Joab gets PAID to play video games and write about them... What the heck?
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!
Tell us about your job and what it involves:
I'm a freelance games critic and editor. My job is to play games and tell people whether they're good or not. When I'm not reviewing games I will be interviewing game creators, transcribing those interviews (copying them from audio to text), playing upcoming games well ahead of their launch and sub-editing articles (checking for spelling errors and grammar).
What do you love about it/best part?
It's a fantastic job for someone like me - someone who loves both playing games and writing. Having an excuse to stay up late playing games isn't something everyone has readily available but when a big game like Grand Theft Auto V or Dark Souls 2 comes out, I've got only a small amount of time to finish it and write the review.
How did you get into it?
I got quite lucky in that an editor for a large Australian website noticed my games writing and decided to give me a full-time job writing. From there I just worked hard to be the best games critic I could be.
What can kids do if they want to get a job like yours?
Start writing about the games you play right now. You don't have to review them, just write down your thoughts - what you liked, what you didn't like, what you think could be done better - and commit them to a internet blog of some sort. The more you write the more you'll begin to shape those thoughts into a narrative, something you could call a review. You'll also get good practice at spelling things correctly, witch is gud becoz editahs haet bad speelers.
Top 3 favourite games at the moment:
In no particular order my top 3 current games are Titanfall - currently in beta on Xbox One and PC, Titanfall is the new game from Respawn Entertainment (a company made up of the team who created Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare). It takes the COD formula and twists it, adding gravity-defying wall-running and massive robots the player can pilot. I'm also loving NBA 2K14 on the Xbox One. The next-gen versions of NBA 2K14 add gorgeous new visuals, a heap of new animation options and an expanded MyCareer. Finally, game number three is DayZ - a complex survival simulator played simultaneously with 50+ other people. Those people's motivations are never the same as yours, and interactions with them can be uplifting or terrifying, but you never know until you talk to them.