Forum Competitions, Gatherings, and Ideas

[Avron the S'wit]

As we all know, the forums serve us members as a lot more than just a place for us to discuss our shared love over The Elder Scrolls. A lot of us have come to find that we come here to enjoy ourselves and associate with friends, and even after we move on we may talk with the people we've met here. In that spirit, I would like to start focusing on some things that you all would like to see to promote a sense of community - and perhaps some friendly competition!

Some of you might recall the "Competition of the Month" threads that were implemented, for a short while, in The Arts section of the General forums. Unfortunately it died out a bit quickly, but several of you - myself included - really enjoyed it and participated eagerly. How would everyone feel about reintroducing things like this to the forums as a permanent thing? Did anyone enjoy them? If you didn't like the competitions, but think they might be a decent idea, how would you change it? (Would you like to see different things for each game? Non-TES things? More variety or multiple competitions for your different talents?)

Aside from that, I am eager to know what other things would interest everyone. I know you all have great ideas - here's where you can voice them!

Remember that this is a discussion to see what you, as fellow members, would like to see here on the forums. I personally think there is potential (and great fun!) to be had in things like competitions, but the opinion of one person alone doesn't serve the masses. Please take a moment to let me know what you'd be interested in so that we might have a discussion going; when we have enough of your ideas, we can go on to the next step of getting started!

Thank you kindly, and please remember to be respectful!

[Vendetta]

I would like forum games besides trivia to be allowed!

[Avron the S'wit]

Forum games are difficult because they tend to turn into spam and clutter, but perhaps you can think of some creative games that work as efficiently as trivia, Blackfire! After all, some "games" are fun and aren't like that at all - like the Oblivion thread about what your horse's bumper sticker might say!

[MARS]

Competitions would be great! I'd love to take participate in a writing competition.

[KalleFlaxx]

I'd love to see monthly-ish competitions. I remember I joined a fan art competition, and it was great.
I'm more into drawing than writing, but it'd still be interesting to read what others write for the competitions.

So yeah, I'm all for these things.

[Kestral]

No forum games other than trivia.
There's a reason why that rule was made in place.

[Avron the S'wit]

No forum games other than trivia.
There's a reason why that rule was made in place.

No worries, friend, there are no plans to introduce anything against the rules. Your forum sanity is safe with me.

Competitions would be great! I'd love to take participate in a writing competition.

I will say that, sadly, when the Competition of the Month was around they were more or less all art competitions. Perhaps our first will be a writing contest!

Here's a question for the few of you lovely members who I adore who answered so far: Would you like to see general competitions encompassing a wide spectrum (ie, things involving any character or scene), or individual, smaller competitions (ie, a Morrowind-based one)? Do you want to see general competitions on top of TES themed ones? (After all, we will have TES themed competitions...it is our love of TES that brings us together, is it not? )

Remember to bring your wonderful ideas to the table, everyone. If you don't share them, we will never get a chance to partake in their glory...and that would make me a very, very sad s'wit indeed.

[KalleFlaxx]

Hm... I think it'd be best if we mixed it a bit. Perhaps one month we have an TES fan art competition, another one we'll have Oblivion/Morrowind screenshot competition, and yet another month it'll be a general writing competition, where you can write about anything you like.
Those are just my thoughts, though.

[MARS]

I'd love to see an Elder Scrolls fanfic writing competition

[Mucro]

I second that, however, I don't expect to come anywhere above last.

[evenratman]

We definitely need more competitions and things like that! The monthly competition was a great idea. It was fun and a motivation to get creative. I think they shouldn't solely be focused around ES, but it wouldn't hurt to have some ES-related contests once in a while. Each period we could have both an ES competition and a non-ES competition, but it might be hard to organize from the mods' point of view. Regarding the content of each competition, I think diversity will be key to not only generating interest but maintaining it for a number of competitions.

[Avron the S'wit]

I'm glad to see you liked it so much, evenratman! It's more of an incentive to bring it back. I'd like to start one in April so I'm excited to see people are interested!

