This time next week I will 28 years old. Shortly there after, I will have been married for the some total of 2 months. So I am getting older and being all growed up, and now have a wife to think about as well as myself.

Like many people, I am searching for something though. Not happiness in love or anything as cheesy as that since I have already found it, but rather contentness in my job and career. I have never really thought of myself as particularly creative until the last few years, when I have been unable to scratch a growing creative itch, and it is getting annoying.

So, like a lot of people reading and using this very site, I have decided I want to go into the games industry and here is a short account of my attempts thus far. I have to point out at an early stage though, so far, I have not been successful, I am still working as an IT support analyst and not particularly enjoying it anymore. It's a good job don't get me wrong, but it is not what I want to do for the next forty years.

So for the last couple of years I have been applying for jobs as a QA tester for various companies, trying to get into the industry on a low grade footing and work my way up. Unfortunately, this has gone quite according to plan. The first interview I ever had I was suited and booted and ready to go, and I walked in immediately felt over dressed, since everyone else, including other interviewee's where in jeans and a shirt or t-shirt. Also insulted a game one of the interviewers made, so that wasn't so good. Alas, that job, at Kuju in Surrey, was not to be mine.

So I continued applying for other studios, eventually having a interview with Outrun 2006 developer Sumo Digital. Having learnt from my previous attempt, I attended the interview with a shirt and trousers, which I felt was a lot better and meant I wasn't as out of place, especially when one of the guys interviewing me walked in still wearing motorcycle leathers. The interview seemed to go well, though I still wasn't to get the job.

At this point I got more than a little bit determined, and started sending my C.V. into various Yorkshire studios on a regular basis (one to two month intervals). Eventually, this scored me a second interview with Sumo Digital, which again went well and the guys recognised me and we had a great informal interview. They told me they had a new round of tester roles coming up and I would be high on their list. I am still waiting to here from them, and that was coming close to 2 years ago now.

From that point on I have been scanning games industry job sites on a regular basis to find a suitable position, even taking the tactic of sending my c.v. in once a month for a as long as the QA position was listed on the studios site (sorry Rockstar leeds!). As you can probably tell I am getting a bit desperate here.

The reason I chose to tell you about this so far unsuccessful venture is because on Saturday, I had a very nice chap come round to my home from a company called Train2game. For those of you who don't know about them, train2game offer TIGA endorsed game programmer and game designer courses on a work from home basis. The idea behind his visit is that they only offer the courses to a select few individuals in a given post code area, and after a 2 hour interview about my gaming habits, what I want to do in the industry, why I want to change careers and various other things, he said that he wants to offer me a position on the course and that he needs to know by 10am Monday if I want it.

Unfortunately for me, £135 a month for three years to be able to pay for the course is too rich, so, being unable to get any decent help from the government or parents or anything, I had to decline the course, effectively ending my dream for at least another year. I am still trying to find that dream job but the current economic climate isn't making it any easier.

The morale of the story is this: decide what you want to do with your life quickly. In school I wasn't much of an academic, and the only thing I really decided on was that I wanted to work with computers when I got older. If I had decided I wanted to work in games a lot sooner than I had, I may well have put more effort in, knowing I had to get the grades to get onto a decent course at university to be able to leap into the industry. Alas, I only realised what I really want to do in the last five or so years, which is just about the right time to be way too late.

So kids, decide what you want to do quickly. Take a week out of your life and really look at yourself, what you like to do, what interests you, what makes you happy, and decide to make that career a reality. Hell, if you genuinely want to become a real life pet detective, do it, but decide soon because even though people say you can always re-train, the reality is an expensive and time consuming process that at a point, just isn't viable anymore. Don't make my mistake, take the advice and figure out what you want do soon.

I hope my story has helped and you take away more than 'this guy is a looser' from it. And if anyone from a games studio is reading, I am looking for work right now so please contact me for a copy of my C.V!

So for the last few months I have been contributing to a smaller gaming site as a writer. I wont say its name cause I am above shameless self promotion. Honest. Anyway for this site I have been writing news, reviews and features and though it isnt the holy grail of actually being a paid games journalist, it is as close as I can get at the moment.

An interesting thing happened yesterday though. While I was going through my emails from the site, the boss of the UK guys who contribute said that the site has thier first review copying coming in the next couple of days. Naturally I was excited for the site, as it is a fairly big deal, but most important of all, he wanted me to review it. Colour me excited.

I havent received the game yet, which will be this weeks summer of arcade release, Trials HD, but my excitment has so far gotten me out of a real funk (life sucks and all that, despite the fact I got married to the love of my life two weeks ago), excited about a game I really wasnt that bothered about before and even more infused to become a bona fide games journalist.

So I cant speak to the quality of the game as yet as I havent played any of it, but I do want to discuss another issue that this impending big event in my life has had me thinking about, that is of reviews in general. Now, the issue of games, movies and even book reviews, are, at best, controversial, with some people saying that ratings shouldnt be given to mediums that are, arguably, very personal, while others say that it is invaluable to steer them from the rubbish to the great, and is the seed of another post all together, but I have something else I want to discuss on a more personal level.

From listening to the Hotspot and other podcasts, professional reviewers seem to be generally always having a pop at movies, books and, of course, games. Now, to say that I have watched the same movies and read the same books and played the same games and had a different opinion is kinda mute, as everybody knows that everybody has a opinion and that it is thiers and thiers alone. However, it worries me that as I review more games, I will become as, well, frankly, cynical as the professionals, and things I have enjoyed when I haven't been a reviewer I will no longerlike, making me only fullfilled when those great movies or books come along.

