When Evan Lahti is not falling out of helicopters, he is busy writing articles for arguably one of the most important gaming magazines of all time.

Lahti is the Executive Editor of PCGamer, a popular PC gaming magazine founded in 1993.

“It’s a little cliché to say that writing about games, being a games journalist, is kind of your dream job, but people that end up there don’t end up there by accident, right?” Lahti said.

Videogames originated on the PC, but in recent times the cheaper and more user friendly gaming console, like the PlayStation or Xbox, has become the more popular choice.

PC gaming unfortunately has become a niche market, used mostly by strategy buffs and hardware enthusiasts.

Yet PCGamer has survived through all of this, and is the best-selling PC games magazine in the US and UK. Evan Lahti’s passion for gaming and game writing survived through all of this too.

“I grew up reading game magazines,” Lahti said. “I grew up reading PSM, which is about PlayStation games, I grew up reading PCGamer of course, and I grew up reading Ultra Game Players, and EGM, and Nintendo Power, and all those guys, and [game writing] was definitely something I’ve been curious about and wanting to do since I was younger.”

Lahti studied print journalism at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, but he finds his in-job experience more valuable.

“To be totally honest, my experience, internships, direct mentorships, working with an editor, and things like that have all been much more valuable than the classroom learning,” Lahti said.

Lahti joined PCGamer as an Associate Editor in July 2008, before being promoted twice, once to Senior Editor in December 2009, and now to Executive Editor as of March 2012. Looking back, he never thought about reaching this prestigious position.

“I probably wasn’t thinking about that,” Lahti said. “I was probably just worried about what my fellow editors thought of my first pieces. I was definitely more concerned with more of the short term situation when I came on.”

But although he was not expecting it, he was excited to get it.

“I was excited, sure,” Lahti said. “I was the youngest person in our organization to have that title.”

Lahti was 27 when he was promoted. From a management perspective, Lahti has an important message for those looking to get into gaming journalism.

“We are often asked by people who write about games, how to do it, and my response to that continues to be it’s not as hard as you think. We are looking for writers, freelancers, on a daily basis,” Lahti said. “I honestly think that for somebody right now, it’s unusually easy to get in. If you can write well, which I don’t think is asking that much, and if you can distinguish yourself and just deliver basic expectations, you would get a shot.”

PCGamer continues to exist, and has an electronic and print magazine, along with an online website, and Evan Lahti continues to fall out of helicopters.  Here is to hoping they both stay on their feet.