It’s the end of the year and that means it’s time to reflect on the past and look forward to a brighter tomorrow. This week we’ve given our writers the week off to be with their families and enjoy the holidays while we (mostly) run a top-ten countdown of our most popular non-news articles of the year. We’re also giving our newsletter team the week off but they’ll be back, and better than ever, the first week of January. For now, enjoy the countdown!
#4 Hipsters of the Coast Paid me $1,000 to Write this Article, So I’m Sharing My Biggest Secret by Gerry Thompson
The story behind this article begins with a Tweet that Gerry made way back in March of this year. In the context of Star City Games re-vamping its writing strategy and bringing back more writers, Gerry encouraged potential writers to advocate for more money, claiming he was compensated $1,000 an article and writing weekly. I followed that up with an article here at Hipsters titled, “Was Gerry Thompson Overpaid by Star City Games?”
The answer to that question of course is no, Gerry was fairly paid and possibly under-paid, but there was a fairly vocal internet backlash that the article was what’s commonly referred to in the media publishing industry as “click bait.” While I could talk for hours about the media industry and Magic (and I will if you want to buy me a drink at Magiccon Philly) I thought it was hilarious that this was being treated as click bait. For the record, if I wanted to publish click bait, the title of that article would have been “Why On Earth Would Star City Games Pay Gerry Thompson $1,000 per Article?” and that would have been absurd click bait.
So anyways, a few months later I’m starting the planning for our Tenth Anniversary Extravaganza with the goal of making it a two-week affair. I wanted each week to have a really strong featured article. For the first week it was going to be a piece by Hunter Slaton, our first Editor-in-Chief. But for the second week the idea popped into my head that I should try for something really, really click bait-y. After all, our naysayers had spent most of 10 years claiming we were writing click bait, why not give them what they’re asking for.
So really, this article began with the headline. In fact, when I pitched the idea to Gerry, I informed him that he could write about literally anything he wanted to so long as the title of the article was “Hipsters of the Coast Paid me $1,000 to Write this Article.” Gerry did not disappoint, and the story he’s shared with our audience is truly a remarkable one.
#3 The Best Magic Cards of the Last 10 Years by Rob Bockman
Rob has been writing for Hipsters for almost six years and if you haven’t been reading his work you’re really missing out. This piece ran as part of our 10th anniversary celebration and is a brilliant look back at the most powerful cards to come out of Wizards over the span of Hipsters of the Coast’s existence.
That’s all for today. The anniversary celebration really was the highlight of the year for us. Join us tomorrow when we’ll unveil our top two, one of which was the best top 10 list to come out of the anniversary bonanza and the other has to do with one of the world’s largest financial institutions. See you then!
Rich Stein (he/him) has been playing Magic since 1995 when he and his brother opened their first packs of Ice Age and thought Jester’s Cap was the coolest thing ever. Since then his greatest accomplishments in Magic have been the one time he beat Darwin Kastle at a Time Spiral sealed Grand Prix and the time Jon Finkel blocked him on Twitter.