The Games Press

• Episode 24: Wesley Yin-Poole (Director of News at IGN)

  Wesley Yin-Poole is in charge of the news desk over at IGN and has been reporting on the games industry for almost two decades at this point.He's also been a mentor of mine ever since our days working together at Eurogamer where he helped shape some of my very first stories, while he himself published some incredible work on the rise and fall of Lionhead Studios and its notorious co-founder, Peter Molyneux.Wes is one of the best games reporters in the business and I'm so happy to finally have him on the show.Support the show

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• Episode 23: Jason Schreier (Author of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, And Future of Blizzard Entertainment)

  Jason Schreier is a games reporter for Bloomberg, best known for his extensive reporting on the volatile reality of AAA game development.On today's episode we'll be talking about his latest book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, And Future of Blizzard Entertainment and the frankly horrifying number of interviews he needed to complete over the course of his reporting.Despite having a young baby to look after and exactly two and a half hours of free time each day (when said baby is soundly asleep upstairs), I devoured Jason's book in less than a week. It's very, very good. Let's talk about it!Support the show

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• Episode 22: Nicole Carpenter (Senior Reporter at Polygon)

  Nicole Carpenter has been reporting on the games industry at Polygon for the last five years, where she's perhaps best known for her coverage of unions and the increasingly vital role they're playing in shaping the future of video game development.In fact, not only has she reported on this subject diligently over the last few years, she also wrote what is perhaps the defining piece of journalism on the subject: The Rise of the Video Game Union."....the type of journalism we're doing impacts people's lives in really tangible ways. And, you know, whether that's somebody we're writing about who did something bad, or people who are unionizing, or people who have been laid off. And that is a huge responsibility. And so it needs a certain level of investment and dedication and sometimes sacrifice to make sure you're doing your job, treating the work you're putting out, with the respect and care and responsibility it needs."Support the show

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• Episode 21: Grant Stoner (Accessibility & Disability Reporter)

  Grant Stoner is a freelance reporter who specializes in covering accessibility and disability across the games industry in his work.Among other work, he writes a monthly column for IGN where he recently examined how the mass layoffs ripping through the games industry have affected disabled game workers, in particular. This is a great example of why Grant's perspective is so necessary in the games media right now, shining a spotlight on an often overlooked area of games and the people who play and make them."They can't afford their medications, they've had to stop procedures, some person can't afford life-saving medication that they were only able to afford because of their insurance... So often, with accessibility, we see that 'oh, these studios are great, they really care about us', but this is the reality of being disabled, especially if you're in this industry."Support the show

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• Episode 20: Sarah Parvini (LA Times)

  Sarah Parvini was a games reporter at the LA Times until just a few months ago, having been among those who were hit by a staggering round of layoffs at the paper earlier this year. In fact, the publication is meant to have shed around 20% of its newsroom in one fell swoop. Journalism is in a rough state, folks.In this episode you'll hear guest host Nicole Carpenter talk with Sarah about what it's like reporting on the games industry for such an established publication and how she managed to approach her stories through the lens of California and Los Angeles in order to appeal to a regional audience."So, the video game industry layoffs, that's not something that is unique to California, but given the nature of California's importance to the video game industry it's something that I felt like we should be covering. And, it wasn't hard to find companies, unfortunately, that had laid people off here in California. And it's only getting easier everyday, right?"Support the show

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