Forums » The Lounge » Read Thread

I'm starting to feel more energetic again and I keep thinking about wanting to start up another community event, like the writing exercises or a contest. So let's say we did have another contest in the near future:

What kind are you guys hoping for / interested in seeing? (Genres, restrictions / requirements, length of time, any other details, exc?) Would you want to participate, or are you just hoping to see more of a specific type of story added to our CYS library?

Sci Fi may need beefing up.

Though I'm too long-winded to put effort into anything and still finish it by a deadline, I think Love and Dating leaves some to be desired. Given that there's a lot of not-great Snowclones in there and we could use a different format, and given that a lot of featured stories also feature romance but almost most everyone feels uncomfortable writing it, I feel like it'd be decent practice and maybe an improvement to the site if we could start up a contest or something and point people in that direction.

Or maybe I'm overthinking this. I'm not sure the benefits would be greater there than in any other genre, but I'm sure, out of all the possible contest genres we've had, romance hasn't been in that many of them.

Thank you! I am, indeed. (My voice is still sorta raspy and I'm still on meds, but I feel like I could run a marathon by comparison.) 

I'm inclined to agree, but would you mind elaborating? What do you feel qualifies as a suitable amount of time?

Haha... perhaps. I haven't seen either.

I just did the Hall of SHAME bit.

The concept behind the Hall of SHAME was year after year, we’d get several people saying they were going to participate and then they flaked out. (Much like what happens here a lot)

When I ended up being in charge of the IS contest for a few years, I implemented the Hall of SHAME thing meaning if you say you’re going to write a story in the story contest thread and then fail to do so then you get put in the Hall of SHAME.

Basically don’t run your mouth saying you’re going to write something unless you’re going to commit to it. You could always get removed by submitting a story for a contest next time though.

Anyway it seemed to work since we did get more people actually finishing stuff. Or at least they did during the time I was overseeing the contests.

Someone else later added the Pit of SCORN, which probably wasn’t necessary. That one was to enforce participants to actually rate the story submissions though.

I’m not sure if a Hall of SHAME would work here, since everyone seems to like warm and fuzzies and work more on the positive reinforcement system rather than the negative reinforcement/punishment system. People would probably bitch about "OMG GUYZ UR SO MEAN!"

Still, it would be interesting as an experiment to see if people who claim they’re going to write a story tend to flake out less on submitting something.

You might not need something as severe as "public shaming" (Though I fully endorse this plan if you do) you could just deduct points from people who flake out.

Fun Trivia: Mizal is currently a member of both the Hall AND the Pit.

(I'm trying! xD)

Fair point.
 

I have to agree with this. I mean, we don't even have six fanfiction or school games.

I think the short time limit is something that should be kept or altered minimally.

The story should be school based, centered around the effects of a war on the main character's education, and have either a fantasy or sci-fi flavor.

If you wish to have a mid-length contest, though, here is an idea: the story (any flavor; does not have to follow stuff above) has to contain a language created by the author. The player should be able to decipher the language based on information in the game alone, but the key to deciphering it should be integrated seamlessly into the story. Also, learning the language should be critical to progressing through the story or, at the least, uncovering the best ending(s).

@Kiel_Farren

If neither of those will suffice, here's something simple: branchfest. The idea is to create a basic story with at least 20 (or some other reasonably large number) good/true endings (think of the epilogue endings in Eternal). This will help us bring in more of the traditional CYOA-style stories to the site, which you must admit would be a nice change from the large number of complex and RPG-like works. The games should be judged on flow (and sensibility of plot progression), length, adherence to the quota of endings, and quality of the story (e.g. good character development, mood and tone).

Creating one's own language for a storygame is interesting, I'll grant you that.

"At least 20" -- er... that's... a lot. I'd more likely cut it to 10 if I did something to that effect, particularly if I made it a shorter contest. Though, I suppose if I gave everyone a couple months, demanding 20 isn't that insane... I'll consider it. There are an awful lot of ideas here and I'm not sure what would be the best choice. Besides, I have yet to think of a prize for you folks. There's only so much I can do atm. 

Is there a way you can tell the length of a story without publishing it?

And that difficulty is exactly why I'd be reluctant to do it.

No thank you, that would be too difficult.?

"Pansy"? :P Your logic is flawed, since it would be difficult for everyone else.

*considers saying something* ... Eh, I can't give my full opinion on that, but it is an idea I like. 

It would be a spoiler for a game on here.

There is a downside to making a contest for that, though. That sort of thing relies on emotion/surprise/both. If you expect it going in, can you really get that attached? And if you see a lot of it, the effect would be dulled.

Fair point. You could go for something similar, like from the perspective of villains.

Well, we did have the Titanic movie, which was great until everyone got fucking sick of it.

A proper, non-CYOA short story contest. 15-20 pages. 

We're on a choose your own story site, though. There's other places to go for non-CYOA stuff.

There have been sonnet contests in the past, though. It's not also uncommon to see people sharing their non-CYOA writing in the Workshop, in addition. 

No.

