Interview: Bahram Bigharaz | Video Game Critic at BaziCenter and Bazinama

We spoke to Bahram Bigharaz, journalist and video game critic at BaziCenter and Bazinama. It was fun speaking with Bahram and let’s hear what he has to say about the gaming industry.

 

NoobFeed: Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

Bahram Bigharaz: This is Bahram. I am working as a video game journalist since 2012. I started to work as a video game reporter in Bazecenter. At that time most of my job duty was translating news from English to Farsi. After a year I wrote my first ever review for the game called Trials Rising. Since that time, I mostly write reviews for Bazicenter. I also worked for Bazinama Magazine which is the only video game magazine in Iran. Besides that, I am the ultrasound technician and finished my education about a month ago. I moved from Iran to the US about six years ago.

 

What are your duties at BaziCenter and Bazinama?

Bahram Bigharaz: At Bazicenter I mostly write the reviews, but also I try to stream new games, participate in events like E3 and write the report about them. Beside that right now our team making weekly videos and I try to participate in making some items.

For Bazinama, I just write reviews for some of their monthly issues.

 

NoobFeed: As a journalist, what trends have you noticed in the gaming industry recently? Do you support where it’s heading?

Bahram Bigharaz: I believe the cloud and gaming services like EA Access and Xbox Game Pass is the trend in the gaming industry right now. Yes, I will support services like Xbox game pass. It helps indie studios and their games a lot. Also, it helps gamers like me to save a lot of money. About cloud gaming, I think it’s still early to say it can be the future of our industry, but I believe Google and Microsoft already see a lot of potential in cloud gaming and I feel it has the bright future for us as a gamer.

 

NoobFeed: Esports focuses on its social aspect a lot these days. Do you think there’s a lot more potential in terms of the social aspect of Esports than there currently is?

Bahram Bigharaz: We already saw a lot of positive feedback about it and I think current and next generation of gamers are really into it, so yes it has more potential.

 

NoobFeed: What is an effective approach to prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability? Have supervise others in doing this?

Bahram Bigharaz: It’s all about love to write. I like to write, and it helps me to find the best way to improve the readability of my works. Also, the experience helped me a lot to become a better writer. I remember when I was going to high school, I was that student that wrote the longest essays. Most of the time I have some stories in my mind that I like to write about them.

 

NoobFeed: What is the most challenging part of writing, especially when it comes to editorials and reviews?

Bahram Bigharaz: The most challenging part for me is to write reviews for the perfect games like God of War. Because I have to find and use the best terms to describe each part of the game to show the readers why this is the best game that you can play.

 

NoobFeed: Have you ever gone above and beyond the "call of duty" for publishing any piece?

Bahram Bigharaz: Yes. There were times it was much pressure on me in my personal life and also I had to write. Because of the embargo, I had to make my review ready on time and I put a lot of effort into it. But in the end, I am happy that I was successful in those hard situations.

 

NoobFeed: Have you ever received negative feedback on a piece of writing? What was your response?

Bahram Bigharaz: Yes. All the time! There is always positive and negative feedback about my reviews, previews or the scores I give. I try to discuss it with our readers in the bazicenter forum. In some cases, I use their feedback to improve my writing for future reviews.

 

NoobFeed: What have you found to be the best way to monitor the performance of your work and/or the work of your team?

Bahram Bigharaz: Commitment is the key. When I play the games and I have to write about it, it’s my commitment to describes everything in a professional manner. As I write more, my commitment to my job helps me to improve myself.

 

NoobFeed: Can you tell us about a time when you developed your own way of doing things other than following others?

Bahram Bigharaz: There are many new ideas that I tried before. Some of them were successful and some not. For example, as a journalist for the Persian website, we just started to make videos on different topics about video games and right now this is the new challenge for us in Bazicenter.

 

NoobFeed: We all have experienced this at least once. Will you share an experience when your ethics and patience were tested? How did you keep your emotions in check?

Bahram Bigharaz: I can say I experience sometimes during my career as a journalist. But I learned to be patient and that helped me a lot.

 

NoobFeed: What in gaming excites you the most? Outside of work, how much time do you spend playing video games in an average week?

Bahram Bigharaz: Ambition and going beyond like the experience that I had with the game like Alan Wake. I also like racing games a lot. So, you can find me playing Forza and Dirt a lot of times.

It depends. Usually, I play most of the weekend and when I am not busy during the week, I try to play video games.

 

NoobFeed: What experiences would you personally like video games to deliver in the future?

Bahram Bigharaz: I love to have access to my games when I am not home or visiting other countries and I believe with the cloud it will be possible soon.

 

NoobFeed: As a Journalist, you get a lot of developers trying to get your attention and to play their games, but they may not know the best ways. Do you have any tips that you can impart to make their pitches towards you and other journalists more effective?

Bahram Bigharaz: I think one of the aspects which many of the smaller developers forego while promoting their game is offering an interest piquing the first impression. Media outlets automatically cover larger games because of their titles or the studios that are making them, however, as an indie developer, you have to actually bring something worth covering unto the table to get media cover your product. This can range from a well thought out trailer to somehow emboldening special features of your game. Indie games are known for their innovation and offering of brand-new mechanics, I think developers should focus on these traits to get the attention of both media and consumers. There is also the clear effect of game conventions, bring your games to these conventions, even to smaller ones, people are more likely to play and comment on products they can actually see and play.

 

NoobFeed: With so many gaming websites and independent journalists trying to reach the same target audience segment, do you think the correct messages are being spread across?

Bahram Bigharaz: Yes. Our community during past years find the way to spread the power of video games around the world and that’s the reason we can see there are a lot of gaming websites with thousands of readers for each of them.

 

NoobFeed: Why is it important for gamers to maintain a healthy lifestyle? What advice would you have for a gamer looking to take the first steps towards a healthier lifestyle?

Bahram Bigharaz: Playing game is like other activities I do during my day. As much as I play games, I spend equal time to read book and exercise.

 

NoobFeed: What are the future plans for Bahram Bigharaz?

Bahram Bigharaz: As a journalist, I want to continue my journey in the world of video games. I like to write about them and someday I will write my story. Also, as the ultrasound technician, I need to find the balance between my job inside of the hospital and my job as a journalist. Finally, I like to talk about the struggle that our readers have in my country Iran. First of all, in Iran, there isn’t any price control for games. It means each local store has different prices for the same video game. Also, Sony, Nintendo, Valve, and Microsoft doesn’t have the store in our region and it almost impossible for us the buy games with Iranian currency. Finally, if we are able to buy games, we can’t participate in the multiplayer, because the publishers don’t want the Iranian players to play their games. I hope someday all countries around the world can experience the world of video games without any problems.

 

Many thanks to Bahram for doing the interview with us. We wish him all the very best with all of his ventures. Keep up with Bahram Bigharaz by following him on twitter.

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