Many of you pointed out this perfect candidate for a ‘Shop Contest when the story published on Thursday, and I agree. There's so much you can do to this image.
Let me make a humble request though: If you're going to goof on Brian Kingrey, the guy holding the check, make it good-natured. Because he's a good-natured guy. He's the winner of MLB 2K11's Million Dollar Perfect Game challenge, and he and his wife are going to use the dough to buy a refrigerator and an electric car. That is so wholesome it makes Andy Griffith look like Charlie Sheen.
As for the other details of the frame, we've got a game poster, a game on the screen, a guy, something very large in his hands, a check with a logo on it, and an amount on that check. Computing things have-it-your-way Burger King-style, there are 7,654,871,294 possibilities here, and that includes submitting a ‘Shop that is nothing but a white square. Please don't do that.
Source Image: Brian Kingrey, the second winner of 2K Sports' Million Dollar Perfect Game Challenge.
You know the rules: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.
This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest.
1. Create your 'Shop.
2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It's stupid simple. No account is necessary.
3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It's under "Direct Link (email & IM)"
4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click "Start a New Thread"
5. To the right of your name, select "Image."
6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It's the field that says "Image URL."
7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, paste the image URL as a comment.
8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size.
'Shop entry will be uploaded to the comments.
As an added inducement, I want to let you know I do star commenters who send in worthy/funny submissions - whether or not they're chosen for the final 20. This may not happen immediately. I usually start rounding up a gallery by the middle of the week. This is my subjective call, but I do want to recognize as many contributors as possible, and show gratitude for making this such a popular feature on weekends.
Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!