Hypothetical Contest Idea - The OC Slamjam · 1:43am May 4th, 2015
Hey guys. I've had this contest idea about original characters that's been kind of sitting in my mind lately, and tentative feelers reached out to a couple of Skype chats I'm in seemed interested, so I wanted to put this out to the general public and see what the general public thinks.
Here's the rundown of what I think it'd look like, if I figure it's something to go through with:
WAIT, BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING ELSE, NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT CURRENTLY AN EXTANT CONTEST. I AM ONLY GAUGING INTEREST IN THE PROSPECT OF RUNNING IT. DO NOT IMMEDIATELY BEGIN PREPARATIONS TO ENTER BECAUSE THIS CONTEST DOESN'T YET EXIST.
The OC Slamjam
-Contestants invent an OC of their very own for the specific purpose of entering them in the contest. No pre-existing OCs allowed. No joke OCs, obviously.
-Contestants build a character sheet of their OC with some basic details (personality, history, etc.), to be made publicly available.
-Contestants are paired up in a tournament bracket format.
-Each contestant will be given about a week to write a short story (of any genre and maybe 2kish words at the maximum) that involves their OC and their opponent's OC. If someone completes a story but their opponent fails to, it's an automatic win.
-Public voting between the two stories produced for each branch of the bracket. Winner moves on to the next round.
-Repeat until a winner emerges for the whole contest.
I think it could be kind of fun. The only problems I think there'd be is figuring out what to do about prizes, and getting the public interested enough to get votes in--particularly in early stages where the number of contestants is bound to be high. I'd rather not resort to judging for this contest, if it happens, because I think it'd be cooler as a community thing... and, frankly, after The Most Dangerous Games, I'm burnt out on judging for contests and can't dedicate the time it'd take to do that.
Anyhow, what're everyone's thoughts on this being a thing?
Could be fun, I say let's do it
Hey, why not! Sounds interesting. I don't really write, I critique, but I would give it a shot.
I'd be down for this. Although I do have concerns that a public voting system would mean that Big Name vs Small Name slamjams would be horribly one-sided. Perhaps something like what the Writeoff does?
I dunno.
Seems incredibly similar to what Razorbeam already did with Unity Games or whatever it was called.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Sounds good, but I don't think I'll join. To busy with other projects.
3042265
Unity games was a roleplaying scenario, where two people roleplay'd each other to death. Not quite the same
Count me in!
If you decide to go through with this, deal me in.
I'm in!
I agree with Professor Plum about the big names vs. small names concern, though I have no real ideas of how to fix it short of having the posting and voting being anonymous.
Also, I agree that 1 to 2k words would best for a chapter length.
Just some random musings: Since I assume it'll be Pony OC's (given we are on FimFic) would there be rules for or against humanized or anthro OC's? Also, how about species restrictions (Changeling, Griffon, etc.).
I'm so in for this if it happens.
i'll go ahead and do it, it seems fun.
3042269
Nnnnnno... Out side the RP forum thing, this is pretty much the same.
Two OCs battle it out and move up a bracket? Can't deny it doesn't seem similar, man.
~Skeeter The Lurker
3042288
Human/Anthro OCs wouldn't be allowed. OCs of nonpony canon species, like Changelings or Griffons, would be fine, though.
3042297
I literally don't care, Skeeter.
3042301
Oh. Well. Very well then.
~Skeeter The Lurker
3042297
I mean, it's not two OCs battling it out. Two people have to write about both OCs. So it's two authors battling by writing stories about the same characters.
COME ON AND SLAM, AND WELCOME TO THE JAM!
I admit, I'm somewhat intrigued.
As Plum mentioned, the Writeoff style of things remaining anonymous seems like a pretty good way to go about public voting.
Never seen a writing tournament before. Color me intrigued. I would have several questions, though:
- How does one ensure that the voters for each match-up actually read both stores?
- How is author popularity going to be handled?
- What guidelines will the voters use to judge the author's ability to include their partner's OC? The same base traits can have wildly different interpretations depending on the story one wants to tell, especially with no existing background to ground them.
- What if your partner's bio is ultimately barebones/contradictory/otherwise poorly constructed? After all, you do not have to actually write anything with this character until after the traits are locked in.
And lastly it seems a little odd to make the contest about characters and then only give us 2k words of space to develop in.
I assume these stories would be weighed purely on their own merits as narratives, and not on "Which OC is better"? Also, would each round have a certain "theme" to the writing, or would the authors be free to do whatever they wanted? Also also, how long would folks have to vote? Even if there's a only week of writing and a day of voting, this could be a very, very lengthy event depending on the number of contestants.
That said, I'd be interested.
3042325
Anonymity would be a good idea, but I'm not sure if I can really envision it being practical to maintain a sustained veil of anonymity on all entries throughout the entirety of the contest.
