Congratulations to our 2017 Squiddie Award Winners!
Earlier this year, we asked the simming & online role playing community to nominate their very best for our pinnacle award, the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing (affectionally known as the Squiddie). You responded with 19 nominations for 17 different people, games, and clubs. And my what an outstanding group it was! The consistent high-caliber of the nominees made our job of picking winners extremely difficult. For that reason, I want to personally thank everyone for providing us such a great group to choose from… even though it made our job more challenging.
If you recall, Squiddies are awarded to only one person, one game, and one club each year. The prizes come in three categories (Excellence in Role Playing, Originality & Innovation, and Facilitating the Community Experience) and are awarded primary for actions during the prior calendar year. In this case, 2016. Without any further ado, here are your 2017 Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing Laureates…
Excellence in Role Playing: Misty Diamond (person)
Misty Diamond of Phoenix Roleplaying is in a role playing league all her own due to her combination of superior range, outstanding quality, and top-notch mentorship. Indeed, she’s participated in games at the highest level set in Star Trek, Firefly, Post-Apocalyptic Worlds, Original Superhero, Harry Potter, Supernatural, Crime/Mafia, Classic Horror, Pacific Rim, Aliens, and more! She continually cultivates her skills to improve as a writer and teammate. Her posts avoid the tired cliches many in our community fall victim to while also providing unique story arcs for other writers to get involved and develop their characters & the overall plot. She also reaches out to new players to develop them and makes efforts to avoid cliques at all levels of leadership in her club, where she is currently in her second term as General Coordinator. Her superior role playing has led to improved communication, increased participation, and continuous innovation every where she’s been.
Originality & Innovation: Bravo Fleet (club)
Bravo Fleet, which recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary, instituted a new Fleet Management System (BFMS) that brings nearly all aspects of simming and fleet operations into a single platform. Build on WordPress, and spearheaded by Jon Matterson, BFMS links tasks forces, sims, and players together for improved communication, collaboration, and agility across all level of the fleet. It allows players to seamlessly move between games and for leaders to better connect with one another. It also provides increased privacy protections and has a special work groups area to promote continuous improvement. Perhaps BFMS’s best and most distinguishing feature is that even the inexperienced user can freely and easily navigate to find what they seek. Bravo Fleet has a long history of implementing cutting edge technologies dating back to being one of the first truly Internet-based clubs. However, this might very well be the fleet’s finest innovation.
Facilitating the Community Experience: Starbase 400 (game)
Starbase 400 of Bravo Fleet has been doing community even longer than its own host club. Originally founded in Seventh Fleet in 1995 as the USS Pegasus, the game has served in Tango Fleet, Bravo Fleet, Antares Fleet, and The Ninth Fleet. It also spent a brief period as an independent before finally settling back into Bravo Fleet. Its emphasis on character development and realistic storytelling naturally gives rise to a dynamic sim community that has helped sustain it as a model of excellence for over 22 years now. That unique history and sim canon is maintained by both interactive databases and multiple long-standing members. In addition to winning many fleet-level awards, the game also boasts two Simming Prizes. Starbase 400 has built a culture that simply can’t be matched.
Congratulations to all three our our winners!!! They were chosen by the Ongoing Worlds Board of Advisors: David Ball, Leon Archer, Mister Xanadu, Tiberius Creations, Kenny Gillis, and Charles Star. All results are final and are not subject to appeal.
It’s never too late to start planning your nominations for next year’s awards! First, see the other prior winners: 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Second, take a look at our article from December on how to submit a winning nomination. And third, go role play and show us what you’ve got! Good luck!
