IDEA: The Pearl Contest

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AuthorTopic: IDEA: The Pearl Contest
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #0
Concept: We give the designers a single concept or idea that they must incorporate into their scenario. They can create the rest around it, much like a pearl.

E.g. A death is blamed on you.

Now, depending on context, this allows for a great variety of adventures. Also, we get to see how different designers approach the same premise. In the above example, we do not specify who or what died, why, whether the player is in fact guilty, or even if anything actually died. One designer could make a scenario where a man disappears, and the player is accused of murdering him. You have to escape the authorities and find the man to prove your innocence. Another could make a scenario where you lead an expedition into unexplored territory with a number of companions. But when one of them dies the team begins to fracture apart as some of them blame you for the accident. As long as it's an integral part of the plot, anything goes.

This contest is to be open to both BoA and BoE scenarios.

Judging will be done by discussion. Scenarios will be evaluated according to their quality, and to a lesser extent, how original the approach to the basic premise is.

Whatcha all think?

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SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Warrior
Member # 5531
Profile #1
Great idea!

Yay, more scenarios!

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Trouser Snake.
Mustakrakish.

Infiltrators? No. Agents? YES!!
Posts: 79 | Registered: Monday, February 21 2005 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 148
Profile #2
Hm. How about "You (party) created (unknowingly) your own worst enemy"?

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My ego is bigger than yours.
Posts: 480 | Registered: Thursday, October 11 2001 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #3
I am, as stated @ Lyceum, all for this.

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*
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5437
Profile #4
Yeah, it would be interesting to see how many stories come from a single idea.
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 5540
Profile #5
how about this. take your idea, but make it a 24-design challenge. get the idea then design as much as you can in 24 hours and release it. now that would be funny.
Posts: 27 | Registered: Thursday, February 24 2005 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 148
Profile #6
quote:
Originally written by Fringy MacGee:

how about this. take your idea, but make it a 24-design challenge. get the idea then design as much as you can in 24 hours and release it. now that would be funny.
That is very evil.

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My ego is bigger than yours.
Posts: 480 | Registered: Thursday, October 11 2001 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 5599
Profile Homepage #7
Yeah, excuse me and all, but no.

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Rosy again
Polaris - Fun in the City
My BoE Dialogue Pix - Talking to the Wall
Posts: 12 | Registered: Thursday, March 17 2005 08:00
Shaper
Member # 5437
Profile #8
quote:
Originally written by Fringy MacGee:

how about this. take your idea, but make it a 24-design challenge. get the idea then design as much as you can in 24 hours and release it. now that would be funny.
That would not be fun.
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #9
This would not work... I tried to do a scenario design contest in 2 weeks... it didn't work as expected... there were 2 excellent entries... Emerald Mountain-- by Terrors Martyr and Death at Chapman's by Eric Westra. They are both winners in my eyes because they could code decent scenarios in such a short time.

Erik Westra wrote the Cook Book and Terrors Martyr has the most scenarios out.

Three weeks might work, but not 2. I don't want to embarrass myself on this one.

I think that I would try to get a committment by 4-6 people before contest started-- for a fast contest. Name-- Synopsis. Parameters.

This way you could track progress on how making the scenarios were going. Create a specific thread in the Lyceum and the Blades of Avernum section.

Kind of like a running online journal.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 5540
Profile #10
no, no. see, what you do is work in teams of say 8-12, and each of you do one town or an outdoors or something. And then put them together and see if the story makes sense.
Posts: 27 | Registered: Thursday, February 24 2005 08:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #11
You mean like the books of mad libs which you used to play when you were a kid. Have an out line of a map and people would send in different pieces on the map. Lets say you have 15 locations on the map. Fortress, town, etc. Each person would do a piece at a set level. Then you would put it into the scenario. Kind of a giant incomprehensible mess. :P Make the scenario completely open ended.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #12
Of course, such a contest would produce nothing but crap. I like Ash Lael's idea better.

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #13
I think we might put this one on hold till after the big contest.

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SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Shaper
Member # 247
Profile Homepage #14
Who judges the Spidweb scenario contest? Shouldn't it be the community rather than Jeff?

