The first thing you have to decide is what type of news post you want to create. In the beginning you will only be able to submit Level 1 news posts so that is what we will concentrate on first.
Story Url
In step 1 you will have to enter the url of the story you want to post. A Level
1 news post must have an online source. If you found the story via another website
you have the option to also add a second url. This is not something you must do,
only an option you have if you want to give the credit to a site for helping you
find the story.
Story type
It is important that you select the most appropriate Story Type, this will make
it easier for other members to find the story and it also decides what the link
at the end of your story will read. Here is a quick run down of what each story
type mean.
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News Article: Use this for general news articles
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Rumors: Use this for rumors , stories that are not yet confirmed to be true
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Article: Use this for articles that are not news, like editorials , guides , and
other pieces of written martial that is not a news story.
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Interview: Use this when the story is in the form of an interview or Q&A
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Preview: Use this when linking to a preview of a game, like “hands on” or “first
look” stories.
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Review: Use this for articles that test games or products.
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Screenshot: Use this when linking to screenshots of games
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Image: Use this when linking to images which are not screenshots.
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Video: Use this when linking to videos
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Trailer: Use this when linking to games or movie trailers.
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TV: Use this when linking to online TV shows
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Podcast: Use this when linking to Podcasts or online radio shows.
Media Format
It is important that you select the right Media Format, this will make it easier
for other members to find the story. You can choose between Text, Video, Audio and
Image. If you are linking to an article you choose text and if you are linking to
a video you choose video and so on.
News Channels
It is important that you select the most appropriate News Channels, this will make
it easier for other members to find the story. You can select more than one News
Channel but do not select more than what is appropriate. The news channels you select
decide which section of the site your story will be visible. It is very important
that you only select the channels that are directly related to your news story.
For example if you want to submit a news story about a PlayStation 3 game you only
select PlayStation 3. If the story is about a new PlayStation 3 developer you can
choose PlayStation 3 and Industry news. If the story is about a PlayStation 3 tournament
you can choose PlayStation 3 and Gaming. Only check off Gaming if the story has
something to do with game tournaments, retro gams or gaming culture. Regular PC
or console news should only filed under their respective platforms. Blue Ray or
HD DVD stories should be filed under Tech and sometimes also Industry News. Only
file Blue Ray or HD DVD stories under Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 when it is related
to games and not movies.
The most common mistake is
that people also choose Industry News and Gaming when it really just should have
been Xbox 360 or PS3. Industry News should only be chosen when the news is business
related or when it is of interest to the game industry at large. Gaming should only
be chosen when the story is about the gaming community, retro games, game culture,
gaming related activities like tournaments and so on. Normal console and PC news
should just be filed under their respective platforms.
Example 1:
Xbox Live Video Marketplace to make $726 Million
In a report titled 'Spotlight on Television 2.0 Leaders: Microsoft Corporation'
published by Emerging Media Dynamics, Microsoft is estimated to make an astonishing
$726 Million from Xbox Live movie and TV revenue by 2011.
Emerging Media Dynamics expects the Xbox Live video download service to grow massively
over the next 12 months, with combined revenue of TV shows and movies via Xbox Live
touted at $92.25 million in 2007, growing further each year until total sales top
the $726 million figure in 2011, it is predicted.
This story should be filed under Xbox 360 and Industry News.
Xbox 360 because it is about the Xbox Live Market Place, and Industry News because
it is business related.
Example 2:
Ben Heckendorn's fully portable Atari Jaguar
Benjamin Heckerdorn -- that oh-so-crafy modding guru -- is at it again with his
console-morphing antics, and this time the victim is the ill-fated "64-bit" Atari
Jaguar. The mission? To create a portable, all-in-one, battery-powered version of
Atari's flailing attempt to make it in the ever-competitive console market.
This should be filed under “Gaming” as it is about a retro game machine.
Step 2 of 3 – Related Games
This is the second step of the submit process. Here you select what game(s) (if any)
your story is related to. For example : A news article about Halo 3 should naturally
be related to the game Halo 3 in the database.
Use the filter and choose the letter
H , this should bring up a list of games that start with H.
If you can’t find your
game on the list you can add the game to the database by clicking on the
“Create a New Game” button.
This will open up a green form where you can type in the name
of the game and then choose which platform this game is for. If the game is coming
to more than one console press and hold Ctrl to choose multiple platforms. Now click
on the
"Add Game" button and your game should become available in the list.
Now highlight
the game and click the
"Add Relation" button. If your news story is about more than
one game just highlight another game and click the Add Relation link again.
