One Hundred and Four Weekends

Given the nature of the hire, there’s been some good-natured ribbing from readers about how I took a job from someone who would have been more deserving, and there’s actually truth to that. I had no profile or experience within this space of writing before Kotaku. Had Brian wanted someone with experience, just about any candidate would have been more preferable. But from working with him before, I think he trusted my news judgment and dependability regardless of subject, something he really needed when someone else would be minding his store for a solid 48 hours.

On Wednesday I talked to a graduating college senior from my home state looking for advice about getting into covering video games. I told him, as I tell everyone asking this question, that I ended up here by not aspiring to be here. I aspired to be a sports writer, after all. And I think this is how a lot of people end up in their gigs, for better or for worse.

I shared other thoughts about the job I do: journalism is a practice, games are a subject, writing is a job – and none makes any of the others more special. But I can’t give advice on how one ascends through a meritocracy when I never did so myself, and when such a meritocracy doesn’t even exist in the first place. In 2001, the Daily Camera had six guys more objectively qualified to cover Boulder, already working for the same parent company even, when the Rocky Mountain News chose instead to hire me and my glamour degree. Through that job I came to know Brian. I owe roughly the past dozen years of gainful and rewarding employment to personal connections more than a clipping file, to be coldly honest.