Well, I think you've got the chops for writing, just as long as you accept that you probably won't get paid in more than kudos. The internet people bitching thing is probably not so new though.

@Mento: No offense taken!

@Ace829: I'll try not to, though to be honest, the site gets very few comments on most articles. I'm not sure what sort of resistance I might face, but I'll try to be better about dealing with it than I've been in the past. At the very least, I can just choose not to take the bate.

@TheJohn: @Halos_god: @Apathylad: @Cathryn: Thank you, all!

I'm not sure how long this might last, honestly. This is a volunteer position, after all, and they've had a number of people rotate in and out of writing positions. With any luck, I'll be able to stick around and contribute more, but time will tell.

Congrats and good luck!

Congrats. I've often thought about writing for a website, but I'm not sure how I would react to the potential criticism.

CONGRATS!!!!!!!

Congrats, I think this is actually a perfect fit for you since you share that same passion for discussing games from Japan with OpRainfall, even if you do get a bit too heated about it.

I've already told you this before, but I think it's worth repeating that whenever you get into a debate/argument, the worst thing to do is get emotional since not only will you look bad, but you may say something that you might regret later on (for example name-calling or questioning someone's credibility too hastily).

I hope this opportunity works out for you because obviously have the passion for JRPGs and video games in general, and just try to not let any haters get to you.

Congratulations and good luck, dude!

Congrats! Though I think you'll probably remain more internet famous for the arguments you get yourself involved in on the forums here. For whatever that's worth.

Still, if this eventually leads to a paid gig then that really trumps any sort of internet fame. Entirely.

(ETA: In retrospect, I'm not sure why I brought up the internet recognition thing. It's certainly not to denigrate your genuinely cool and much deserved opportunity. I guess I've been wondering for a while if starting a small gaming website would garner more readers than writing mixed-quality blogs for a major gaming website with a small outlet for promoting community content, like GB. So, uh, apologies if this reply came off as brusque or pointlessly irrelevant.)

Well, sort of.

I had been frequenting oprainfall.com for some time since the site made the transition from campaigning for North American releases of Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower to becoming a volunteer-run news and review hub. And in my time there, I had also gotten into some rather heated...debates with certain staff members regarding their writing. I'm sure some of you can guess what a lot of those arguments revolved around.

Anyway, after a particular row with one of their writers (this time having nothing to do with anything Metroid-related), I was contacted by one of the site heads and offered me the chance to basically put my money where my mouth is by bringing me on as a member of the staff. I accepted.

So what am I doing, exactly? As a newcomer, I'm strictly assigned to writing news; editorials and reviews aren't within my jurisdiction. At least, not yet. You could say that I'm still in a trial period. Anyway, as a news writer, I'm not exactly Patrick. The work I'm doing is mostly researching story leads and writing short bits on them. Some of it's new aggregation, some of it's more original than that, but it gets content on the site.

But like I said, this is a volunteer position. I get no compensation, save the gratification of people reading what I wrote (and possibly bitching at me over the internet). And I don't know how long I'll stick with it and get the chance to write articles outside of basic news, but I'll see how things shake out.

(Obviously, this is not attached to the forums or any game pages because this could be construed as advertising.)