OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Oct
21

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FallFest Applications Now Being Accepted!

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Tags: , 4 Comments

It’s that time of year again… actually a little past that time of year.  😉  Well anyway, we’re now accepting applications to host and chair the online roleplaying community’s premier event: The Simming Fall Festival (aka FallFest).  This will be our 7th festival since beginning back in 2011.

For those who may be new to the Ongoing Worlds blog, FallFest is a one-day online convention held annually in Internet chatrooms for anything and everything simming and online role playing.  We remember our past and look to our future.  It generally runs for a few hours and includes multiple discussions, trivia games, and live role plays.  Originally intended to be a mini-SciWorld more friendly to European timezones, FallFest has since grown into much more.

We need a host & chair to make it all happen

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Oct
4

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Congratulations to our 2017 Squiddie Award Winners!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

Earlier this year, we asked the simming & online role playing community to nominate their very best for our pinnacle award, the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing (affectionally known as the Squiddie).  You responded with 19 nominations for 17 different people, games, and clubs.  And my what an outstanding group it was!  The consistent high-caliber of the nominees made our job of picking winners extremely difficult.  For that reason, I want to personally thank everyone for providing us such a great group to choose from… even though it made our job more challenging.

If you recall, Squiddies are awarded to only one person, one game, and one club each year.  The prizes come in three categories (Excellence in Role Playing, Originality & Innovation, and Facilitating the Community Experience) and are awarded primary for actions during the prior calendar year.  In this case, 2016.  Without any further ado, here are your 2017 Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing Laureates… Read More

Jul
3

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Congratulations to all of our 2017 Squiddie Nominees!!!

Category: Awards, Competition, Roleplaying community Tags: 5 Comments

Congratulations to all of our 2017 Squiddie Nominees!  After our May post, we received 7 nominations for 6 people, 6 nominations for 6 games, and 6 nominations for 5 clubs.  In case you lost count, that’s 19 total nominations for 17 different entities.  While it’s down from our usual ~30 nominees, we still have many absolutely outstanding candidates.  I can assure you that the competition certainly is fierce this year!  The level of commitment, creativity, and drive from our community never ceases to amaze me.  Let’s keep up the great role playing!

Without further ado, here are your 2017 nominees in no particular order…
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May
23

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It’s 2017 Squiddie Time!

Category: Awards, Competition, Roleplaying community Tags: 1 Comment

That’s right–now that the Tournament of Simulations is completed, it’s time to turn our attention to Ongoing Worlds’ pinnacle award: The Squiddie (aka The Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Roleplaying).  Each year we present Squiddies to three different entities: one person, one sim/game, and one club.  Squiddies are bestowed for exemplifying one or more of the following characteristics, primarily during the previous calendar year:

  • Excellence in role playing: Outstanding role play or leadership performance far above and beyond the typical person, game, or club.
  • Originality and innovation: Using a new technology or innovation or combining existing technologies together in a new way to elevate the role play adventure
  • Facilitating the community experience: Enhancing interaction, cooperation, and/or collaboration among role players to improve or advance the community

You can read about past winners here: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 Read More

May
13

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2016 Tournament of Simulation Winners!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: , , 5 Comments

Hear ye!  Hear ye!  It’s time to announce the winners of the 2016 Tournament of Simulations (ToS).  For those who may not be aware, ToS is an annual competition, sponsored by Ongoing Worlds, where role play games of different clubs and genres compete against each other in a friendly manner for several awards.  The original tournament was held back in 1999.  For this year’s ToS, each participating sim submitted 10 posts that were written sometime during 2016.  The posts were then evaluated by three judges in three different categories on a 1-10 scale: Story, Characters, and Readability/Grammar.  The final scores were then adjusted based on the individual judge’s respective averages and standard deviations to adjust for both hard & easy grading judges and judges with small & large ranges of scores.

