Welcome to Sexyvideogameland! An Interview with Leigh Alexander

*This is the shorter version-I didn't want to post something too long here.  For the longer, and IMO better, version with more quotes and information, you can visit the entry at GreenWires http://wp.me/p14pTB-1O*

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Welcome to Sexy Videogameland, the blogging world of Leigh Alexander.   “My name is pronounced ‘Lee’ and I am indeed a female, but I don't mind if people don't know this.”  According to her Sexy Videogameland’s FAQ, this successful female game journalist is the news director at industry news site Gamasutra and is a monthly columnist at the popular blog-site Kotaku.  She used to do the Aberrant Gamer column at Gamasutra's sister weblog, GameSetWatch, and she was also the first editor of the Worlds in Motion weblog, which covered the business of online worlds and planned the inaugural Worlds in Motion Summit at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC.)  Her work has also appeared in Variety, LA Times, Onion's AV Club, Wired, Slate, the Escapist and Paste.  All of this began with a simple, fun idea.

“I wanted very much to write about emotional reactions to games, commentary on the culture of players, deeper analysis of narrative, things like that,” Leigh stated in an email response. “Most of what was available in terms of game journalism all felt the same to me -- a ‘product guide’ approach to games that focused on screenshots, tech and genre conventions…  A game like Silent Hill, to me, deserved a proper analysis of its symbolic storyline, not a review of its clunky gameplay and how much it scared you!”  So Leigh began her blog in February of 2007 as a way to “lay [her] thoughts out.”  

“I think I didn't really know what I was doing when I started blogging, haha,” she continued in her email.  “I think at first I tried to ‘fit in’ to the blogging world, but the more I saw people reacting to my individuality and my concepts, I became more confident in being myself and felt less obligated to sound a certain way. It's part of any writer's process of ‘finding their voice’, I guess.”   Eventually, Leigh found her voice and others noticed.

“Chris Dahlen offered me the opportunity to write a review for Paste, and eventually, Simon Carless liked my idea for a GameSetWatch column based on psychosexual issues.”  Sharing her thoughts, ideas and stories are what really got this game journalist started.  “I really just put myself out there. I declared a presence, and soon people began approaching me,” Leigh explained.

For the aspiring game journalists and bloggers, Leigh has some tips to offer: know your writing goals, be unique, put together a portfolio to share with the world and be professional.  Leigh got her dream job by doing things that any beginner can do: developing ideas and then sharing them. As a last piece of advice, she said: “[W]hen you feel confident that your ideas are being represented in a way you're proud of [,] you can start building a readership, even if you still feel new.”