GWJ Holiday contest! (Officially sanctioned and everything.)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, GWJers of all ages! A contest! The rules are simple.

1: In this thread, post a story about a game you love. Let's try to keep it under a thousand words, but I'm not disqualifying anyone if they go over a bit.

2: That's pretty much it. I'll assemble the entries, select a few runners up and the best one will win the grand prize.

So! Prize info! That's the best bit in any contest, right? It's a two parter, so bear with me here.

The grand prize is a $50 credit to Steam, XBLA, PSN, or the e-Shop.
The exciting part of that prize is that the Conference Callers will be picking what that $50 is spent on during the podcast one week!

I reached out to Certis, and he agreed to torment a selected GWJer with inscrutable choices, and group antics. Lucky you! In addition, he said that he'd like to read a few of the stories on air. So, runners up will get to hear their stories read as well!

(I don't want to make any promises on Graham Rowat's behalf, but his name did come up in the e-mails exchanged. Holiday schedule pending, I assume.)

So that's it then. Post a story, I'll select the favorites (with as little or as much input as you all would like to give as well), and then Internet glory in sweet sweet podcast form. I'd like to have the prize granting happen in December, so the deadline for submissions is November 30th. Reader input is encouraged up until the point that I actually send Certis the selections. Sometime in the first week in December. (We'll see how on top of things I am that week.)

To keep the op shortish, I'm posting my own story as a sample here. Obviously I can't win my own contest, but it seemed sporting to put myself out there as well.

Spoilered only to minimize thread clutter.

Spoiler:

I love Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I rented it once when it first came out (in 1996! It's almost old enough to drink!), and I instantly bonded with it. I lost the whole weekend to it, and later bought a copy. I was 13, so that ate up a ton of allowance. Also, at that time I didn't actually own a Super Nintendo. The game went to live with my cousin, who was a few years younger than me and did own a Super Nintendo. She and I played the dickens out of that game, and it holds a special place in our nostalgia to this day.

She's not the interesting part of this story. Except for that one time when she and I went as Mario and Luigi for Halloween. Good times.

No, the interesting part comes from the strangest of places. America Online. See, the account in our house had four screen-names on it. My parents each had one, and my step-brother. and myself. But back in the day you could have 6 screen-names on a single account, which meant that I was forever creating and deleting alternate screen-names. The burgeoning root of my altoholic tendencies, no doubt. Well, once I had cleared Booster's Tower I knew I had to have a Snifit screen-name. Sadly, I was much too late to have any Snifit from the game. Snifits 1-9 were all taken already. I could just... take another number, but I really wanted to be a Snifit from the game. As I sat, staring at the screen-name creation dialog box in AOL, inspiration struck! There was another Snifit in the game. The Apprentice Snifit! That was much too long, so I improvised and became App Snifit. Once I had claimed my clever prize and logged in I immediately set about contacting all of the other Snifit screen-names, out of pique.

The other Snifits were, as you might guess, huge Mario RPG fans, gamers, and nerds. We analyzed every aspect of the game, we talked tirelessly about other games, and we did a fair bit of freeform role playing. Some Snifits came and went, and eventually our group stopped being replenished as the release of Mario RPG became a more and more distant memory. Years passed, and for once my online alias stuck. Eventually Snifit 2 decided to take a sort of census of us all. When I told him what state I lived in (But not city. That would have been recklessly dangerous.) he informed me that another Snifit lived in my state. Snifit 9.

Snifit 9 and I put our heads together, and eventually met at the mall I worked at. He was a Pokemon Card Game player, and I had a line on promo cards, so in our first meeting I gave him a "Cool Porygon" card (which he called the "Chillin' Polygon"). Eventually he was a regular at the game store I worked at, participating in tournaments, killing time when it was slow, and generally being the kind of nuisance that teenaged boys with nothing to do will be.

I suppose the minutiae of our friendship can be summed up easily without getting too boring (AIM, Everquest, Magic, DnD, Sonic Adventure 2, WoW, FFXI ect., etc.). The important part is that to this day he and I really are still friends. He was in my last DnD game, he came to my bachelor party, and I'll probably see him this weekend. All because he beat me to the screen-name I wanted because we both loved Mario RPG.

