I'm looking for a few good game journalists...

[10/22/11] I am in the process of contacting candidates to fill the positions. No additional applications are needed at this time.

[10/20/11] There wasn’t much response to the initial listing, so this post is being updated and the rate offered to qualified applicants is being doubled to $100/month. As such, I’m not actively searching for more than 2 new writers. I won’t be choosing people who I don’t feel are a good fit for the position, either. If there are 20 applicants but none of them are right for the position, I won’t be offering a position to anyone.

HonestGamers is going through some changes. They're not major changes that will rock the core of the site. That's over and done. But they're changes, and maybe you can be a part of them. Maybe you can make some money doing that. Interested? Keep reading!

What's the pay?

This position will pay $100/month, on a month-to-month basis. I can’t promise more than one month of work because (at least presently) the work that any writers produce will not pay for itself and I have to pay incentives out of pocket instead of treating myself to a life of luxury. Hopefully, the site’s revenue opportunities will improve over time and the rate that I can pay writers will also improve as a result.

With that said, $100 for what will likely wind up being around 10 hours of work isn’t all bad. You’ll be writing about games, after all, and gaining experience and industry knowledge. The main reason most folks would likely hesitate is the fact that the work will be spread out over the course of a month (see more details below). You can’t just knock it all out over the course of a day or two and call it good.

What do you have to do to earn your $100?

You need to write and post one high-quality post each weekday, which works out to 20 or 21 posts each month. That's around $5.00 per post. Mostly, those posts will be news posts on the main site (or forums, in some cases) that will take you around 20 minutes to a half-hour to post (depending on how good you are at finding assets and using the site’s content management system). News posts include previews, interviews and general news stories. The usual length will be around 300 or 400 words, and you'll be expected to submit any related game profiles to the site database (if a game isn't already listed) and an accompanying image asset to make your article look pretty if one is available. If on a given day you feel inspired to produce more than one post, that’s terrific but I can’t pay extra.

Who I'm looking for

I am looking for 1 or 2 amazing people (the number depends on the quantity of quality applications that I receive, really). There are a few specific qualities I need:

1) You need to be good with grammar. Really good. I don't want to constantly find myself having to clean up your writing before I'm happy to have it posted on the site. You've heard of casual professional dress code? That's what I'm looking for in your writing.

2) You need to have a good knowledge of the industry, and the more of your knowledge that is first-hand knowledge, the better. If you started playing games on the NES or Genesis, that's terrific. If your first system was the Xbox or PlayStation 2, that's less terrific. The industry has a rich heritage and I'd like to find people who can capture that with easy authority.

3) You need to like games and the industry. There are many, many gaming blogs full of jaded writers who wouldn't be happy if the industry handed them a wheelbarrow full of gold. Not every story has to be linked to a scathing critique of DRM, online passes, hacked hardware and anti-piracy. I'm looking for people who are able to spot and be excited about the good things and not always harp on the bad. This is an entertainment industry. There are good things.

I am looking for team players who are interested in growing as writers and gamers, who are ready to invest time and energy into pushing HonestGamers to the next level through thoughtful industry commentary, interviews and reports.

How do I apply?

Send an email to jason AT honestgamers DOT com and tell me about yourself. If you're really looking to make a good impression, copy the following questions into your email and answer them:

1) What were some of the first systems and games you played?

2) What are some of your favorite game franchises?

3) What current-generation systems do you own?

4) Do you live in the continental United States?

5) Do you have a Twitter account (if so, please list it)?

6) What are some links to recent content that you have posted online for other sites or for your blog?

Answer the above questions and give any other info that you think might be pertinent. I'll be looking through any applications and hopefully will get back to qualified candidates soon to answer any questions or get more info. With any luck, I'll have the positions filled soon, so definitely write soon if you're interested!

HonestGameroni?

There are elements of Gameroni that worked very well and there are elements of Gameroni that worked well but aren't a good fit for HonestGamers. Then there are elements of Gameroni that didn't work well at all.

This is an attempt to apply the elements of Gameroni that worked well and are a logical and good fit for HonestGamers. I'm definitely not looking to replicate Gameroni, which had some failings I'd rather not repeat, but when that site was working at its best it was doing some exciting things that any quality site will do well.

I'm prepared to invest more money now (as much as I can over the next 6 months or so) to find even greater success at HonestGamers while featuring content that will enhance rather than detract from our reviews-centric community. This is the big push and yesterday morning represented the beginning of a ramp-up that I hope will allow the site to grow rather than continuing along the apathetic path that it was following toward non-existence.

Adding news writers to the team is only one part of that process, by the way. Look for more announcements and contests and opportunities as they become possible, hopefully in the near future!

"Not every story has to be linked to a scathing critique of DRM, online passes, hacked hardware and anti-piracy"

Hm. I feel as if my ears are pricking a little bit. :p

Curious: Canadians need not apply?

I was going to ask much the same question. Is the 'do you live in the United States?' question an exclusive one? If so, I won't waste your time or mine giving this any more thought.

My guess is that the international question has to do with whether you'll be able to recieve and play games that the site needs reviewed.

Not sure if that's it. I don't live in the States and I've gotten lots of games from Venter.

The question about location is there so I can know if people will be easily able to attend events in the United States or elsewhere, if that should be an opportunity that arises in the future. There's no location requirement to post news stories, but many of the big conventions (E3, PAX, GDC, etc.) are closer if you live in the US and happen to want to attend them.

