Wait youve become a Journo.... By chance would you be so kind as to share with us some of the... juicy details of the inner workings of that industry?
I work for ChristCenteredGamer, it's kinda an outlier because it's a Christian religious non-profit (officially registered as a ministry) thus not connected to the bigger secular rags, but I can share details on how they do things for reasons of transparency.
1. Game developers choose to send CCG review keys and game copies. Atlus in particular was kind enough to gift us stuff to review for quite some time and still do, but some other companies it's kinda up in the air. Square-Enix kicks a review copy or two our way once in a blue moon, but only when they care to, we otherwise have to request it, and they've ignored most requests.
We also have NO quid pro quo with game reviews. They'll send it to us to review, but we make clear up front we'll review it honestly, without any partially, and our review process is open to all reviewers, so we peer review each other for bias.
2. Most of CCG is volunteer staff, meaning we literally do it for free. The most we get is free games to review, but to keep us honest we have to sign a contract saying we will review a game in a certain amount of time or we will have to reimburse CCG the cost of the game in full. We do have some paid reviewers, but being a non-profit, it doesn't pay that much.
3. On top of actual big name devs, we also get review keys via Steam's Curator where anyone and everyone can send us review keys, and we've often had to decline reviews for porn only games (which we do not review for reasons of policy) and games which have no censored ports. I was once assigned "How to Raise a Wolf Girl" by Sekai Project once because it was on our PC review key list and we needed to get it done ASAP and I was available, but I only was able to review the censored version because we don't review uncensored works with pornographic content, again for policy reasons.
Some fun insider facts: We have gotten obvious troll devs sending us terrible asset flips and games so obviously filled with porn that we've had to abruptly decline because some people think it's funny to troll a Christian oriented games reviewer by sending us that sort of thing. We mostly roll our eyes, decline the troll game review keys, and move on.
4. Back when there was that big leak of game reviewers, my bosses admitted had they attended, their information would've been leaked (and they wouldn't have been overly concerned, they don't bother to hide their IRL names). By default, while you CAN write under a psuedonym for CCG, we are encouraged to write under our real names, which I elected to do because I have nothing to hide and you can use writing for CCG as work experience on an actual resume, and that's easier to do under your real name.
While efforts are made to protect the privacy of those who choose to write under aliases, anyone who shows up to a public CCG event (we occasionally have our own table at some gaming events and expos) pretty much agrees to let the world know who they are by default.
5. We do have a policy when it comes to moonlighting for more than one journalism outfit, as a few of us have done. If we review a game for CCG, we generally make clear in some manner to both CCG staff and the staff of whatever other outlet we reviewed it for CCG first (or vice-versa) so we don't get accused of plagiarism, especially if we use parts of the review for one site for another (and if we do, we try to note that)
6. It was instituted shortly after my signing on to CCG's writing team, but we do have a Discord with a "#reviewers-only" channel. It's for more rapid communication by the review team on various reviews and where we get told by the bosses which reviews are priorities (review key games from developers get priority all the time and sometimes we have tight deadlines to get them out) to get shaped up for release.
Our forum has a review section where we present the working drafts of our prospective reviews and get peer reviewed for mistakes and other criticism. After we polish it up to address all that, the reviews are eventually added to our site after CCG's staff decided it should go live. We can edit reviews after publication, but if it's something more than a minor typo correction, we are expected to leave notice in the review if correcting a serious mistake and why.
7. Finally, CCG, is, as I mentioned, a Christian oriented games reviewer, but you DON'T have to be one to write for them. However, you are expected to be tolerant of Christians and respectful of their beliefs while on the forum or Discord, and in any official capacity, you are NOT to come off badly in a way that would embarrass your place of employment.
This generally means that if you are responding to review criticism after publication or otherwise speaking for CCG, you don't act like an anti-Christian heathen, but off the clock, they don't care less what you do.
