The Most Dangerous Game - Contest · 9:06pm Jun 6th, 2014
Update: Deadline for submissions has been extended to three weeks. Deadline is now 11:59 PM Central Friday, June 27.
Update 2: The Judging Process is going to be left up in the air for now, given there's not really a clear idea yet of how many submissions will be materializing. There'll be more news/discussion regarding how the submissions will be judged about a week before the June 27 deadline.
Hey guys. Summer's here, and it's bein' all kinds of hot. Our planet, such as it does, orbits a yellow star, and sometimes that really sucks. It's unfortunate that we had to be early adopters, else we might've waited for Sun 2.0, with temperature control.
Sadly, that's not the case.
What is the case, though, is that a lot of you folks have probably found yourself with a bit of extra time on your hands. So I thought I might throw together a contest of sorts, to keep your beautiful write hand working like clockwork. You might even say that, as a result of this contest I am organizing, I could be called your write hand man.
Yeah.
Anyhow, here's the skinny. I'm announcing...
A CONTEST
What's it about? Well, I'm sure you guys have all heard some variant of the following before:
There is no such thing as a bad story concept.
Sure, most stories like this are bad, but some can be really good!
A good writer can make anything work. Anything.
It's an intriguing concept, but one that's surprisingly hard to put to test. In theory, a good author could make even a bad story concept work, but in practice, most "good" authors just don't write "bad" story concepts. Forever will the answer to this question remain a mystery: can good authors make even Fimfic's most traditionally terrible story concepts work?
Well, that's what we're here to find out. Let's put some money where our mouth is, and see if we're all good enough to make even a bomb of a concept into a jewel.
Therefore, Obselescence Productions presents to you...
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME
Here's all you need to know:
Rules:
-First rule here is that you must write a story based on one or more of the following prompts. List is subject to change, pending anyone making a really good suggestion for additions, but the gist of it is that your story must be based on at least one of the following:
-An OC Alicorn.
-A Human in Equestria.
-A Seventh Element of Harmony.
-Second Person Perspective.
-An OC and a major canon character (such as one of the Mane Six) fall in love with each other.
-Second rule is a few conditions placed on writing any of the above. There are a few tricks and cheats one can use to get by on the above prompts, so I'm going to close off as many loopholes as I can here, to make you stretch your thinkmuscle in producing a good story:
-No Previously Extant OCs. If you're using an OC for your prompt, it can't be something anybody'd recognize from elsewhere in the fandom. This means no Snowdrop, Nyx, Blackjack, TD, Lil Pip, etc.
-No Parodies/Crackfics. You know the kind. It's a little too easy to write a "passable" story about an OC Alicorn if the trick is that you're writing about Raven Metalclaw Darkscar and blatantly poking fun at all the tropes. This doesn't mean you can't write a comedy, or lampshade tropes a little, but the goal here is to show you can write these concepts well, not show how well you can satirize their general badness.
-No Clopfics. It's a little too easy to cash out on some of the above concepts by making them about juicy sexual happenings instead of the human or the alicorn or whatever, so that's a no-go here. Mature-rated entries are provisionally allowed, to allow people access to, say, gorier stuff if they need it. But nothing about sex or otherwise involving sex scenes.
-No Crossovers. Forgot to bring this one up earlier. I only hope you can accept my apologies. You'll need to find your own human. No going with Superman or Darth Vader or anyone to make the job easier. Crossovers in general are kind of niche appeal, and likely to be disproportionately favored/avoided depending on the readers' feelings toward the source material, so gonna have to dodge these. This does include Fallout: Equestria and Doctor Whooves. Sorry. Feel free to make references, but they can't be the focus of your story.
-Miscellaneous rules that you will want to read:
-When you've got your story good and ready, send me (Obselescence) a link to its Fimfiction page via PM and I'll log it as an entry. You can publish it or not, whichever you prefer, but it'll have to be publicly accessible somehow (for reasons outlined below), so don't password it.
-Contest starts today, June 6. Submissions end in three weeks: 11:59PM, Central Time, on Friday, June 27. If I don't have your story before then, it doesn't count.
-Word Count Minimum: 2,500 words. Word Count Maximum: 15,000 words.
-Submissions must be complete when they're submitted.
-Submissions must be written for this contest. Meaning no old fics.
-One entry allowed per contestant
-Have fun.
Judging
The style and needs of judging will ultimately sort of depend on how many submissions show up, and without a clear idea of how many stories this contest might be looking at, it's tough to make a binding declaration on how this'll be handled. We'll give it a couple weeks or so to get a clearer idea of how many submissions are going to be showing up to the party, and there'll be more news/discussion on how the judging will be implemented about a week before the deadline hits.
Sorry about this mess on this end of things. I'm still somewhat new to running writing contests. Thanks for your patience here. :X
Prizes:
Any good contest ought to have prizes. Sadly, my finances are somewhat limited, so besides bragging rights, here's what I can offer for winning:
First Place: A Steam Game of your choice, costing $15 or less. Also renderable as cash prize over Paypal, if needed. Plus:
-Courtesy of the wonderful Alexstrazsa, first choice from a list of Contraption Maker, Torchlight, and Half-Life 2 Episode One.