Very cool Zudz! Thanks for doing this and hopefully they'll make an announcement on the show. Now I just need to find a way to balance this with all my Nanowrimo writing.

Who else thought at first that this was a contest to win a holiday trip?

Will write up an entry soon, great idea.

Popularity contests are the best!

This is very cool, Zudz!!! Need to think about which game I'm going to pick, though...

Moving to Games section. Good luck, folks!

A chance to tell a story about my greatest Football Manager/Championship Manager moment ever? go on then

Spoiler:

I love watching sport and this flows over to a love with sporting computer games from the popular (Fifa) to the obscure (Pro Cycling Manager).

However there is one series that stands out above all others Championship Manager/Football Manager. I'm going to stick to treating the whole series as a whole, on account that I can't remember what version I was playing when the following happened.

On paper I know these games are glorified spreadsheets but in my mind I'm the manager of that team, these are my players and my decisions will either make me a hero or a villain, condemn a team to the pain of relegation or joy of winning the league.

I'm manager of PSV, I've earned this job after successful stints in England and Scotland, the year is irrelevant, the version of the game I was playing is irrelevant as the experience is the same. I have led my team to the league and cup double, I've dominated the domestic scene, all of Dutch football looks up to my team. There is just one cup left to win to complete the dream season, the Champions League and we are in the final against Liverpool, one game away from immortality.

There is a problem though, despite wrapping up the league title with a few games to go and getting the chance to rest players, an injury crisis happens. Out of the 4 strikers who have played apart in the season, 3 are out of the final. I will have to turn to an attacking midfielder who can fill in up front to support my main man but I will still need an attacking player on the bench. I look through my reserves and there is nobody so I have to turn to under 19s and decide which kid to pick.

In my mind, I see him walking into my office and being informed of the news he will be pulling on the PSV shirt for the first time in the biggest club game in the world. I tell him he most likely won't make it on to the pitch but I need an attacking player, I need an option. A combination of fear and joy strike him, he gets on the phone to tell his parents and friends, tickets are secured, they can't miss their boy's potential debut.

The game kicks off, I don't remember the details but I know Liverpool took the lead, they are 1-0 up and we can't seem to brake them down. 25 minutes left and I change things up, I bring on one of the few experienced attacking players I have on the bench still no way through. 15 minutes left, time to push on up , better to go down fighting then never knowing. Still Liverpool are hanging on so with just 10 minutes to go I turn to the kid, my last attacking option.

“You're going on kid”, met with wide eyed stares “Don't worry, just go out there and play, there is only two realistic outcomes, you're a hero or a footnote but you won't be the villain”

On he goes and time still winds down, 5 minutes left and still 1-0 down, the dream is fading, there is always next year. 2 minutes left, there is a corner, one last chance, everybody forward and the ball is crossed in, it falls to someone in the crowd of players and smashed into the back of the net! One-all, the dream is alive, I charged down the sidelines (or in real life jump around my room) and finally see who scored the goal, it was the kid! The smile on his face, eyes wide with joy instead of fear.

The game is going to extra time, I quickly rearrange the team, make sure they aren't still going to pile on forward, there is 4 minutes of injury time still left to play. Liverpool look in shock, they were moments away from glory, now they face another 30 minutes of extra time. Maybe it was the shock but they suffer a defensive lapse and the kid is through on goal, he is about to go from hero to legend, he slots home the winner and now I am truly dancing around my bedroom, annoying my house mates. Legends are born, the treble is complete, the kid is never going to experience theses highs again. He is sold off the following year, a victim of sport's short memory, I still sometimes feel guilty about that but we will always have Rome.

All these years later, this is the story that stays with me, this is the story that a glorified spreadsheet gave me.

onewild wrote:

A chance to tell a story about my greatest Football Manager/Championship Manager moment ever? go on then

spoiler removed

Perhaps the greatest story about a spreadsheet that I've ever read.

Thanks for sharing!

My first sexual encounter was during a game of Strip Super Smash Bros. Melee. I win! Do I win? I totally win.

...

I'll post a better story later.

MechaSlinky wrote:

My first sexual encounter was during a game of Strip Super Smash Bros. Melee. I win! Do I win? I totally win.

