How I Got Back Onto EGM After Quitting Two Years Earlier
[Note: Once again, this is a repost of something I did for my older blog.]
During my freshman year of college I tried to keep one hand in the gaming world. I did a little bit of freelance for Intelligent Gamer — including a couple previews, reviews, and a six-page feature on one of EA’s first PS1 sports games, NBA Live ’96. If you know me and how absolutely out of touch with basketball I am you’re probably wondering how the hell I managed that. Well, I have no idea. I tied it to the angle that this was really the first time the series had been done in 3D and how it changed the genre and how EA did sports. It worked.
May rolled around and I put together some cash to get down to LA for E3 with a couple friends. I figured that this was the perfect chance to hook back up with some Sendai work for the summer. So day one of the show rolls around, and the news hits that Ziff-Davis is buying Sendai. When I heard about it, I wasn’t sure what to think. I knew people at Sendai. Hell, I knew the boss. But this ZD thing was a whole different enchilada. The people at the top probably owned suits–and wore them to work…every day. It was an unfamiliar setting, and I heard through the grapevine that they weren’t going to be hiring anyone or doing another book project like the PS1 guide anytime soon. Aside from maybe an occasional freelance thing, I figured my days of writing about games were over.
So I did what any other college student does during the summer; I got a job as a temp. I started working in a local law firm, typing up documents and transcribing case notes, etc. It was pretty interesting stuff, actually. A week later Joe Funk, former editor in chief of Cinescape and (at the time) editorial director of the Ziff-Davis gaming pubs, dialed me up and told me that they were going to do another book for the launch of the Nintendo 64 and wanted to know if I’d be interested in working on it. I said “yes, of course,” and put in my notice at the law office (after only about two weeks) and spent July and part of August working on Electronic Gaming Monthly’s Player’s Guide to Nintendo 64 Video Games with John Ricciardi.
The N64 book was a very different experience than the PlayStation guide. It looked professional (not slapped together), its strategies were useful, it read well, and it gave me the opportunity to spend time back in Sendai’s Lombard, IL, offices, helping take screenshots for it and do various other little things. I ran into Ed Semrad a few times, too. It was always weird. The guy never looked at me, never acknowledged I was there, and never said hello (though I did, the first time I ran into him, anyway). By this time, EGM had hired a bunch of new editors, and I’d see them around along with the other people I’d worked with before. And they all still called me “Secret Turtle.”
With the book done, I figured that I would go back to school in the fall and continue my journalism degree at Drake University. But some difficult financial issues put a stop to that. I went in and talked to Joe Funk and told him I’d be sticking around the area and that if there was a position open on EGM or any other mag I’d like to come back. A few days later Joe called me and told me that they were looking for someone to help out part-time with EGM’s massive holiday issues. Sounded good to me so I agreed to do it. But first…I’d have to bury the hatchet with Ed. That was really not even an issue for me since EGM’s staff was fairly different now and I was gonna be in Illinois anyway and didn’t have to worry about school getting in the way of things. Hell, I could stay at the office 24/7 — I was gettin’ paid HOURLY! So I met with Ed, shook his hand, buried the hatchet, and boom — I was back on EGM.
It was really strange since Ed had told everyone that I was bad news and that I’d tried to bring down the magazine when I was the there the first time (me? One 17 year-old, sully an entire magazine’s reputation? How would I even be capable of that?). Yet here I was — back again! Needless to say things started out on a pretty odd note.
My first official issue back is #88, November 1996. I worked on a lot of stuff in that issue but nothing stands out as much as one particular preview…a line from it landed on the cover of one of the worst games ever made. More about that next time!
[And of course if you've been listening to the podcast for a while you know exactly what I'm talking about. Har. :'(]
I…want…to spoil…it…so much.