StarCityGames.com wants you!
Seriously.
This site got its start from readers just like you submitting their thoughts to Ye Olde Editor (Omeed Dariani was the first) for publication. It continued to accept submissions for many years, and it was the constant influx of new blood and new ideas that helped nurture StarCityGames.com into one of the cornerstones of the Magic community.
Somewhere along the way, however, it all got to be too much. We were getting hundreds of submissions a week, and it was a full-time job just to read through them and answer email. Thus a decision was made to stop the submission process altogether and switch to a column format.
Tragically, I think we lost something in the process. Magic writing became too commercial. Risk-taking and innovation were given a back seat and in their place came a relentless onslaught of tech. Yawn-worthy tournament reports. Draft reports featuring not-so-epic battles of Good vs. Evil that were drier than Aunt Mildred’s turkey. You know — the kind of holiday turkey that takes a gallon of gravy and a bottle of wine to wash down. There was far too much of that seeing publication.
Obviously, in the last month, we’ve been taking steps to address this by completely changing our publishing model.
We’ve been going out and finding some of the best writers and players on the planet to publish here at SCG. We actually have a pretty good idea of where to find great players and notable deckbuilders — we’ve been doing that sort of thing for years, and at this point, I’m pretty happy with our lineup.
The one thing that we’re now missing… is you.
During the commercialization of Magic writing, much of the fun, the humor, the joy found in playing the game and writing about it was beaten out. Plus, it’s damn hard to be fun on a weekly basis.
How do we find the best fun writers/podcasters/video personalities that we don’t know about? Well, how about a bigass community event in search of new talent with something in it for everybody?
With that, I take great pleasure in announcing The 2010 StarCityGames.com Talent Search!
The Format
As you’ll frequently hear these days, for reasons of national security, I cannot divulge all of the details just yet. You can expect a full set of information next Monday. Until then, here are the things I can tell you:
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The primary focus of this event is: Fun.
This will remain the focus for the duration of the event.
- It will be an elimination event running over the next three months.
- It will have celebrity judges and mentors.
- It will be awesome.
Participants will self-select into four categories: Constructed, Limited, Mixed Media, and Casual/Other.
The first two are obvious. Mixed Media includes video, podcasts, and webcasts. Casual/Other includes Casual and anything that isn’t readily classified. Each of these categories will have a mentor, and those who make it through to the elimination rounds will be published on the front page of the site.
The Rules
Assignment 1: Write/record anything you want about Magic: the Gathering except a tournament report, and make it fun.
You can start sending in your work now (future details won’t affect your initial submissions). All submissions should be sent to
[email protected]
no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, October 17, 2010.
1) Submissions must be categorized in the subject heading of the email as one of the four categories (Constructed, Limited, Casual/Other, New Media).
2) Articles should be between 1500 and 3000 words.
3) To participate, you cannot currently be or previously have been a featured writer for StarCityGames.com, MagicTheGathering.com, TCGPlayer.com, or ChannelFireball.com. or a current writer for ManaNation.com. The whole point of this is to find new, unknown talent. To clarify – it’s okay if you wrote a couple of articles here or there, you just can’t have been a regular columnist in the past.
4) Each participant may only enter one of the writing categories. However, any participant can also enter Mixed Media as well. (So if you write an article for the Limited category, don’t let that stop you from doing a video as well if you want to. These will not be treated as a joint submission; they are separate submissions.)
Special notes about podcasts and the video submission process from Evan Erwin:
- Videos are ideally 3-5 minutes in length. Even after all these years, I don’t like going over 10 minutes a week, and 3-5 minutes is plenty of time to get across a point. Anything over 10 minutes will be outright rejected for length.
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For those wanting to produce scripted videos, I’d suggest using an imaging program to create slides and then using free Movie Maker-esque software to put them together. iMovie is the best free film editing software available. For Windows users, get the most out of your Camtasia demo period:
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
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Use royalty-free music. If you don’t know what that is, it means anything you hear on the radio or even YouTube. Don’t assume anything. If you don’t get full written permission from the artists, simply get your music free from here:
http://freeplaymusic.com/
Thousands of options; you can find something that can work with your footage/script.
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For the audio podcasts, I’d really try to keep it around half an hour. Anything an longer than an hour is right out. Free recording program:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Free leveling program
(trust me you need this — it auto-adjusts the volume levels for the entire podcast to be consistent):
http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator
- Keep it family-friendly, PG material. No cursing.
Good luck, and be creative!
The first set of articles will be published about a week from the deadline.
The Prizes
Obviously, we would not expect you to go through all this bother without giving you something to work for!
First place
— $1000 SCG shopping spree + minimum 12 month contract to write for us
Second place
— $400 SCG shopping spree + minimum 6 month contract to write for us
3rd-4th
— 100$ SCG shopping spree
5th-8th
— one year free StarCityGames.com Premium subscription
Additionally, each category winner will receive a four-month paid spot to write for StarCityGames.com.
Note: Winners must have proof of identity to receive prizes.
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It’s always fun to announce something you’ve been working on diligently for months. I hope you guys are half as excited about this as I am because I know for a fact that you can produce fantastic work, and we’re going to see great, surprising things in the weeks to come.
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