Maybe. I'm not sure I believe you, though.

MechaSlinky wrote:

I'll post a better story later.

I'm on my phone, but imagine a "stupid sexy Flanders" gift here.

It's a totally true story, but it's not the one I'll be submitting.

doing the lord's work here.

IMAGE(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_locvd8lUSj1qm5hblo1_500.gif)

MechaSlinky wrote:

It's a totally true story, but it's not the one I'll be submitting.

I've got a few strip game stories from hosting Nerdlesque shows back in the day. Maybe I'll post one. Definitely tagging his thread though. Great stuff so far!

damnablebear wrote:

doing the lord's work here.

IMAGE(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_locvd8lUSj1qm5hblo1_500.gif)

You're a mensch. Thanks!

I must head off forth with and do something note worthy in a game.

Higgledy, I'm pretty sure you already wrote your entry a few months back in the AC: Black Flag thread. Wow, but that rendition of a naval battle was epic. *runs off to find it and read it again*

Thanks

I probably would enter that if I could. We'd need a ruling on whether we can enter things previously written but never entered into a contest, etc.

Higgledy wrote:

Thanks

I probably would enter that if I could. We'd need a ruling on whether we can enter things previously written but never entered into a contest, etc.

A ruling, eh? I guess that's on me.

How about this: As long as it hasn't been published on GWJ as a front page article I'm willing to accept it as an entry.

Lord knows I don't follow every thread on these forums. Even if it's not a new story to GWJ, it could be a new story to me. Besides, good stories get told and retold all the time. That seems reasonable.

A quick clarification. If a post has a story in it, I'm happy to accept that story as an entry. What I don't want is copy-pastes of posts that include things not relevant to the story. If you have something you've discussed on the forums before, maybe give it a quick edit before you bring it over. Both to trim excess chat, and in case any details made it into a follow-up post.

That's great thanks.

Zudz wrote:

A ruling, eh?

Yeah, sorry about that. I've been watching too many episodes of 'The Good Wife.'

Didn't think I would have the determination to write this when I saw the thread. Glad I did.

Spoiler:

When I was a sophomore in highschool, I bought my first game console with my own money. It was the N64 and the first thing I ever pre-ordered. I loved that console, and eventually wehn Goldeneye had released, my brother made mention one time of getting it 'as a sort of gift' for me. Well I was at the local Toys R Us one day and saw it available / on sale and by that night, my brother had brought it home. I really enjoyed playing it single player, with a few forays into multiplayer with my brother for the next year or so. Then, in the middle of my Junior year or so, I got a call from a friend asking if I want to play some Goldeneye. I of course said yes. But there was a twist. He was at a guys house who I could barely ever remember meeting, (my high school had about 2,800 students, so one tends to forget a lot of the people they only meet once) and to play, I had to bring everything except the TV. They had a 60" rear projection TV there. Well, I still said sure, had to get directions, and awkwardly showed up not knowing what was about to go down. Well we set up and had a great time, despite the fact that I was so bad, that the guys little brother with a broken arm he couldn't use was nearly better than me. In fact, we had a good enough time, I was invited back again, and then again without the mutual friend. This trend continued and I became great friends with him. We also spent so much time playing 4 player N64 games, (others included, Star Fox 64, F-Zero X, Perfect Dark) that by the time we peaked, we were on par with the top level Perfect Dark bots, and could crush most of the other guys willing to invite others over for some goldeneye, even without screen watching. Oh, yeah, we explicitly allowed screen watching, encouraged it, and even mocked those that didn't as too weak to be able to perform the extra task.

Of course, we ended up as best friends and spent most of our free time together, especially since he was commuting to a local college and I took a year off from school after high school. Eventually, I made it through college and in my final year, he asked me to be the best man at his wedding. I agreed, and then shortly after, realized that his wedding was the same day as graduation. This was totally fine with me, but my parent's weren't so happy, but I still did my best man duties. 4 years later, he was my best man. All because a mutual friend asked me to bring my N64 over to some random house for a few rounds of Goldeneye. And not even those rose colored glasses can cover up the atrocity of the controls and muddy graphics that are that game. It is still probably the greatest thing to ever happen for multiplayer gaming for me.

