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IWT8- The Results!

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  • Usoki
    replied
    Originally posted by donteatpoop View Post
    Not that my vote counts, as Usoki has clearly stated that this is a dictatorship; but I figured I'd get it out there.
    Don't get me wrong; I do care about what you think. If everybody hates the contest idea, then no one is going to submit anything, and then the contest would be a disaster. Kinda like how the 'True Infinite Story' theme turned into a "screw it, just do whatever" theme when it became clear nobody was going to pull off a story in time.

    But, yes, you have no actual vote in the matter. At the end of the day, I have to be able to write a solid piece for next year's contest in an attempt to continue my victory streak. I'm not about to pick something like 'terror' or 'drug abuse' just because it's popular- I'd never be able to write that. Gritty things are right out.

    That being said, I am partial to the 'grab bag' style of contest. Drag's suggestion really works best for short stories in my mind, so that one's out. And I do see Ves's point about how tropes are, by definition, tired and cliche. But, I'm probably not going to approach anywhere close to full departure from previous contests.

    In fact, I'm kinda considering having an 'anything' theme, with a grab bag that includes technical things, like "there are no loose ends or story end rooms" or "there are x more choices than rooms" or "there are x rooms which split into 6 separate and unique choices". I can't decide if that would be interesting, or obnoxious.

    Leave a comment:


  • Threadkiller
    replied
    In fact I'd like to suggest Addiction.
    right on man, drugs ftw

    also old ppl,. should be 1 in every stry.

    Leave a comment:


  • donteatpoop
    replied
    Me, not a fan of the grab bag. It was alright, I guess; but I'd hate to do it every IWT. For that reason I vote not doing it for the next one, but perhaps another one in the future.

    Not that my vote counts, as Usoki has clearly stated that this is a dictatorship; but I figured I'd get it out there.

    I understand the need to narrow the theme, but I strongly recommend keeping it a wide open theme. The more narrow the theme, the less likely people are to join.

    I'll throw in the option of setting or time period. A theme like "Industrial Revolution Era Fiction" works great for me. It could be a romance, fantasy, drama, horror, whatever; so long as it takes place during the industrial revolution.

    Please note that I am not in any way suggesting Industrial Revolution as a theme, I simply used that as an example.

    Or you could make it a broad general term that can be interpreted in any number of ways. "Death," for example. Think of all the possibilities that could come from that. "Addiction," is another one.

    In fact I'd like to suggest Addiction. If that gets added to a grab bag fine, but I fear that the narrow grab bag that dragovan suggests above would make people less likely to enter since it could be viewed as limiting or confining. But perhaps that's just me.

    Leave a comment:


  • Dragavan
    replied
    I liked the way this years was done for the most part, being the choices of things part... but I would like to see fewer choices, but no overall theme. This would be similar to the way the "Game Chef" contest has been done before (which is a game design thing based on the idea of "Iron Chef", but would still work for stories).

    Put up like six or eight varied ingredients (words or phrases) that are not all tied to the same style or theme (like all the stuff this year was obviously sci-fi themed) and require every author to choose at least three of them to strongly integrate into their story. They can't be single page passing references or just in the name or something. They have to be important parts of the story (clearly) and that will be part of judging them in the end.

    This way you would get a wide variety of stories in several genres that use the ingredients in different ways. And with fewer ingredients to choose from you'd really see the different ways people use the same things. That's why it's important to choose very different ingredients, so there are no obvious connections between them that everyone would choose to ease of use.

    Like: Memories, Log Cabin, Brotherly Love, Golem, Sunken Ship, and Debutante Ball.
    Choose at least 3.

    So someone who did Debutante Ball, Memories, and Brotherly Love would have a very different story from the person who chose Log Cabin, Brotherly Love, and Memories, even though they shared two of the three words.

    They have also done other (more complex) variations of this, but I like the simple one the best. Choose three of these diverse ingredients and go... but then I don't enter these things, so what do I have to say on the matter?

    Leave a comment:


  • Vesnic
    replied
    As for me, I would like something distinctly non-tropey. I am really tired of reading the same old shit over and over and over. It's like the leftovers that never end. Each time you reheat them in the microwave, they get a little less appetizing.

    Please make a total departure from the sci-fi/fantasy/adventure geek realm. I'm really tired of it.

    People seem to do better with a little guidance. Spare the rod, spoil the child. This means you should probably go with either the grab-bag option to narrow down a broad topic, or just make a more specific topic. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to do this without people complaining that your choice is too arcane--damned if I know what these ways are.

    But yes: departure is the word for the IWT 9. This must be a bullet-train zippity doo-da removed from the usual faff.

