Some Recommendations from MMDG · 5:32am Mar 2nd, 2015

With the winning More Most Dangerous Game contest entries now officially posted, I figured I might as well give out a few recommendations. This is my personal top ten list from our internal judging round of the original pool of fifteen finalists, plus a few honorable mentions, most of which got knocked out earlier in the competition. As a little disclaimer, I’ll note that no judge was required to read every story entered into the contest, so if you felt strongly about something and I’ve not listed it as an honorable mention here, it might just be that it was never in one of my judging pools—if you think that might be the case, please recommend that story to me! I’m sure there were some gems I missed.

Getting into it. Two of these are lifted (one verbatim) from the blurbs I wrote for the EQD post. Please turn a blind eye to all of my laziness, now and for all time.

Top Ten Finalists

1. Happy Birthday, Dear Twilight, by Pascoite
I had a hard time deciding between this or A Diamond and a Tether for my first pick, since both did something that I felt was the whole point of the contest: retelling one of the fandom’s old stories in a fresh and improved way. Not just going off of the given prompt, but taking definite cues from the original work to form something better. The reason that Happy Birthday, Dear Twilight won out for me, though, was that despite its strong connections to the original story (in that Cupcakes could have happened within this story, or as a potential result of this story’s presented situation), it ultimately managed to be more creative with its use of the mold.

2. A Diamond and a Tether, by PatchworkPoltergeist
Still, in terms of what I personally wanted to result from this contest, PatchworkPoltergeist’s A Diamond and a Tether was nearly perfect. This is a story that, rather than attempting to throw all of its weight into a clever interpretation of the contest prompt, focused on being an improvement over the original story that inspired it. Most every flaw from the original My Little Dashie has been excised, most every pointless contrivance given a larger meaning and worked into the plot rather than set against it—and all of this while keeping the focus on the (better developed) emotional conflict. Whether you liked MLD or you thought it needed improving, A Diamond and a Tether delivers.

3. The Motion of the Stars, by Carabas
I’ve (at the very least) liked most every story by Carabas that I’ve yet read, and that goes for this one as well. It was odd, though: I heard very little talk amongst the judges about this story, even though it scored quite well in the end. It might be that it’s solid enough a story to not be quite as controversial as many of the others that made it to the finals, and that sounds about right now that I’ve thought of it. Solid characterization, solid mechanics, solid world-building (all of these things, again, true of everything I’ve yet read by Carabas). This story did not leap off the page and wow me, and it wasn’t particularly true to the original or innovative in its interpretation of the prompt, but all the same, it’s worth reading.

4. The Mailmare, by Bad Horse
I’m having trouble putting into words some enticements for reading this fic, because overall, it was fairly simple in both premise and execution, in a lot of ways. Strong, but simple. For one thing, it was very evocative of its source inspiration(s, including David Brin’s The Postman—at least in terms of concept, given that I haven’t actually read that). Making my way through it, I had much of the same feeling as from Fallout: Equestria, with so little (but not none, of course) of the violence and other unpleasantness inherent to a real reimagining of that. Lot of points there. This has one of the best Derpies I’ve had the pleasure of reading, too, and most every character was well done besides. Give this one your time.

5. Second Singularity, by dayoldspaghetti
This might have been the first story I read in the competition (in an earlier internal round of our judging) that really struck me. The links to Anthropology are tenuous apart from the most, most basic, and the story had some surprisingly graphic imagery, so I didn’t feel that it was the best fit for the contest overall, but it still managed to grab my attention. For one, it has a style you won’t see that often, in the way that it handles its scene breaks—that was cool enough on its own before I realized there was more to it than experimentation on the author’s part. The characters were great, the plotting was (for the most part) wonderful, but in the end, I think my favorite thing about Second Singularity is that it asks more of you as a reader than I’m used to from ponyfic, and not in a strictly intellectual way, but more in terms of focus. If that sounds appealing to you, don’t hesitate.

6. A World Without Kindness, by billymorph
This story has a lot going for it, so much so that I’m not really surprised it won the competition. The thing that struck me most was the world, all dark but with much of the heart of the show intact despite it. Apart from that, most every other aspect was decent at the very least (except perhaps its tenuous connection to Fallout: Equestria, my personal preference for the stories that took cues from their predecessors being a thing and all), but overall, I don’t feel that this was the strongest story entered into the contest. Issues with repetitive (and/or somewhat obvious) characterization, frequent mechanical issues that would break my immersion, and what I consider to be a comparatively weak ending kept me from scoring this in the upper half of my top ten, much as I recognize that it has a lot of potential. Still, none of that is to say that this story isn’t worth your time, because it certainly is. Just explaining my position, since some of the other judges seemed borderline fanatic about this story, and some of you might be as well.

