We are kicking off a trial of a new thing called the Contributor Programme here at AusGamers.

In a nutshell, we are getting sent too many games to review or preview and we simply cannot keep up.

We are looking for people who are interested in writing about games and willing to volunteer their time in return for a game.

This is a pretty new approach for us; we have tried not to go down this route of getting volunteers but we're just getting so much stuff these days it is just not possible for our limited resources to cover well.

I should point out that this programme is intended primarily for people who like writing - not people who just want to play games. Reviewing games is one of those things that sounds awesome, but when you start doing it and you get stuck playing crappy games, it can quickly become a tiresome chore. You need to be willing to stick it out through a crap game, and then not only that, relive the whole experience when you are writing it up later. Hopefully, of course, you'll get to play games that are fun.

We have a pretty strict set of criteria about who will be allowed into the programme (and then another set of criteria about how you can actually STAY in the programme) but we hope that for people that are keen to try to do some work in the game journalism industry and/or people who would just like to try their hand at critical writing will get something out of it.

If you are interested, please check out the details here.

This is a New Thing so I am of course more than happy to answer any questions or clarify anything that is not clear!

I would love to participate but I'm not sure I have time to regularly play & review new games :(

But you had all the time in the world to review Star Craft 2. You're in buddy!

i don't have enough full stops in my grammar box

or writing skills,

however it is a nice concept, good work ausgamers!

you sure this isn't a WOW gold farming scheme troggles?

Is this open to Mammoth employees? ;)

Couldn't you just allow people to submit user reviews like Amazon? I find those things are actually usually pretty accurate as you get an average of opinions and the majority will be by people who are into that kind of game in the first place rather than someone forced to play a game they have no real interest in to begin with.

When I say that, I don't mean I find the individual user reviews to helpful but the average star rating is usually pretty spot on when there is enough input.

what's the pay like for this volunteer job?

Couldn't you just allow people to submit user reviews like Amazon? I find those things are actually usually pretty accurate as you get an average of opinions and the majority will be by people who are into that kind of game in the first place rather than someone forced to play a game they have no real interest in to begin with.

When I say that, I don't mean I find the individual user reviews to helpful but the average star rating is usually pretty spot on when there is enough input.

I have a plan for something similar but that is another forum post in the making - it is stuck waiting for development time which is a bit few and far between at the moment.

No you make fair points and can be very interesting to read, remove all of the fluff and it would make for a good. Review.

i'm pretty sure you mean - remove the fluff and there wouldn't be any posts

If you were willing to have copies of games shipped to Japan, I'd be all for developing some game-related journalism skills. Oh well!

Many of the games we get are digital downloads, so this would not exactly be a barrier.

I'd love to volunteer to do some writing but alas, I know very little about games these days and don't own a gaming machine. Wait a minute.. this is a gaming website? When did this happen!? :)

I was a lurker for a long while I guess, but +1 for Nerfy - he writes good yo, Hogfather, infi, taggs, fade etc

I may apply for this. Are we reviewing pre-release copies of the games or retail ?

Do we get to keep the product after reviewing ?

Many of the games we get are digital downloads, so this would not exactly be a barrier.

Ah, fair enough. Will jump on the application bandwagon then :)

One of the perks of the job is you get laugh maniacally as you assign that all important X out of 10 score that everyone gets their knickers in a twist over.

If i was to go for this i'd be the fighting game specialist. So i'd be reviewing Street Fighter x Tekken and then do nothing until the next fighting game reboot comes out in 4 years.

That's what I call striking the perfect work life balance, baby.

Because I'm ill and not doing anything, I decided to contribute in the most annoying way possible - sharing my vision for things with the Internet. :P (the layout wasn't intentionally cloned from anything, but I'm sure I've seen similar to those bits and pieces around). This'll totally pull the avid gamer crowd.

Where will they put the ads with all that content on the page Nerfy?

Great concept!

I'm not sure I qualify as far as 'frequent blogger' etc etc.

For the most part I'm jes a gamer who doesn't mind waxing lyrical when it comes to critiquing a game or two.
I'll see what I can find as far as 'published works' online :\

Could I write about my sordid love affair with ticman and pretend it was about a game?

Sure... what would you rate it out of 10?