This issue marks my sixth issue as Editor of the Buzz, and some big changes have started to occur; including the promotion of one member of the team to the position of Senior Writer.
So what's changed? To you guys reading, it may not seem like a lot, but the team has been divided into two, as you can see from The Buzz Team article. We now have Columnists, and we have News Writers. The main reasoning behind this was the fact that it means writers can really specialise, allowing you guys to look forward to a certain writers regular news writing about anything to do with the Elite Guard, or your favorite columnists favorite weekly. I hope you guys see the difference in the quality of the Buzz.
Deserved congratulations go to Afty who has been promoted to Head Columnist. I caught up with them both to see how they felt about their promotion and what they thought they could bring to the Buzz in their new roles.
First up we headed over to the Columns side of the Buzz office, and spoke to Afty, we started out by asking how he felt about his promotion, he told us “It’s fantastic. I’m really excited about what I can continue to do for the Buzz. I only came back to the game this reset, and to be writing for the Buzz at all is a great thing.” We pressed him a little further and asked why he thought he had been offered the position; “Because I’m terrible at writing ‘news’ articles!” He told us, jovially, adding “I hope that it’s because I’ve been reliable in writing my weeklies, and that they’ve been of an alright standard. Either way, I’m happy to have the job.”
So, now in the job, what can you bring to the position, we asked, “A massive ego and a Charlie Sheen-esque mentality!” You can see why we made him Head Columnist and not Head News Writer, can’t you? He went on, “No, I think I can bring an outside perspective. With being away from the game for some time and not being swayed by the general consensus, I think I can do an good job of writing things. I’m also an admin on another game, and a coder, so when it comes to “leading” or making decisions in a team then I find it quite easy.” So with Afty at the helm of the column section, what can you readers expect to see differently? “I hope that we can start to provide more columns each week, with a big focus on quality and being funny. I think that a lot of people are put off from writing for the Buzz because they don’t necessarily know what is going on with players, crews etc. I’ll try to make it more known that columnists are writing based on their own opinion. There are plenty of people with opinions on Bootleggers, so I’m hoping we can find more players with some good opinions.”
So there you have it, the same great Buzz team, but set out in a different and we think better way that will mean your weekly Buzz is that bit more informative, amusing and factually correct.
Our new Senior Writer asked me to stress that the Buzz is still recruiting, and there is currently one or more vacant spots within each section of the Buzz.
So we are looking for one writer and one columnist. We asked what he was looking for in the potential new member of his columns team and he told us:
I’m really looking for players to come forward who don’t tend to speak up a lot. There isn’t a lot of point in having a columnist who is making forum threads every day about the same thing that they are going to write about in the Buzz. I’m hoping that there are some people playing that are genuinely interested in writing some interesting, or funny, articles on a weekly basis.
Afty said
Submit your applications as always, at the bottom of the Buzz page as a freelance article. This week I'm going to suggest some subjects you could use if you're struggling for inspiration (which are totally made up); for the news guys it's the news that Mika has been removed as a Moderator suddenly, find out why and report on it! For the columnists, it's a choice between either your own idea at a weekly column like Afty's Occasional Guide, or the topic of how Round 7 compares to previous Bootleggers rounds. Good luck!
Congratulations to those promoted, great work from the team as always, and I look forward to reading all of your applications.
