A NEW COMPETITION - Discussion

[Hesus de bodemloze]

So Viking Prince contacted me some months ago with a question about submitting BR's (Battle Reports) to the MAARC, we had some discussion about it but nothing of a huge plan. So this actually got pushed aside by other matters that needed more of my attention. But recently this idea started to play in my head again.

There for i would like to see what all the member of the AAR boards have to say about this little contest.

How does a BR look like :

Well to keep it simple i was thinking about a story of about 1000 words and 4 to 5 pictures.

What rules will be applied :

Same rules will be applied as in the MAARC and ToTW. If the competition is held a new thread will be held where you are allowed to advertise your story.

When will this competition take place :

The competition will be held 2 times a year, the first part of the year will be from January until June, the second part will be from July until December. It is not bound to a specific month.

Are there any prices? :

This will work with the same system as the MAARC only first place will get 3 point and not four, second place gets 2 and third place gets 1 point. With 6 points you get the bronze MAARC medal, ...

If you have any remarks or ideas on this feel free to post them, we always like to hear what our members have to say.

[SonOfAlexander]

Excellent... didn't agree with it all at first, but after thinking it through, those are all the most sensible options!

[Selifator]

This is a very nice idea. Where do I sign!?

[Xavier Dragnesi]

This sounds good. Should bring a number of new types of writers into the folds of the AAR forum.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

I sill want to see a bit more debate on this before we start the new competition.

[Viking Prince]

An excellant idea to acommodate those with ARDD*. Are we to be limited to one entry per six months?


*Action Report Deficit Disorder -- covered under the US Federal ADA statutes. Look it up. I am certain that it is listed.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

As the competition is two times a year you will be able to submit two entries a year (your own).

[SonOfAlexander]

Just out of interest, could you point me in the direction of any current existing BRs (other than Viking Prince) ?

[Viking Prince]

Just out of interest, could you point me in the direction of any current existing BRs (other than Viking Prince) ?

Well there was mine: [Retrofit BR] The Knight and the Abbey


I dd a quick search and I found this old one: [RTW BR] Battle Report- Rome slaughtered by Greeks!

Unfortunately, the photobucket pics are no more. Sigh.

But not to fear, a search of BR found these -- (I did not look to see what we have, but they are listed as a Battle Report):
[SS BR] The Legacy of Ys
[M2TW BR] "Death to the French" the English Prince cried!
[Kingdoms BR] I just fought the most pathetic and glitched battle ever.
[M2TW BR] Just finished my largest and craziest battle yet
Poll: [M2TW BR] Rise or Fall
[M2TW BR] Spider-Turks. Does whatever a Spider-Turk does.
[M2TW BR] 300!
[M2TW BR] Total Ownage, 335-0
[M2TW BR] The Battle of Shaft Hill *England vs Scotland*

[Lysimachos]

I guess when there's some time between announcement and competition the community would provide some more. Even I may find the motivation to do one, although I'm usually not to fond of writing battle reports.
I have no objection against the new competition. However, there is one thing that should be made clear: Are battles, which are already part of an AAR, allowed to be entered?
Perhaps the limit of words and pictures could be subject of discussion, too. A large battle in which fortune changes sides back and forth can take some room to be reproduced with some detail and also some liberty for the writer. Given that the competition shall take place only twice a year, it should't be too much asked to put some time into the contribution.

[webMaster412160]

Good idea, but I suggest we do it every 3 months in one year four times. A great idea Hesus and VP! It is a good way for people to show there skill in battle and to show it to us. Make a poll so we can vote for it!

[Hesus de bodemloze]

I guess when there's some time between announcement and competition the community would provide some more.

Well there will be enough time between them. If you have at least a month time to make a BR you should be able to enter it.

However, there is one thing that should be made clear: Are battles, which are already part of an AAR, allowed to be entered?

No, these BR's should be stand alone stories and not part of any larger story.

Perhaps the limit of words and pictures could be subject of discussion, too.

This is discussable, however i don't want them to be to large. I think a max of 2000 words should be the limit. About the pictures i don't want to many pictures in the BR as it may start to look like a comic.

A large battle in which fortune changes sides back and forth can take some room to be reproduced with some detail and also some liberty for the writer.

Same as above we can set a min and a max word limit but i don't want a 6 page BR. Remember it is a Battle Report not an entire AAR.

Given that the competition shall take place only twice a year, it should't be too much asked to put some time into the contribution.

If members don't put time in them they probably won't get much votes.

Good idea, but I suggest we do it every 3 months in one year four times. A great idea Hesus and VP! It is a good way for people to show there skill in battle and to show it to us. Make a poll so we can vote for it!

2 times a year is more then enough, we don't want to overdo it. And i definitely don't want to double the amount of medal winners with this competition.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Yeah that's a fair point with a weekly competition, and a monthly one, we already have plenty of ways to gain points for the award, and if we have too many, soon all of TWC will have an award. At least start off with it twice a year, and if it is very popular, or if so many entries are received that it becomes too difficult to make choices, I guess an increase in frequency could be discussed.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Indeed if it gets popular an increase will occur, maybe it will replace one of the existing competitions if there activity decreases.

[Musthavename]

I was going to say there's nothing stopping Battle Reports being entered into MAARC, but if it's only once every 6 months for Battle Reports only, that's a great idea!

[Hesus de bodemloze]

but if it's only once every 6 months for Battle Reports only[/B]

That's the idea behind all of this.

I was going to say there's nothing stopping Battle Reports being entered into MAARC

The reason why battle reports don't enter the MAARC is because most of the only contain one update. To compete in the MAARC you need at least two updates to be eligible.

Eligiblity: 2 updates in the given month.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Unless someone did a collection of continuous battle reports all being posted in the same thread, that could possibly be considered in an MAARC. I don't think there's anything around quite like that though.

[Lysimachos]

2000 words should be fine, although we probably wouldn't even need a limitation, because only few would write more than that.
However, regarding the limitation of pictures we should take a look on examples, I think. One is this, which I stumbled upon yesterday, because someone commented and brought it back to page one.
You find more than 40 pictures, which would drastically exceed the prospective limit. Still, I find it a very appealling and well readable battle report, which just wouldn't be the same with less screenshots and I really don't think that reports like this (or like Viking Prince's BR that has 9 pictures, btw) should be excluded by screenshot limit.
I can't give you a formula for an acceptable number of screenshots, but I don't think a fixed limit would do good. Perhaps just a guideline with the possibility to decide as the case arises is best.

[Viking Prince]

Perhaps the limit should be in total combined mb of memory size, since one issue is page loading time. I have no idea for a real limit though.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

The reason why picture limit should be included is that this is a competition where you will earn points for a medal. It is also about AAR (writing) and not about graphics. The amount of pictures will depend on the amount of words but a limit of pictures will be part of the competition.