10 Game Journalism Industry Questions - Joab Gilroy

10 Questions from Luke - Sunday, 25 July 2010 @ 12:08pm

Fullname: Joab Gilroy Nickname: Joaby Gender: Male Age: 26 Current Company: BigPond Games Current Position: Editor Gaming systems owned: Currently? Mega Drive, PS2, PS3, PSP, PSPGo, Xbox, Xbox 360, NDS, NDS lite, Wii, Dreamcast and of course a PC.

1. What is your job role where you work and can you explain what it entails?

Being the Editor at GameArena basically means I do everything anyone hasn't done. News pieces that our awesome news guy might have missed, reviews nobody wants to do (or reviews for games on debug consoles), meet and greet events, managing content on the site (videos and files) and quite a bit of behind the scenes nonsense. GameArena has an awesome team working on it though - not just the guys doing content like our freelance reviewers or Junglist, Andy Wells and Benny & Richie doing videos either, there's a core production team who really know what they're doing and they make my job a lot easier.

2. What other media have you been directly involved with previously?

Zero. GameArena for life, right! :)

3. How did you get your start in the industry?

I won a PS3. Seriously. There was a competition on GA to win a PS3 with very short notice. I won, and one of the conditions was that I had to write a blog about the PS3. Then it was 'review some PS3 games'. Then it was 'move interstate and be a staff writer'. Eventually I got to where I am today. I've been very lucky, there's no question about that. I try very hard to make sure I never take that luck for granted.

Joab and Richie from GameArena

4.What has been the most positive experience of working in the games industry so far?

Probably the GameArena Podcast Marathon just passed. It never ceases to amaze me how people can come together to support a cause, and seeing the personalities from the Aussie games media who showed up reminded me how great people in this industry can be. If I had a regret, it would be that we didn't get the word out as far as possible as early as possible, as there's no doubt in my mind that others would have liked to join in and I think it would have been great to have them on board.

5. What has been the most negative experience of working in the games industry so far?

Q&Agate I'd probably call it if I was a social media nitwit. The experience itself was terrible, but afterwards there were places which used it as an excuse to take shots at GameArena, as well as an excuse to get personal about me. It was disappointing, because there were questions about my 'professionalism' and not a single courtesy call for a response out of it. I'd come to expect better.

6. What advice can you give to other people looking to get into a position such as yours?

It's a bit like asking a Lottery Winner how to make money, isn't it? If you want to get into the games press, start writing and get someone to critique your writing. Don't be afraid of criticism and, like, try, to, limit, your, use, of, commas. Everything I know I learned from my own Mr Miyagi (or Kreese, as it would be).

7. How do you see Print Media as a market when compared to the Online world?

I think it's important to appreciate the amount of work those guys do - they put in a lot of effort to get their mags looking just right. I think there's always value in seeing how they do things - at the very least it lets us online guys appreciate the sort of wiggle room we might normally take for granted.

Games Journalism... It's a tough gig

8. Got any good stories you want to share?

I do remember one time I went to the Lowenbrau with these three supposed heavy drinkers from some site, and after a couple of steins we hopped a trolley and rolled back to Jae's apartment where Starks farted in the lift, Oracle broke the same lift trying to escape the smell and we sang loudly while we waited for someone to let us out. Then Starks passed out on the toilet, Jae went to sleep and Oracle and I played SingStar until we realised that Starks and Jae had gone to sleep. Good times.

9. What are your favourite games and why?

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Deus Ex and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City constantly occupy my top three games of all time. Why? I shouldn't have to say - all three combine amazing stories with fantastic gameplay. All three are still great games today. This year though, my favourite game is easily Darksiders. As a person who never enjoyed Zelda because I didn't like the characters (subsequently destroying every single Zelda game ever BECAUSE THEY NEVER CHANGE) I loved the combination of comic book heroes and loosely interpreted religious themes - all in a game which unashamedly draws gameplay inspiration from the best hits of the last decade.

10. If you could meet any gaming character in real life, who would it be and why?

Boss. She could teach me CQC skills in a montage and then me and Naked Snake could do a Predator handshake. The montage would be to Cynthia Harrell's Snake Eater.