As for more than one competition at a time, that is something I would gladly consider, provided there was enough interest in it. I'm more than willing to set up whatever everyone is interested in, and it's never hard to find fellow Mod Squad members to help out!

I also would like to point out that Competitions of the Month don't have to focus solely around writing and art, so if you have an idea that isn't based around that, don't be afraid to share it here!

[Dean]

Glad to see someone thinking about resurrecting this old thing. Btw, the COTM was never ES exclusive....just the majority always voted like that.

Anywho, good luck with it.

[Balon]

I would love to see some competition or more games other than trivia. Only if rules were in place and the whole process was organized. I don't care what specifically the competitions are I just think it would add some more fun to the forums.

[Arch-Mage Matt]

I think everyone wants that, but the problem is making an interesting game that's not "A is for apple. B is for bumblebee". (Or, whatever. )

[Master of Puppets]

I am totally for all these things.


Also, is this the only active topic for everyone else?

[Balon]

I see what you mean, being that is what I originally thought about (a is for...), But in order to have any structure to any game (other than trivia which seems to work great) we need a sort of "judges panel", or something like it. Say you do a D&D type game where there are many options but certain conclusions, someone needs to make these conclusions and not just one person. So before there can be games or competition or whatever, I feel a panel must be formed. If it is the moderators, individuals who took it upon themselves or a vote for the panel, one should be established. I understand this is a little complicated and might breed some contempt, but I am just brainstorming here.

[Avron the S'wit]

Also, is this the only active topic for everyone else?

Seems so, because it's important, silly.

No, just kidding. The forum's server was just upgraded so it seems to have cleared the cache for active posts. I imagine they will be back to normal shortly, so worry not! However, let's stay on the topic; there is a thread in the UESP Site section for this. We'll be having an April Competition coming up soon, but please use this forum for an ongoing discussion on how you'd like to see them go, and what other ideas you have. Don't be shy!

If it is the moderators, individuals who took it upon themselves or a vote for the panel, one should be established. I understand this is a little complicated and might breed some contempt, but I am just brainstorming here.

Brainstorming is exactly what we want, Balon, so please keep participating! That is something that we can consider as both mods and members for the future; anything said here is going to be brought to the table by yours pinkfully. Structure is important and while it may take some time to figure out if we can do this in an organized way that won't deter the quality of our forums or violate the rules, it's something worth thinking about. We're going to start a little slowly but I have the longterm future of these things in mind. And mods aren't the only ones who can get things started, don't forget!

As for D&D type of games, I'm not sure if that was an example or a suggestion, but that sort of thing might go well in the Roleplays section of the General subforums.

[King Acunasti]

I would be into another drawing competition, but I broke my bloody camera and I now have no way to get my art online.

I loved those competitions. I'm pumped up for this April.

[videogmer314]

I think we need a proper D&D-style roleplay.

[KalleFlaxx]

Hm... I've always wanted to try D&D. Only problem is I have no idea whatsoever how to do it, and it would probably be funnier to learn by watching people play than read some manual or something.
So yeah, D&D roleplays could be fun.

[Avron the S'wit]

D&D is more of a system and it's easy to learn, really, so don't fret, KalleFlaxx. I wouldn't mind participating in that sort of thing myself, but it's going to take a little structure. I'm sure that if enough people would be interested in that sort of thing and organization, the Roleplaying forum would benefit from it greatly. Maybe you can help find some people in that regard, videogmer314?

[KalleFlaxx]

Yeah, I'm not an entire noob at D&D. I've played a lot of NWN2 and DnD Online, so I know what it's about, but I've never played the pen & paper thing.

[videogmer314]

Maybe you can help find some people in that regard, videogmer314?

Out of all the threads I've created, not a single one has gotten more than one page worth of posts. Sure, there's my roleplay, but the rules were too inconsistent and I had to make them up as I went.

So no, I don't think I'm going to be much help gathering other people for something like that.

[VirtualWeasel]

I haven't been here long enough to recall the competition of the month, but it sounds fun to me! It would be great to start it up!