Games are also much easier to send out if you live in the US, though news writers aren't necessarily going to be sent games. They're being selected to write news articles. Not every news writer is necessarily going to be writing staff reviews. I do send games to Canada for a few writers, but it takes longer for reviews and I kill my hand every time filling out the stupid customs form (they make you press hard with the pen to write through three or four layers of paper) and there's a greater likelihood that a package will get lost. Canada Post is not as reliable as the US Postal Service, sadly.

If you live somewhere in Europe or elsewhere and you meet the real requirements--great writer, available to post every weekday, positive outlook, interest in being a team player--I'm happy to work with you even if you live in Antarctica. This is the Internet, so location isn't a deal breaker. After all, I live in Oregon. That's not exactly a hotspot for the game industry!

I'm increasing the incentive because I haven't heard from any qualified applicants and I'm still looking to find some people who can bring the right content to the site. The hunt for the right people will continue as long as it takes.

while i could probably fill most of the requirements.. the whole thing about keeping a positive outlook as opposed to actually BEING HONEST about games has pretty much just flushed this site down the shitter for me. how can you HONESTLY review anything if you cant be objective?

Aren't you as excited as Venter about the next new gimmick from Nintendo?

There are a few imaginative writers hanging out on the GameFAQs top ten board these days and maybe someone there might be interested? And good luck with finding the right person. Your commitment to this site is admirable. :)

I really must try and submit some new stuff here, seeing this topic makes me feel guilty!

It's not an order to love everything. It's a note to indicate that I'm looking for people who are able to excuse themselves from the snark competition as they report on the news. There's a big difference between that and telling people "Hey, when you review games you need to censor yourself and see only the positive in things."

threetimes, I hope that you will submit here some more in the near future. I'm always delighted when you do, and when anyone talented does. As for the Top Ten board, it's difficult to just promote something like this at GameFAQs. Repeatedly, it has been proven that the mods there are on high alert and will delete anything that can be construed as promotion for another site or contest. That seems to hold especially true when the other site is HonestGamers, for some reason.

"It's a note to indicate that I'm looking for people who are able to excuse themselves from the snark competition as they report on the news. "

..it was very obvious what you meant, Jason :D

But I guess one view is that some might like what games /can/ be, and sometimes are. But loathe the games-industry in general.

For example. Capcom dropped the Devil May Cry collection announcement a couple of days ago. It's great news, like the MGS collection, specially because it's on one disc, and because they both will be multiplatform. Other extremely welcome news is that instead of choosing one of the console-versions for the baseline, the DMC3:SE they've used is the PC version. And the pov in the game has been changed in the game-engine to fit with widescreen. So that "port" will be all kinds of awesome, and by all accounts the MGS collection will be as well.

But it takes a ... special kind of indifference to fail to note that Resident Evil never got a one-disc collection, that the lighting in the gamecube version of RE4 is still missing from the "multiplatform" version (they used a shader-driven version instead, that sometimes look better because of the overlay effects, but mostly is less scary since the lighting flashes and in-scene effects are missing). And that the spread out releases and some license issues with the "collector's editions" in some territories prevented the one-disc version. Just like some platform exclusivity bull made RE1&2 never available in all territories on the PSN, while not available on PC or elsewhere at all, etc.

I mean, I'm not saying it's necessary to go through all that just to write about the DMC collection. But.. well.. it's possible to be very happy about /some/ news, perhaps because you're not smiling from ear to ear when reading the press-releases in the first place..

And we really do read more than enough of the usual "fact-sheet rewritten into casual language" already anyway..

I had a whole refutation for the "objective review" argument, but I'm withholding it. I really don't want to get into that discussion again.

You don't need a refutation -- writing objective reviews isn't possible. If someone says otherwise, make them show you an example of objective reviewing first. They'll fail.

//Zig

^Yeah, pretty much.

It is impossible but it's also something a reviewer should show he attempts to strive for.

I disagree -- the ability to form subjective opinions is what makes humans great. Objectivity correlates to distance; too much of that, and a reviewer is likely to leave out important details or misunderstand the game's entire concept.

//Zig

Those who strive to be objective strive to have no opinion at all. They should write encyclopedias instead of reviews.

Objectivity makes sense in a science, where results can be directly measured and causality generally needs to be demonstrated for something to be true. To move from theory to fact is a rigorous process. Video game reviews are about why or why not you liked a game. They are similar in that causality needs to be established, but there's no way of proving it true. Someone's "objective" opinion will always be a theory, not a fact.

But someone's subjective opinion is a fact, in that at least one person holds that opinion.

I find the latter more useful. I'd rather know how you feel than have you guess how I will.

Does it take a while, these days, for new submissions to show up in "submissions" (I'm looking on the blogs)? It used to be a couple seconds, but I don't see my recent submissions on there. Probably due to all the new code, but I thought it was worth asking in case I messed something up in the new submission form.

I suppose objectivity isn't the word I'm looking for then. I guess what I mean is that a reviewer should strive to understand gamers, maybe even more so than the software itself. The ability to leave your bitterness or positive bias and recognize solid design or poor design comes from the experiences you know other gamers may have.

You could certainly write a brilliantly opinionated piece about WoW and how pointless it is, but if its just an article backing up your own tastes I wouldn't call it a review. Reviews are professional for a reason, there's the time and money of others on the line.

It's the new code. Those pages are referencing a completely different database table that is no longer used.