As I say every year, evaluating sims is a subjective art, and this is certainly true with ToS.  We’re not here to identify the best games as this is impossible.  Instead, we’re here to identify what we think are outstanding role plays that exude excellence.  A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s okay!  With that said, it’s time to finally announce our winners… Read More

Feb
10

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Online Role Players & Pokémon Go

Category: Interviews, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , 2 Comments

Editor’s Note: This article was published shortly before Pokémon Go’s February 16, 2017 Gen 2 update.

The mobile application Pokémon Go was released a little over seven months ago today.  Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know what a big hit it was.  Indeed, almost immediately it broke multiple download and revenue records for mobile apps.   Read More

Jan
1

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It’s time for the 2016 Tournament of Simulations (ToS)

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: 7 Comments

ToS2016That’s right, it’s time for our annual Tournament of Simulations (ToS) competition!  Role players, hosts, and club leaders alike are all hereby invited to enter their games/sims/role plays in the the oldest and most prestigious competition of the entire simming and online roleplaying universe (yes, it’s ToS!).  Indeed, Ongoing Worlds is officially calling on on YOU (yes, you!) to enter your simulations and online role plays in the 2016 edition of ToS.  This will be the 12th tournament to be held (the first happened in 1999).  Nominations will be accepted through January 31st, 2017. Winners will be announced sometime later.  Here’s how to enter: Read More

Dec
9

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How to Win a Squiddie (and other awards too)!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , , 11 Comments

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

We have received a few questions about how we choose the Squiddies winners (2016, 2017, 2018) and what makes a good candidate.  Before we get to that, I want to do two things first:  1) Explain the Squiddies to anyone who might not be familiar with them, and 2) Provide a brief overview of some of the other major annual awards within the greater simming and online role playing community.

  1. The Squiddie (officially the “Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Roleplaying”) is presented annually to three entities: one person, one sim, and one sim club.  It also consists of three categories: Excellence in Roleplaying, Originality & Innovation, and Facilitating the Community Experience.  The award is sponsored by us, Ongoing Worlds, and was first presented in 2013.
  2. The Squiddie is one of three families of major community-level awards.  The oldest is the Simming Prize (officially the “Prize for Simming and Online Role Playing in Memory of Seth Cotis“), dating back to 1999.  Originally awarded by the Simming League and later by Ongoing Worlds, it is now bestowed by a group of trustees.  It is presented to up to five entities each year and is named in memory of an early influential simming leader.  ToS (“Tournament of Simulations”) is the final group of awards.  In ToS, volunteer judges from around the community read posts form participating games and choose winners in different categories that may vary from year to year.  ToS also dates back to 1999.  It is currently presented by Ongoing Worlds, but began in the Simming League as well.

Clear as mud?  Fantastic!  So here’s how we choose Squiddie winners… Read More

Nov
18

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FallFest VI is in the books & another OWCH

Category: Awards, Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

fallfestvi-500

2016 Simming Fall Festival
image by Myrkul Sharr

What a FallFest!  Indeed, the 2016 Simming Fall Festival was one for the ages.  For those who missed it on Saturday, we had a schedule full of provocative discussions, live role plays, and interactive trivia games.  Attendance was strong throughout, with some individual events registering as many as 40 participants.  It’s a real testament to the power of our broader community.  And it was a blast! For book related information go and check this.

I’d like to personally thank everyone who had a part in making FallFest 2016 happen–everyone from chair Myrkul Sharr and his leadership team at Obsidian Fleet to the event hosts to anyone who had a role behind the scenes, be it IT support, graphics design, advertising, or something else.  Finally, I’d also like to thank everyone who attended and participated.  Simply put, without you bringing your energy & ideas, there would be no FallFest.

For those of you who unfortunately missed FallFest this year, we’ll see you in 2017.
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Nov
12

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2016 Simming Fall Festival

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , 2 Comments

fallfestvi-500

2016 Simming Fall Festival
image by Myrkul Sharr

Head on over now to join FallFest 2016.  Lots of interactive discussions, trivia games, live role plays, and more.

This is simming.  This is community.  This is FallFest.  https://discord.gg/86ENTZ5

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