OngoingWorlds blog

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

Jan
19

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Announcing the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Category: Awards, Events, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: 1 Comment

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

That’s right, we’re now accepting nominations for the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing (also known as the Squiddie Award).  What is this new award, you might ask?  Simply put, it is the pinnacle award presented by our organization.  Each year it will be bestowed upon three different entities: one person, one sim/game, and one club.  They will then be entitled to use the honorific Superior Online Role Playing Laureate (or Squiddie Laureate).

Squiddies will be presented for exemplifying one or more of the following characteristics, primarily during the previous calendar year:

  • Excellence in role playing
  • Originality and innovation
  • Facilitating the community experience

Nominations may be made by anyone (self nominations are permitted).  Each nomination should include a write-up of why the person, sim, or club is deserving.  The write-up should focus on one or more of the three areas mentioned above and not exceed 250 words. Read More

Jan
17

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The 3rd Community Honor goes to…

Category: Awards, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

The OWCH awardI’m proud to announce that Ongoing Worlds‘ third Community Honor (OWCH) is hereby officially presented to Leon Archer of Spellbound for his enthusiastic leadership and outstanding contributions to the Ongoing Worlds Blog.  Congratulations, Leon!

Not only is Leon one of the leaders within the Ongoing Worlds game The Walking Dead, but he’s also the GM of two games that he founded, XCOM and Spellbound.  A quick review of any one of his three games will reveal an infectious enthusiasm for role playing that quickly spreads to the game’s other members and beyond.  His leadership, both in and out of story, is a model for us all to follow in creating and maintaining fresh and dynamic role play games.

Over the past few months, Leon has also written several articles covering an array of different simming and role play topics.  His posts are always interesting and provide greats points for us to think about and apply to our games.  These articles have contributed not only to our network here, but to the collective knowledge of our entire community.  If you haven’t yet read one of his articles, check them out!

You can see some of Leon’s other awards here.

Well done, Leon!

Jan
1

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Introducing the 2012 Simulation Cup Winners…

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: , , , 1 Comment

The Simulation Cup

The Simulation Cup

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the winners of the 2012 Simulation Cup!  But before I get into that, I’d like to briefly explain what the Simulation Cup is and how it works.  Filling in this year for the annual Tournament of Simulations, the Sim Cup is a one-time competition allowing role play games of various clubs and genres to compete against each other in a friendly manner for several awards.  Each participating sim first submits one mission/episode/thread/chat session that was completed during 2012.  Next, each sim’s submission is evaluated by two judges on a specific criteria set.  The games receiving the highest marks are then recognized.

Evaluating sims will always be subjective and this is especially true for the Simulation Cup.  We’re not here to identify the best sim or sims as this is impossible.  Instead, we recognize what we think are the best sims in our opinions.  A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s fine.  As said earlier, each participating game was graded by two different judges. Read More

Dec
16

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2012 Simulation Cup

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The Simulation Cup

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Simulation Cup is hereby officially open for entrants!  What is the Simulation Cup you might ask?  It’s a one-time competition where sims and role play games have the opportunity to showcase their excellence and compete against each other in a friendly manner to win various prizes.  And here’s how it works…

How to Enter

The sim’s host (or the host’s representative) will submit the following short entry form along with a sample of their role play activity.  Our judges will then rate that sample in several different areas. Once all sims have been evaluated, we’ll announce winners in various categories across the different genres. Sims that do not place will not be named. So if you’d like to enter your sim, please email Charles Star at star.idf@gmail.com with the following information: Read More

Dec
8

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1882 – WBWW runner-up

Category: Awards Tags: , , , 1 Comment

Here’s the story that came third place in our WBWW competition. It’s the tale of a cowboy called Alex Solvay in the American old west, being told to his great grandson, also called Alex. Alex is a character in the game Blue Dwarf played on OngoingWorlds.

The story is written by Jack Tennant, who has even recorded this story to audio, which you can listen to through the YouTube video below, or read the story underneath.

Read More

Dec
7

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Empty Skies Over Tokyo – WBWW runner-up

Category: Awards Tags: , , 1 Comment

Here’s the story that came 2nd place in our WBWW competition. Empty Skies Over Tokyo written by Marissa Jeffrey from USS Victory, part of UFOP: Starbase 118.

