On My Time with Video Games, Marketing, Journalism, and the Future

When I was a kid, I was positive I would dedicate my life to working in games media. Writing and gaming were the only two things I was ever really passionate about, a byproduct poor social skills and a fascination with daydreaming. It only made sense that I should go on to review games, write previews, and get to spend most my time with a controller cradled lovingly between my fingers.

And you know what? I did it! I worked as a games journalist for something like 6 years, starting in high school. Like most aspiring word warriors, I cut my teeth volunteering for websites that got a few hundred (maybe dozen) visitors a month, but eventually I made it all the way to Game Rant. For a kid from a town of less than 10,000 people, writing for a website that clocked more than 1 million views a month felt like the big leagues.

I became an editor, definitely way earlier than I should’ve been, and I got to spend a few years traveling around the country, meeting people I had once considered my heroes and interviewing some insanely talented folks. It was beautiful, magnificent chaos.

Eventually, my passion for games started to change. Playing them had become surgery; every time I sat down, I was dissecting them instead of enjoying them. People say that when your vacation becomes your vocation, you’ll never work a day in your life, but really it’s the opposite. My hobby became my job, and therefore I was working whenever I was trying to relax and play some Diablo.

So I jumped ship and went to work for a marketing firm that was primarily comprised of games industry veterans. Working there was like being in the Avengers. Everyone was immensely talented, to the degree that I often wrestled with feelings of inadequacy. It was the first time in my career that I had worked with a real editor, and it took time for me to measure up to my peers in any real sense. But for the first time in my life, I felt like I had found my tribe. I started learning how to do SEO on the side, and learned an insane amount from the crew.

I left to work on an ill-fated project, which bottomed out in just a few short months. It was a major blow, and it sent me into a pretty severe spiral. It was also for the best. Candor got acquired a short while later, and I don’t think I would’ve fit in with the new environment. Instead, I spent the next few years forging my own path, working with clients on SEO and content marketing projects. Now, I’m working with some of those same folks from Candor again, and I think we’re building something incredible.

It’s impossible to say what’s next for me. The games industry is in shambles, and there’s a part of me that feels I’m not 100% done with it. There’s another part of me that just wants to rediscover my roots, digging down into my love of storytelling to find more journalistic projects to work on. I’m also a deeply political person, and the older I get, the more strongly I feel that my true calling is to help usher in a new generation of progressive leadership.

There are a lot of paths ahead, and all of them are foggy. But no matter which one I take, I’m excited to see where it leads.