AusGamers is currently seeking volunteers interested in writing for the site as part of a trial programme to help us provide better coverage of the world of video gaming.

First and foremost, we are looking for people that have a keen interest in writing. If you enjoy writing or blogging and are interested in video games journalism or critical writing, then please get in touch!

This role is most definitely not for people who just want to play video games. While a passion for gaming is important, our focus is on careful, critical analysis of these games. You need to be comfortable with the thought of spending as much time writing about a games as playing them.

Contributor requirements:

- Excellent written communication skills
- Ability to write clearly and concisely
- Keen interest in journalism and/or critical writing
- Ability to take feedback and criticism from our editors (and readers) and adapt writing style
- Ability to keep to a schedule
- Broad video gaming experience
- Focus on one genre or game type preferred; specialists in certain game types are highly sought after (for example, flight simulators, MMOs, PC multiplayer FPS, iPhone)
- Very basic working knowledge of HTML preferred (e.g., linking, embedding images, bold tags)

Contributor benefits:

This role is for volunteers, but we want to provide as many benefits as possible to those that are willing to contribute, so we hope to expand this section as time goes on.

- Free access to games
- First choice on invite-only or press betas
- First choice on game swag that comes our way
- Experience working as part of a team in a constructive environment
- Access to the coveted Contributor Achievements
- After five published articles, we will provide you with a formal written reference as a record of your contribution

How it works:

Successful applications that are entered into the Contributor programme will go through a trial period which will extend over their first few articles. We will be tracking some key metrics on contributed articles - for example, the amount of editorial work required to fix spelling or grammatical mistakes, whether you hit your deadlines, and the overall quality of review - and these will be used to gauge performance.

We also broadly divide Contributors into two categories - Specialists and Generalists. A Specialist is someone who has indicated that they prefer playing a particular type or genre of game - for example, MMOs or mobile games. Specialists will be our first choice when we get games that match their preferences, with a view to capitalising on their hopefully extensive experience in games of that type.

Generalists are people who enjoy playing any type of game. While we will probably aim for giving games to Specialists as a first priority, we will certainly be wanting a few generalists on hand both to help cover shortfalls in availability and also to help fill the gaps caused by the simply vast amount of different game types that are out there in today's world.

How to apply:

If you've made it this far and are still keen to apply for the programme, please read the following carefully - failure to comply exactly with these instructions will almost certainly mean your application is discarded. There is an example template at the bottom you can copy and paste for your convenience.

To apply for the programme, please visit our contact page.

For your application, we require:

- Links to existing writing that you have published online. This is a hard requirement; if you do not have anything you can link to, please do not apply until you do. Your own personal blog is perfectly fine; you can get free blogs from WordPress and Blogger that would be great to start with.
- No more than three paragraphs about yourself and why you think you'd be a good Contributor.
- What different platforms you own (e.g., PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPhone, etc).
- What your preferred game specialty is (e.g., what genre you prefer to play most of the time: FPS, MMORPG, mobile, indie, casual, etc). This is optional, but please note we're not asking what game you prefer.

Basic sample template: