San Francisco (CA) – Getting paid to review video games is a dream job to some and CNET/Gamespot may have a position for you.  Management is still reeling from the high-profile resignations (some say firings) of four of the site’s top editors and Cnet now appears to be filling those vacant positions.

The jobs were announced both on Cnet’s jobs page and a journalism jobs website appropriately named journalismjobs.com.  Two of the positions, associate editor II and associate editor, deal directly with game reviews while the third position of copywriter handles more mundane tasks of advertising and banners.  The jobs were posted from February 15th to February 27th 2008.

Candidates should obviously have excellent knowledge of video games and according to the announcement, “should have played games his/her entire life, and should a great deal of experience with, and a strong working knowledge of PC games, as well as all other platforms, including the Xbox 360, the PS3, the Nintendo Wii, the PS2, the Nintendo DS, and the Sony PSP.”

Of course being a Gamespot editor isn’t all fun and games, just ask former editorial director Jeff Gerstmann who left the company in November 2007.  Gerstmann a low review score to the Eidos game ‘Kane and Lynch: Dead Men’.  According to industry reports, Eidos, an advertiser on Gamespot, may have complained to Cnet management about Gerstmann’s review.  Cnet denies that Gerstmann was forced to resign.  Fellow editors Alex Navarro, Frank Provo and Ryan Davis also left Gamespot in the following months. Gerstmann and Davis have since formed their own gaming podcast called Arrow Pointing Down.

The workload that awaits these two new editors will be quite heavy because they are basically replacing four senior level guys (assuming Gamespot didn’t hire any new folks already).  Hey, but at least Cnet is being honest in the job description by saying, “The ideal candidate will be ready to tackle a hefty and steady stream of review work each week.” – Yeah no kidding.

No word on if the candidates will face mandatory Eidos indoctrination on their weeks of the job. 

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