Happy December! The holiday season has officially begun and I'm here to say a bunch of words that you'll hopefully finish reading!
It has been some time since we've had one of these...
Out of Cards Holiday Event
I know there are many of you excited about our holiday site event! We took in your awesome feedback from our Oozefest Halloween event and have improved upon it.
- Longer Event - We agree, a week wasn't enough. The event will end on January 1.
- Unique Activity - There's a special site-wide activity taking place that will be unique to the Holiday season.
- More Cosmetics - You wanted us to do more cool stuff so we have!
A storm is brewing and the snow has already started to fall. You better get your gloves on because the event comes into full swing next week - stay tuned for more details.
Out of Cards Premium Changes
Starting next year, we're going to be changing the way that you can purchase and subscribe to Out of Cards Premium in addition to a slight overhaul. The current system is convoluted and isn't integrated too well with the site which makes it a pain to deal with.
- Patreon will no longer be available.
- Current Patrons can stay subscribed and we'll still offer you Premium through the platform.
- Premium via Twitch is not changing.
- You can subscribe via Twitch Prime to twitch.tv/fluxflashor
- It is recommended to not use this outside of Twitch Prime as it is the most expensive option due to Twitch fees.
More details on the new subscriptions will be made available when the new system is added to the site. Expect tighter integration and proper recurring subscriptions for those that support through PayPal. Also, anyone who has been a Premium member of the site at some point will be receiving site currency for each month they have been subscribed and that will be a new feature of it going forward.
Thank you to everyone who has been a Premium on Out of Cards, your support means the world to us <3
Out of Cards Merch Shop
We're going to be temporarily closing the Out of Cards Merch Shop on December 27, so if there's something you want, here's your last chance to snag that swag (for a bit)! European members, please use this catalog to find items that ship from within the EU to prevent import charges.
More details on an updated Merch Shop will be available around Q2 2021.
New Twitter Accounts
We don't have this displayed on the site quite yet, but we've got a round of new Twitter accounts to follow if you partake in the platform.
Our main Twitter feed is not changing. But, the problem with covering multiple games while giving each one a dedicated home on the site is that it becomes difficult to grow an account. When we went through the recent Darkmoon Faire card reveal period, we had many Runeterra-focused players unfollow the account so they wouldn't see "spam" in their feeds. The same happens when Runeterra-heavy content happens with the Hearthstone folk.
Understanding this, the proper way forward is to have a main Twitter account that will cover everything and individual accounts for each game.
- Hearthstone - @OutOfCardsHS
- Runeterra - @OutOfCardsLoR
- MTG Arena - @OutOfCardsMTG
- Mythgard - @OutOfCardsMG
I hope that you'll give the accounts a follow for the content you want to see. If you want to continue following the main @NeverOutOfCards feed, that's fine too! If there's one particular game you don't care for, you can mute it on Twitter by using their Mute tool in your account management. We always, or at least are supposed to always, use the same hashtags for each game so you can mute those if desired. #Hearthstone, #Runeterra, #MTGArena, #Mythgard.
They'll all get game-specific avatars in the future, I promise.
Facebook Problems
Facebook sucks. Even if you share the same feeling, it is likely for a different reason.
If you're someone who has liked our page and discovered you haven't seen content on it for a little over the week, you can thank the Zuck. We're currently waiting for them to verify our developer account so our site integration can continue posting. Once we have it back up and running, we'll also have additional pages for each of the games we support much like Twitter and we'll be sure to make an announcement on the site when it happens.
Looking For More (Paid Writers)
You've likely noticed we haven't been covering all our titles perfectly over the past couple of months. We're looking for some fresh meat to put onto the team! There's a lot going on here so let's talk about this game by game to see what we're looking for.
Keep in mind that for any of our titles, if you have fresh ideas for content, we're always open to new stuff!
Hearthstone
We are looking for a few new Hearthstone writers. Although we're looking for people who specifically specialize in certain areas of the game, do know that you are not limited to contributing to the site in these positions.
- Duels Content Writer
- Writing and maintaining guides for Hearthstone Duels.
- Providing weekly decklist recaps to help players find new ways to play.
- Battlegrounds Content Writer
- Writing and maintaining guides for Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
- Talking about changes when they are announced.
- Providing insight and recommendations into meta changes.
- General Content Creator
- Pitch us your ideas for a new series.
- Deck spotlights and guides.
- Covering community-created content.
Legends of Runterra
We're looking for more generalized coverage of Legends of Runeterra.
- News Manager
- Covering news for the game in a timely matter. Covering Riot blogs, events, community happenings.
- This requires that you pay regular attention to what is happening in the world of Runeterra.
- General Content Creator
- Adding decks to the website.
- Covering the latest news in a timely manner.
- Weekly deck spotlight articles focusing on the meta, fun, and more.
- Writing and maintaining guides for new players, events, and more.
Tell us what you want to help create for Legends of Runeterra on Out of Cards and we'll be in touch!
MTG Arena
We need writers for Wizards of the Coast's greatest implementation of Magic the Gathering on electronic devices.
To start things off, we are looking for:
- News Manager
- Covering news for the game in a timely matter. Covering Wizards blogs, events, community happenings.
- This requires that you pay regular attention to what is happening in the MTG Arena and MTG world.
- General Content Creator
- Pitch us your ideas for a new series.
- Deck spotlights and guides.
- Covering community-created content.
- Guides for new players, events, and more.
