HomeStation Announces the First Round of Community Writing Contest Winners!
by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
As Home community projects go, HomeStation Magazine is a bit of an anomaly: we don’t rush to be the first to break the latest news, we don’t always appeal to populist sentiment, and our editorial standards — though lax when compared to a commercial publication — make it easy for us to be wrongly painted as ivory-tower elitists.
You would think, then, that such a formula would be doomed to failure. Except it’s not. Because we believe that there is an audience, within the millions of registered accounts, for a literary journal devoted to Home. And, quite frankly, prior to HomeStation, no one was serving this niche.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t wonderful Home community projects out there. There most certainly are. AlphaZone4 is the most-visited Home fansite in the world, and with good reason: it serves a very specific need (the go-to resource and encylopaedia for all things Home), and it does it better than anyone else. PSTalent, which evolved from a fansite into a production house, also serves a very specific need: their brand is synonymous with top-notch Home machinima, and they’ve become the benchmark against which other Home filmmakers are compared. The Homeling Collective is a study in how to have a wild in-Home concept and turn it into one of Home’s most successful social clubs.
The list goes on. Most of the successful Home media sites out there survive and thrive, long term, because they found an untapped market niche and exploited it better than anyone else. That’s basic capitalism. And the niche we went after, successfully, was the large audience of mature and literate Home citizens who wanted something that was a cross between The Atlantic and Firing Line.
The catch with this, which we’ve encountered time and again, is that a lot of hitherto unpublished community writers are intimidated by the bar we set. We have an amazing core team that churns out 1200-word articles like clockwork, with a consistent level of polish and depth that’s hard to find elsewhere. So the easiest way to encourage people to put fingers to keys? Throw a writing contest, with prizes for the winners.
It’s all about inertia, really; an object at rest has a tendency to stay at rest. An object in motion wants to stay in motion. Just as something as small as a spark plug can ignite an explosion which starts a supercar’s engine, so a writing contest can spur on someone to overcome their reticence and click “Send” on their spec article.
We love publishing guest contributors. Our team writers actually have their own followings now; we’ve measured this with Google Analytics. People see a certain byline and click on it because they want to read that author. And that’s exactly what HomeStation was designed to be: a recognized platform for fantastic literary voices and artisans. So it’s always a blast to see a new contributor add his or her voice and quickly build up a readership.
So, with our current community writing contest halfway through, it’s time to announce the winners of the first round!
Guest Contributors:
Deciphering Textspeak — Who Uses It in Home, and Why? — by Dlyrius
An Interview With Digital Leisure’s Paul Gold — by tdarb
Home, and the PlayStation Vita — by AlacrityFitz
Team Writers:
Reality Is A Matter of Opinion — by SealWyf
The Cutteridge Estate: It’s Dangerous To Go Alone — by Johneboy1970
Are Women Respected in Gaming? — by Burbie52
Each of you has won a $20 SEN card!
The winners have already received private messages with their redemption codes. Remember, the contest is only half over; we’re already into the second round, and our inbox is filling up with guest submissions, so make sure to get your spec article in today!
March 17th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 9 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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Thanks to all my readers and the hsm staff.. its been a lot of fun and you will see more in the future
oops, congrats to the other winners too!
Congratulations to all involved in the contest, you are all winners in my book just for caring enough about Home to do this for the love of it. Great job!
Always good to acknowledge jobs well done! You keep writing and I’ll keep reading. I learn a lot from you guys. Congratulations!!
Congrats to all the winners! Great job yall!
Congratulations and job well done to the winners!
Congratulations to you all, winners, contributors and staff! This was an outstanding selection of articles. I hope the new (and so talented!) writers keep contributing here and even become staff members.
Congratulations to all the winners, the submissions and yes even we readers.
Thanx Norse for this opportunity. I had fun writing for the contest and reading the responses I got.