7. Plural Possessive, by Aquaman
I was excited for this story from the moment I heard Aqua’s concept, and while I can’t say that it lived up to my internal hype, I also can’t say that I was disappointed. The weakness, I think, is not so much this story’s comedy (I had a great big laugh at a few choice portions), but the fact that the comedy is most of what the story is riding on. Which is, I guess, just another way of saying the comedy was the weakness—in that I didn’t personally feel it was enough to carry the piece alone. Still, I came primarily for the interactions between Sombra and Dinky, and on that front, I wasn’t disappointed. With the length of the story, though, I just felt like I needed a bit more. But enough of me flip-flopping: yada yada, comedy is more subjective than anything, and I didn’t dislike it at all anyway, so have a go.

8. Life in the Wasteland, by NorsePony
I don’t have very much to say about this story that’s unique. I’m familiar with NorsePony to the extent that he’s a fellow guy who used to enter World-Building Alliance competitions, and this story was reminiscent of the sorts of things that would get submitted to those. A strong world, if a bit weak in the characters. Mind you, it wasn’t that I felt any character in particular was inherently poor, but rather that Norse spread the characterization a bit too thin, failing to firmly establish many of them. Still, this story is worth the read for the world, especially considering that—as I understand it—future stories in this world (hopefully ones without upward word restrictions) are probably forthcoming.

9. The Cup Cake Killer, by SaddlesoapOpera
I’m afraid I’m unable to look at this story in the proper light, given that its ending was ruined for me in private, and this is a story where the ending reshapes everything that came before it. As such, I was underwhelmed, personally, though I know that many looking at it with uninformed eyes will get a lot out of it. Still, apart from the ending, not too much else has stuck in my mind after a week or so has passed since my coming away from it, so it might be said that there isn’t all that much going on in the story. Give it a shot and judge for yourself.

10. Broken Roads, by Not_A_Hat
This is another story that didn’t get talked about very much amongst the judges, or at least not until I brought that fact up and Raz and I argued for a bit. Despite this, I found Broken Roads’ world to be perhaps the most interesting out of those of all of the finalists. The sheer mechanics of it were interesting enough that I’d say this story is worth your time. Sadly, characterization and exposition could’ve been handled far better than they were on the whole, and I recall (but am not certain of, with the interim week I spent not thinking much about this contest) a not insignificant number of mechanical problems, among other issues. Again, though, coolest idea for an apocalypse out of the contest, I think, so have a look for that if for no other reason.

Honorable Mentions

For honorable mentions, I’d rather not work up full recommendations, since most didn’t strike me as hard as the majority of the finalists in my top ten list. You get Blueshift’s for free, though, since that’s the one I actually went with for the EQD post.

Arcadia, by Blueshift
It dropped out early in the contest for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, but Blueshift’s Arcadia would certainly have made my top ten had things gone differently. This story has a strange vibe—switching rapidly between dark and comedic, but never really mixing the two—that is confusing at best when you’ve just begun reading. As the story continues, though, said vibe starts to seem more and more appropriate. By the end of this story, you’re left with a completed puzzle that you didn’t start out knowing you were assembling, and most everything that at first seemed ridiculous comes out looking brilliant. It’s more than worth your time.

Chill, by FloydienSlip
The ending was a tad abrupt, but everything else was decently executed, and this was one of not all that many breaths of fresh air in the first knockout round.

I’m Just Me, by Gumball2
This was barely related to the contest in that its ties to Past Sins and the prompt were not its focus, but I found it a fairly interesting read otherwise.

The Observer Effect, by soulpillar
Unique from the original perhaps only in its framing device and overall quality, at least in terms of significant differences, but this was fun for those alone. It was very reminiscent of the film Look, which was cool.

My Little Dashie: Cloud Trails, by Door Matt
The big problem here, really, is that this story isn’t a true retelling so much as it is a collection of mini-prequels to MLD. Still, I liked it for the focus the author went with and that it didn’t overstay its welcome. Could’ve been proofread a little more, but I liked it enough to think it had a shot in the finals, even if I found enough other stories there that I wound up preferring.

Closing Thoughts

This was a fun to judge contest on the whole, if perhaps not as wild and competitive as Outside Insight was—though memories of organizational flub-ups in that one certainly let us ease some aspects of judging this time around.

I’m looking forward to being a part of future contests, in this vein or others. In particular, I’m pumped for the next time the World-Building Alliance wants to do one, if that ever actually winds up happening—though I’m not yet sure whether I’d ask to judge or if I’d want to put in an entry of my own. We’ll see.

Have fun reading, folks.

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