Alexa Ray Corriea | Polygamer

Every year, PAX East, the biggest video game convention on the East Coast, hosts a panel about breaking into games journalism. Editors from multiple outlets have advised aspiring writers how to pitch a feature story or self-publish — but rarely have they said what happens next. Once you’ve established a reputation as a talented and reliable writer, what’s it like to actually make a career of games journalism?

To explore this question, I assembled and moderated the PAX East 2016 panel “You’re a Games Journalist! Now What?” Joining me were Susan Arendt, managing editor of GamesRadar+; Samit Sarkar, senior reporter for Polygon; Alexa Ray Corriea, editor at GameSpot; and Holly Green, features contributor for Paste Magazine. We discussed the hard and soft skills necessary to make it as a journalist; collaborating with editors to produce better writing and writers; the difference in turnaround time for news versus features; how video is being incorporated into daily reporting; and the financial realities of the profession.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spoke, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Thanks to Lon Seidman for recording this audio and video, which are embedded past the jump along with a transcript. See also the summary at Pangyrus.

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At PAX East 2014, I moderated a panel titled "Sex, Sexy & Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming" in which three women and two men discussed the problems and solutions facing the industry. Four months later at PAX Prime, those same three women reunited for another panel: "The F Word", that being "feminism". In this panel, they share their experiences in the industry, giving us some perspective on problems that may not be obvious to those who have not experienced them, before taking Q&A.

This panel features Alexa Ray Corriea (Reporter, Polygon); Brianna Wu (Head of Development, Giant Spacekat); Susan Arendt (Managing Editor, Joystiq); Andrea Rene (Senior Producer, GameTrailers); and Tifa Robles (Founder, Organizer, The Lady Planeswalkers Society).

The audio of this session is provided to Polygamer by Travis Stewart of BrokenCRT Productions and is used here with his permission, as well as that of the five individual panelists. Download the audio edition below or from iTunes or Stitcher; the video is available on YouTube.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Polygamer explores issues of equality and diversity in the gaming industry. New episodes air every other Wednesday on iTunes and Stitcher.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:17 — 33.9MB) | Embed

Tag Archives: Alexa Ray Corriea

Polygamer #45: You’re a Games Journalist! Now What?

Polygamer #06: The F-Word panel at PAX Prime 2014