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Game|Life Survivor casts its own vote

Wired Game|Life's Chris Kohler, borrowed the name, but little else from EGM when he decided to publicly audition three bloggers for a regular role on the site's blog. While he gave the week-long trial the moniker of Game|Life Survivor, there was no vote involved, and the hiring was completely in the hands of Wired's editors. "We had a very specific kind of person in mind, and we had to consider so many different things when making a final decision." Kohler said.

For him, the concept of publicly auditioning the potential writers was necessary. "We had to get people posting live stories so we could see how they wrote when they were on these tight deadlines and out in front of readers. It's one of the benefits of running a blog -- we can try people out right in front of everyone and see how it goes. It's necessary, because as soon as we hired someone, they were going to start blogging without me looking over their shoulder."

While distance ended up making EGM's Review Crew Survivor logistically inconvenient, it was the very reason Kohler needed to have a job search to begin with. The Game|Life blog, which had previously been a mostly individual effort on the part of Kohler, was in need of an east coast correspondent to provide content during early morning hours. Three prospective writers spent a week putting together stories on Game|Life, and the person Wired chose was Susan Arendt, who had previously been a news editor for 1UP.com. "Certainly, the fact that the majority of users who commented said we should hire Susan made me feel better about our final decision." Kohler said "But that didn't really weigh into it."

Thankfully, Game|Life's expansion hasn't diluted its quality. Unlike other blogs that have a glut of writers who must strain to provide their own voice. With two primary writers, Game|Life seems to have found a good balance of quantity and quality in its posts. While Arendt seems to have a writing style all her own, she managed to complement Kohler's much better than the other prospective writers. That sort of chemistry is something that could undoubtedly only have been discovered by having her post alongside him to start.

FiringSquad takes a different aim >

The most current contest running is an amalgamation and combination of the two, taking into account many different opinions while giving anyone with an opinion and a dream a shot at stakes that are much higher than any previous competition. Firing Squad, a hardware focused gaming site that caters to a more hardcore gaming audience, is in the midst of running the biggest public gaming journalism job search yet, called the Editor's Challenge. Dozens of competitors have submitted almost a hundred articles and videos with subjects running the gamut from energy drink reviews to the importance of independent game development.

The contest, which has just concluded its preliminary rounds, will run throughout the spring, with a $1500 prize and a $10,000 writing contract with the site up for grabs. The judging process is multi-faceted, with each article being judged on a variety of factors including page views, editor opinion, and user votes. Dan Turner, FiringSquad's President, had long been considering the Editor's Challenge, was spurned along by the inclusion of a more blog-style focus for the site. "We have thought about the best way to deliver the next-generation content and we sort of came to the conclusion that we really didn't know what it was going to look like." Turner said. "Instead of trying to dictate what is going to do well, why don't we create a platform for people to create their own content?"

The entries have been extremely divergent in style, but the cream of the crop has yielded some impressive results. The entries so far have run the gamut from extensice PC benchmarking to in-depth explorations of indie gaming and photorealistic graphics. Normally, any audience would favor a certain type of style, but the unique judging style of the contest has ensured that great ideas and greater execution are duly rewarded. By having potential writers showcase their biggest ideas, the FiringSquad Editor's Challenge seems to be aiming for grander ambition than the other public hiring processes. Judging by the amazing output so far, the Editors' Challenge could set a precedent for finding new talent in the gaming media.