While working at ZDNet, I became the group’s video game guru. This was good since the company also was in charge of publishing popular magazines like Intelligent Gamer, Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly. Rather than create a massive website that merely took all the magazine content and placed it on the web, ZD bought GameSpot.
At GameSpot, I worked my way up producing the site’s main page updates, writing several news stories and helping maintain parts of the site. Eventually, I joined GameSpot News to compete with Happy Puppy and CNET’s Gamecenter. With Curt Feldman, the strategies for getting the best news, developing quality news and targeting popular trends quickly made the site the undisputed leader in the industry. I was also able to work on a monthly news column for Computer Gaming World, put the fun back into gaming with our wildly popular April Fools Day stories (1 million-plus page views in under 36 hours), made appearances on GameSpot TV and produced GameSpot UK’s show daily for European Computer Trade Show 1999 (image included below).
Eventually, I took over GameSpot News and managed a team of world-class global reporters who kept me up nearly every night. It was worth it. You don’t hear of Happy Puppy or Gamecenter anymore, right?
Over the course of my years at GameSpot, I created over 1600 stories, most of which can be seen here:
- GameSpot Wins Armada Challenge
- Microsoft Goes Ambidextrous
- Chris Taylor’s Dungeon Siege
- Oni Update
- Up Close with Vampire: The Masquerade
- Brazil Bans More Games
- Hasbro Replies to Rumors
- First Look: O.R.B
- Inside Pandemic Studios
- Microsoft and Immersion Feel One Another
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| Playback (Computer Gaming World – October 1999) | Official Guide to European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) in London |
ZDNet Pieces:
All You Wanted to Know About PDAs (1999)
Review: Xircom Palm Model (1999)