Mar
4
It’s always interesting to look back and see which of our blog posts attracted eager readers.. Here’s the most popular from the last year: Read More
Feb
29
NASA’s 9 Year Microwave Sky Image
“The Face of God”
Much like the origin of the universe, the beginnings of the simming and online role playing community remain shrouded in mystery. Sure, we know that it developed out of fan fiction on primordial online services of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but we lack specifics, and many of the details we do have are quite vague.
Records exist for many of the major players and significant historical events, but we miss a lot of the nuance. It is also highly likely that there are pockets of our cosmos that we don’t even know about it, and now may never know about.
In the approximately 25 years since our creation, clubs, much like stars, have come and gone. And role-plays, much like planets have come and gone too. The community is much different now than it was then. Indeed, just as the physical universe is more mature and less volatile than it was during its early days, our demographic is older and our universe more stable as well. But how will it all end? Here are three possibilities: The Big Freeze, The Big Crunch, and The Big Bounce.
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Feb
28
This article was written for us by Diego Herrera from the Star Trek game Outpost Eden.
Welcome back to the second in a series of articles designed to look at how sci fi and fantasy TV series can prove useful for writing roleplays (read part 1 here). In this article, I’m going to focus on what we can learn from the way TV shows manage large casts of characters when running adventures with our players. Read More
Feb
17
2014 Simulation Cup
It gives me great pleasure to (finally) introduce the winners of the 2014 Simulation Cup! Before we get to the results, however, I’d like to quickly remind everyone what the Simulation Cup is and how it works. It’s an annual competition that’s normally called the Tournament of Simulations where role play games of different clubs and genres compete against each other in a friendly manner for several awards. This year, each participating sim submitted one mission/episode/thread that was completed during 2014. Each submission was then evaluated by three judges on a specific criteria set. The games receiving the highest marks are now 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 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! Read More
Feb
14
This article was written for us by Diego Herrera from the Star Trek game Outpost Eden.
We’re living in a world where science fiction, for most people, is defined by television series.
Sure, we’re lucky enough to be able to dip into the world of books and films, but speak to someone who you roleplay with and they’ll most likely have a list of shows that they’re hooked on. They’re probably the reason why they joined your group, especially if it’s based in or on a particular franchise. Read More
Feb
11
Just because we use five senses in our everyday life, and even do describe a scene in our games, this doesn’t mean we should stop with them. “Never ignore your gut feeling” is a saying that refers to your sixth sense. Read More
Jan
23
This article was written by Maxwell Traenor from UFOP: StarBase 118
We as writers are used to “painting a picture” with our words. Setting a scene that our characters inhabit is arguably the most important part of our writing in order to immerse the reader fully into the universe our characters live and breathe in. But, the phrase “paint a picture” can be deceptive. It implies sight, as in describing how the world looks through our character’s eyes. Read More
Dec
31
UPDATE: The Nomination window has been extended through February 29th, 2016.
Hear ye, hear ye! Hosts, participants, and club leaders alike are all hereby invited to enter their games into the the oldest and most prestigious competition of the simming and online roleplaying universe: The Tournament of Simulations! Indeed, Ongoing Worlds is officially calling on on YOU to enter your simulations and online role plays in the 2015 edition of ToS. This will be the 11th rendition of the tournament, which was first held in 1999. Nominations will be accepted through January 31st, 2016. Winners will be announced sometime later. Here’s how to enter: Read More
Dec
31
It’s time! That’s right, it’s time to present our top award for the entire simming and online role playing community: the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Roleplaying… better known as the Squiddie. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the award, we present three respective citations annually for Excellence in Role Playing, Facilitating the Community Experience, and Originality & Innovation.
We received 30 outstanding nominations this year. However, we are only able to present Squiddies to three: one club, one game, and one person. And believe me when I say that picking the winners was extremely difficult as there were many absolutely fantastic nominees! Without any further ado, here are the winners of the 2015 Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Roleplaying: Read More
Dec
23
This post is a part of Senile Rapture, a periodic installment by Chas Hammer. In it, he revisits, mostly, his era of online role-playing, the 1990s and 2000s.
Tis’ the season! Or something like that.
Back when I ran my own club, Trek Online (TOL), I was (perhaps overly) fixated on instilling an esprit de corps among my members. I didn’t want the club to be a bureaucratic collection of games, where people remained confined to their ship, and where their only involvement with the club was to show up and play their character. I wanted Trek Online to be a community. A place where people were informed about the going-ons of the club, were active citizens, could move freely and partake in all we offered, and most importantly, built lasting friendships. Read More