It may have to require some grand-level tournament compilation story to hold all the entries from round-to-round... which I guess wouldn't be unfeasible, but it seems like it could be an awful organizational mess? Hm.
Hmm... This might be interesting, but I don't think I'll participate. I'd probably just end up giving someone a free win.
3042298
Makes sense.
What about semi-canon species that have so far only a single or a few members, like the Sirens, Centaurs, Gargoyles, etc.?
I have a MIGHTY NEED.
This seems like it would be a two month long endeavor. Like with waiting for submissions, each separate judging sequence, making sure authors dont just copy paste each story and replace OC names, and whatever else I can't think of. Depending on how many people you let enter, I feel like some authors would just burn out after shelling out 4-5 one-shots week after week.
3042343
I feel like it'll be a challenge to figure out how it should be handled and organized, but once you get that done, it seems like it should be fairly smooth.
*Looks at his list of OCs*
I've done similar stuff back when DA tournaments were still a thing. So I'm game.
i would be up for it
3042373
Yeah, it'd definitely be an ironman competition. Ideally the relatively small size of the entries would help mitigate that, but it'd probably be just as much a test of authorial endurance as anything else.
3042336
1. There's really no way of ensuring that, unfortunately.
2. I'm considering anonymity as an option. A big compilation-type story might be necessary. I'll think on it.
3/4. I think the emphasis would be placed on the overall quality of the narrative, rather than the specific use of the OCs, though part of it could feasibly be how strongly you used the OCs, based on the information (or lack thereof) in their character sheets. I'unno.
3042355
I'd like to avoid those. They might technically be canon, but so little is known about certain obscure species that I don't think it'd be a good idea to allow them. I'd probably draw up a list of allowed OC species if the contest winds up happening.
Sounds like a cool idea. I'd love to join, especially if it's just short stories. It might run into the pitfall of popular authors being much more likely to win regardless of content, but hopefully that wouldn't be the case.
OC tournaments have been a thing before, one of which I almost entered, so I might join this if it ends up happening.
Sounds cool to me.
Might be easier to just do it as a last author standing thing. Each round all the authors get a random draw, they have to write a story with their character and the random draw. If you complete a story you move onto the next round. Though that would probably take a lot longer to finish if most of the authors keep up with the production rate. Tournaments are always fun though, so I'm interested in seeing what comes out of this.
SIGN ME UP COACH
I love the idea. Another contest for me to lose at.
I echo the concerns about anonymity. I want to lose fair and square, not because someone remembered me from my previous contest entries.
It sounds like organization is a big problem. I know some people have a skill with that. Best of luck finding them!
On the subject of OCs, you'll probably have to make a lot of clarifications. As you mentioned, a list of approved races would be good. But I'm wondering stuff like, what if you mentioned a character name in an unrelated story (just because you invented a cool name), then used that name for the contest OC, even though there was no actual character in the unrelated story? Or what if the name you pick was already used by someone else, unbeknownst to you?
You know, uh, hypothetically.
having run a similar sort of tournament on deviantART called artists at the ready I fully agree with this idea. however I would suggest instead of public voting you instead have judges three or five individuals which will read into each story and then judge which is the winner based off that mainly because if you have public voting you're going to have people who have much larger fans vote for the other guy or this guy and it was coming to a popularity contest rather than individual judges judging based on the merits of the story
I'm just gonna leave this here and then sneak away,
I love the idea. Do what you want with it.
I'd love to participate in something like this, if my schedule allows.
Rodger Dodger, who runs contests for The Writeoff Association could likely help with the mechanics as far as keeping the contest anonymous, hosting entries, tabulating votes and such. His system is pretty slick.
Sounds interesting.
I could use some practice with OCs and fight scenes. I don't foresee myself lasting more than three rounds, but I'd probably give it a try.
... Assuming I actually make the character. I'm terrible about saying I'll do a contest and then forgetting about it.
Sounds like the fun.
3042468
Hypothetically, just using names you've used before wouldn't be a sin. If there's a clear relation between a character you've used before and the character you've drawn up for the contest, though, that'd be an issue.
Like, an OC named Steve when you've used the name Steve before isn't an issue. But if both Steves are weed merchants from Greece, that's going to start looking suspiciously like using a previously existing OC.
Wouldn't the publication of however many fics during the span of this contest generate a lot of negativity simply because it's OCs and there's already a kind-of stigma about them? Just a thought...
Pushing OC's for Summerslam? Awwwww yeah!
You're gonna have a hell of a time policing the "No Existing OC's" rule, but otherwise, sounds like a blast.
I'm good with OC's. I'm just lazy when writing.
I think my honest reaction is "this is equal parts interesting and lame".
But mostly it's just ">CONTEST" D:
It sounds fun.