Introducing the 2012 Simulation Cup Winners…
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. More specifically, each judge rated their assigned sims in the following categories on a scale of 1 to 10 (with a “5” being the average or expected value):
- Originality (interesting and fresh story free of clichés and overused concepts)
- Creativity (multiple unexpected yet believable plot twists)
- Character Development (showing character growth that adds rather than takes away from the story)
- Prolificness (a combination of pace and member participation)
- Readability (easy to read by a non-fan of the genre)
The idea behind this was to rate a sim’s total performance in specific areas rather than individuals’ performances in a general sense as has been done in the past. The judges’ raw scores were then weighted based on their averages so that the mean final score for all participating sims was a 50. The top scoring sim in each genre is hereby recognized with an outstanding award (as long as its score is ≥ 50). The next five highest scoring sims, regardless of genre, are hereby recognized with excellence awards in the specific categories. To maintain the integrity of the competition, no games were evaluated by a judge from a competing sim or club. So without any further ado…
The Email Division
- Outstanding Star Trek Sim (tie): USS Chirikov of Independence Fleet
- Outstanding Star Trek Sim (tie): USS Victory of Independence Fleet
- Outstanding Red Dwarf Sim: Blue Dwarf (independent)
- Excellence in Originality: SB 204: Zetari Station of UCIP
- Excellence in Creativity: USS Liberty of Independence Fleet
- Excellence in Character Development: USS Sunfire of Independence Fleet
- Excellence in Prolificness: StarBase 118 Operations of UFOP: StarBase 118
- Excellence in Readability: USS Rioja of Independence Fleet
The Message Board Division
- Outstanding Firefly Sim: Kvant of Phoenix Roleplaying
- Outstanding Original Sim: YSS Eucharis of Star Army
- Outstanding Star Trek Sim: USS Illustrious of Obsidian Fleet
- Outstanding Star Wars Sim: The West Star of Phoenix Roleplaying
- Excellence in Originality: Jericho of Phoenix Roleplaying
- Excellence in Creativity: Fighter Ops of Phoenix Roleplaying
- Excellence in Character Development: Greenleaf Skyplex of Phoenix Roleplaying
- Excellence in Prolificness: Before the Mast (independent)
- Excellence in Readability: ISC Phoenix Volume II of Star Army
The Chat Division
- No participating sims
Surprising (or unsurprisingly?), we had zero entrants in the chat division. Is this reflective of a larger trend within our community? I don’t know. There were, however, 28 total entrants for the combined Email and Message Board divisions. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to recognize all of the great sims that entered the competition. And believe you me, there were some good ones that didn’t make it onto the list. We really did get the cream of the crop. For that reason, I’d like to thank all 28 fantastic sims not only for participating in the Simulation Cup, but more importantly for providing a great role play experience for their respective players. An excellent performance by all! The individual grade sheets and judges’ comments will be emailed out to each sim’s representative over the next few days.
I’d like to close by recognizing our absolutely fantastic panel of judges: Brett Gann, David Ball, Devys Argent, Elena Vasilescu, Jazza, Jonathan, Landon Wakeland, Richter Hiron, Robert Longtin, and Tavey. They were a superbly selfless and professional group, generously giving hours of their time to serve our community. Some graded as many as eight sims… during the holidays no less! Wow! They all proved to be flexible, capable, and extremely discerning. As you can tell, I can’t say enough good things about them. Well done!
Congratulations again to all of our winners! And may 2013 bring even more success! Good luck!
The 2012 Simulation Cup was sponsored by the USS Chuck Norris. All decisions are final and are not subject to appeal. The competition’s results also serve as the official results for the 2012 Tournament of Simulations. Please contact Charles Star at star.idf@gmail.com for any questions or concerns.
