Join MM Hell...
... and reap all the benefits!

> Run a Fansite!
> Join a Fansite!
> Write for us!
> Why are you doing this?
> The "Fineprint".

Just looking for the right contact information? You can simply drop a mail to join@mmhell.com or stop by IRC (irc.mmhell.com, channel #mmhell).

Let's clear up a few points from the start:

• We seek volunteers, you are not going to be paid (but read on..).
• We do not seek Average Joe, we want people with attitude and skill - to ensure you're amongst like-minded people.
• Before "reaping the benefits" (detailed below) you will have to be around for some time. We will not throw stuff at you before you're actually contributing to the site(s).
• You must have fun at doing things (like writing, coding, designing, or whatever it is you want to do)

Still here? Well, read on then, because next comes what we offer.

• Free Games, now and then. If you review or cover games for us (probably by running a good fansite), the least thing we can do is get you the game you cover for free. Sometimes this also includes a limited, or unlimited, subscription to it.
• Pre-Release Access. Often we are able to get in the closed beta of the game you want to cover, and a few of or all of your staff if you run a fansite.
• Limited NDA. Often we can get limited approval from developers to release information from a closed beta that is under a Non-Disclosure Agreement otherwise. Of course developers want good and correct coverage, so these approvals happen on a case by case basis.
• Exclusive Content and Swag for your fansite, if you run one with MM Hell. Developers sometimes give us exclusive screenshots or other goodies like swag (T-Shirts, Hats, Posters..) to give away to staff or to the public.

And of course staff gets to use all of the services we offer anyway, to the fullest.

• Access to our IMAP/POP3/SMTP server with an E-Mail address off any of the domains we also offer on MM Blogs (like ironforge.net or rubi-ka.org).
• Webspace for your own personal things with PHP/Perl/MySQL/all that jazz if needed.
• The ability to abuse Fyrn's knowledge nearly 24/7.
• Gamechannel priority on our IRC Servers (if you run a fansite for a game, the channel for that game is yours).
• Fancy titles, avatars and colors on the Forums.
• A spoofed host on our IRC Servers (like woohoo.i.am.with.hell).
• All available features for your Weblog and a VIP Blog location (when available).

And more important than all of the above, we offer you a place to express yourself, or make your first steps at professional online publishing. If you want to study journalism, or just be a freelance journalist, you could use publications you made on MM Hell or a fansite you ran here as references when applying to a job, for example.

Even if it's programming or designing knowledge you seek - some of our staff are very proficient in for example PHP.

If you want to join a gang of like-minded people, with attitude and brain, we're the absolutely right place. Attitude doesn't mean that we talk smack all day, but we're not trying to be business trolls on IRC either. But now let me break down what you could do here at MM Hell a little (we are not looking for anything specific, you could be doing pretty much anything you're good at, or not yet but want to become good at).

Run a Fansite!

By "run a fansite", we don't actually mean "be our content slave, while we enforce our rules on you" like you might think (cough.) - it's more like "use our code, get free design and support, a cool community and do what the Hell you want with it". The only thing we impose is the advertising, because if you're not running things off Lycos - bandwidth is not free. Noone likes intrusive advertising, and we try to make sure it stays as unintrusive as possible as long as it pays the bills.

So, if you decide to run a fansite, check if we already have one for the game you want to cover and consider joining it. Some (or most, which is why we really want you) have no proper leadership right now - so you could just take it over.

If we do not have a fansite for the game yet, you can just approach us and tell us you really want to run a site. You don't necessarily need any knowledge in PHP, HTML or anything else. All you need to run a fansite is your browser and brain. We can, and will if you want us to, design any aspect of your fansite (because we seriously have fun at doing that). From the layout, to custom coding implemented into our own CMS, it's pretty much all possible.

Even if you already run a fansite, and want to get rid of some of the responsibilities that come with it (like paying for hosting), we can help you move all your content to us and make the transition as smooth as possible (forwarding your domain to us, having a similar look, similar forums setup..).

Convinced? Then Join Us!...

Join a Fansite!

This is probably the most easiest part for you, since helping out at a fansite brings way less responsibilities with it than writing for us or running a fansite does. If you want to write guides, draw maps, collect information, write diaries, news, or do anything that a fansite might need (this is entirely up to the manager of that fansite) you can contact us and we will forward it to appropriate person!

Simply mail us, and we will forward it to the right person.

Write for our main publication!

Yes, that's MMHell.com - the site you're looking at right now. We always need people that write reviews, re-reviews, previews, interviews, regular series covering a game with indepth information and other things. You could write a regular column on a topic you choose, interview developers on upcoming or released titles, get access to a game and review it periodically (we try to re-review every 6 months, because MMORPGs develop constantly).

It is pretty much up to you, but of course it all goes through your Editor In Chief (that is me, Fyrn). We take your piece, check it, and schedule it for publication. Once it's published, you can use it as reference on job applications or similar - you profit from the exposure our site gets, and the wonderful design that surrounds it (as creator of this, I probably shouldn't say stuff like that).

Ready to sell your Soul to us now? Go for it!

Still here? Then let me rant on why we do all this..

Why do we (I) put so much work in letting others run fansites, you ask? It's a pretty straight forward story: I once ran a fansite, for a game that is now nearly doomed to die. I was getting a good amount of traffic for a single fansite (around 2,000 unique visitors a day) and tried to do my best to provide a nice to look at and informative website to the (future) players of that game. When I tried to get some exclusive information or visuals off the developers however, my requests were often either ignored or refused. I often checked other fansites, most of them running under the banner of some network, and saw how they seemed to score all the exclusive screenshots and interviews while not even having half the quality that my site had. "They simply had more traffic.." you might think - but, no. Whenever there was a counter installed on articles, or even all pages, they were significantly lower than what similar content got on my site. So I started to wonder how they get all the goods - and the answer became apparent: they are with a large network. They probably had traffic from people that originally came to see content for another title, and were probably convinced to try this new title because it looked promising. Or maybe it was just the name of the network that opened the door - prior contact to the developers by the PR department, or whatever.

Long story short - I was disappointed that the efforts of a single entity, no matter how well done and organized, seemed to go under (at least in the eyes of said developer). Other developers might be more open, but I didn't want to suffer another disappointment (I quit the title, and closed the fansite shortly before it launched). So here I am - now running a network, and finally having the contact to developers that I've wanted before.

And this is what we want to pass on (yes, now it's we, because I don't do everything alone). We want to ease the pain for people that want to run a fansite, spare them of the disappointments that might be involved with going on your own. Even if you decide to quit running a fansite it continues to live, and if you fail you don't have that feeling of having invested countless nights of programming in something that the developers don't appreciate (instead of you, it's me who has wasted his time then, hehe).


That is about it, for now. Now join us already and help us make this network the single best place to be on the World Wide Web.

The "Fineprint", that really isn't.

Ok, it's not really fineprint, it has the same size as all other text and is even linked from the top. But we might still have to clarify this:
If you run a fansite here, it is yours, that's right. You can, if you want to, take all content you created and move it to a new site you might have created, but you give us the right to still publish it for as long as we see fit. So even if you leave MM Hell, or your fansite, it will (can) stay online just as you left it with all content in place.

You also won't ever get access to the source code of your site (or at least not to the core part of it), and you also will not get SSH or FTP access to the webserver. You can develop things for the site in a way that is secure for both sides, though. You'll learn about it if you join us!