PCG work exp

(For the PCG newsletter, May 2003)

I’m a geek. Craig just told me so. In placing games above films in my top three media, music coming third, I have been branded as the kind of guy who should be in his position, a staff writer on a PC gaming magazine. Not such a bad thing then.
Deep within Future Publishing’s cavernous Bath offices floors lie a stretch of floor space devoted to our diverse 3D world. This month has been hectic for the PCG team as they type frantically on their Alienware keyboards, working flat out to finish the redesign planned for the June issue.
This last week has been… eye opening. Gamer isn’t a 30x10 meter square of concentrated fun. Its an office, that happens to be games related. The primary concern from 9:30 until 6 is getting articles finished, securing lay out, and sweet talking PR people. At lunch, or when the light outside begins to fade, and the cleaning ladies push their vacuum cleaners discreetly by, only then might you catch Mark in CoD, or Tim laughing quietly to himself at another physics game.
Tom FM, the disc editor’s Winamp finest, has been the soundtrack this week. To the tune of Ladytron, we’ve ‘ooh’ed and ‘aah’ed at E3’s produce and laughed at the inventiveness of the internet community. You’ll see what I mean next issue. Until then picture Al, glued to City of Heroes since it arrived. Or the sound of Bath lorries passing by periodically, making the blinds rattle.

Sam Goldwater