Wednesday, December 22, 2010

ThrawnOmega: Achievement Guide Ninja Assassin Editor

While my review writing pace has slowed down considerably over the last year, a new avenue to assist x360a has opened up for me. There's little glory to be had in the position (your average viewer will never see what I do), and it's not something I could easily toss on a resume when trying to get into the gaming industry, but I'm still happy to be doing it, and helping out the site.

I have been brought into the x360a Guide Team to assist, primarily as a guide editor. As I understand it, the job entails taking the best from any and all written guides for a game, tweaking or improving descriptions as needed, and preparing the guide to be posted to the main site. Unlike the guide authors, my name won't be splashed on top of the guide credits. The editing task is virtually invisible to the outside viewer.

Total disclosure: I JUST got access to the guide team yesterday, and haven't actually done anything for them yet. I'm just starting to learn the ropes and expectations. My actual contributions probably won't start until January, when my work schedule lets up a little. Not even sure if they really consider me "Guide Team" yet LOL. I probably have to actually do something to earn the title =)

The position is a good fit for me. I love working on guides, but have written relatively few for the site myself. I can only count The Maw and the Side Quest and Trading Card guides for Deadly Premonition to my credit (and the side quests was co-authored). I have the writing talent to do guides, but I don't like the competition that comes with being "first" and the attention they get during the writing process. Where a review is one-way (MY way), the guide writing process is collaborative, and trying to deal with 1,000 other people isn't my thing.

However, I love editing. Always have. I edited other people's papers in high school and college. I had to edit my own work constantly, considering how much writing goes into English and Sociology degrees. I've had to edit as a creative writer and a review writer. I have fun taking a set of works and making their message even better. Some of you may understand that, other probably won't. So I was excited to hear I could help on the guide team without actually having to write guides. This role suits my skill set just fine.

I'd like to thank the mods and admins of x360a for the opportunity to contribute, and I look forward to helping out... next year. I still have to survive the build up to Christmas, the day-after shenanigans, and then getting the store back in order. Fun!

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