That's pretty fantastic, mrtomaytohead! I love it when gaming ends with lifelong friendships.

Thanks for the submission!

Thanks for the suggestion Eleima, I don't think I could top this any time soon and this submission definitely comes from a love of that game:

Spoiler:

After some time playing Assassin's Creed: Black Flag I realised that you can take out bigger ships by finding fights between Spanish and English ships and then running in and boarding a target just as they are about to go down. One such fight was the moment when I realised just how spectacular Black Flag's naval combat was.

I was out on the high seas, south of a group of islands, when I saw an English frigate being chased down by three Spanish Man O' Wars and a posse of smaller ships. The frigate was running ahead but was being peppered by the cannons and mortars of the chasing ships. I sailed the Jackdaw along side and watched through the rigging of my ship and over the heads of my crew. The scene looked like it had been lifted straight out of some classic naval painting. The fleeing English frigate's hull was gold and brown; its sails were tattered and torn. The black and reddish brown hulls of the Men O' War had three rows of tightly packed cannon ports. Their vast sails shining cream and white in the sunshine with red and yellow flags trailing jauntily from their top most masts. All the ships were rising and falling as they traversed the glistening, turquoise waves.

Eventually two of the Spanish men O' War turned back, leaving the last one to chase on, still followed by a random collection of smaller ships. Unfortunately for the Spanish, shortly after this reduction in fire power, their eager vessels ran into a larger flotilla of English ships including a massive English Man O' War. The two sides glided elegantly towards each other until, with a blaze and boom of cannon fire, a more even battle commenced. Canon rounds threw up gouts of water and kicked splinters off the sides of circling ships. I'd been intending to steal the English frigate from under the noses of the Spanish but now I saw a chance to take the Spanish Man O' War as my prize.

With the sound of racking cannon fire rolling across the waves to me I manoeuvred around the battling ships, trying to avoid stray cannon rounds and drifting fire barrels. The Spanish Man O' War and most of its tiny companion boats were now struggling. With my massive target's sails shredded and it's once pristine hull smashed and torn, I sailed into the fight. My little ship was quickly enfolded into the chaos. All around me were boats and sails. It took all my skill to avoid being rammed or ramming passing ships. Cannon shots from both sides tore up the water close by and my ship was raked and pummelled by fire. Squaring up to the Man O' War's back end I fired at near point blank range. The big ship tried to turn and retaliate but I fired as fast as my men could reload. All the while our swivel guns picked at weak spots. Suddenly, with a cheer from my crew, the Spanish Man O' Wars masts started to fall and explosions wracked it's decks.

We threw grappling ropes onto the enormous vessel and pulled our boat in close to its mountainous hull. Along with many of my crew I left our ship and scrambled up onto the vast deck. The two forces clashed with a clatter of swords and a smattering of pistol fire. Two sharp shooters on platforms at the top of the masts fired down into the melee. I fought my way to a counter weighted pulley, grabbed it, kicked out the brake peg and was propelled up to the top of one mast. Landing on a narrow platform next to a slightly startled rifleman I drew both of my cutlasses. As the man tried to stab me with a bayonet affixed to his rifle and I danced back to the edge of our tiny platform, I could see, out of the corner of my eye, the Man O' War's deck far, far below scattered with bodies and fighting men and then beyond our two boats, out on the churning sea, the larger battle between circling English and Spanish ships.

It was an incredible moment.

You're a repeat offender when it comes to its =/= it's, but that piece is still awesome, Higgledy. Quite the competition we have going on!

This will be long. Some of you have read this before. Pretty sure it's over a thousand words, but oh well! If that disqualifies me, that's ok, I didn't write it for this contest.

Spoiler:

Obsidian 11th, 1050
"The old world will burn in the fires of industry. Forests will fall. A new order will rise. We will drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fist of the orc."

I rolled my eyes. Humans do tend to go on. "That's great and all," I said, "but this tower of yours still won't be finished until 1066."

That got his attention. "Listen here, dwarf. This fortress needs to be finished within ten years so that I have to time to prepare."

I jabbed my finger down at the blueprints the wizard had given me. "No, you listen. A tower 23 stories high at the spires? An outer wall this thickness and all of these drawbridges? Fifteen years is optimistic, in my opinion."

