Announcing HomeStation’s Newest Writing Contest!
by Terra_Cide, HSM Editor
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.
-Winston Churchill
Yes, we’re doing it again.
But wait a minute, you say, didn’t you guys just finish up the last contest like, not too long ago?
Yeah, so? Thought you lot liked getting things for free.
Well, yeah, but-
Then that settles it then. Stifle yourself for a moment and listen, because this time, we’re actually going to make it pretty easy on you.
This time, we’re going to give you – a theme.
This is not the theme you'll be writing about. Keep reading.
Now I know there are some of you out there gasping and recoiling in horror, perhaps even reliving some trauma you experienced back in your school days surrounding the whole concept of writing a theme (there will be no A Christmas Story-like moments of Red Ryder BB Guns and me adding notes into your work saying you’ll shoot your eye out). You’ll live – trust me on this.
On the other hand, there may be some of you who have genuinely wanted to participate in our previous contests, but because you couldn’t think of anything that you thought others would want to read, you didn’t write anything. Having a writing topic provided for you may just have you breathing a sigh of relief and a sense of direction.
As you know, in Issue 9 of the magazine, we ran a cover story interview with Ralph Baer. If not for this man, and a great many who worked alongside him, we would not have that hobby we all enjoy – video gaming. He has had the privilege of watching his creation grow and evolve over the decades, becoming the gaming industry we know and love today.
This has us here at HomeStation wondering – we know that the majority of our readers (as well as team members) are adults and for the most part, have been gaming a good chunk of their lifetimes. So we too have witnessed portions of gaming’s evolution. With that in mind, here is the theme for this, HomeStation Magazine’s year-end contest:
How has the evolution of the gaming industry affected you, where do you see it evolving, and what part – in your opinion – does Home play into it?
Oh come on now, don’t give me that look; this isn’t as hard as you think.
If you’ve gamed most of your life and have experienced various consoles over the years, you have experienced the industry’s evolution on a personal level in some way. Beyond that, there are numerous resources one can search for to find facts that you might not have intimate knowledge of, and from there create the groundwork for your own opinion on its future. So really, it isn’t that hard.
Sure, we could write some big year-end op-ed piece ourselves on the topic and let that be “the word” which we as a publication stand upon, but that really isn’t what HomeStation is all about. Neither Norse or myself are interested in being the next William Randolph Hearst. We want to hear what the community thinks, and we know there are those of you out there who have the talent and knowledge to pull this off brilliantly.
Plus, we have an in-house Mentorship Program that can help you out with the basic nuts-and-bolts of writing. It’s a tool – use it.
As with the previous contest, editorial staff – meaning Norse and myself – are excluded from entering. And since everyone will be writing under the same basic topic, we’re dividing up the winning field a bit further. With our last contest, we divided the field between our own team writers and our guest contributors and new writers. This time, we are taking it a step further and dividing the winners up into three categories – our team writers, our guest contributors, and our new contributors.
That’s right – one person who has never before contributed to the pages of HSM has a guaranteed chance to win.
Just like we did with all of our other writing contests, we will be using Google Analytics to determine the winner in all categories. The largest unique pageview count an article from each group garners will be the winner.
The same basic rules and standards for previous contests also apply here – there will be a minimum 900 word count you have to meet, and you will be asked to supply as much of your own original photography (or PR images from developers) as possible. If you need photos done, please get in touch with us so that we can have one of our photographers get on it as soon as possible. That way, your submission doesn’t end up lingering for a long time in pending queue purgatory. Usually, about three or four images for a 900-1000 word article is sufficient.
When submitting an article to HSM, you are giving us the right to publish it on the Internet as we see fit, and to make edits to your article in order for it to meet our standards. As such, you must hold the copyright to the content of your submission, have permission from the copyright holder, or work within the confines of Fair Use. HomeStation Magazine also reserves the right to refuse to publish anyone on any grounds, without any notice or justification. This is a private publication, not a democracy.
One of the best ways to increase your chances of publication (aside from checking your punctuation, grammar and spelling) is to have your work follow the tone as set by the many articles in our archives. Simply put, we are a Sony- and Home-positive media outlet. While we will – and have in the past – accept criticisms of Home, they have always been written in a constructive manner, with the goal of improving the service for everyone. We do not accept nor will we publish submissions that are merely filled with condemnations and complaints.
As always, the full rules will be posted and stickied in HomeStation’s forum for all to read.
When it came to deciding what award would be suitable for such a topic, there really was only one answer. Sure, we could simply hand out more PSN cards, but we wanted to do something truly special. This is where the subject of our Issue 9 cover story, Mr. Baer, comes in.
As you may recall from reading the interview, Mr. Baer penned a book, Videogames: In the Beginning, which covers the history of gaming from the 1960s to the 1990s. Does our writing theme make a bit more sense to you now?
He has graciously agreed to allow HSM award three copies of his book – each personally autographed by him – to the three winners of our contest. This is a big deal – it’s not everyday you get the opportunity to receive something from someone who is essentially the father of videogames. The book itself retails on Amazon for roughly $30 new.
HSM will be accepting contest entries from now until November 30th at midnight GMT. The winners will be announced December 10th.
So what are you waiting for? Get writing for a chance to obtain a piece of history!
November 18th, 2011 by Terra_Cide | 3 comments
Terra _Cide is the former Community Manager for Lockwood Publishing and Editor Emeritus for HomeStation Magazine.
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This sounds like a great new idea for a contest. My wheels are turning already!
I’m looking forward to the great batch of articles which come out of this contest. Should be a lot of fun reads!
With Sony’s announcement today that we can now watch free full-length movies on the EOD via Crackle, there are definitely signs of things to cover for this contest.