A weird thought after giving out more than a thousand free copies of one of our titles to reviewers recently, a retail value of $20,000 gross. If food critics pay for their meals, why don't game reviewers pay for their games? Obviously not talking about micro-outlets here.
@matthewmwhite No outlet would be able to afford that and reviewers would ignore those that choose to go down that route, IE Bethesda.
@ShardShinjuku I would imagine the cost of the review (assuming you're paying your writers $20, $30 an hour) would dwarf the $8 or $10 for the indie game, though?
@matthewmwhite @ShardShinjuku I get paid 0.03$ per word and if I'd ask, they'd pay for the game. But I prefer to get early access review copies so people actually click the reviews. If the review is published too late, nobody cares.
@Bloodyspasm @ShardShinjuku $0.03. Assuming you were typing 50WPM just copying something down that sounds like an excellent salary. Considering 30-60 hours of actually playing the game, researching, and crafting opinions is involved, that's criminal. Even copy ghost writers get $0.35/w. Wow.
@matthewmwhite @ShardShinjuku If it was my main job, it wouldn't be supportable. But I see playing the games as a hobby and I enjoy the writing too. With a fulltime job and 2 kids in the house, I do tend to focus on games under 15h in length these days.
@matthewmwhite @ShardShinjuku But it's better than the previous writing gig in that they only paid out a single "thank you" amount of ~250-300 per year. Most hobby writers I know get paid "in free games" and the sites they write for lose money on hosting. (No ads, no promo deals)