This story got a lot of praise from one of our judges, Aimee the winner of this year’s First Person Fortnight competition.

aimee-mug-60x60The strengths of the story that spoke to me most, aside from the expected “good grammar/punctuation/understanding of storytelling”:

1) Great demonstration of “Show, don’t tell.” It’s probably the only story that didn’t do this to a fault. It was narrating but it was describing what the characters were doing and how they were interacting with their environment and thus communicating “this is good/exciting/something I’m proud of” to the reader.

2) A clear format made to show the intended style; well-chosen names of places and dates. Very striking in their military/future origin, but not over-explained.

3) It comes full circle and leaves this reader with a simple feeling of family identity and pride in one’s place in the world, but doesn’t get more complicated than that. Vocabulary is tight and story feels focused.

4) Mature and sophisticated world outlook and a writing style to match it.

I also liked the detail that the “ancestor” was from 2003. 🙂 That makes great sci-fi.

Here’s the story in full.

Read More

Dec
7

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Want to know who the WBWW winner is?

Category: Awards, Competition Tags: Leave a Comment

Way Back When Week

The judges have spoken! I’ve added up all the votes for each of our WBWW stories, and we have a winner! I want to first thank everyone who took part in WBWW, and whether you submitted your story or not, you’ve helped inspire others to do something just a little bit different, and that’s what life’s all about isn’t it?

I absolutely want to thank the judges who have read each story and had the difficult task of deciding which is their favourites. We chose judges from different roleplaying games and genres, for a broad range of tastes.

So here’s the top 3 winners. Read More

Oct
29

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Chas Hammer is awarded the OWCH

Category: Awards, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

The OWCH awardI’d like to inform everyone that Chas Hammer, a member of our Board of Advisors, has resigned and decided to move on with his career. Chas joined us earlier this year in March when OngoingWorlds and the Simming League merged. During his seven months on the board, Chas has been an invaluable asset to us all. With that in mind, I now present the second Ongoing Worlds Community Honor to Chas Hammer for his service on the Board of Advisors and for hosting SciWorld 2012.

Congratulations! Read More

Oct
21

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Awarding the 1st Community Honor to…

Category: Awards Tags: , , 2 Comments

The OWCH awardIt gives me great pleasure to present the first OngoingWorlds Community Honor Medal (OWCH) to Jonathan Swift of the USS Asimov for his service as chair of the 2012 Simming Fall Festival. Congratulations, Jonathan!

For those who attended FallFest last month, you saw first-hand what can happen when role players from different clubs and backgrounds come together to celebrate their craft and share ideas. In fact, I had an absolute blast! There were multiple trivia games (and the winners received free CDs!), live chat sims of different genres, and my favorite events: discussions on important topics within our community. Some of of the most talented role players on the web led workshops on character development, advertising and recruiting, and how to be a more effective host.

It’s safe to say that everyone who attended came out a better simmer and leader than when they entered. All in all, a great mix of fun and development. Jonathan’s set the bar high for next year’s FallFest chair. Read More

Mar
12

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Simming Prize Winners 2011

Category: Awards Tags: 3 Comments

Simming prizeOngoing Worlds is proud to announce the newest winners of the Simming Prize (officially the Ongoing Worlds Prize for Simming and Online Role Playing in Memory of Seth Cotis). Winning either for their efforts in 2011 or in recognition of their career in total, our five newest laureates join a long line of proud winners who have shaped our gaming community for the better.

  • Elena Vasilescu of Before the Mast RPG: For her creative use of social media to support a small, thriving role-playing game set during the Golden Age of Piracy.
  • Independence Fleet: For its outstanding efforts to facilitate community; internally fielding a wiki, newsletter, and group chats; and externally hosting the SciWorld Online Convention, organizing Fall Fest, and pulling the Super Space Command 3000 April fools day joke.
  • Mike Bremer of Ninth Fleet: For his exemplary leadership within the simming community. Having founded or nurtured clubs as diverse as Tango Fleet, Bravo Fleet, and now Ninth Fleet, Mike stands as one of the most successful and influential figures in the history of simming.
  • Otherspace: For its innovative mix of MUSH and role-playing to create a dynamic, engrossing gaming environment.
  • UFOP: Starbase 118: For its exemplary community, which for over 15 years has consistently offered detailed, high quality sims, and a welcoming, friendly gaming environment.

Congratulations to the newest Simming Prize laureates!

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