Needed: PC writer.

[SackAttack]

We're just getting swamped (well, relative to what we're used to) with PC titles, lately, and while I've got a couple of writers who are able to cover some of it, we've got more titles than we can handle. Some recent stuff that's sitting around awaiting review, just as a for-instance:

The Political Machine
Rome: Total War
The Sims 2
Call of Duty: United Offensive

The last two are currently being covered, but I list them as an example of the sort of titles that we're getting on a fairly regular basis that need to be handled, and we're more ill-equipped to do so at the moment than I had thought.

Two things worth noting. A) There's no pay involved, but any game you review, you get to keep. B) You need to be capable of not just competent criticism, but timely criticism as well. If I send a game to you, I need to know that I'm going to have the review back in reasonably short order, and reasonably short order doesn't mean "a month from now."

If you're interested, let me know. We could use the help, but for the moment, we only have one spot open.

[SackAttack]

Gotta run to my 4 pm Philsophy class. I'll be back in about two hours.

Just a bump so it (hopefully) doesn't slide off the front page between now and then.

[SirFozzie]

Count me in. Been a while since I did writing, but you need it, you got it.

[Airhog]

I would like the opportunity to review something. Rome: total war would be my first choice followed by Call of duty, but only if Call of duty is a stand alone product.

[Deattribution]

I'd be interested as well.

[SackAttack]

Thanks for the response, guys.

A few things to point out:

1) I'm not looking for random one-shot reviewers - I'm looking to find somebody who's going to be a long-term addition to our staff. In other words, whoever ultimately joins us is going to be our *trumpet fanfare* Senior PC Writer. If you'd like to write a sample review of something you're currently playing so I can evaluate your suitability, by all means, feel free.

2) The above list is not a "come and get it." It's an example of the sorts of games the *trumpet fanfare* Senior PC Writer can expect to receive. All who are interested, as I said, are certainly welcome to submit a writing sample.

Some criteria as far as that goes:

1) I don't care about your background and credentials. If you've spent 2 years writing for Computer Games Monthly, that's fantastic. If you've never written a critical review in your life, that's fine too. I'm not interested in what you've done; I'm interested in what you're going to do for me.

2) There is no plug-and-play template for our reviews, other than the final scores (which you can see on any Gamenikki review). Those are areas that must be addressed in reasonable detail within the review, but outside of that, you have the freedom to tackle the review however you want. You aren't going to get marked off for a short review, so long as you've hit the salient points and you're expressing yourself effectively. By the same token, writing a four page opus magnus isn't going to earn you brownie points. Four pages of crap is still crap, after all.

3) Your expected turnaround time, should you be hired, is going to be about a week, total. That includes both playtime and writing the review. In some cases, I may allow for more than that, if you can demonstrate sound reasoning as to why a week isn't enough, but given that we're already behind the 8-ball by having to turn around and ship the game out, there is a limit to how much time we can allocate to each game - particularly in scenarios like this week where I came home to discover The Sims 2, Rome: Total War, and the Call of Duty expansion in my mail within a 3-day span (Having two or three titles on your plate simultaneously would be a valid reason for needing a little extra time, incidentally - I'm not a TOTAL slavedriver - but again, it has to be within reason). Keep this in mind when writing your sample review. A game you've just recently begun playing is going to better reveal your critical evaluative skills than, say, FOF 2004.

4) Proper spelling and grammar absolutely counts. Yes, it's my job to make sure that any mistakes that get overlooked by the writer get corrected before the review goes live, but I'm not getting paid for this, either. I'm a working college student doing this because I love to play games - and I assume you folks share that reasoning. The less time I have to spend rewriting your reviews or correcting massive spelling mistakes, the less likely you are to get a ticking package as your next assignment. :D More to the point, I will very likely dismiss out of hand any sample reviews that have multiple spelling errors and gross misuse of the English language.

That's all, really. Use an economy of language, use the language properly, keep the review interesting, and try to choose a fairly recent game for your sample review: it'll make my final decision much easier.

[TazFTW]

Since this is for PC games what are the min req for a review machine?

[SackAttack]

The newer the better, obviously, since it isn't two-year old games that we're getting. We're getting stuff like Doom 3, The Sims 2, Far Cry, Rome: Total War, etc. We get UbiSoft stuff on request - like Chessmaster and Political Machine - but we haven't gotten Splinter Cell or Rainbow Six (although we could, if we wanted to).

