How to Become a Game Reviewer

Are you passionate about PC Gaming? Consider yourself a decent writer? Have some free time on your hands and would like to do something fun with it, which can have lasting benefits on your working life? Would you love having your opinions about specific games read by thousands of readers? Would you like your article to appear on popular gaming sites across the web or even for the developers of various games to read what YOU think about a game? Then this might just be the chance you were looking for! ManaPool is currently looking for additional reviewers, so why not take a look?

[title type=”h3″]Why does ManaPool need more Reviewers?[/title]

ManaPool started with a very small core team and most of the day-to-day operation of the site is done by just two editors. We heavily rely on a team of friends and reviewers that have joined during the course of the past years, but the website is growing much faster than we can keep up with!

In order to ensure we can keep delivering interesting content and are able to cover more games, we need more help. There are genres our current team doesn’t cover adequately, and we’re always pushing ourselves to the absolute limit of workload we can handle next to our normal jobs and/or studies! The amount of interest the site has generated from visitors, publishers, and game developers is often quite overwhelming.

[title type=”h3″]What do you get out of writing for ManaPool?[/title]

We have to make very clear from the start that this is a voluntary, unpaid position and that you work from home, with your own equipment. That doesn’t mean that there are no benefits to doing so though!

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• Any published content is done so under the chosen display name of the original author, which can be a nickname or a real name.
• A volunteer job is still a job – and it looks very good on your résumé. Especially if you have an interest in journalism, gaming or online marketing. Any employer will be looking for this kind of work experience and trust us: it will help you enormously.
• You’ll build a name for yourself and slowly acquire contacts in the gaming industry. You’ll gain invaluable experience.
• We will give references to future employers. You will be able to list your work experience on your CV and list our Editors as a reference.
• Trusted long-term members of our team are provided with Review Copies when and where available, which you get to keep when your review is done – thus leaving you with a copy of the game in question.
• Sometimes this means you are able to play a game before they have even been released!
• You don’t have to stick to just reviews either, you are very welcome to help us write interviews, opinion pieces, and guides! Or perhaps you have ‘mad video skills’?
• We are hoping to reward long-term members of the team in the future. Our success is your success.
• It’s a lot of fun!

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[title type=”h3″]What does ManaPool expect from you?[/title]
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• A passion for PC Gaming.
• A good writing style with excellent English language skills.
• Being a quick learner with the ability to follow written guidelines.
• To help our Editors by ensuring your article is as neat as possible before submitting it for review.
• At least 1 contribution a month. More regular / long-term contributors are obviously first in line for more popular titles.
• To stay in touch – we fully understand when people have holidays, exams or other real-life commitments. Just let us know before you disappear into the sunset and we’ll keep your seat warm!

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[title type=”h3″]Requirements – The Legal Stuff[/title]
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• You are required to be at least 16 years old.
• If you are younger than 16 years old, an exception might be made if you are a particularly talented writer. Please note that you MUST provide us with parental consent in this case.
• With review copies we operate under strict deadlines. You absolutely must be able to make these and you engage in a written contract each time you accept a copy. Note that for obvious reasons this does not apply to other contributions or games you own yourself – as you set the deadlines yourself in this case.
• We reserve the right to make changes to your article for the purpose of clarity, grammar, or correctness.
• All articles published on ManaPool are copyright of ManaPool. You may not republish them elsewhere without explicit permission, but your name will be displayed indefinitely as the original author.

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[title type=”h3″]How to apply[/title]

Remember the ‘written guidelines’ bullet above? Obviously not being able to follow the simple instructions below will automatically disqualify you from the process.

1. Visit our Contact page and e-mail our editors.
2. Tell us who you are, where you are from, what do you in real life, why you are passionate about gaming, and why you’d like to become a reviewer.
3. Ensure you let us know what your favourite genres and games are, and provide us a list of 3+ games you could review which are not yet covered on the site. (You must already legally own these games.)
4. Any other information you think would be of use to us.
5. Style the above in a pleasant format. We don’t give you a template because this is the first evidence of your style.

 
That’s it – we’ll do our best to reply within 48 hours to at least let you know we’ve received your application. If your application is interesting enough, we will create a temporary account for you and we’ll ask you to create a few reviews. You’ll do exactly the same as our normal team members and you are immediately thrown in at the deep end. If the initial reviews are promising, the account becomes permanent, you’ll be a member of our team, and you’ll be able to write and submit articles whenever you desire. If the initial articles aren’t quite up to scratch, we’ll let you know that unfortunately we won’t be able to proceed, and we’ll close your account. It’s really as simple as that!

If you have any questions prior to making an application, please use the contact form on our contact page.