The wizard narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure that with your, ah, charming demeanor you could convince your fellow dwarves to work at an accelerated rate." I started to object and he continued on smoothly, "For an extra thousand gold for you alone, as a small token of my personal appreciation."

I tapped my fingers on the table in thoughtful contemplation. "Twelve years is the best I can do."

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

"Yeah, I've heard that one before."

Granite 1st, 1051
We've arrived at the build site. There's a peaceful brook running right through a flat section of land, so we'll build the outer wall around that. We'll strip mine the nearby cliffs for raw material. Trees are sparse; we'll have to rely on stupid humans and smelly elves for wood, I'm guessing.

This place is crawling with lungfish. What are these things anyway?

Are you kidding me? I just got word that one of our three dogs was killed an eaten by a crocodile. I ordered the hunter to hunt the thing down so we don't lose the other two dogs.

Granite 2nd, 1051
The miner Erib just informed me that our only other male dog was eaten by a jaguar. Son of a Female Doggo!

Granite 26th, 1051
Tobul Tobulsumun, mechanic and hammerdwarf, just stopped by to tell me that some f*cking kobold thief just waltzed up to our supplies and stole his steel warhammer. It took three other dwarves to pull me off of him.

Slate 12th, 1051
Crap. It looks like crap. "Didn't you use stone blocks?" I asked Stulzulban, the mason. He had the nerve to look all sheepish and start stammering out excuses. I told them to tear the wall down completely. Only a quarter of the first floor wall is done and now we have to start over from scratch. I personally oversaw him build a damn mason shop and start carving out blocks.

Hematite 23rd, 1051
I knew something looked wrong. That idiot Stulzulban measured wrong and now 1/8th of the first floor wall needs to be torn down and moved out another ten feet.

Limestone 8th, 1051
Dammit ANOTHER measuring mistake. Another 1/8th of the wall comes down. At this rate, we won't finish in 20 years, nevermind 12.

Limestone 10th, 1051
Finally the caravan is here from Vucar Imik. And the animals have started having young, including our last war dog. Maybe we'll manage this thing after all.

Moonstone 1st, 1051
Well, winter is here and we've managed to only finish an eighth of the first floor wall. That's it! I've tapped Erib the miner to do some masonry work too, because Stulzulban is an incomptent boob. The good news is that we enough food to last us quite a while, thanks to our fisherdwarf and hunter.

Opal 13th, 1051
Two more thieves. This time they stole a single steel bolt and a damn piece of rope. This is starting to piss me off. I told the hunter Zas to not worry about hunting and instead keep an eye on the supplies.

Slate 4th, 1052
Even with two masons, construction is slow. Effectively, one carves the blocks and the other builds the walls. The first floor wall is only half done.

Felsite 11th, 1052
Finally, Vucar Imik saw fit to grace us with some additional help. A blacksmith, a metalcrafter, a gem setter, two craftsdwarves, a couple fish dissectors, and 4 peasants. I set the last four to immediately help that idiot Stulzulban with the masonry work. We've almost got half the first floor wall finished now.

Unfortunately, we're experiencing chronic wood shortages. We barely have enough beds for everyone, and they're all set up under a little rock overhang, since the basement levels have only just now been dug out enough for us to start living in.

Galena 27th, 1052
Oh f*cking great. Erib managed to cause a cave-in and it killed his war dog. Now the only dogs we have are puppies. I can't believe the Dwarven Council won't let me personally whip my workers.

Limesone 2nd, 1052
One of our bone carvers got a funny look in his eye and then locked himself in a crafts workshop. I ordered the dwarves to beat him to death, but they just stood around shuffling their feet and trying to look elsewhere. Bastards.

Sandstone 16th, 1052
Don't I feel dumb! The bone carver came dancing out of the workshop with a fine looking bone scepter. Even better, he's become one hell of a bone carver! I put him to work making practice bolts and trade crafts. Those idiot humans just eat up our crafts.

IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Isengard/win-1052.tn.gif) IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Isengard/win-1052-render.tn.jpg)
Moonstone 5th, 1052
The first floor wall is DONE! Now it needs a roof. And I'm convinced this single stairway will not be enough. I told the masons to build a large circular stairway with a nice open shaft running all the way up and down. We've also started moving the beds underground.

IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Isengard/orthak-1.tn.jpg)
Hematite 1st, 1053
The start of our second summer. The ceiling of the ground floor is growing, but not quickly. I'm just now realizing what a monumental task it is to tile a floor that's 510 feet in diameter. What's worse is that the plans clearly say it should be 250 feet in diameter. I fudged the scale notes on the maps for the upper floors so as far as anyone here knows, this was purely intentional. If anyone catches on, I'll just say a wizard did it.

Timber 19th, 1053
My fellow dwarves have elected Såkzul Araknish as mayor. She seems nice enough but she never shuts up about trifle pewter. Trifle pewter this, trifle pewter that. What the f*ck is trifle pewter? I've got a bad feeling.

Timber 24th, 1053
One of our metalcrafters had locked himself in a forge. He'd kept searching around the fortress for something and couldn't seem to find whatever it was. Today he came out screaming about fraggles hiding in his armpits. He refuses to eat or drink anything. I told the guards to just shoot him to put him out of his misery and of course they looked at me like I was crazy.

Moonstone 1st, 1053
The mayor requested we make some trifle pewter items. I checked with the stocksmaster and he told me we don't even have any. I tried explaining this to the mayor and she looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I told the metalworkers to just law low and we'll wait for this to blow over.

Obsidian 3rd, 1053
The crazy metalcrafter died from thirst. I told them he was goner. Why doesn't anyone listen to me?

Felsite 20th, 1054
One of the masons locked himself into a workshop. What is it with these guys? This time when he couldn't find what he wented, he went completely nuts and started beating the crap out of everyone. Finally the guards killed someone I wanted them to kill!

The ceiling the ground floor is a little more than half done now.

Malachite 1st, 1054
No sooner than Såkzul is re-elected than kobold thieves steal one of our suits of chain mail and a shield. This is a bad omen.

Limestone 10th, 1054
Holy sh*t! The second I turn my back, the mayor sends the new sheriff to beat down the metalcrafters because they didn't make her beloved trifle pewter crafts. So this peasant piece of crap sheriff with delusions of grandeur goes up to one of the smithies and snaps the bone in his thigh! I roared into the mayor's office about to bite her head off when I realized that every single surface of her office had the word "trifle pewter" written on it. I just about f*cking wet myself. And then she turns to me and she's got this giant terrifying grin on her face. I swallowed what I was going to say and stumbled out of there. What have I gotten myself into?

Sandstone 2nd, 1054
The roof of the ground floor is FINISHED. Thank the gods. I've got the masons started on the second floor wall, which is about half the diameter of the ground floor. I've also moved all the mason shops up there so they can carve their blocks where they're storing them and assembling them into walls.

IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Isengard/win-1054.tn.gif) IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Isengard/win-1054-render.tn.jpg)
Opal 20th, 1054
The sheriff, this frothing mentally-deficient pyschopath, just smashed some poor bloke's ribcage in because the mayor told him so. Because of her f*cking trifle pewter. I've started quietly floating the idea of mutiny to some of the dwarves I think might be trustworthy.

Granite 12nd, 1055
Goblins! One of the woodcutters came running in to the fortress to warn that a couple of squads of goblin soldiers had been spotted advancing on the fortress. I immediately ordered everyone inside and activated the military. While I was anxiously awaiting the approach of the golins, I spotted Tobul the Hammerdwarf meandering out to the river. I shouted out to him to get back in formation! He just waved back and yelled that he was thirsty and would be right in. And of course, half a dozen goblin arrows put a quick end to him before I could blink. A dog and three puppies that were out there with him were also slaughtered.

The rest of the soldier waited inside the walls. If the goblins got through the doors, it'd be a close-in bloody fight. But as I watched the green bastards approach, they reached the stone-fall traps. A few crushed skulls and the fight went out of them. We all let out a cheer when the goblin scum turned tail and ran. Our first victory!