Kind of keep in mind what sort of machine you'd need to run games like those. My desktop (were it functional) is a PIII, 500 mHz with 512 RAM and I think around 10 GB HD space, and I couldn't run most of what we've been getting, if any. That's why I'm trying to get a dedicated PC writer. The idea being, if you're a dedicated PC writer, you're probably also a dedicated PC *gamer,* in which case specs shouldn't be an issue, right?

[Draft Dodger]

hey, you made no mention of trumpet fanfare in your PMs. This changes *dramatic music* EVERYTHING!

[SackAttack]

Whoops. Shit. The trumpet fanfare was supposed to be a secret.

*cue Strongbad* Delete! Delete!

Computer voice: Saved forever.

>_> <_<

[SackAttack]

Just bumping as a reminder for those who may have forgotten in the weekend excitement.

[Airhog]

SackAttack: I will try either tonight or tomorrow to review something I am currently playing. I would love the chance to become a long term writer.

[SackAttack]

Sounds good. I've got a few people 'auditioning,' as it were, but all comers are welcome to submit a writing sample. Somebody said something to me the other day along the lines of "You're just trying to get free reviews by soliciting samples!"

I don't know how many others are sharing those concerns, but I did want to address that publicly: only the writer selected to join our staff will have their work published, and the published work is unlikely to be the sample (we've got other things that are more pressing).

Just for what it's worth.

[Blackadar]

Being a reviewer can be fun when you're reviewing stuff you like.

It is a MAJOR drag when you're forced to spend 20-30 hours with a title like Asspicker Tycoon.

Guest columnist is the place to be. :)

[SackAttack]

So YOU'RE the one who stole our review copy of Asspicker Tycoon! I wondered why that never showed up.

[SackAttack]

Levity aside, Blackie is right on the count, but what he ignores is that if you're reviewing an anticipated game that falls flat, it may suck to have to review it, but at least you didn't pay $50 for it ;)

[Godzilla Blitz]

Sack: I'm curious, how busy do you think the reviewer will be in terms of games/month?

Also, does the reviewer have a choice as to which categories of games he/she gets? I wouldn't be a good reviewer of RTS games, for example, as I haven't played enough of them to draw valid comparisons with other games in the genre.

[Abe Sargent]

I'm just curious what your hits look like?


-Anxiety




We're just getting swamped (well, relative to what we're used to) with PC titles, lately, and while I've got a couple of writers who are able to cover some of it, we've got more titles than we can handle. Some recent stuff that's sitting around awaiting review, just as a for-instance:

The Political Machine
Rome: Total War
The Sims 2
Call of Duty: United Offensive

The last two are currently being covered, but I list them as an example of the sort of titles that we're getting on a fairly regular basis that need to be handled, and we're more ill-equipped to do so at the moment than I had thought.

Two things worth noting. A) There's no pay involved, but any game you review, you get to keep. B) You need to be capable of not just competent criticism, but timely criticism as well. If I send a game to you, I need to know that I'm going to have the review back in reasonably short order, and reasonably short order doesn't mean "a month from now."

If you're interested, let me know. We could use the help, but for the moment, we only have one spot open.

[SackAttack]

Sack: I'm curious, how busy do you think the reviewer will be in terms of games/month?

Not nearly as busy as our console writers. Like I said, this is swamped relative to what we're used to. The flow of PC titles isn't remotely close to the flow of console titles that we get.

Also, does the reviewer have a choice as to which categories of games he/she gets? I wouldn't be a good reviewer of RTS games, for example, as I haven't played enough of them to draw valid comparisons with other games in the genre.

To a certain extent. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team, as it were, but generally we try to match genres with interests. Not gonna hook a Doom 3 junkie up with, say, Evil Genius. But if all of the folks capable of doing PC reviews are busy and a game just has to be reviewed, then the best thing to do is review the game on its own merits and not worry about comparisons.

[SackAttack]

I'm just curious what your hits look like?

We're not in IGN's, GameSpy's, or GameSpot's league, but we do well enough that we get plenty of product.

[Blackadar]

Levity aside, Blackie is right on the count, but what he ignores is that if you're reviewing an anticipated game that falls flat, it may suck to have to review it, but at least you didn't pay $50 for it ;)

True. I didn't have to pay $50 for my copy of Ultima 9. I just had to waste 50 hours of my life on it. :(