OngoingWorlds blog

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

Jan
19

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Announcing the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Category: Awards, Events, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: 1 Comment

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing

That’s right, we’re now accepting nominations for the Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing (also known as the Squiddie Award).  What is this new award, you might ask?  Simply put, it is the pinnacle award presented by our organization.  Each year it will be bestowed upon three different entities: one person, one sim/game, and one club.  They will then be entitled to use the honorific Superior Online Role Playing Laureate (or Squiddie Laureate).

Squiddies will be presented for exemplifying one or more of the following characteristics, primarily during the previous calendar year:

  • Excellence in role playing
  • Originality and innovation
  • Facilitating the community experience

Nominations may be made by anyone (self nominations are permitted).  Each nomination should include a write-up of why the person, sim, or club is deserving.  The write-up should focus on one or more of the three areas mentioned above and not exceed 250 words. Read More

Jan
17

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The 3rd Community Honor goes to…

Category: Awards, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

The OWCH awardI’m proud to announce that Ongoing Worlds‘ third Community Honor (OWCH) is hereby officially presented to Leon Archer of Spellbound for his enthusiastic leadership and outstanding contributions to the Ongoing Worlds Blog.  Congratulations, Leon!

Not only is Leon one of the leaders within the Ongoing Worlds game The Walking Dead, but he’s also the GM of two games that he founded, XCOM and Spellbound.  A quick review of any one of his three games will reveal an infectious enthusiasm for role playing that quickly spreads to the game’s other members and beyond.  His leadership, both in and out of story, is a model for us all to follow in creating and maintaining fresh and dynamic role play games.

Over the past few months, Leon has also written several articles covering an array of different simming and role play topics.  His posts are always interesting and provide greats points for us to think about and apply to our games.  These articles have contributed not only to our network here, but to the collective knowledge of our entire community.  If you haven’t yet read one of his articles, check them out!

You can see some of Leon’s other awards here.

Well done, Leon!

Jan
1

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Introducing the 2012 Simulation Cup Winners…

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, OngoingWorlds site news Tags: , , , 1 Comment

The Simulation Cup

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. Read More

Dec
16

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2012 Simulation Cup

Category: Awards, Competition Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

The Simulation Cup

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Simulation Cup is hereby officially open for entrants!  What is the Simulation Cup you might ask?  It’s a one-time competition where sims and role play games have the opportunity to showcase their excellence and compete against each other in a friendly manner to win various prizes.  And here’s how it works…

How to Enter

The sim’s host (or the host’s representative) will submit the following short entry form along with a sample of their role play activity.  Our judges will then rate that sample in several different areas. Once all sims have been evaluated, we’ll announce winners in various categories across the different genres. Sims that do not place will not be named. So if you’d like to enter your sim, please email Charles Star at star.idf@gmail.com with the following information: Read More

Oct
21

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Awarding the 1st Community Honor to…

Category: Awards Tags: , , 2 Comments

The OWCH awardIt gives me great pleasure to present the first OngoingWorlds Community Honor Medal (OWCH) to Jonathan Swift of the USS Asimov for his service as chair of the 2012 Simming Fall Festival. Congratulations, Jonathan!

For those who attended FallFest last month, you saw first-hand what can happen when role players from different clubs and backgrounds come together to celebrate their craft and share ideas. In fact, I had an absolute blast! There were multiple trivia games (and the winners received free CDs!), live chat sims of different genres, and my favorite events: discussions on important topics within our community. Some of of the most talented role players on the web led workshops on character development, advertising and recruiting, and how to be a more effective host.

It’s safe to say that everyone who attended came out a better simmer and leader than when they entered. All in all, a great mix of fun and development. Jonathan’s set the bar high for next year’s FallFest chair. Read More

Oct
12

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The Age-Old Debate: Quality vs. Quantity

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Play-by-post discussion Tags: 6 Comments

Rolls Royce vs average cars

So Which Is It?

In all my years of simming I don’t think any single issue has been more divisive in the play by e-mail/post/board worlds than the question of quality vs. quantity.  Unfortunately, since no one conducts scientific studies of online role playing or its participants, we’re forced to rely on basic observation and our own experiences, which can be very deceiving at times.  Nevertheless, I can recall multiple instances when a quality vs. quantity discussion blew up into a full-scale battle, sometimes splitting sims, and even clubs on occasion.  I bet you remember similar episodes too!  So what is it?  Which attribute is more important for the success of a sim?  Is it quality?  Or is it quantity?  Answer that question in your head right now.  Better yet, write it down on a scrap sheet of paper. Read More

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