Felsite 5nd, 1055
An entourage arrive today with unexpected news: this area has been made a barony! A tax collector and hammerer showed up escorting Baroness Solon Gusilkithìn. Mayor Araknish threw a brief party and spent the whole thing talking to the baroness about the wonders of trifle pewter. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Felsite 19th, 1055
The second floor roof has been finished. The smaller floor sizes are definitely going much faster. I've moved the masonry workshops up to the second floor so they can build the blocks closer to where they're using them.

Hematite 7th, 1055
The metalsmith mutilated by the sheriff was driven mad by the months of being bed-ridden. He dragged himself out of bed and hurled himself down the open area running down the main stairs. The dwarves have started quietly referring to it as "Suicide Shaft"; not while I'm around, though I do pick up on these things.

Malachite 16th, 1055
Another batch of migrants arrived; no big deal. But Mayor Psycho decided that too many of them were useless. Either they had no useful skills or skills that were not in demand. So she ordered 4 of them to stand under the only finished tower drawbridges and then had it dropped on their heads. I'm starting to doubt whether I'll even survive this project.

Malachite 23th, 1055
I found the Dungeon Master today laid up in bed. It turns out she caught a crossbow bolt in the leg. Considering how far away she was from any goblin attacks, I'm suspecting she got a little too close to the archery practice targets upstairs.

Galena 4th, 1055
The Dungeon Master died from her injuries. Well, starved to death, really, because no one bothered to feed her.

Timber 22nd, 1055
The magma project has been finished. We tapped into the natural magma vent and channeled the magma underneath the workshop area. The mason assured me that the bauxite mechanisms would withstand the heat of the lava and he was right. However, he was less specific on how the diorite floodgate would react. The answer: melt. Grr. Hopefully it won't be an issue. The only reason we'd need that floodgate is if we wanted to stop the influx of magma for some reason.

IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Isengard/win-1055.tn.gif)
Moonstone 30th, 1055
I'm doing my best to carve out the noble quarters and get them up to the exacting standards I was given, but it's tough because the masons are so busy trying to build the tower walls and drawbridges. A couple of times now the baroness has thrown fits, screaming at people and kicking puppies. I've shifted some priorities because she is really starting to worry me.

Galena 17th, 1056
We've been made a county! I think the baroness -- sorry, countess -- is letting it go to her head. She's demanded an even more elaborate bedroom and dining chamber. Yeah, it's not like we're here trying to get any actual work done! She threw another hissy fit, punching a peasant in the face and smashing one of the drawbridge levers.

Sandstone 1st, 1056
The countess has gone crazy. Despite the huge effort I put into getting the noble rooms up to their liking, she's finally snapped. Turns out that she'd had a miscarriage and didn't tell anyone. It was all too much for her to take. She just walks around the lower levels, alternating between laughing and weeping.

Timber 7th, 1056
The countess has thrown herself down Suicide Shaft. F*ck, now even I'm calling it that.

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Granite 11th, 1057
No time to write! The dragon Tikes "Lacyflesh" Pethitammen is advancing upon the fortress. Yeah, Lacyflesh. I mean, seriously? Anyway, got to run.

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Granite 12th, 1057
Somehow the dragon got over the southern drawbridge before it could be raised. It smashed through the doors and ripped the war dogs there to shreds. We were all gathered in the highest level of the basement, cowering at the horrible sounds we could hear above. It had gotten past the bridges, it had crossed the moat, it had avoided all of the traps we placed outside. We waited, gathered around the stairs and resigned to the fact that many of us would not survive the attack.

The beast comes into sight! It hurled itself down the stairs, still dripping dog blood. Every dwarf let out a roar and charged the scaly monstrosity. I've never been so proud to be a dwarf. There were almost a hundred of us, a few armed with swords, axes, and spears, but most were simply grabbing on and punching or biting any bit of the dragon we could reach. It let out a horrible spout of flame that only one dwarf badly singed. We did not run; we did not retreat. Finally, the beast was dead and the only fatalities on our side were our watch dogs. The triumphant roar we let out rocked the tower.

Granite 13th, 1057
Shortly after the dragon was killed, Såkzul Kolkadol, the craftsdwarf burned by the dragon's flame, died of her injuries.