-Courtesy of the majestic Selbi, your choice from a wicked library of Steam Coupons (which can be applied to your $15-or-less Steam Game prize), up to 90% off.
-Courtesy of the excellent Stopwatch: A copy of Metro2033.
-Courtesy of the masterful acmincorporated: A copy of Guns of Icarus Online.
-Courtesy of the incomparable Thorax: A copy of the Dead Island: Epidemic Beta.
-Courtesy of the brilliant Maskedferret, a custom made pony plushie. She'll be using the patterns crafted by Valley Violet and the winner can choose from four ponies. Stallion, Mare, Foal or Shoulder Pony(Mare or Stallion). They will be made from quilting cotton or snuggly cotton fleece and will have handpainted eyes and cutie marks.
Second Place: A Steam Game of your choice, costing $5 or less, plus second choice from the above list of games and a choice from the above library of Steam Coupons (which can, again, be applied to your choice-of-game prize), up to 50% off. Also a copy of the Dead Island: Epidemic Beta. Courtesy of the exemplary IceOfWaterflock, you'll also also get a flat-color full-body picture of the character of your choice.
Third Place: Third choice from the above list of games and a 33% off Steam coupon from the above list. Also a copy of the Dead Island: Epidemic Beta. Courtesy of the exemplary IceOfWaterflock, you'll also also get a flat-color full-body picture of the character of your choice. Not to mention a pat on the back.
No longer looking for pot-sweeteners, given the insane generosity on the part of everyone who's already contributed. You're free to throw more stuff in if you're just feeling that nice, though. Contact me and we'll work something out.
Whew, that's a lot. Anyhow, if you guys are still here, that should be just about everything. Tell your friends, and be sure to join in if you think this all looks interesting.
Have a nice day.
FIRST
Hell, why not combine all the prompts while you're at it?
2181412
Go for it, man. :V
Cool idea, sadly, I can't enter, I'm to busy with summer time.
Now, that OC rule is ok if we use an OC that we have in all of our other stories, correct? Because my MC is always named Dante. It's easier to keep track of.
Also, if we get second or first place, can we give that steam game to someone else?
2181400 No no, presentperfect. A good writer would be able to take a bad post concept (commenting "First!" when you're the first poster) and write a good post using it.
I'm sure if we got SS&E here, he'd be able to write a multi-thousand word epic about being first.
Ooh, looks interesting!
2181400
K.
2181432
If the character has been in another work before, you'll need to come up with another OC. If the character simply happens to share a name with an OC from another work, but is otherwise altogether distinct and separate as a character, I guess it'd be all right.
You can choose to give the Steam game to someone else if you win, yeah.
Come on, give me a challenge.
2181442
.
Well, shoot.
Well, I guess this gives me a reason to use Michael. Even though I love the name Dante. Actually, he does switch according to the story. One story he's an immortal alien/human, the next he's a Marine.
...
I'm confused.
The buck is "TD"?
How ironic. I started a discussion on these subjects. Maybe I'll pop by and let them know.
s.mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-1103746-1-it_begins_by_angeomgwtfbbq-d4d1qc3.jpg
Question: can our submission be a spin-off to a previously existing story of ours? I ask because I've already written (or am still writing) a few fics with some of the listed concepts but done in a unique and, I imagine judging by all the praise they get, good way.
~The lizardman suggests a prize where you Follow the winner
2181450
A guy who gut sucked into Equestria and he hates ponies.
2181445 For you, You do them all, TacticalRainboom, you do them ALL.
2181464
TIL that there's a pro wrestler who was also an olympic gold medalist in real wrestling
Anyway, I *was* trying to think of how I could fit three or four of these into one story. But second person is too restrictive, and I don't like it when humans come to Equestria and turn into ponies, and I would never even consider the "seventh element of harmony" bullshit, so...
2181482 So what you're saying is, "I'm doing one or two, Obselescence, I'm doing one or twooooo..."
2181450
Total Disaster?
Honestly, I haven't a clue either, probably either a less well known FoE OC or some other OC that's been overdone.
2181462
That something Dan dude?
2181400 Nope. Don't do that, dude.
I've definitely seen HiE and OCxMane6 done well. But an alicorn OC? I actually want this to happen.
Also, at first I thought the title had something to do with a ponyfied version of "The Most Dangerous Game", written by Richard Connell. Silly me.
...aaaaaand I think I just gave myself another fic to write.
I'm down for this
Wonderful. As if I didn't have enough ideas...
2181435
Which somehow ends in the destruction of Equestria either happening or being averted at a horrible cost.
2181497
No, I think that's a completely different character.
They don't have to be an adult, do they?
I wish I could do this...Though, sadly...
There must be daggers.... 
Okay, that came out weird.
My alicorn OC is too hard to write because it would turn out to be a whole bunch of random stuff..That even I wouldn't understand.
The best I can do for a 'human' is a flipping human...with a dagger.
And....
I'm ranting.
Great.
I'm just gonna....go over there...
Just laying my claim on this idea: You (evil seventh element alicorn) escape from your exile on the wrong side of the magic mirror, only to fall in love with one of the m6.
