Hard Mode Gamers need hardcore gamers like you!
As the rift between “games journalism” and “gamers” draws larger and larger, we need to find a happy medium to bridge the gap. That’s where you come in. As a gamer, if you feel like your voice isn’t being heard, then it’s time to act. HMG wants to be the “Medium.com” of gaming. If you have something you want to share, we have a platform for you. That said, we do have some rules and general guidelines to go through.
D I S C L O S U R E S
The editor-in-chief of Hard Mode Gamers is, full legal name, Kurt L Christel. The site operates out of Rhode Island. Chet, chet:(, or chetsadface are his known aliases on the net. We have one very small, very cramped office dedicated to the creation of content for the company. We have two desks and a greenscreen. Hard Mode Gamers is legally a sole proprietorship as of right now. We’ are not yet acquiring a base pay and will operate under that structure until there’s room to get people paid. We will not lie to you and say that we will make you famous. We have to work together. We are looking to get ad revenue from some ads, but would greatly prefer Patreon, SubscribeStar, or even a PayPal account which has just been opened. Transparency will be readily available once it’s clear we have regular users. Working with the company right now, you certify you are doing freelance, non-hired work on our behalf. That is subject to change if Hard Mode Gamers becomes an LLC or Corporate entity. We certify that while we cannot compensate you monetarily, we can reward you in the form of gift cards and purchased games for achievements. Currently, as it stands right now, the purchasing schedule for the games we are covering for the season will be assigned to our local editors in Rhode Island for the time being.
C O N T E N T _ C R E A T I O N
You are free to type up articles, either by document, sent via googledocs, or even leaving a written draft in the WordPress editing page for our contributors. Usually you will be asked to produce a piece of content. If you come through with it, you will be added to the WordPress manager of the page. You won’t have to make thumbnails for the written content, that’s our job. We do not want ‘news’ articles unless its something that genuinely isn’t being covered. We would say to use pen names are a better idea, because the focus of some articles may ruffle some feathers.
One form of writing we want to see are listicles, you know, top 6 reasons why X is actually Y. Anything you can come up with will be good. People like these kinds of articles. You can also, of course, write Op Eds. Stay away from direct poilitics and personal attacks. We would most likely say the best idea is to think of an outrageous claim to make. If you google/bing an idea you have, and you don’t get results? That’s good, you fill that void with the article.
The editing plugins for WordPress have both “Readability” and “SEO” helpers if you use their document editor. And by god, do they work. We want nothing less than a greenlight for SEO and at least orange for readability. We are lax about grammar, so long as it’s legible, its good. As said before, we let people speak in their own vernacular if they want. A writer writes “ya” instead of “you”. Chet writes “tho and thru” instead of “thought and through”. Putting an unneccesary P before T-words is also encouraged. Pterrific!
A C C E P T A B L E _ B E H A V I O R
We have to be very clear about certain things here. No edglording. Do NOT associate with far left or far right figures. Do NOT identify as pro or anti gamergate. These things are not what the page is about. However, you are free to speak freely on your own. Hard Mode Gamers is NOT responsible for any of the speech you choose to engage outside of the page. We do not condone or sponsor any statement not within our domain.
If you can think of something good for Sports games do it up. Two types of games we do not cover typically are Sports games and remakes. The remake rule is new. Sports games by and large don’t need to be reviewed. People are either going to get them or they won’t, regardless of rating. Waste of time. Remakes are becoming more and more common. Unless it is absolute overhaul, like the Final Fantasy VII remake or it’s a re-release from a dead system like WiiU games on the Switch or older than that.
The big thing we are going to do is that we are also going to write articles, where we take egregiously bad journalism to task. We must make sure when we write about this that it’s not about the writer but the publisher. We would even suggest censoring the name of the writer if you are gonna grab a few screen shots to pick it apart. If someone wants to write about alternative interpretations of what they feel games or games characters represent, leave those alone. We don’t want it to be a HUGE focal point though. If you spot something done and want to write about it, we suggest taking it to us before you start writing about it.
There is no minimum, just write more than 300 words. We say if you want it to be a list, 3 or 4 should be the lowest depending on how big the points are.
Don’t feel shy to write a STUB article. Content is content. If you want to rant for around 500 words, be our guest.
V I D E O _ P R O D U C T I O N
You won’t be expected to do these unless you absolutely want to. But doing videos require use of your own equipment. However, if you have the hardware, or think you might have enough hardware, we can show you many low cost ways to get a hold of some decent editing software, recording your voice, or recording your screen. If you start DVR’ing your game footage, that’s a huge help. On the Xbox One, you need to have an NTFS formatted USB 3.0 external to capture an hour. PS4 requires you to simply double-tap the share button. Switch needs capture software. PC can be taken care of with OBS Studio.
It would be nice to get b-roll, so if you are playing a game and you at least wanna get some gameplay footage, that’s fine. You all, as a team, do not have to be making video content regularly. Videos are simple, you wanna make something, ask about it and we can set you up. We in particular have cameras, a mics, and a green screen. You can record your own voice if you so much as have a set of headphones with an in-line mic. That might be “lo-fi” but it’s acceptable.
You may have a hard time putting together a video, maybe you flub a sentence or can’t speak all that quickly. We have ways of fixing this. If you just relax and concentrate on what you want to say, we can edit the work to be a bit more expedient.
R E V I E W S
Please read how we score games here. We have a system. Five categories, 2 points each, totaling up to 10. This is the system for all reviews on the page. It removes a level of bias by making you evaluate several points of design. It may go against your own tastes, that’s why we prefer this system. If all you care about is story, than a game with a great story and sh*t gameplay could get a 10/10 from you, but on HMG it would objectively be an 8/10 if you have to deduct the full two points for the bad gameplay. Conversely, a game may not be all that interesting to you. But if you can’t find any flaws, you may be looking at a 10/10.
We have a handful of disputes as to the “Story” requirements of the reviews, message us about this. Reviews can be done for games you already have. If you got something personal and want to review it, that’s fine. There’s a good chance we can find low-end games to hand out on a case by case basis. If you choose to start writing about a topic, you may face deadlines. Consider your first written material as an audition. If it’s good, we will bring you in.
S U M M A R Y
Disclosures – Hard Mode Gamers is a sole proprietorship with aims to earn crowdfunding money and bring people in so they can get paid. We cannot guarantee employment. We can reward users with gift card or games until we become a company.
Writing – Exclusive news, list articles, satire, op eds, and reports on bad journalism. Do not directly attack people, do not make threats, do not flame or troll, foul language is acceptable if well managed, type in your own vernacular. You have the right to express your personal/political opinions outside of the page.
Videos – You are not expected to make videos. If you want to, you will be given the best advice and software needed to create one. It is recommended to DVR gameplay, as b-roll for gameplay is helpful to the platform, even if you don’t plan a video. HMG has its own Youtube Channel.
Reviews – Reviews must be written in the designated format illustrated on our page. 5 categories, 0-2 points each, add up to final score for objectivity. Sports games and remakes will not be issued for review. You are not obligated to review but can if you bought something and would like to. Other games may be occasionally provided.
PLEASE READ THIS SUMMARY BEFORE EMAILING HARD MODE
This website does not currently have any monetary offers for sumbissions. You may have to submit a prior work of writing along with an “audtion” article TBD by the Editor-in-Chief or Senior Writers. Future agreements on participation will have to be carried out via email.
THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING. YOU CAN EMAIL US HERE:
hardmodegamerslol@gmail.com
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