Topic: Reflections from the Nintendo Life staff

So - indulge us - what is it like to run Nintendo Life?

How is it like you thought it would be and what have you learned about from the experience?

I've learned that you'd better love games like no other if you're going to do this kind of work. You'll find out just how much you love video games. We've had some people not last a full 24 hours on the team. LOL. But I've also met a lot of great people within the industry and got a lot of free stuff. It's like any other job. There are good and bad points. I think being part of the team is the best part. We've got a great bunch of people running the site and they make it all a lot of fun. As do our fantastic core of readers.

I like it most of the time, but sometimes I do not like it.

Corbie gets an A for insight. Prosody gets an F.

@Corbie: Couldn't last a full day, huh? Why'd they join the team at all, then? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I think that this is an interesting topic. I would like to learn more about the staff of Nintendo Life and what goes on behind the scenes. I hope to see more feedback from other staff members on this thread.

Okay, here we go again.

I like being able to go to events and meet with other people who do the same thing. I like being able to review games and get instant feedback on whether people agree with the score or body or whatever. I like that our readership is so passionate and holds us to high standards. I like being able to produce podcasts including interviews and news and I especially love it when people phone in.

I like and dislike a lot more but it's early and I'm hungry.

For me it’s been a crazy roller-coaster ride! It’s funny to think that it was only 3 years ago that Damo and myself set up VC Reviews. Before then the only website we’d ever run was one dedicated to a retro gaming magazine which gets about 50 hits a day! Imagine our surprise when our short but sweet reviews began to attract a much wider audience!! With Ant’s help we then were able to do WiiWare World and of course in the end we merged together with his site, Nintendo Life to bring everything together in one place.

For me the best thing has been meeting some great people along the way. All of the guys on our team are really committed to writing quality news or reviews. In the early days of VC Reviews we wouldn’t have been able to keep up without the dedication of Drake and Corbie our first recruits. They also helped us step up our game so we began writing much more detailed reviews.

We’ve also been lucky to have gained a great community of readers almost from day one. Sure we have the occasional idiot who wants to drag things down, but on the whole we have really helpful and friendly readers who love nothing more than talking about their favourite games.

It’s also been great to get the opportunity to interview such legends as David Braben and Takahashi Meijin. Since the early days of WiiWare World we have always had great support from devs which has been brilliant for us.

So there you have it, sure at times it can be hard work but it’s a lot of fun too. Nintendo Life is nothing without it’s readers so give yourself a pat on the back!

@Prosody: I was merely teasing, of course. "Early" for you was "not yet been to bed" for me (you might recall I'm something of an insomniac). I saw a crazy short post as a good opportunity for a laugh, that's all.

@Dazza: Great read! All us long-time site users are very grateful for all the work you've poured into the site, except maybe for a few total jerks (read: not me). Ain't noplace else on the Web to go for the kind of coverage we get here!

I'm surprised by how much I enjoy contributing. It is like a paid gig, I do feel the pressure to review a new WiiWare game and get that review published, but at the same time the immediate feedback is very satisfying even when people don't like my slagging off their crappy poker game ^_~.

Of course encouragement from the guys that run the place is also fantastic motivation, cheers fellahs!

I love being a news reporter for Nintendo Life, I considered myself very lucky when I got the e-mail from Darren welcoming me to the team (I still have that e-mail too!)

So far I have two major highlights since joining the team

The first was reviewing Overturn for WiiWare, it was the first review I had ever written in my life, and everyone here received it very well, I got a couple of wtf's? but even those came with encouragement attached.

The second is my latest news story on the DSiWare transferability (is that even a word?), it was an assignment I undertook and I got to speak with someone at Nintendo Australia about it (who wasn't just a tech support guy). I'm not even sure if any other websites have reported the official word on it, there was nothing I could find anyway, lol.

The team I work with are wonderful, Jon and Damien both gave me wonderful feedback on my first couple of posts and let me know how I can improve myself for which I am grateful. The people I work for are wonderful, it's a tremendous community .

It also feels lonely because I'm the only Australian representative on the team, and I'm not on the "about" page... yet... lol.