    Leave a comment:


  • BatCountry
    replied
    I don't know if Usoki plans to announce the next contest theme in this thread, but this is probably the best place to make suggestions to him.


    The grab bag idea with the various themes is great and should stay for the next contest. I don't know if it should be a broad theme again or more confined. Sci-Fi was pretty broad, but the themes narrowed it down. We could either stay the course or get even more condensed.


    Not sure why, but I'm feeling a Jungle Adventure would be a nice idea to play around with. Dark jungles with dangerous flora and fauna, mysterious temples containing treasures of unspeakable evil, tribal natives who have been cut off from civilization for thousands of years, psychotic man eating super apes. Not sure if everyone feels me on this one, but I think it would be fun.



    Other suggestions for Usoki to think about, hmmm....The super hero genre may be interesting to delve into. Loads of tropes concerning super heroes. You could have the grab bag consist of certain powers, settings or character archetypes. The semi-erotic adventures of Captain Insectoid, the wielder of the bee hive bazooka! Tempting Usoki?


    If neither idea tickles your testes I would recommend going with a broad theme again like Horror or Adventure.
    Last edited by BatCountry; 02-10-2012, 09:16 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • donteatpoop
    replied
    For the record, I just want to say how awesome it is that we have two relatively new members putting forward decent stories.

    Leave a comment:


  • donteatpoop
    replied
    I hope everyone posts their ratings. I was drunk when I wrote most of them and can't remember all that I said, but I recall marveling at how clever I was.

    Leave a comment:


  • End Master
    replied
    Despite her SCORN badge, it looks like Mizal's concerns about getting really crappy ratings were a slight overreaction. She did somewhat okay for literally just slapping a story together at the last minute.

    As for Zac...wow. That's a pretty far last place ranking. I think the Mudkip story is the only one that placed very far behind before. Maybe Serial Rapist.

    Leave a comment:


  • Vesnic
    replied
    Originally posted by donteatpoop View Post
    Katzryummy
    Ahahahaha!!! Brilliant.

    Leave a comment:


  • Usoki
    replied
    Hah, you're all too kind. (I'm lying- I'm pretty awesome and I totally deserve all of this praise.) Really, though, you guys are great. I appreciate it. I wasn't too sure how well I'd do for awhile.

    I can't decide if the idea of being an IWT Bridesmaid is awesome or depressing. I guess it depends which is better- getting first place once, or getting second place multiple times. That really is a nice, snippy remark. It must have been torture not to blurt that one out.

    Well, mostly I just wanted to use that to point out how close the results were. That, and it boggles the mind how someone could decide that your story has no SciFi themes. And since one of those scores was asterisked, their stupidity cost you up to 27 points. Even by giving 20 (out of 300) of them back, you jumped up two places. Pretty crazy. You guys were all super close. It was hard to tell who was going to end up where, because even something as simple as who hadn't voted yet would skew things. Cat spent most of the time in the rear, simply because she voted first.

    Leave a comment:


  • Cat2000
    replied
    Congratulations on winning ^^. (And I'm not surprised, either. When I read your story, I figured it would be the winning entry).

    I think the grab-bag style of themes was a good idea, personally. It required a lot of creativity with coming up with ways of linking the themes together and it was different to having just one theme.

    Leave a comment:


  • donteatpoop
    replied
    Congratulations, Usucky.

    I don't mind the score with the actual results; some fuck heads just don't like moments of hard core porn. Besides, it's entirely possible that they typed their critique with only one hand, and that can be a daunting task.

    Anyway, it's all good in the neighborhood, with all the glaring fuck ups in my story there's no way it diserved to win. If only I'd been inspired enough to hammer the story out early. Katzryummy did a hella-good job blending horror and sci-fi. And Cat2K definately diserves the bronze; so drop me for shizzle. I think those were all better than mine anywhoo.

    Great top 3 stories.

    Really extra-cool story suckysucky, well diserved win.
    Last edited by donteatpoop; 02-09-2012, 07:54 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • End Master
    replied
    I knew it would be Usoki's year. Just didn't want to jinx it by saying it like I did a couple of other times I said it!

    I will also say as someone who regularly gets story complaints about "too much swearing" over at CYS (Though happily the positive ratings still overwhelm the idiots) I can sympathize with DEP's "morals" rating ravaged story.

    Leave a comment:


  • Vesnic
    replied
    Finally!

    Congratulations, Usoki!

    Lucky for you you won this one, or I'd have coined the perfect new nickname for you: Bridesmaid!

    Ahahahaha!

    BADDA BING BADDA BOOM!

    Congratulations, Usoki!

    And good show, everyone. You sure did make my eyeballs sore, but it was worth it.

    Leave a comment:

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