I'm not actually the kind of whiny bitch who would feel the need to lay claim on an idea (please do steal it), but I just feel proud of myself for this.
Because I can't write something like this for shit, but have some extra cash to blow, I feel generous. Simply adding extra money would be kinda meh though, so instead how about this?
If you're bad at maths, that means the cash price is, in theory, being bumped up by up to $150 for the first place and $15 for the second place. Theory is very important here, because there is no game on Steam that costs $150. :V
The first to places get the coupons sent to Obs so he can apply the discount to the games, while third place gets the coupon directly sent to their account.
This ought to have some juicy results. I'm looking forward to seeing what gets written.
Okay, serious question: Can the OC be a background pony, if we're not, say, using Vinyl Scratch's generally-agreed-on fandom personality? Someone either with an original personality or who doesn't really have one established like, I dunno, Cherry Berry?
2181633
No noteworthy background ponies, sorry. Even if they dodge general fanon. At the very least, nobody with a character tag, along with maybe a few other notables like Button Mash.
I think I'll let particularly obscure background ponies, like the aforementioned Cherry Berry, slide. Although the true spirit of the contest says you might be a wimp for not going with a full OC. :V
So, would I get extra points if the human was a self-insert?
In all honesty, I'm probably not gonna write, because I think I may be done with writing in general. Got plenty of ideas, but every time I hit the keyboard my brain turns to white noise.
But I would be willing to throw in a few bucks to upgrade the prizes. I have no idea how Steam works, so how much would you need?
I'll throw in a Steam copy of To The Moon to all three.
Because everyone needs to play that game.
Ooh, awesome.
Suggestion for the topic list: what about crossovers of blindingly popular video game/movie franchises? Or do we just get bonus points if we work that in?
I shall write all of them at once and become a god.
...Actually fuck second-person. That's not even a story concept, just a storytelling mechanic that is inherently shitty for anything except wish-fulfillment.
Hey.
Hey.
Dammit.
I was too late to throw in my idea for a prize. The thing is that I want people to HAVE it more than I want it to be a prize.
i'm gONNA DO IT
2181667
2181673
Given some crazy generosity on the part of a bunch of people already, it'd probably be overboard to go looking for any additional pot-sweetenings. First place is turning into something of a windfall.
That said, if you really really feel like offering, send me a PM and we'll figure things out. You can always assist in increasing general awesomeness and participation for free by signal boosting, if that seems more up your alley for helping out. Major thanks for the generosity any way it's sliced, though.
I have to write this down.
2181700
Aaaaagh, Crossovers are something that slipped my mind entirely earlier. I'm gonna have to say no to Crossovers here, for two major reasons:
-It can potentially make the Human in Equestria prompt easier by dodging into a Crossover.
-Crossovers are kind of niche appeal, and therefore something of a mess for the judging, which is likely going to be handled by popular vote. Crossover fics are likely to be either disproportionately favored in the event of a popular crossover, or otherwise disproportionately overlooked in the event of an unpopular crossover.
So it's just a lot easier on all ends to avoid that mess entirely. You can work references in, if you'd like, but the focus of the fic shouldn't be crossover material. Sorry. :(
What if I don't have Steam?
For HIE fics may we use "well" known historical figures or notable soldiers in the worlds history or does it have to be oc human or a self insert? I only ask because I have an idea for an HIE that I think would fit your guidelines.
2181783
That might make the prize-giving a bit weird. If you manage to win, but don't have Steam, I could feasibly provide the $15/$5 game prizes as a cash prize via Paypal, and the first place prize includes a non-Steam Pony Plushie. As for where the rest of the Steam games'd go, I guess you could designate an anyone of your choice to get them. Such as the next place down, the author of an entry you particularly liked, or a friend who does have Steam.
2181798
Well-known historical figures are fair game. So long as you don't mess with the No-Crossovers rule, you're decently open on your particular choice of human to be in Equestria.
2181768
Is this going to be anonymous for the authors, or a popularity contest?
Edit: did not read the blog closely enough.
2181799 I guess that makes sense, then. Hell, might as well give this contest a try.
2181805
The stories are gonna be linked to a Fimfic page, so it will be tough to make anonymous. The exact method for handling the judging right now is kind of amorphous, and there's time for changes if enough people express a desire to see that happen. We do have a couple weeks, after all.
One alternative I guess would be to handle it sort of Nightmare Night style, where instead of nominations for the first round, I could judge the initial crop of entries qualitywise and sort out a number of top contenders for the voting round. People seem to have enjoyed the Nightmare Night contest last year, so that's always an option. (And unlike Nightmare Night I'd also be posting the full list of participating stories, not just the chosen top-runners).
I'd rather not have to form a judging panel to pick winners, since I think that can get kind of iffy depending on the choice of judges and whatnot (and would also, I guess, disqualify x number of authors from potential participation). I guess it's possible, if enough people think that'd be fairest, though.
This is interesting...but I haven't written anything in about four years. I guess I'll give it a go if my brain goes boom from an idea.
2181650
Is anthro allowed?
~OreoKookie