Hi there! My name is Laura de Fluiter and I’m 22 years old. I’m currently studying Journalism, but besides that I work as a freelance editor for XGN.nl: a Dutch website about gaming, film/tv and tech. I have been a part of their team for over 2 years now and during these years I’ve written many different reviews, interviews, previews, specials, news articles and more.
More about me…
I’ve been a gamer ever since I was a little girl. I remember going to the Intertoys in my town where I bought the very last copy of Pokémon Blue they had in stock, together with a bright pink Gameboy Color. I also spent hours playing games like Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation. However, I didn’t have my very own console until around 2010, when I got my Xbox 360. That’s when my massive gaming obsession really awakened. Which has brought me to where I am now: owning every current-gen console and handheld out there.
Apart from gaming, I’m also very passionate about music. That’s why I also work as an editor for the website DutchScene, which covers a variety of alternative music genres like punkrock, metal, indie and poprock.
Writing for XGN.nl
I wanted to do more than just play games. This is one of the main reasons why I started working as a freelancer for XGN.nl about 2 years ago. I happened to know one of the guys that worked there and he told me that they were looking for people to expand the team. That same afternoon I sent my first e-mail, introducing myself, and the next week I was part of the XGN.nl team.
I have a bit of advice for you: Get as much experience as you can.
What followed then was basically a rollercoaster of really cool experiences. I went to my first press film screening just a week or two after I started writing for XGN.nl and the first overseas press trip followed shortly. During the following years I wrote reviews on a wide variety of games and I’ve been to big events like Gamescom and Paris Games Week.
Just a few weeks ago, I went to the head office of Nintendo Europe in Frankfurt to preview the upcoming Pokémon games – yes, I’m still a big fan, even after all these years (Just take a look at the header image). Last summer I was at Gamescom, where I got to play tons of cool games and I interviewed DeeJ, community manager at Bungie, about Destiny’s latest expansion: Rise Of Iron. Last year I interviewed Jesse van Dijk, concept artist at Bungie, about Destiny’s The Taken King expansion. I’m a hardcore Destiny player, so getting to interview these guys was pretty awesome.
My future goals
Last year it was time for me to do an internship, which I chose to do at XGN.nl: I wanted to hone my skills and figure out if working in gaming journalism all day, every day, was really the thing for me. The answer was YES. It really was the thing for me. This also brings me to one of my future goals: to work as a journalist in the games industry. But as I said before, I also love music, so working in music journalism is another one of my goals.
Tips and advice
If you’re reading this and thinking “that’s what I want to do!” or if you’re already trying to pursue a career in (gaming) journalism, I have a bit of advice for you: get as much experience as you can. Start writing for websites, preferably about your subject of choice (but not necessarily), even if it’s voluntary work – a lot of it is. Start up your own blog and get it out there. Talk to people and expand your network as much as you can. It’s important that other people or companies can find you and that they can see the stuff that you’ve done, so don’t be afraid to show off a bit. But most importantly, don’t quit because it seems like it will be tough.
Come find me!
Are you interested in reading some of the stuff I wrote? You can check out a lot of my articles on my personal blog. If you need to get in touch with me, send an email to l.d.fluiter@xgn.nl. You can also find me on the following platforms. So don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to know more about me, if you have any questions or if you simply want to play a game of Destiny with me (or another game of course)!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LauradeFluiter
Xbox Live: Lrraa
PSN: xLrraa
Nintendo Network ID: xLrraa
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