HOWTO be a news caster 2o2p style

Ok,

There has been interest in knowing "am I doing it right?" when submitting news. First, read my last blog, that will give you a general idea to get your best chances to get a news article posted.

Secondly, there is the concept of "how do I make a good post?"

First, don't copy other news sites word-for-word. We want to have news that fits our readership. So when you're writing up something, even if its just a paragraph, think of your audience. Most of the gamers (currently) are console types, highly leaning towards xbox and xbox 360 and not all of us game every night or constantly.

So, if you find some hot news that you think other people on our site might like, consider writing up something that gives a feel for your opinion on the matter. A little more personal then a simple news report, if possible. Sometimes straight news is great, but when every other site is carrying the same news information its cooler if ours is a bit spicier.

For instance: Gears of War is being tested on standard TV's. This is a news article because many game developers have been toning their content towards HDTV material and many SDTV folks are finding it hard to read the text because of the resolution. The fact that the GoW team is going above and beyond to make sure the content works for "all viewers" (given HDTV's are not in the majority of homes yet) is interesting news.

You could steal it off another site and say something like:

"Gears of War (GoW) is being tested for best viewablility on HDTV's and SDTV's. Many recent games have been tested primarily on HDTV's and consumers that have SDTV's are finding it hard to read some of the small text."

Or you could spice it up a bit:

"The Gears of War (GoW) team is focused on overall presentation of their game. They're taking the time to consider all consumers and testing their product on standard televisions (SDTV's) along with the high-definition televisions (HDTV's). Many developers have been slacking in the testing area of their products by considering only high definition gamers. However, more gamers are on standard TV's than the high definition counter part. It is nice to see a group considering the whole and not just the tech junkies. Hopefully more developers will follow up on this concept and put more work into the whole presentation and not just the few.

Many of us older gamers must squint to read this text in games like Dead Rising. We don't want to have to put on reading glasses to game on our consoles - this isn't a novel. Making the resolution and graphical text fit all gamers systems is a reasonable request and we'll all be happy that they put in the extra effort."

Sure, mine is longer, but I just tried to throw in a little more detail on something that is pretty much bland news. It's important, no doublt, but nothing makes you WANT to read more than the headline (sure, some people will stop there anyway). The second paragraph is more of a humor section to help our readers relate to the text. We're old, we need reading glasses sometimes, and that text is pretty tiny. So, try to write the article as you'd feel playing a game that's barely ledgible.

Now, if there is commentary or text associated with the article (that you found on 1up or whatever) you can post that word for word with quotes around the text. And you can either reference the original news source in your text, as a side note, or at the bottom in a "references:" section.

Lastly, if you can write up your news so that it inspires comments, that helps too. Maybe give your opinion or play devils advocate and see if it will raise people to think and give personal opinions on the matter. Or end the topic with "it is good that developers are spending additional resources on testing older TV's right? People still have them and its worth taking the time to make sure old technology works as good as new technology."  Some will agree, others will disagree, but it inspires both parties to communicate and maybe learn something in the process.



Sound good?

Thanks,

CodeMonkey