Writing an article to express your unique point of view is great and all, but at the end of the day, you're only one opinion out of billions of contrasting ones. How can you possibly present all the angles of an issue properly?

That's why there's this wonderful invention called “roundtables.” By posting a conversation between multiple people as an article, we can see a wide variety of different points of view regarding many topics. Gathering a group of authors with diverse views can be difficult under normal circumstances, but it's not to hard for a vast community of writers like Bitmob! Group work is the basis for this month's challenge: Knights of the Roundtable.

The Prompt:

All you have to do is whip up a roundtable discussion. But since you can't do it alone, you're going to have to make some connections in order to organize your discussion. Much like one of my previous challenges, this means rounding up fellow Bitmobbers through the contact information on their profile pages. Once you have your gang solidified, all you have to do is come up with a topic and get to debating it. Simple, right?

Having a debate or discussion is a different beast than writing traditional articles. Instead of forming ideas around a single angle, the content flows naturally from the conversation. Your responses will spark debate, extracting valuable points from your compatriots. Sometimes you'll have to steer the conversation in interesting directions, further expanding the scope of your discussion. But most importantly, you'll learn that your opinions do not exist in a vacuum. As writers, we too often get caught up in our own opinions when we write about games on the Internet. By participating in a roundtable, you'll be able to hear other sides to issues and defend your views in the face of reasoned opposition.

1. Form a group of at least three people from Bitmob's many writers. It's time to dig into those profile pages and make some connections! Check the profiles of people you'd like to work with and contact them via Facebook, Twitter, or any other method you can. Make sure your profile is up to date as well. If you need help finding a group, please post in the comments, and maybe someone will want to work with you.

2. Choose a single topic and have a discussion about it. It can be anything as long as it's worthy of debate. For a good example of this, check out this roundtable I recently took part in. Also, you're going to need to agree on a place to have this discussion, whether it's over AIM, Skype, or something else. Are you going to do this all in text? Or are you going to do this as a recorded conference call that you'll transcribe later? It's up to you.

3. Turn your discussion into an article. Make sure you note who's talking at any given time, clean up any grammar issues, and introduce the article with your topic and the names of the people involved in the discussion. Again, use the previous example piece as a template. There's no word limit here, just as long as you make the debate scintillating. Just don't go overboard. I'll be trusting you guys to know when to say when.

4. Post your roundtable to the Mobfeed with the tag “Bitmob Writing Challenge” (not in the title of the piece). Submit it by July 1.

Don't forget that participating in challenges is a great way of getting your work noticed. And roundtables are even more eye-catching, so make sure you make some good discussions!