OngoingWorlds blog

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

Mar
5

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Spelling Tips: Part Deux

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

Nearly four years ago, I published an article titled Spelling tips – It’s your game they’re looking for.  The concept was simple: Since what we do is sometimes called creative writing, shouldn’t we show some competency with the writing part?  We also certainly don’t want to turn new players off with our own poor spelling or grammar, right?  That piece covered the proper use of its/it’s, your/you’re, and there/their/they’re.  Today we’re going to look at five more situations that are often confused. Read More

Feb
22

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Online Role Players & Pokémon Go: One Year Later

Category: Interviews, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Tags: , , 1 Comment

A little over one year ago, we interviewed 12 online role players about their experience with Pokémon Go.  The answers were… well, diverse!  A lot has happened with Pokémon Go since that February 2017 article: Gen 2 & 3 releases, legendary raids, EX passes, and more!  So why not revisit our interviewees and see where they are today?  We were able to catch up with six of them.

The mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released jointly by Nintendo and Niantic in July 2016.  It reached an astounding 500 million downloads by the end of 2016, and increased to 750 million by its one year anniversary.  While not as popular as it was shortly after its launch, Pokémon Go maintains a loyal following of players. Read More

Feb
8

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2017 Tournament of Simulations (ToS) Winners!

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

The results are in and we have some winners!  If you’ll recall, we asked for nominations back in December.  If you’re not familiar with ToS, the original competition was held back in 1999.  For this year’s ToS, each participating sim submitted 10 posts that were written sometime during 2017.  The posts were then evaluated by three judges in three different categories (Story, Characters, and Readability/Grammar) on a 1-10 scale.  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 our of the way, here are your 2017 tournament winners: Read More

Jan
12

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Our most popular blog articles of 2017

Category: Roleplaying community Leave a Comment

It’s always interesting to look back and see which of our blog posts attracted eager readers.. Here’s the most popular from 2017: Read More

Jan
3

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Submit your 2017 Simming Prize nomination

Category: Awards, Competition, Roleplaying community Tags: 6 Comments

Tis the season to be jolly! The nomination period for the 2017 Simming Prize has officially opened! Some of you may have heard whispers as we geared up and began the hunt for judges and nominees on the low key, but now it’s absolutely undeniable that we’re open and ready for business once again! Read More

Dec
17

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It’s 2017 Tournament of Simulations (ToS) Time!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: 13 Comments

With FallFest out of the way, it’s time to turn our attention to something else.  Ahem…  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 world: the Tournament of Simulations (ToS)!  What, did you think it was some other competition?  C’mon!

Ongoing Worlds is now officially calling on YOU (yes, you!) to enter your simulations and online role plays in the 2017 edition of ToS.  This will be the 13th tournament to be held, and the 4th sponsored by Ongoing Worlds.  Nominations will be accepted through December 31st, 2017.  Winners will be announced sometime later.  Here’s how to enter: Read More

Dec
16

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What a FallFest!

Category: Awards, Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

What a FallFest, indeed!  A veteran simmer friend of mine even commented that it was the best FallFest or SciWorld ever held.  Believe me when I say that’s a high compliment coming from a distinguished individual!  For those who may have unfortunately missed FallFest, a week ago, we had a day full of provocative discussions, live role plays, and interactive trivia games.  Attendance and energy was phenomenal throughout.  It’s a real testament to the power of our broader community.  And as FallFest always is, it was a blast!

I’d like to personally thank everyone who had a part in making FallFest 2017 happen–everyone from chair Zachary O’Connell and his leadership team at Bravo Fleet to the event hosts to anyone who had a role behind the scenes, be it IT support, graphics design, advertising, simply inviting a friend, or something else I’m not thinking of.  You guys rocked it!  Finally, I’d also like to thank everyone who attended and participated.  Without you bringing your energy & ideas, there would be no FallFest.

See everyone at FallFest 2018 in about a year. Read More

Dec
7

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Four Reasons Why You Should Attend FallFest on Saturday

Category: Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , Leave a Comment


In case you live under a rock and haven’t yet heard, FallFest VII is on Saturday.  That’s right, on December 9th at 2:30 pm GMT (London), 8:30 am EST (New York), 5:30 am PST (San Francisco), we’ll officially kick off the 2017 Simming Fall Festival.  Click here to see the current line up of events and how to join the festivities. Zachary O’Connell and his leadership team from Bravo Fleet and other clubs have quite the extravaganza scheduled for us.

It doesn’t matter if you’re into Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, or something else entirely.  Or if you prefer chat sims, play by e-mail, or message boards.  If you’re a simmer or online role player of any persuasion, there will be something there for you!  So what do you really get out of FallFest?  Here are 4 reasons you should attend on Saturday:

  1. You’ll get to rub elbows with many prominent members of our community.  In fact, some of the most successful and influential role players and simming leaders in history will be attending and facilitating events.  Learn from the best!
  2. You’ll hear about the latest and most innovative techniques and strategies for leading a successful role play.  Indeed, there will be multiple events dedicated to running better games.  Discover what’s working for others now!
  3. You’ll be able to role play with others from different clubs and genres.  With a diverse set of hosts and settings, you’ll experience a wide range of concepts and ideas.  Challenge the simming norms and help break barriers!
  4. You’ll have fun!  All simmers and online role players, regardless of rank or club affiliation, are invited to attend and participate.  There’s no way to energize your sim than to come back with a fresh perspective.

See you there!

Nov
9

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FallFest VII. December 9th. Be there.

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, OngoingWorlds site news, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , 4 Comments


It gives me great pleasure to announce that 2017 Squiddie winner Bravo Fleet will be hosting FallFest VII on December 9th, 2017!  Bravo Fleet’s own Zachary O’Connell will serve as the chairman.  Bravo Fleet is a fantastic club with a storied history.  We have no doubt that they’ll put on an absolutely wonderful festival a month from today.  Oh yeah, Zachary O’Connell’s pretty cool too!

If you’ve never heard of FallFest (officially the Ongoing Worlds Fall Festival), it’s a time when the entire simming and online roleplaying community comes together for a few short hours in online chat rooms for engaging discussions, interactive trivia games, and live chat role plays.  In short, we share ideas, information, and energy!  Zachary and Bravo Fleet are on point to plan, advertise, and execute the festival.  Indeed, it takes a lot of work to make FallFest happen! Read More

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

Read More

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