GBAtemp RECRUITING WRITERS - CLOSED

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E3 may have come and gone, but the next dates have been set, and what better chance to celebrate that notion than to join the team? That’s right, everyone, GBAtemp is now seeking talented writers who can seize the initiative to be able to cover the latest information in the video gaming entertainment industry. There are many benefits in becoming a writer for our site, and in order to become one, you must fulfill the following requirements. The following terms are non-negotiable:

-Must be 16 years or older (17+ for convention level writing)
-Must have a strong proficiency in the English language, write at professional level with maturity
-Can work cohesively with a team
-Must be independent enough to be able to find information and report on it
-Must present writing samples covering video gaming industry material at time of application submission
-Until further notice, the positions are non-paid positions

If you have the following traits, great! You are looking solid already. GBAtemp is looking for the following roles to be fulfilled: Editorial Writer, News Writer, and possibly, someone that can work with media to cover events.

Each position is expected to be able to do the following, in addition to the requirements held above:

Editorial Writer – Be able to post one editorial biweekly. Highly needed position. Can post and cover for a News Writer in case of emergency, or to assist website in times of slow news periods. You will be able to edit and correct mistakes that other writers may present in their articles. You must have a strong background in writing for this.

News Writer – You are expected to write one or two news articles a week. You will essentially be the pillar that keeps the site’s portal going. Content is what drives the site! Your role is important, too! Your community is expecting material to be covered, and you’re required to be able to go out on your own to other sites and find material that interests you! You, too, must have a good grasp of the English language. You are representing the most important aspect of the website!

Media – At the E3 conference this year, it became quickly apparent that a lot of teams are now using multimedia in order to cover material. It is a great platform to get material across, and if you are skilled in this field (video, interviews, etc.) then this is a great position for you! You are expected to post one or two media pieces every two weeks.

These positions carry their fair share of incentives. The positions and the quantity of submissions are negotiable with GBAtemp, but by being a no show you are subject to being dismissed unless you have an explanation. And don’t worry, we completely understand that sometimes, things happen in life! This is why we would like to hire multiple people so that we are able to cover material in a timely manner! However, anything longer than a month without prior notice is subject to dismissal. No excuses there!

As far as incentives go, you can possibly earn the following:

· Access to the GBAtemp Magazine Staff forum, where you can chat with your fellow writers and moderators, and discuss possible news scoops
· Access to play titles that GBAtemp acquires, and review them. Sometimes, these titles come out early for us! Any position is eligible to participate in the review program!
· Have the possibility to attend conventions and conferences, such as E3

GBAtemp wants you to be able to succeed and learn from your experiences here. We also want you to be independent and go out there to make us proud. If you think that you fit the criterion for these positions, you are highly encouraged to apply! To apply, please do the following:

Please send an email to BOTH [email protected] and [email protected] with the following information:

· Your first and last name
· Your forum user name
· Location
· The position(s) you desire
· Your Skype username (if possible!)
· Two samples of your writing, covering gaming industry material
· A brief description of your writing experience
· Your strengths and your weaknesses – this is highly important for a step because being able to identify where your weaknesses are allows you to be able to self-critique yourself and improve! It also allows us on the team to focus on developing and honing that trait so that it no longer becomes a weakness and instead becomes a strength!
· Consoles that you own, if any
· Miscellaneous facts about yourself – this is where you advertise yourself and tell us why you really want this position! Tell us something about yourself that you think is unique!

Your application is graded more heavily (in fact, mostly) on the writing samples you provide, the self-evaluation, and special facts about yourself. In some cases, your location information that you provide us will be considered in terms of coverage positions and on where we need coverage the most. If you are an applicant of intrigue for the team, you will be invited to a texted chat interview on Skype. All of the details you mentioned are going to be kept strictly confidential, and if you succeed in the Skype interview, consider yourself a part of the team! Due to the popularity and quantity of submissions, response time may be delayed, but rest assured we will work as fast as we can to get a response back to you in time!

Best of luck, applicants, and hope to see you on the other side of the closed door! If you have any questions about this application, please feel free to send a private message here on the forums to @T-hug or @Ryukouki.
 

Ryukouki

See you later, guys.
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Can I do the "Apple method" and copy something that was already good but make it better?

No.

EDIT: Minor amendment to submission made. Please submit two writing samples, regardless of the position you're applying for. Besides, if you're applying for the position, you should have written multiple pieces at some point in your life, have you not? :)
 

Sterling

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If you guys need someone for backup review or one-offs, I'm usually available. I'm not currently employed so full schedules aren't an issue usually. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm kinda a lazy arse (and thus have a hard time actually finishing games at times), I'd actually offer my work on a more regular basis. But I think I'd better serve as a freelance agent, haha.
 

Tom Bombadildo

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Salary expectations?
A nice, healthy total of $0.

You will not (currently) be paid any real money for your writing here, at most you will receive a game to review (if, that is, you're approved) and possible access to future gaming conventions, if we can get passes.
 

Vengenceonu

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No.

EDIT: Minor amendment to submission made. Please submit two writing samples, regardless of the position you're applying for. Besides, if you're applying for the position, you should have written multiple pieces at some point in your life, have you not? :)
I'm good, just trolling. Btw you should make it known this isn't a paying job to save you future headaches.
 

Ryukouki

See you later, guys.
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Sorry if this is a dumb question but how would this apply to news writers?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Is there a deadline of any sort?

The deadline does apply because we open up reviews to all members of staff. As far as a deadline is concerned... depends on the interest. And seeing that there's a good amount of that, tentatively end of month, depends on the number of actual tangible applicants.
 

