OngoingWorlds blog

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

By

20 Years in Star Army

While 2021 turned out to be the year of the anniversary, we haven’t run out of anniversaries quite yet. Indeed, our friends at Star Army celebrated a big one earlier in 2022. Depending on how you count it, they were founded in either June or November 2002. Regardless, it’s still an incredible 20 years!

Read More

By

Another 2021 Anniversary: Obsidian Fleet’s 20th

2021 has been the year for anniversaries. However, there’s another that happened this past summer: Obsidian Fleet marked their 20th on July 25th. One of the first fleets to initiate recurring Discord celebrations, they held their 5th annual Obsidian Day on July 24th, which included simming and a lot of prizes!

Obsidian Fleet was founded back in 2001 after a split from another group. Two things about that event are striking to me. One, they didn’t just create a carbon copy of their mother group. They went on to develop a unique culture that evolved over time while still staying true to their founding principles of creative and character freedom. Second, while many splits in simming often lead to resentment, and sometimes all out conflict, Obsidian Fleet almost immediately made peace and even began working on common goals with the club from which they emerged–this was unheard of in the early 2000s. Perhaps this is why the club has endured, more than 20 years later.

Read More

By

30 Years of STF: 1991-2021

Main banner/logo from April 22, 1998 (archive.org)

A few weeks ago I got to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my home club. But how about a 30th anniversary?

As far as I can tell, today is the 30th anniversary of the founding of STF, which likely makes it the oldest club still in existence, if not ever. According to a 1994 history by Jim Midyette, what would eventually come to be known as the Star-Fleet Sim Club (and later STF) began on July 21, 1991 on Prodigy when a group of Star Trek fans decided to return fire against some 90210 fans:

Read More

By

Independence Fleet: 20 Years

Last year I got to mark my own 20th simming anniversary. This year I get to celebrate something even better: my club’s 20th anniversary. That’s right, founded all the way back on July 4, 2001, Independence Fleet turns 20 today. Given our humble and downright volatile beginnings, it’s hard to believe we’re still operating today. Nonetheless, here we are!

In addition to holding a Trivia Day earlier this year and a special Webcast yesterday (both with real prizes!), we also did our normal anniversary tradition of inducting the newest members of our Hall of Fame.

But a 20th anniversary calls for even more. With that in mind, this morning we published two items that we hope our members and the entire online role playing world can enjoy:

Read More

By

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.

Read More

By

20 Years of Sunfire Script

Utopia Fleet

For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard people say, “I’ve been simming for 20 years.” Well, I can finally say it myself.

I’ve been simming for 20 years. 

Wow, that felt good!

On February 16, 2000, the USS Sunfire NCC-3935, a Bedford class starship, launched in old Utopia Fleet’s Deep Space Exploration Division.  I was the ship’s CMO.  That’s Chief Medical Officer for all you non-Trek role players.  Fast forward to today and it’s hard to image my life without play-by-post role playing.

I’ve been a writer, a politician, a diplomat, a founder, an editor, a counselor, an investigator, a philosopher, a Captain, an Admiral, and even a game show host–all of which are never going to happen IRL (that’s In Real Life for you non-simmers).  Role playing’s taught me a lot about people, life, and myself.  All in all, it’s been a fun ride.

Read More

By

Yahoo Groups is dead.

This article was written by Sam Jones, who currently hosts the USS Mark Miller roleplay in UCIP. Sam previously wrote on this topic back in 2016.

Read More

By

SciWorld 20 Years 1999-2019: Saturday May 18th

When I announced SciWorld 2019 last month, I failed to notice that this would indeed be the 20th anniversary of the SciWorld Online Convention (Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/EGBwV54). Wow! What a milestone! How could I have missed it?!?

Well, I did. To make up for it, I’m posting an edited version of a previously unpublished interview I conducted with Ender Maki back in 2011. For those who may be wondering, simmer Ender Maki is credited as being the founder of SciWorld. The interview wasn’t conducted for the purpose of publishing, but rather to collect information so I could flesh out a few articles on the old Simming Encyclopedia (which lives on today as Roleplay Wiki). As such, the interview may seem a little disjointed. But it’s still great! Without any further ado, here is Ender Maki, in mostly his own words, from 2011…

Read More

By

Online Role Players & Pokémon Go

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

By

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

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 (20162017, 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