’s my medium of choice, and the one where I feel most free and comfortable. My actual ideal would be to just write, all the time. Writing across different forms of art and being able to support my family. What a life that would be, is what I used to think. Still do, though every day lately it feels like more and more of a distant dream. To be clear, I currently make my living writing. I write for a small video games focused outlet that’s been around for a long time now, still trying to make its way in this SEO-hellscape. I also write articles that’ll be in-print every once in a while also about video games, and I do this, of course, which will be more than just games. Though in the case of Substack, at least for now I can’t exactly call a couple family and friends tossing me $5 a serious income. This feels like a natural point to put a subscribe button.
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