What a sweet number my post count is 966 yeah!

[ Friday, March 18, 2005 13:12: Message edited by: VCH ]

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The Knight Between Posts.
Posts: 2395 | Registered: Friday, November 2 2001 08:00
Warrior
Member # 5415
Profile #15
quote:
Who judges the Spidweb scenario contest? Shouldn't it be the community rather than Jeff?
LMFAO!

Considering that it's Jeff paying for the prizes, he obviously gets to pick who wins. Not to mention the winner should be the scenario that best represents his game and how he thinks it shoud be shown to people out there in the real world.

Leaving the voting up to the people who regularly bash his scenarios for stupid reasons would be the last thing Jeff should do.
Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #16
quote:
Originally written by DreamGuy:

quote:
Who judges the Spidweb scenario contest? Shouldn't it be the community rather than Jeff?
LMFAO!

Considering that it's Jeff paying for the prizes, he obviously gets to pick who wins. Not to mention the winner should be the scenario that best represents his game and how he thinks it shoud be shown to people out there in the real world.

Leaving the voting up to the people who regularly bash his scenarios for stupid reasons would be the last thing Jeff should do.

What?

The winner should be the best scenario.

And it's not like Jeff even cares how "his" game (which we have invested a lot more work into than he has) is portrayed in the "real world".

And what the heck do you mean by "real world" anyway?

And Jeff only ever judged the first BoE contest and this will be the last BoA contest he judges. He doesn't care who wins. He just does it to make it 'official'.

Leaving the voting up to people who have put much more time into BoX than he has and who have played hundreds more scenarios is not a stupid thing to do, regardless of whether they like Diplomacy with the Dead or not.

Also, you really can't talk when it comes to bashing scenarios for stupid reasons. :P

In conclusion, you are a tool.

[ Friday, March 18, 2005 16:59: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #17
It is going to be the one with the most promotional value. He is probably going to announce the winners in various places and talk about choosing the best one.

Thus he generates more sales with the contest.

Definitely do the Perl contest. It is good to generate more scenarios. Also it would give some practice for the larger contest. ;)

[ Friday, March 18, 2005 17:25: Message edited by: Lord Baron Von Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Warrior
Member # 5415
Profile #18
Yes, the winner should be the best scenario, and Jeff would be a heck of a lot better judge than the vast majority of people here. He actually takes things like game balance, being fun for a variety of different parties and playstyles and so forth into account.

But, again, he's paying for the prizes, so any whining about how you think you know better than him is even more pointless than your usual posts.
Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #19
Don't you have better things to do than harass us, like, say, making one more of those many, many (curiously anonymous) games you've supposedly designed?

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #20
Scenario design is different to game design.

I have designed more scenarios than Jeff.

In general, people like my scenarios more than his.

I know more about scenario design than Jeff does.

I would be a better judge.

Better yet would be a group of people all judging, with their scores averaged.

(Sorry guys, I couldn't resist stirring him up a bit.)

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SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
For Carnage, Apply Within
Member # 95
Profile #21
Amazingly enough, Toast makes a good point. I don't know what Jeff himself would enjoy playing, but he's not going to use something like Canopy to say "buy this for your eight-year-old."

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The Empire Always Loses: More fun than a kick in the shins!
Posts: 567 | Registered: Friday, October 5 2001 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #22
And of course, DG's comment that it's Jeff giving the prizes so he should be the one to judge WOULD be reasonable were it not for the fact that Jeff has in the past agreed to award prizes for community-judged contests -- in other words, Jeff thinks the community is competent enough at judging quality scenarios that he's willing to financially support their contests, even if DG doesn't. DG, of course, is blissfully unaware of this due to his generalised ignorance of the community's history.

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #23
DG, your idea that taste is absolute and not relative is comically ignorant.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #24
quote:
Originally written by DreamGuy:

IMAGE(http://pagiserver.cz/store/ender/Cave%20troll%202.jpg)
Fixed your typo.

DreamGuy, kindly either design a scenario or shut up. Nobody wants to hear your inane blabber.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00