Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - Hello fellow readers and members,

this is easily one of the most important changes in these four years of online activity for Ps2Fantasy.com. As you may know, we have already started the work to convert Ps2Fantasy.com into a network of websites focused mainly on Sony Platforms (with some exceptions). It cost us a lot of money, and most important, time, but we have managed to stay online for four years, and this is our biggest success - many good websites that started with us disappeared. We had a good success in terms of popularity (Ps2Fantasy.com is one of the top ranking PlayStation 2 websites in directory.google.com, and every webmaster knows how hard it is to get there), but we have decided to multiply our coverage and offer more services to our readers. The first new website will be focused on the PlayStation Portable.

We are now looking for new journalists to contribute to the PsFantasy.com network. This is not a paid job, but it is still a unique, valuable experience for those interested in starting a career in journalism, or in entering the gaming industry in the future. It is a responsibility job, that will take hours of your time, but you will get in exchange the possibility to talk about a subject you like - videogames - to thousands of daily readers in a respected, professional website. Trust me, there are many, many players who are interested in reading the reviews of a well trusted website like Ps2Fantasy.com; you will be offering a useful service, and your voice will be a new voice in an industry where only big networks seem able to count.

PsFantasy.com
PsFantasy.com will be a professional, strong answer to the voices of the "bigs". Professional - yes, you must keep in mind that writing an article is different from writing a post in a forum. Unlike other websites, we want to consider our contributors as professionals; on the other hand, we obviously want them to act as professionals. All your information must be verified (for example, if you are writing about a development team, you must be sure that team actually developed those games you are mentioning), and each review, preview, and article you write must be coherent and well written. Reviews must be in-line with those found on our website. This does not mean you are not free to express your thoughts. In four years, in which many people outside of the main staff gave their precious contribution, I have never asked a reviewer to change his/her opinions about a game. Anyhow, the work of our Editor in Chief consists exactly in assuring continuity throughout our website(s), especially when it comes to technical sections of game reviews (Graphics and Sounds). For example, if we gave Metal Gear Solid 2 a "10" in the Graphics department, you cannot assign a "9" to the graphics of a game like Fantavision. But this is where good ol' Harry or any other Senior Editor will help you, so you shouldn't worry too much about this once you have joined us.

Writing for PsFantasy.com
What you must really care about when writing your reviews, including those you must submit to apply for becoming an Editor at PsFantasy.com, is that while expressing your own opinions (no review can be objective, and that's why we all like reviews) you must also offer readers all the elements they may need to understand if a particular game is what they are looking for. For example, when reviewing a game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, we gave the game one of the highest overall scores within our website, yet we indicated in detail all the limits of the game, telling readers that if they didn't like past GTA games, they would have probably hated San Andreas as well.

Our reviews are divided in sections, and for reasons we have explained before in the forums (post), we use a .5 scale for our scores (for example, not 8.3 but 8.5). The sections are Introduction (the part before Gameplay), Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Replay Value, and Overall opinion. All sections are self-explanatory to everybody who has ever read a videogame review, with the exception of Replay Value and Overall Opinion. "Our" Replay Value is more a mix of "Lasting Appeal" and "Replay Value" than just a replayability indicator. In other words, the score takes into consideration the overall length of the game within its genre, not only the attractiveness of the game once you have completed it (which is the more classic and limited meaning of Replay Value). Overall opinion, and overall score, gives you the freedom to express an overall opinion about a game without being forced to make an average of the other scores.

Other elements within a review are optional; it all depends on your style. You can divide each section in subsections, or you may not; you may list all game controls in the Gameplay section, button per button, or you may just talk more generally about intuitiveness, responsiveness, and overall quality of the interface. You may write a long introduction, or just tell readers the basic facts about a game.

Length of a review may vary from reviewer to reviewer, from article to article - from roughly 1,500 words to 5,000 words and beyond. What is important is that your work must be clear, coherent, and honest. Writing for PsFantasy.com you must always keep this in mind: yes, you are just writing about videogames, but someone may spend his/her 50$ also because of what you wrote in your review.

Try to be objective, but do not be afraid to tell what you really think, ever. Controversial opinions are welcome here, as we will give space to our readers to express their thoughts through a better integration of the forums within our website.

Does this seem too much of a burden? It is also a lot of fun, actually. To remain an Editor you must provide at least one article per month (preview, review, article, long or short).

Apply Now

Requirements:
- You must be able to write in correct English.
- In order to maintain your role as author/critic, you must write at least three articles (reviews, previews, articles) every quarter, one article per month. Those who don't follow this schedule will not be able to join again the staff.

You get:
- The honor of becoming part of this online adventure.
- Your biography and picture will be published in the staff page.
- Possible access to press-only events where you will be a proud representative of PsFantasy.com.
- Possibility to get free games for review (unfortunately, we cannot guarantee this; many publishers, including EA, COMPLETELY ignore most websites smaller than IGN and GameSpot. Anyhow, do not apply just because you expect to receive free games).

To apply:
- Send at least 1 new, never previously published review (consisting of 1500 to 4000 words); you can review only PlayStation 2 games or PSP games. If you want your application review to be published on our website, review a game that we have not reviewed, even if it was published 4 years ago. If you are accepted, this will be your first article on PsFantasy.com!
- Send all important information about yourself (real name, country of residence, brief bio, age).

We will carefully consider all applications but we will not accept everyone applying. So, please, do not be offended if your application is rejected, and feel free to resubmit it in the future. All applications should be sent to joinus@ps2fantasy.com.

Thank you all!