OngoingWorlds blog

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

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2022 Simulation Cup: Enter Today!

Image by Malkfan

With calendar year 2022 in the books, it’s time for us to formally close it out with the annual Simulation Cup. Wait, don’t I mean the annual Tournament of Simulations aka ToS? Yes, they are one at the same!

According to our records, the 2012 tournament was held under the Simulation Cup banner. In honor of that event 10 years ago, we decided to use its name again today. And we think it makes a pretty cool poster too!

The mechanics of the game remain the same: Here are a few tips on how to win. For those who may be unfamiliar, this is where you can enter your role play to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from across the community go through all of the entries and grade them on story, characters, and readability.

As has been our tradition for several years now, play-by-post games will be graded on 10 consecutive posts while chat games will be graded on a single chat session. All sims will be considered regardless of club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The sims that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?

Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…

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Independence Fleet: Star Trek Play-by-Post roleplaying

As David wrote a few months back in his advertising piece, Ongoing Worlds is open to publishing articles promoting the different clubs and groups out there.  A few examples are here, here, and here.  So why not shamelessly plug my own group?

I ended my term as President of UCIP last August.  Man, what a great group of role players!  If you’re into some serious writing and simming, you can’t go wrong with them.  However, as much as I love and respect UCIP, I was recently given the opportunity to finally return to my home club, Independence Fleet (IDFleet.com).  It was simply too much to pass up.  Yes, I’m back with IDF for my second stint as its Chief of Fleet Operations.

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7 Great Places to Advertise Your PBEM or Roleplaying Game

Billboard that says join my play-by-post game

We’ve posted several articles over the years on how and where to advertise your games:

However as most things do, websites and resources come and go. Given that our most recent article on the topic is now over 4 years old, we thought it would be a good time to provide an update. Here are 7 areas to think about when it comes to advertising and promoting your games:

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Outpost 42 News strikes again!

The satire role playing news blog Outpost 42 News recently hit us again with this article:

https://outpost42news.com/2019/06/03/ongoing-worlds-sim-about-simming-nearly-breaks-the-internet-and-causes-a-rift-in-the-spacetime-continuum/

For the record, OngoingWorlds still does not accept responsibility for the internet outages of June 2nd or the asteroid that buzzed by Earth that same day. However they are correct that anyone can create any game they like on our website, including one about role playing itself!

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THE BEACONS ARE LIT! TIBERIUS CALLS FOR AID!

beacons1

DID YAH MISS ME? WELL I MISSED YOU!

Hey-o Ongoing Worlds! It’s been a while hasn’t it? Don’t answer that, we’re not actually talking and you talking to a screen with no reply really isn’t flattering. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. The beacons are lit and I do call for aid! YOUR AID! Why? BECAUSE THE CHAT BOX NEEDS OUR HELP! Read More

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Recruiting: The Lifeblood of Role Playing

Fish joining others in another goldfish bowl

No single factor plays a greater role in determining the success of a sim or club than recruiting. Read More

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So I created a text adventure

Text adventureOne of the very first computer games I ever played was a text-adventure based on Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail. It was basic, but hilarious.

In the adventure, you had to type “go north” to travel to a different area, and “Pick up key” etc to pick stuff up. It’s dead basic but because it was pure text, it allowed silly things to happen. Like an encounter with the Nights who say “ni”, who say “ni” to you so many times you shrivel up into a pile of bath salts. Read More

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The importance of having a game website

This article was written for us by a member from one of our fantasy games.

building a website

Game websites are important. Even if you do not know how to script, it is in your best interests to make one. Read More

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10 places to advertise your PBEM roleplaying game

Billboard that says join my play-by-post game

Sometimes it can be difficult to get new members, especially if you’ve only just created your game. People won’t join your game if they don’t know about it, so you’ll have to promote it as much as you can (as long as you do it the right way). Read More

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PBEM definition: What is a Lurker?

PBEM lurker kitty

Wikipedia’s definition:
In Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community who observes, but does not actively participate.

Lurkers – Good or bad?

As all posts on OngoingWorlds are publically accessible, you might have lurkers reading your posts. You might consider this good or bad.
But remember:

Lurkers might be people who haven’t joined your game yet.
Because all posts on OngoingWorlds are public (except for private games),they’re viewable by anyone. Someone can just start reading your posts like a book if they want, which is great because they might like it so much they’ll join. Or they might even decide that they’re just happy reading. Read More