Mythgard
The newest game both on the site and by release date! We're looking for knowledgeable players that want to start to build a community for the game here on Out of Cards. Much like the other titles, we're looking for people that will cover the news, maintain guides, and make sure we have decks to share with the community.
We will also be looking for someone to manage our Mythgard section as a whole in the future, so this is a good opportunity to get your foot in the door.
Payments
All our writers are on revenue sharing agreements. The better your content does, the more you can earn! Writers start at the following rates which will increase the longer and more consistently you're producing content on the site:
- Articles - 60% Share
- Guides - 50% Share
- Decks - 30% Baseline, with 70% for Written Guides.
Understandably, we're still building up certain sections of the site so do not expect high numbers to start. You're going to be a part of helping us build and improve Out of Cards and the faster we can do that, the better it will be!
Applying
If you are interested in any of these positions, please email [email protected] with the subject line "Out of Cards Job - <Position>" and let me know which position you are interested in. We don't have a format for you to adhere to, just put on your best impression and provide us with work samples. We will be in touch with candidates this month. Applications are closing on December 10 so be sure to get them in!
All writers are considered an independent contractor and not an employee of Out of Cards, so please keep that in mind before applying.
Comments
6 minutes before December 10th, so close
For LoR, I think that it would be cool to have articles on the lore communicated through the information in the card images, card flavor text, and LoL stories. For example, an Article on Swain and the Second Invasion of Ionia (although that event still isn't over). Maybe a better example would be the lore of the Lunari and Solari or Dragons.
I imagine that writing for a Forum could be Fun! Though, outside of some Comments here and there, I don't have any Samples of similar Work that I could offer...
But, it does seem pretty interesting!
Also, in Case you Guys take Suggestions from the Comments here: There's one Topic that I've never seen really discussed or given proper Attention on other Forums (mostly Reddit and HearthPwn), and that's despite it playing such a big Part in Card Games.
I'm speaking of Card Art!
The only Time People talk about it, is when there's Changes or a Controversy. Which is kind of a Shame, cause there's just so much more to it! On YT alone, there's quite a lot of Essays, like the ones from Rhystic Studies, some Tutorials, and even some Work Processes by Artist.
Maybe you could write about how Games handle the Portrayal of Characteristics (like Colors in MtGA, Classes in HS,..), look at the Storytelling on and between Cards, Themes of Expansions, etc. One could also look at the Process of creating Card Art or put the Spotlight on a certain Artist and their Works.
If you don't have any samples of similar work, you can always just make a sample article and submit that!
As for the whole card art stuff, specifically for magic, I would love to cover more about the whole portrayal of characteristics as well as story telling in them! Infact, the multiverse lore guides that are already up do focus on the story telling on and between cards, since thats the main way that MTG tells its story for the most part. I do plan on continuing these, as well as doing a more indepth on what the colors stand for, but they just take a bit of time and I've been too busy to start picking one up.
I don't have much Experience with Magic, only played Arena for like 3-4 Seasons, but their Approach at portraying Character looks very well thought out. I also read that Mark Rosewater wrote a Ton of Letters about Game Design as a Whole, so checking those out could be very helpful.
From time to time, when artists publish their process to create a certain card art, we highlight that with a specific post.
The thing is... most of the times we don't have access to such content with regular frequency.
I agree it's a shame and I agree we should get (and highlight) more of these, but if you know how to do it/how to look for the material, I think you should definitely apply and see what happens!
Yeah, the Frequency of something like this would probably be lower, and not a weekly Format, I imagine.
But there's some interesting Stuff out there, like unused or repurposed Artwork. Artstation alone has a lot of HS related Work and even some High-Quality Fan Stuff.
I'll keep looking for other Resources during the Weekend, and if I find enough I might write you Guys! :)
How many snowflakes can be collected while travelling OoC each day? I'm interested in knowing the upper limit, just like it was made clear during the Oozefest earlier this fall 😋
My best guess is 12 per day. I've done some significant browsing today doing site achievements and 12 is the last number I remember seeing. It also fits the theme of 12 Days of Christmas.
Today, I noticed I got a 13th snowflake and none afterwards, so the upper limit seems to be 13 (at least for today).
So, here's an idea for a new HS series (especially considering the debate around HS economy these days): "*Writter's name* F2P adventures" where said writter would start a new HS account from scratch (kind of what Trump used to do in the past) and see where he/she'll go in, for example, 2 months of content, with weekly recaps and resource management, tackling not only how expensive the game is but also where and in what order should a new player go to gather all free resources. If done correctly, it could be a very interesting series of articles.
Went ahead and applied for LoR. I was looking for an opportunity to write articles for a better part of my card game life so this is exciting news :)
Thanks for all the great work. I won't apply probably although it sounds good. I am not a native speaker and more importantly I don't feel that I am proficient enough in HS or MTGA to produce content in the required quality on a constant basis. Despite me playing for years. I could however imagine writing a guest article in case an idea pops up in my head (should this ever be the case). :)
That said there are a lot of great people around here who could probably fit the offered roles neatly.
You can always make a forum thread with whatever you have to say, nothing is stopping you! :) You could even use it to "test the waters" and "polish your writing" and maybe apply next time :)
I'm not a native speaker either, but it's hasn't been that big of a deal so far (or at least I hope so lol).
The staff is nice and will help you if you're struggling.
I don't want to push people to apply, but if your only fear is the language barrier my advice is that you should still give it a shot.
Come one, come all!