Personally, I would like a "Improve the Fan Fiction, Edutainment, or School Based categories." All of those seem lacking in storygames as good as Eternal, AGOLAD, The Price of Freedom: Innocence Lost, Kill Aman's Mustache, The Wal*Mart Game!, Snow, or Achilles. At the very least, we need better Fan Fiction. We banned the WC minions fans for abysmal Fan Fiction, but this community does not have a spectacular storygame to show what our standards are for this category. For example, the featured stories in Fan Fiction are a 4/8, two 6/8's, and two 5/8's while all of the features stories in Love & Dating are 7/8's.
I think the length of time should be 4 weeks simply because it would allow enough time to create a long storygame but not enough time for us to (myself included) procrastinate until the last moment not accidentally miss the deadline. I would participate in this type of contest for sure, and I really would like to see Fan Fiction especially to have more high-quality works.

I do agree. There is much less to work with in comparison ot the other categories, but that is why I would want to have good storygames in them. It would be a challenge, but anyone who succeeds would have a very good story in comparison to the category.
 

Maybe just a stipulation that it can't be in first/second person - only third person perspective. Either that or it follows multiple protagonists. There's a reason why the aforementioned are almost exclusively used for CYOAs, but it would just be a refreshing change.

How about mixed genres? Such as modern-fantasy or fantasy science fiction?

A medium length Sci-fi contest would be pretty interesting. At least in my opinion, the science fiction section is quite lacking.

Personally I'd like to see a short story competition for either Horror or Comedy stories because both are very hard to write well but I love the old Gothic Horror short-stories or genuinely funny Comedy stories but unfortunately I'm not sure how well they'd make the transition into CYOA... but yeah, I think the site would benefit from a Comedy category :)

Looking at it, genres are boring. You should put writers into teams and make those teams compete, because a group of great writers with their powers combined would make something spectacular, or just end up in extreme conflict where everyone's at each others throats, which would be even better.

To be honest, this sounds good, but I see a flaw in it. If for example Mason and let's say Will end up in one team. If the storygame will be good, we'll give Will most of the credit and if it won't be good we'll blame Mason. The thing is, you'd have to place at least a good writer with one or two mediocre writers to make it fair. If you put Endmaster, Kiel and Will in one team, we know that the other teams will lose.?

?With all that said, I would really love for this to happen!

Not necessarily. Just because they're excellent writers doesn't mean they will work well together.

Wait, wait, you're saying I'm a mediocre writer? You've never even seen my writing!

You're right. Mason is a terrible writer. Mediocre is overselling him.

Says the one who's all stories are rated 3.

I'd say the same thing about your storygames, but you haven't written any.

I really don't want to insult you further, so I'm just going to laugh to myself and continue elsewhere.

Nice once Bucky, Im recruiting you for my team.

I'd like to be in your team as well!

I'm so popular!

Well, you're my senior and I need to work with a senior to get some experience...

You don't have to work with a senior. Pick whoever you feel connected and friendly with. Motivations and amazing story concepts will be your things.

Everyone has their own style and preference in writing. Following someone's way (even the most experienced one) doesn't guarantee you a success.

Perhaps this will help you.

Not denying that teamwork is crucial, but there is nothing wrong with wanting to learn from someone more experienced than you are. Hell, that's how we're taught most things in life, by watching, learning from, and working with our elders / betters.

I didn't say that, Kiel. Yes, we learn from better experienced ones. But I'm just ensuring him to pick the right member who's the most comfortable to him. It doesn't have to be all skill, but also comfortability. I'm more about "examine how others do their thing" and "find the way that suits you". I apologize for my shitty writing though.

Actually, Tom Clancy is one of my inspirations.

Didn't say what? :P I didn't accuse you of saying anything. And many people would be more comfortable with an experienced writer. 

Eh... personality and preference do matter too, you know. Just because someone is more experienced doesn't guarantee that he will be more comfortable with that particular person.

If I have to team up, it will be better for me to team up with MasonJarGuzzi, Tim36D, or certain other member rather than most better experienced members for some reasons. Mostly because of having similar interests and style.

*sigh* No, but the fact that he is expressing the desire to work with someone experienced would suggest that that's what he's comfortable with. And ... that's nice, but you have no idea what kind of work Tim and Mason are or are not capable of because they've never published a game, so how can you say you know their style? 

I know them well. And ugh... this is getting messier. I'll just stop talking then. Good luck, Claw. And sorry for disturbing. I was just trying to help

Conversation ended.

*runs away*

I know this type of thing would be hard to pull off, but this seems interesting. I'm biased as putting me in a team and being responsible for others in some shape or manner makes me perform better and is way easier for me to commit to.

If I say I'm doing a storygame by myself, then it is easier to give up on because I don't think it will be good enough. With someone else directly suffering from me not doing what I said I would, I feel too terrible to halt progress.

To say the very least, this contest would be entertaining especially if the teams are not randomly decided. What happens if you pair MasonJarGuzzi with Will11? (Even though this would never happen, it would be hilarious to see an Endmaster and Sethaniel pairing.) Most of the storygames probably would be utterly horrible, but I'd think that at least one would be a wonderful surprise.

Despite the fact that I would find it horrifying to be paired with a few certain users, I would enter a co-author contest simply because I think it would be a blast and I might become paired with somebody who actually can create good storygames.

I have an idea. Might be a longshot though. Since we are talking about genres here, why not have a genre contest. 

Each participant must try to create a story game on a genre we do not have. (Excluding Everything else)

Edit; Winner gets the genre accepted as a category on the genre page.