If you
make a mistake you can always use the
"Remove Relation" button.
Step 3 of 3 – The News Post
This is where you will be creating the actual news post. Start with typing in a
Story Title. The story title should always be the same as the headline of the story
you link to. So do not edit the original title or create your own headlines unless
the original doesn’t make any sense when posted on N4G. Also please remove any exclamation
marks from the headline if any.
Next you will have to write the main text of your news post. Please make sure you
use a text editor and check your spelling before you submit it. You can also use
the online Spell Check at N4G available at the top right corner of the form.
There are a couple of different ways you can write your news post. The first and
most common way is to just copy and paste a part of the article you are linking
to. Make sure the part of the article you use include the main points of the news
story and it must make sense when read on N4G.com. Usually the text will need little
bit of editing before it can be used.
A good example is that the words “We” and “I” in the text must be replaced by the
website’s name.
Example
Take this article from CVG
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=152162
Original Intro
GRAW2 Interview
Signalling the end of our week of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter goodies, we sat
down to chat with the game's content producer at Ubisoft Paris, Olivier Dauba. In
our interview Dauba reveals more details on the Clancy sequel, shares his experiences
so far developing the follow-up and reveals what its like competing with that other
360 tactical shooter…
Edited Intro for N4G
GRAW2 Interview
CVG sat down to chat with the game's content producer at Ubisoft Paris, Olivier
Dauba. In the interview Dauba reveals more details on the Clancy sequel, shares
his experiences so far developing the follow-up and reveals what its like competing
with that other 360 tactical shooter…
You see the word We has been replaced with CVG and the line “In our Interview” has
been edited to “In the interview”
This way the text makes much more sense when posted on N4G, as it is not N4G who
interviewed Dauba about GRAW 2 but CVG. So always make sure you edit your text so
it makes sense from a N4G viewpoint.
Quote
However in cases when you chose to use a direct quote from the article you don’t
edit away “We” and “I” . This way of posting is often used for reviews or other
editorials.
Example:
MotorStorm Review
From the Review: "I like it because it's the first racing game in ages to realise
that you don't need 487 tracks; you just need a few really good ones. I like it
because it's the first racing game in ages to realise that you don't need 487 cars;
you just need a few really good ones. I like it because it's the first racing game
in ages to realise that you don't need endless modifications, inversions, reversals,
reversions, diversions, or excursions to other genres; you just need a simple, straightforward
series of excellent races.”
Read the full Review
This step is optional, but if your story is linking to YouTube, GameTrialers.com
or any other video site you can embed the video into your N4G news post. To do this
copy and paste the video code into the “Attach Video” form. To find the video code
look for words like “Embed” or “Add Video to Website” on the video sites.
Adding Front Page Image (Step 3)
The last step is to add an image to your article. You can either upload an image
from your PC or you can type in the url of an image online. In most cases you can
use the same image as the source story. If the source story doesn’t have an image,
you can use Google Image Search to find an appropriate image. Always use an image
that makes sense and that is in someway related to the news post. When you have
found an image click next and you will be able to preview your post before sending
it to the pending news area for approval. If everything looks fine click the “Save
Story” button.
If your news post link to some new Halo 3 screenshots you can also upload those
screenshots to N4G.com. Many readers are unable to visit the source sites because
their workplace blocks access to game sites like IGN and Gamespot. By uploading
some of the screenshots to N4G these readers will also be able to view the new screens.
If you are all done you can now submit your news story to the pending news area
for approval. You can also choose to keep the story in your account and send it
for approval later. This can be useful if you don’t have time to finish the news
post at the moment and want to work more on it later.
You can at anytime jump back and forth through all the steps of the submission process
through the right side menu for easy editing. You will not lose any data by doing
this as all the forms will remember the data you have entered.
For a news post to go live on N4G it must first be approved by the community.
Pending stories needs at least 10 votes before they can be published as an
official N4G news story on the home page. High ranking Contributers and
Administrators have more powerful votes. Normal members can not approve
stories as they have not gone through the necessary training to determine
if a story meets N4G's news posting criterias.
Pay close attention to the report history of all your stories. When you open your story in the pending news area you will find the Report History to the right. Other members can report errors and faults in your news post that will show up in the Report History. To correct your news post click one of the - Fix Now – links . This will let you edit your news post and remove the error reports from the Report History.
As a N4G Contributor you can also report errors and faults in other members’ news posts by using the Report Story tool. You can choose from a list of the most common errors and add a personal comment to help clarify the problem.
N4G Contributors can only edit their own news posts, while Super Contributors and Administrators can also edit other members’ news posts.
