Eric Waechter a.k.a. Candied Skull
Recent FAQs: Bully, GTA: Liberty City Stories
Why do you write FAQs? What got you started?
I've been trying to get my foot in the door writing for pay for some time.I didn't really care if it was about video games or not, as long as I was writing and getting a check.Sites like CheatPlanet offer a free place to show off one’s work, and since I am a big video game fan and have been a guide user for so long, I figured it was a chance to give back as well as display what I can do. It worked too. I am published in a gaming magazine and actually have some income to put on my tax forms this year.
What is the most difficult game you've written a guide for?
The one I'm currently working on is the most difficult guide so far, Resistance:Fall of Man. Unfortunately, I'm doing it under a contract for another site, so it will only be available there and on my own website. I have a deadline on it, so how long it takes is up to them... it's just up to me to not sleep at night and keep playing and typing until my fingers bleed.Outside of that, I'd say a guide for any GTA game is a challenge.There is just so much to do. Bully was just plain fun.
“[a guide] has to keep the reader every bit as entertained as the game itself”
What kind of response do you get from readers?
I usually start off getting questions about the games, and enough of them prompt me to update the guides so that the questions get answered because sometimes there are just so many e-mails, I can't answer them all (Bully is a good example of that!). I'm also getting to be known for being demanding about how people respond to me. I hate bad grammar and spelling and despise internet shorthand. I have received a few nasty e-mails about that including one that called me a "Grammar Nazi," but I have received even more e-mails from people writing to just say thanks for demanding it.
What makes an FAQ good?
A guide has got to be funny. No question about it. It has to keep the reader every bit as entertained as the game itself does or people are going to move on to someone else's work. Keeping the reader entertained makes them tell others about your guide and makes them come back to look for more of your work. Being good at that also attracts the attention of the people that want to pay you to write which is very important to me since it is how I make a living. As for a style, I like to write in a conversational tone, like I'm sitting there with the gamer and we're talking. It makes the guide easier to read and the reader more comfortable with me if they feel they need to write with a question or comment. How I write a guide varies by what kind of game it is. Different styles of games will dictate the method I use to get the guide written.