ShonenJump

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The deadline does apply because we open up reviews to all members of staff. As far as a deadline is concerned... depends on the interest. And seeing that there's a good amount of that, tentatively end of month, depends on the number of actual tangible applicants.
So for now its just wait and see what happens
 

Qtis

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Could you (or any other reviewer) go a little more in-depth about this point? How much difference is there, in general, between a game you review and one you don't? Just curious
I've done quite a few reviews here and there, both on GBAtemp and off. It's purely out of the pleasure of writing something, especially when I have more time at hand. As @Nathan Drake mentioned, it's not just fun and games. I've played a few games I'd never have thought of buying and have liked them (as have many other reviewers). On the other hand, I've played games I'd never play again, even if I was paid to do it.

In general, we have had two types of reviews, physical (hardware such as carts, controllers, etc) and digital (mainly games and software). They all have different requirements. Each person has a different method of writing a review and thus the differences can be minimal or huge in terms of your question. I tend to play the games I review as soon as possible as it's more preferable to have the review ready sooner than later (especially if there is an embargo date on the review). This does not mean I won't enjoy the game or that I want to make a sloppy review. It just means I have a target date for the final version of the review. This includes images, text, formatting, the works.

Games, which I'm not currently reviewing, are very different. I may spend an hour hunting deer in Far Cry or looking for the most odd ways to annihilate a whole town in Fallout 3 without a second thought and reloading afterwards. If I had all the time in the world, this could easily be done for all games, but in many cases the review would need to be out before you can really start digging into the game (just look at my Witcher 3 review, it took me about 100 hours to really say what the game is).

As for hardware reviews, it may take hours to just test if the thing works with the expected software. For example the Everdrive reviews we have made in the hardware section each required quite a few hours of just starting a new game and playing for a while to see if the game works. In general, a normal user doesn't troubleshoot a device for a weekend without actually using it for its actual purpose. A reviewer may sometimes have to do it. In some cases, you'll even have to find the reason (!) for the error. It could just be an issue with a new firmware release or perhaps its just the device's specs that limit the capabilities.

ps. This is not even getting into being biased. Everyone is biased in some way, but being open about it and trying to make an objective review is the key. Subjective views can be present, but they should be clearly stated as that. The internet is full of reviewers giving the latest CoD, GTA or Mario game a 10/10 or a 0/10 without much afterthought on why it was a 0 or 10 compared to something else.
 
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VinsCool

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Nice initiative! I would have offered myself for writting news or reviews but my english level is below a 12 year old US kid's level :D

Good luck for those who apply and get accepted :)
 

p1ngpong

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Although we appreciate peoples enthusiasm can we please have less of the "I would do it but I can't for x reasons" posts from people as they just clutter up what is a fairly serious thread.

As for why you would want to join up to the team, firstly you would be contributing to GBAtemp in a positive way and that's something we all like to do right? Secondly we are in a position now where we have a ton of devs who are throwing review codes our way, this means you get legitimate access to review codes for a massive variety of games early and for free. Thirdly it isn't just games that we receive review samples for, we also receive samples of hardware be it flashcarts and even consoles.

Lastly and more importantly by being a GBAtemp staff member you will grow a tremendously vast epeen that you can crush your enemies with with just a single swipe. :gun:
 

Ryukouki

See you later, guys.
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Thanks everyone for the interest thus far, lots of promising applications have been received thus far. There may be a slight delay from the estimate of 72 hours on the application responses since there's quite a few and we'd like to properly go through each and every one of them, but rest assured a response will be provided soon. :)
 

yodamerlin

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I decided to write a piece to see if I liked writing about gaming. I mostly do editorial stuff and I think it turned out quite nice. The editorial requirements, however, are far out of my no experience background in writing, apart from a few April fools jokes... But who doesn't write a few?

Depending on whether I can write another piece before the end of the week (because it's a biweekly position) I may apply to the job. If not, then I'll release my article anyway.

Just one question, you are going to be getting a lot of news and editorial articles of a fairly high quality, will you be publishing any of these, with permission of course?
 

Ryukouki

See you later, guys.
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I decided to write a piece to see if I liked writing about gaming. I mostly do editorial stuff and I think it turned out quite nice. The editorial requirements, however, are far out of my no experience background in writing, apart from a few April fools jokes... But who doesn't write a few?

Depending on whether I can write another piece before the end of the week (because it's a biweekly position) I may apply to the job. If not, then I'll release my article anyway.

Just one question, you are going to be getting a lot of news and editorial articles of a fairly high quality, will you be publishing any of these, with permission of course?

Anyone that applies to the team has their own right to publish their material to our front page. That is assuming, though, that they are accepted. Basically, once you're on the team, you have pretty much free reign to write material and post it on the portal, but editorials may be checked by one of the other senior reporters or by Thug, the Chief Editor, before it goes public, just to give it a final scan for grammar errors and spelling things. :) For the new guys hopping on board this measure is there to make sure that their material is up to scratch. ;)

I look forward to seeing your application! Best of luck!
 

Nathan Drake

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I went ahead and tossed my hat into the ring. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to apply at first, but seeing as I gravitate towards game news and share it anyways, I figured applying couldn't hurt anything.
 
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Ryukouki

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Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the great deal of interest in applying for this application! So as of right now... we're pretty flooded on applications. We're also getting new ones in at a steady clip which is further delaying our response times. I'm completely sorry on the original estimate, that was completely my bad and I didn't foresee this having so much popularity.

At this point, we're gonna be holding off on accepting further applications at this time, at least until we get through this initial batch. I'll keep you guys posted!
 

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