I like to think I can switch off my reviewer mode andsee bad movies (I count Guyver: Dark Hero as one of my favourites, butappreciate it is rubbish atthe same time), but thismay beme fighting tooth and nail against the envitable. I have played and enjoyed games lots of people say suck, theoriginal Matrix game being one of them.

It makes me wonder that if Brendan, Tor, Tom and the rest of the gamespot crew werent reviewing games and playing alot of them all the time, would they have more of an appriciation of movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or even Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li?

If they are truely going into everything they can critque with the mindset of a reviewer, then surely thier enjoyment of that piece will be marred by them looking for flaws, and mentally taking notes as to what they did and didnt enjoy. I loved Revenge of the Fallen, though it wasnt as good as the first, and this is because I just sat back and enjoyed it, and didnt even notice half the bad points the team talked about on the hotspot a few weeks ago. This is either an alarming warning about ADD, or the difference between a review mind engaged and a review mind disengaged.

As I get closer to my dream of becoming a professional in this most heralded of industries, I worry that I will become jaded, as so many of my one day peers have become. I dont know if that is a risk I have to take, and whether it is a bad thing or not is questionable, but I would like to think I can buck the trend, and only review when I need to. I hope some of you will go forth and read some of the reviews I have on this site, and see what you think.

What do you think about reviews and reviewers? are they all jaded, or just more precise in thier enjoyment habits?

As previous readers of my blog can tell you, I work as an IT support tech (and if I haven't mentioned that before, now you know!), and that is in a call centre for a insurance firm. The atmosphere is really good and generally the staff are a good lot, and every week, like many places, we have a dress down day where we pay £1 and that money goes to charity just so we can wear jeans and a t shirt to work, which, I am sure you will agree, is a nice thing to do.

Every so often, we have specific 'fun days' for the larger charities, such as red nose day or children in need, where we have a range of activites throughout the day along with cake stalls and other nonesense. Over the last couple of years I have taken it upon myself to introduce my beloved hobby to the workers there, and have decided to run tournaments on those big charity days so I can a) feel like I am helping and b) get people to play games they normally dont. Its a good thing, not just an excuse to toss off work for a day. Honest.

Each time I have run a tournament I have messed about with the formula a little bit, but have now come up with a few concrete rules on how to go about running them, which I thought I would share with you, the lovely people of Gamespot, just in case you too decide to run such an event. So here are my rules to running successful tournament at work:

1 -Keep the matches short

Remember, you are still at work, so pick a game where the matches are short and can be finished within five minutes. I prefer to use fighting games for this, such as Street Fighter IV, but Fifa or a racing game could work too. This will have the dual effect of keeping players interested and not annoying any managers.

2 -Pick a straight forward game

You dont want anything too complex as people will not be into it, and the win conditions need to be clear. Again fighting games are good for this, and since people can pretty much just button bash and you dont have to really tell them what to do, then it saves on stress for all involved.

3 -Keep the whole thing small

The last time I run a tournament, its was Street Fighter IV and I had unlocked every character, so I decided to make it a boys vs girls tournament (in the first round at least) and say that people can only pick one character and once they had that character is gone from the list. This was a bad idea, as too many people meant I found it hard to get people to come and play and keep it going through lunches (a particular problem in call centres). So keep the tournament places small, with 12 being the absolute maximum for a decent running game.

4 - Open registration well in advance

Give it at least a few days before the tournament so that people can get thier names down and make sure they are actually in on the day, and keep all involved up to date on any changes, the venue and game.

5 -Play yourself

Dont be afraid to put your own name down, as alot of people, especially work friends, will want to take you on. This is mostly so when you walk around they can take the mick, but hey it works, and ifyou trounce them then you can do it instead, which lets be honest, is always a good thing.

6 -Dont make people look daft

Unless they are drunk, which I hope they arent if they are at work, people will not play anything that makes them look stupid. So a singstar tournament, unless you work at a music label or something, is probably not the best plan as we are all aware (those of us who are over 18 at least) that karaoke is best done intoxicated to the eyeballs.

7 -Make sure you have all the right equipment

It may sound stupid, but you can't run a gaming tournament if you dont have a TV and a few spare power sockets, so make sure the venue (often a meeting room) has all the right gear. Oh and check the TV for sound play back, as thinking every TV has speakers built in has proven my downfall in the past.

8 -Make it fun

A bit of a no brainer, but if you can get some sort of prize for the winner, do so, and dont be afraid to trash talk, even if your not playing. Commentate, and after each match consider sending an email around the office announcing the winners and loosers (especially fun if a very manly man gets beat by a girl lol) and even update twitter as a laugh.

9 -Keep a list of participants handy

Again a no brainer, but also arrange into a tournament structure on a spreadsheet and print it, so that you can easily work out who isplaying who next. This will save you having to remember and be an easy reference for people who ask who they are playing. If its a fighting game your running, put down peoples characters too, so those who do know about the game can think about it in advance.

10 -Get the payment fee's early

Remember the tournament is for charity, so if you are charging an entry fee (£1/$1 is a good start point) collect it before the people play. This will mean you can concentrate on running the thing and not have to remember who has paid and who hasn't on the day.

So there you have it, my top ten hints on how to run a smooth tournament at work. Admittedly, most are provided by common sense, but some are lessons learnt the hard way. Thanks for reading, and I hope your tournaments go well. If you have any other tips. please let me know!