DAILY MANIFESTO

New Featured Prize (and Revolutionary Prize) for Vox Pop

Posted on Wednesday, July 7 @ 15:09:09 Eastern by Nicholas Tan

We have come up with a prize for Vox Pop that we think you will be excited about: Having your piece turned into a feature for Game Revolution. We're not lying. If your work has the flavor, the fervor, and the funny to become a highlighted feature on the front page, it will be.

How do you qualify? All you have to do is write a blog post that we think is good enough to be featured in the Vox Pop box. We will be following all the latest blog entries to make sure your post isn't missed. We're thinking about awarding the feature prize about one article one to two months, though we will feature more (or less) depending on the quantity and quality of the community's Vox Pop entries.

What are we looking for? As you might expect, our demands for being highlighted as a front page GR feature is greater than for being highlighted in the Vox Pop box. But if you have what it takes to win a Vox Pop of the Month (as many of you have in the past), then it won't take much more for your article to be elevated to a GR feature.

Essentially, we're looking for articles that are as close as possible to professional-grade work. Certainly, we're not going to expect you to nail every grammar and style rule and write groundbreaking, hard-hitting editorials that change the face of the industry. That's hard enough as a professional. But we will expect you to have a firm grasp on written English and to have something interesting and well-developed to say on whatever topic you choose to write about.

If your editorial is selected as a GR feature, we will be editing it as if it were a professional draft. Actually, that's what it is. So the less that we have to fix, the less your words are changed, the happier you'll be, and the better chance you have at winning the featured prize. Whatever the case, we will provide a link to your original Vox Pop blog post in the feature to preserve your original message in its purest form.

Any tips? Some quick guidelines are to be persuasive, be humorous, and have impact behind your words (without resorting to exclamation marks). Write solid paragraphs that have enough to say and don't ramble on and pack in unnecessary words and sentences to fluff up the piece. We're not going to impose some word minimum, as if you are writing a high school essay, but the piece should fill at least one regular webpage on GR.

We're also looking for a voice that is well-reasoned but that sets itself apart - we're not called Game Revolution for nothing. We love to feature articles that other professional websites won't even think about touching. Status quo, what's that?

Will you contact me? We're going to assume that if you're writing an entry for Vox Pop that you won't mind it being turned into a GR article. But we'll still notify you via PM and the email address you provided when you signed up if you win the prize. You can also PM me about any changes to a featured article you feel are significantly off-base - just don't piss and whine to me or I'll have to go ninja on you.

So what's this Revolutionary Prize? At the end of a Vox Pop year (either January or July of next year), we will choose an overall winner and give that person the opportunity to become a professional, official writer for Game Revolution!!!! (Soak that in for a while.) In addition to your editorial work, we will send you points and codes for video games for preview and review work. Of course, the position will likely be restricted depending on where you are in proximity to us in Berkeley, but by all means, you will be legit. You will have access to parts of the industry that only the press have. Where you take this opportunity from there is entirely up to you.

(We're working on featuring reviews, too. Not sure how long it will take, but my fingers are crossed.)

Comments

schimmel
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 7th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Dude... amazing. Now I need things to write about so I can win that feature writer prize. It's what I'm going to school for anyway so honestly you just made my day! You are an awesome ninja, Nick_Tan

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schimmel
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 7th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Double post, but when are you going to kick this off? Right away or soon?

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Daddio
Joined: Nov 2008

Posted: Jul 7th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
so many opinions i have ... but no way to type them legit i do.

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TheDiesel
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Jul 7th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Woow.

WOOW.

*needs topics*

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jul 7th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
@schimmel: This new prize starts now!

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LinksOcarina
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 7th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

*hugs Nick*

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Wow! I love you nick! If i do get selected for the GR compound, remind me to hug you.
Well, let's start blogging!

Also, any specific rule about the subject? or can it be whatever? ("Hey you guys seen the knicks game last night?")

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schimmel
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Such an awesome prize and it starts now?? I

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UghRochester
Joined: Jun 2006

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 7:45 am
Great prize, makes me feel like I'm part of Smash T.V.
Adding on from Lien's question, are the submissions going to be based on video games related like old Vox Pop?

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 8:15 am
@UghRochester: It's strange thinking about it as conservative, but yes, submissions should be video game related in some fashion. But video game culture has come to encompass general geek culture, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a topic. If it is slightly off the video game world, just be sure that you make it clear (probably as soon as possible) in the piece how your topic relates to video games. And to write your piece in a way that anyone can read and understand where you're coming from.

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 8:21 am
@Lien: There are no specific rules for subject matter. Most entries will probably be editorials since they tend to have to most impact in the shortest amount of space, and we are the more lenient on editorials than we are on, say, fiction. However, I like all kinds of writing and media, so if you can write a fantastic piece of fan fiction, or a first-person account on a recent trip to GameStop (that was awesome or that royally sucked), or a Flash game that you created, or a witty art piece illustrating the evolution of Link, or a musical composition on how much you love Chun-Li... we're all good.

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LinksOcarina
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
These things you have done before, Nick?

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jul 8th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
@LinksOcarina: Heh, I wish I was that much of a nerd. I have written fan fiction before... though it was admittedly obtuse. But everyone's got to start somewhere!

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UghRochester
Joined: Jun 2006

Posted: Jul 9th, 2010 at 4:40 am
I do wish all the best of lucky, specially LinksOcarina since he declared it was his dream to be a writer for the industry. But LinksOcarina, didn't you mention in the forums about writing for another site?
I do love the sound of this epic prize, but my problem is i'm not loquacious.

P.S dictionary.com is my new friend, enhancing my vocabulary is a great attribute.

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UghRochester
Joined: Jun 2006

Posted: Jul 9th, 2010 at 4:41 am
DOUBLE POST
Sorry, I thought I erased the letter "y" in the word "luck."

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LinksOcarina
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 27th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
shhh! I don't get paid and have no contract on this other site.....so I should be eligible.....

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Yoshi
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Sep 29th, 2010 at 3:38 am
What if I'm Israeli? Any chance for winning this? I write like a junior Hemingway. Also I have a shotgun.

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