OngoingWorlds blog

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

Aug
15

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SciWorld! Wow!

Category: Awards, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , , Leave a Comment


What a SciWorld we had last month!  In case you missed it, Bravo Fleet and Star Army partnered together to host the 2018 edition, which was an absolute blast!  As far as we know, this was the first time that two different sim clubs co-hosted the convention.  The first SciWorld was in 1999, and it has been held continuously since 2011.  We believe that this year’s SciWorld was the 16th, but we’re not positive as many records from the early 2000s are no longer available. Read More

Aug
10

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Congratulations to the 2018 Squiddie Nominees!

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

Congratulations to all of the 2018 Squiddie Nominees!  In response to our June post, we received 11 nominations for 10 people, 6 nominations for 6 games, and 3 nominations for 3 clubs.  In case you lost count, that’s 20 total nominations for 19 different entities.  All 19 are outstanding in their own right and deserving of top-level awards.  Unfortunately, we can only award 3 Squiddies every year: one person, one game, and one club.  We have our work cut out for us!

Without further ado, here are your 2018 nominees in no particular order… Read More

Jul
28

By

2018 SciWorld Online Convention

Category: Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

That’s right, SciWorld 2018 is today.  See you over there.

We would also like to give a special thanks to Alexander of Bravo Fleet and Wes Davis of Star Army for chairing this year’s convention.  Great work so far!  We can’t wait for SciWorld to begin!

2018 SciWorld Online Convention

 

Jul
16

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SciWorld ’18 is July 28th

Category: Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the 2018 SciWorld Online Convention will be hosted by 2017 Squiddie winner Bravo Fleet & 2013 Squiddie winner Star Army on Saturday, July 28th!  Obviously, we’re changing things up a bit this year.  We’re holding SciWorld in the summer instead of the spring and you get two hosts for the price of one (actually, it’s still free).

If you’ve never heard of SciWorld, it’s a time when the entire simming and online roleplaying community comes together for one day in online chat rooms for engaging discussions, interactive trivia games, and live chat role plays.  In short, we share ideas, information, and energy!  Bravo Fleet & Star Army are on point to plan, advertise, and execute the festival.  Indeed, it takes a lot of work to make SciWorld happen! Read More

Jun
17

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Enter Your 2018 Squiddie Nominations Now!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: , 11 Comments

The time is here!  Time for YOU to nominate the best from our community to win a Squiddie (aka The Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Roleplaying).  Each year we present Squiddies to three different entities: one person, one sim/game, and one club.  Squiddies are bestowed for exemplifying one or more of the following characteristics, primarily during the previous calendar year:

  • Excellence in role playing: Outstanding role play or leadership performance far above and beyond the typical person, game, or club
  • Originality and innovation: Using a new technology or innovation or combining existing technologies together in a new way to elevate the role play adventure
  • Facilitating the community experience: Enhancing interaction, cooperation, and/or collaboration among role players to improve or advance the community

You can read about past winners here: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 Read More

Mar
5

By

Spelling Tips: Part Deux

Category: Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , , 3 Comments

Nearly four years ago, I published an article titled Spelling tips – It’s your game they’re looking for.  The concept was simple: Since what we do is sometimes called creative writing, shouldn’t we show some competency with the writing part?  We also certainly don’t want to turn new players off with our own poor spelling or grammar, right?  That piece covered the proper use of its/it’s, your/you’re, and there/their/they’re.  Today we’re going to look at five more situations that are often confused. Read More

Feb
22

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Online Role Players & Pokémon Go: One Year Later

Category: Interviews, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Tags: , , 2 Comments

A little over one year ago, we interviewed 12 online role players about their experience with Pokémon Go.  The answers were… well, diverse!  A lot has happened with Pokémon Go since that February 2017 article: Gen 2 & 3 releases, legendary raids, EX passes, and more!  So why not revisit our interviewees and see where they are today?  We were able to catch up with six of them.

The mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released jointly by Nintendo and Niantic in July 2016.  It reached an astounding 500 million downloads by the end of 2016, and increased to 750 million by its one year anniversary.  While not as popular as it was shortly after its launch, Pokémon Go maintains a loyal following of players. Read More

Feb
8

By

2017 Tournament of Simulations (ToS) Winners!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: , 7 Comments

The results are in and we have some winners!  If you’ll recall, we asked for nominations back in December.  If you’re not familiar with ToS, the original competition was held back in 1999.  For this year’s ToS, each participating sim submitted 10 posts that were written sometime during 2017.  The posts were then evaluated by three judges in three different categories (Story, Characters, and Readability/Grammar) on a 1-10 scale.  The final scores were then adjusted based on the individual judge’s respective averages and standard deviations to adjust for both hard & easy grading judges and judges with small & large ranges of scores.

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 role plays that exude excellence.  A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s okay!  With that our of the way, here are your 2017 tournament winners: Read More

Dec
17

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It’s 2017 Tournament of Simulations (ToS) Time!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplaying community Tags: 14 Comments

With FallFest out of the way, it’s time to turn our attention to something else.  Ahem…  Role players, hosts, and club leaders alike are all hereby invited to enter their games/sims/role plays in the the oldest and most prestigious competition of the entire simming and online roleplaying world: the Tournament of Simulations (ToS)!  What, did you think it was some other competition?  C’mon!

Ongoing Worlds is now officially calling on YOU (yes, you!) to enter your simulations and online role plays in the 2017 edition of ToS.  This will be the 13th tournament to be held, and the 4th sponsored by Ongoing Worlds.  Nominations will be accepted through December 31st, 2017.  Winners will be announced sometime later.  Here’s how to enter: Read More

Dec
16

By

What a FallFest!

Category: Awards, Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

What a FallFest, indeed!  A veteran simmer friend of mine even commented that it was the best FallFest or SciWorld ever held.  Believe me when I say that’s a high compliment coming from a distinguished individual!  For those who may have unfortunately missed FallFest, a week ago, we had a day full of provocative discussions, live role plays, and interactive trivia games.  Attendance and energy was phenomenal throughout.  It’s a real testament to the power of our broader community.  And as FallFest always is, it was a blast!

I’d like to personally thank everyone who had a part in making FallFest 2017 happen–everyone from chair Zachary O’Connell and his leadership team at Bravo Fleet to the event hosts to anyone who had a role behind the scenes, be it IT support, graphics design, advertising, simply inviting a friend, or something else I’m not thinking of.  You guys rocked it!  Finally, I’d also like to thank everyone who attended and participated.  Without you bringing your energy & ideas, there would be no FallFest.

See everyone at FallFest 2018 in about a year. Read More

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