Mar
25
It’s been nearly three years since our last Spelling Tips article, which is actually the shortest period of time between posts in the series. In fact, technology has advanced so much that you don’t even need a keyboard to write posts these days. However, you still should keep these commonly misused words in mind…
Read MoreMar
16
What a tournament! A record of 88 fantastic entrants led to another record of 36 awards to be conferred below. Before we get to those, however, you might remember that we’re running this Tournament of Simulations (ToS) under the Simulation Cup banner to honor the 2012 and 2014 tournaments.
Naming conventions aside, this competition has been one for the ages, easily blowing away last year’s records of 70 entrants with 26 winners. The participation and excellence displayed is a true testament to the ongoing strength of the simming and online role playing community, regardless of what others might say.
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 sims that exude excellence. A different set of judges might very well chose a completely different set of winners. And that’s okay! If you’re interested, this is how we select the winners. With that on the record once again, here are your 2022 Simulation Cup winners:
Jan
16
With calendar year 2022 in the books, it’s time for us to formally close it out with the annual Simulation Cup. Wait, don’t I mean the annual Tournament of Simulations aka ToS? Yes, they are one at the same!
According to our records, the 2012 tournament was held under the Simulation Cup banner. In honor of that event 10 years ago, we decided to use its name again today. And we think it makes a pretty cool poster too!
The mechanics of the game remain the same: Here are a few tips on how to win. For those who may be unfamiliar, this is where you can enter your role play to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from across the community go through all of the entries and grade them on story, characters, and readability.
As has been our tradition for several years now, play-by-post games will be graded on 10 consecutive posts while chat games will be graded on a single chat session. All sims will be considered regardless of club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The sims that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?
Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…
Read MoreDec
22
A lot has been written recently about artificial chatbot ChatGPT. The New York Times describes it as a ‘Code Red’ For Google Search. Other sites talk about its ability to potentially disrupt Hollywood, how it can write essays, and that it can even negotiate your cable bill. More worryingly, in the hands of bad actors, it can be used to generate malicious code. Since it can seemingly do so much, what can it do for role playing? I decided to put it to the test with this request:
Write a blog post to appear on ongoingworlds.com
Here’s what we got in response:
Read MoreDec
5
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 MoreOct
27
That’s how it read on the shopping or merchandise or whatever they called it page on the Utopia Fleet website more than 20 years ago. As I recall, they sold at least four different Utopia Fleet-branded items:
| Item | Price | Description | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% Cotton T-Shirt | $14.99 | “White T-Shirt with Fleet logo on the front and the URL of the Fleet homepage on the back.” | none |
| 11 & 15-ounce Coffee Mugs | $12.50 / $13.99 | “Dishwasher safe ceramic coffee mugs.” | “Whether it’s coffee, Earl Grey, or Romulan Ale, it’ll taste better in your very own UtopiaFleet mug!” |
| Mouse Pad | $12.99 | “Standard-sized premium cloth covered mousepad” | “What better way to show your loyalty to the Fleet than by having the logo right under your mouse?” |
| Ballcap | unknown | unknown | unknown |
May
13
Wordle. I don’t need to say much more as you’ve almost certainly heard of it. You’ve probably even played it! But on the outside chance that you don’t know anything about it, I’ll quote from Wikipedia:
-Wikipedia entry for Wordle
“Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle, and owned and published by The New York Times Company since 2022. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position.”
I also happened to stumble upon this website that allows you to create your own Wordle games. So why not create a few for Ongoing Worlds? Well, here they are, 10 Wordles on words or topics related to Ongoing Worlds:
Read MoreMay
10
It’s time to announce the winners of the latest Tournament of Simulations (ToS). But before we get to that, you might remember that we’re using the WarGames banner this year to honor the 2001 tournament from 20 years ago. My how times flies!
Anyway, we asked for nominations in February, and you responded by sending us an absolutely incredible list of 70 fantastic games from across the community. That easily breaks our modern (since 2011) record of 64 set last year, and is maybe even tops all-time (since 1999). Regardless, it just goes to show that simming and online role playing is still thriving and probably stronger than ever.
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 sims that exude excellence. A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners. And that’s okay! In case you’re interested, this is how we select the winners. With that on the record once again, here are your 2021 WarGames winners:
Read MoreFeb
9
2021, which was equally as dreadful as 2020, has finally come to a close. That means it’s time for the annual WarGames Competition! Wait, don’t I mean the annual Tournament of Simulations aka ToS? Yes, they are one at the same!
According to our records (which are suspect, of course), the second tournament was held in 2001 under the WarGames banner. In honor of that event 20 years ago, we decided to use its name again today. And the movie from 1983 was pretty cool, too!
The mechanics of the game remain the same: Here are a few tips on how to win. For those who may be unfamiliar, this is where you can enter your role play to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from across the community go through all of the entries and grade them on story, characters, and readability. As has been our tradition for several years now, play-by-post games will be graded on 10 consecutive posts while chat games will be graded on a single chat session. All sims will be considered regardless of club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The sims that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?
Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…
Read MoreNov
14
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.
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