This slow erosion of writers’ value sucks, a lot. To put things in perspective, my first paying gig, in 2000, was a Chrono Cross guide. They offered me $1600 just to rewrite the guide I had posted on GameFAQs! A few months later they gave me $2K to write a Skies of Arcadia guide! That’s nuts. - ThreadSky

jparish.bsky.social • 119 days ago

This slow erosion of writers’ value sucks, a lot. To put things in perspective, my first paying gig, in 2000, was a Chrono Cross guide. They offered me $1600 just to rewrite the guide I had posted on GameFAQs! A few months later they gave me $2K to write a Skies of Arcadia guide! That’s nuts.

Reposted from Luke Plunkett

"And so it goes through the tiers, with a "complete walkthrough" of a video game, something that would take hours upon hours to play and then involve writing 7000 words, paying just $150. If it's 10,000 words or more you get $250."

it's bad out there

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toxicspecters.bsky.social•119 days ago

my idealist thought is that walkthrough authors would almost be better off publishing for free with tips/patreon set ups, until companies who want their knowledge are forced to acknowledge that they are *worth it.*

therealdavelong.bsky.social•119 days ago

IIRC, we got $800 for a full page in Computer Games Strategy Plus when I started. Half page was half that. With the passing of print, things went way down.

brandon.insertcredit.com•119 days ago

I used to get $200 to write 80 word reviews for wired (that they'd completely rewrite themselves anyway). The cool thing was if they commissioned one and killed it the kill fee was $250, so I got paid even more for not writing.

jparish.bsky.social•119 days ago

Wow, nice

supinearcanum.bsky.social•118 days ago

lol this feels like another one of those scathing indictments of the managing class as they exist rn. Like, how are you paying more for a cancel than a finished product fr XD?

therealdsube.bsky.social•118 days ago

God that was just about my pre-tax takeaway at my old job

oleivarrudi.bsky.social•119 days ago

i hate how much the (monetary) value of journalism has declined and how much the pressure of delivering "stories that drive engagement" has increased. the dumber people get, the less likely they are to engage, but they're building some kind of insane vortex here

oleivarrudi.bsky.social•119 days ago

stories that actually drive engagement is that one story that emboldened some "weak necked freak"(to their alleged peers, not to the general community) to write what they knew and eventually search out what they did not *honestly* know, and since then they've kept chasing that high forever. magic.

oleivarrudi.bsky.social•119 days ago

(note: i don't actually know of any so called "weak necked freaks" in this context, nor its concrete definition, but it's a term used by that one kid with the dark rings under his eyes who was clearly projecting something horrible and never got proper help

juliejubz.com•118 days ago

Wow….

johnmichon.bsky.social•119 days ago

I remember getting into Game Rant, and when I got shown the pay (after I was accepted, of course) I just immediately resigned. It's insulting.

impuritor.bsky.social•118 days ago

That’s like real deal money back then too. You could pay rent and get groceries! Crazy.

iiotenki.bsky.social•119 days ago

As much as I love my loc work and hope to always do that, for a long time I've been trying to angle into doing original pieces on, y'know, my areas of expertise, but pretty much all the decent places I was once in touch with are either dead or in no position to compensate how I'd need them to. 😩

iiotenki.bsky.social•119 days ago

I've definitely had places show interest in what I cover over the years, but it's always an imbalanced value proposition and I ain't about to elbow in on other people's turf elsewhere. I'll probably still attempt to pitch my book ideas to a few places, but fully expect to just have to solo it.

pandaramble.bsky.social•118 days ago

And that was 2000s money 😱

mookiethomas.bsky.social•119 days ago

That was my dream job and it basically evaporated as I left college.

lostturntable.bsky.social•119 days ago

Starting out as a music writer, I would get $500 for a mid-size feature on an up-and-coming artist. When I quit doing it right before covid, it was down to about $50 for the same amount of work.

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