One of my greatest loves in life - besides my girlfriend, of course - is the world of video games. My favorite is Guild Wars, and Massively Multiplayer Online game, in which I have spent a staggering 3,000 hours - or 125 days - playing. Naturally, my favorite columnist writes every Monday about the game.
Rubi Bayer, a columnist at Massively.com, loves Guild Wars as much, if not more, than I do, having spent even more time in the game. She is somehow able to come up with a different topic about the game every week, and, for the most part, they are all rather interesting.
Many topics delve into the gamer culture specifically surrounding Guild Wars, but sometimes branch out into MMOs in general. As a gamer, it is something I appreciate and find interesting.
She also writes on another subject that is close to my heart, Guild Wars 2. When any new scrap of information is released about the upcoming sequel to what is obviously the greatest online game ever - eat your heart out, World of Warcraft - she dissects and discusses the tidbits, often interviewing the game's developers.
Strangely, for having a writing style that is easy to identify with and seems casual, she does not have many credentials. That is to say, her only job, according to her LinkedIn profile, has been at Massively, where she became an editor in 2009 and is currently the community manager.
She did, however, graduate from the University of Indiana with a broadcast journalism degree. She also maintains a blog on the side about mothers who play video games, as well as writing other articles for Massively.
Perhaps she was lucky and fell into what I would consider a dream job, or perhaps her LinkedIn is not complete; there seems to be no other information floating around about her previous writing jobs.
She does not limit herself to just her column and articles, but also puts out two podcasts with Massively editor-in-chief Shawn Schuster. The first involves MMOs in general, but the second revolves around Guild Wars. The latter acts as a supplement to some of her columns, going over the information with another perspective involved, while adding more topics about Guild Wars.
While I had thought of profiling Rick Kushman of the Sacramento Bee, who has a column on entertainment - my other dream job - and of the hosts of Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, I decided to go with something that I've read consistently over the past year, as well as something I've dedicated many hours of my life to. It was not a very hard choice.
In short, Rubi Bayer is not only an excellent columnist, in my humble opinion, who writes about something close to my heart, but also has something I would consider a dream job. Not only does her column interest me with topics that she chooses each week, it also provides a glimpse into what I would love to do in the future.
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Interesting to find out more about online gaming, I wasn't too familiar with Guild Wars before. Also it was cool to read about the extra activities associated with the game its self like with the podcasts and ongoing new information. Nice column!
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, the world of video games (or online games) isn't one which this reader is particularly familiar.
ReplyDeleteStill, the enthusiasm with which the author of this column musters for the columnist shines through and makes it quite readable.
And the obvious envy of the columnist for the columnist profiled makes it interesting, too.
One bit of local knowledge: Rick Kushman hasn't been at the Bee since last Nov. 17...