Granite 14th, 1057
While I surveying the underground levels, I was surprised at the amount of smoke still lingering. Then someone ran up to me with a report that the craftsdwarf Thob Fikodecem has also succumbed to injuries sustained in the dragon fight. I was mournful, but accepting. Then when I heard that Kol Rigòthzas also died, I was shocked. Both were so seriously injured and they died so close together? When I was later told that one of the dogs had just died, I began to wonder what the hell was going on.

It turns out that the injured dwarves had been put to bed WHILE ON FIRE. And because of our current military barracks style of bunking, THE BUNKS WERE ON FIRE and the fire was spreading! And NO ONE SEEMED TO NOTICE OR CARE! In fact, many of the dwarves managed to catch themselves on fire by putting away the burning possessions of the dwarves that died!

I immediately ordered the beds to pulled away, smashed, whatever it took to stop the spread of the fire. I was too late though. Two farmers, a mechanic, and a thresher all caught fire and died shortly after. Even one of our mules and a cow could not escape the smoke and flames. Finally though we got the fire under control. I even had to order that the dwarves not touch the burning clothing left behind by the unfortunate victims. We all had to endure dark choking smoke while the garments burned themselves out.

Mayor Crazy Female Doggo asked me if any trifle pewter items were damaged in the fire.

Granite 18th, 1057
I discovered that the reason the dragon had so easily entered the southern tower doors was that the so-called "drawbridge" there was a retractable bridge. So it couldn't raise up and properly block the doors. I threatened to hurl the whole lot of stoneworkers down Suicide Shaft if they didn't have it fixed yesterday.

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Slate 22nd, 1057
We had a serious cave-in during the work on the 4th floor. The hammerer and a gem cutter were killed along with a pair of cats. One of the planters was knocked right down Suicide Shaft and somehow managed to survive. And he's still down there, his body shattered.

Not that anyone cares. No matter how often I tell someone to go get him and put him into a bed, they all shrug. "He's done for." I can't say I disagree but... f*ck, that's just heartless.

Malachite 3rd, 1057
The planter who fell down the shaft, Ilral, finally died. From thirst.

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Malachite 14th, 1057
The sixth floor walls and floor are finished. The masons are now working on its roof, the floor of level seven. Things are progressing nicely now, when I manage to keep my workers out of the clutches of the crazy mayor. Fortunately we've been able to get trifle pewter bars from the humans. Though they never bring a lot of them, it's been enough to keep the mayor satisfied.

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Moonstone 7th, 1057
You haven't lived until you've seen a squad of goblins hurled through the air by a drawbridge. You really haven't.

Granite 15th, 1058
There are now 10 finished floors to the tower and things are coming along well. I've ordered the masons to begin construction on the outer wall. This will be the first line of defense against attack, with drawbridges to crush attackers as well as block their advance. For the raw material, I've got the miners strip-mining the nearby mountain peaks, especially the area near where the wall needs to go.

Galena 5th, 1058
They just KEEP RE-ELECTING Mayor Psycho.

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Limestone 13th, 1058
The first ring of the outer wall has been finished, along with all of the gates. I had them make the outer gates in pleasing green olivine, with the inner gates a sharp white alunite to contrast with the dull gray of the wall.

Moonstone 1st, 1058
We had two goblin sieges this past autumn. Fortunately, they were minor annoyances thanks to the outer wall.

Slate 20th, 1059
I've ordered the workshops finally moved from the ground floor of the tower into the crafts area of basement level two. Now I just need to figure out where spillover storage needs to go. As long as we keep storage on the ground floor, we're ripe picking for those damn kobold thieves.

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Felsite 2nd, 1059
That pompous elven ambassador had the GALL to tell us that we're chopping down too many trees. Pointy-eared f*ckers! We get most of our wood from them, and they have the nerve to say WE cut down too many trees? I told him to blow it out his pointy ear. He just smiled and wished me a good season. Maybe I could lock him in a room with Mayor McCheese.

Moonstone 16th, 1059
Zas Lîlarkol has become a legendary champion! Hail Zas Lîlarkol!

Opal 7th, 1059
I'm not satisfied with the stone-fall traps. One use and they're done until we reset them. I've put the glassmakers to work collecting sand and forging giant glass axe blades. Two blades in each trap ought to grind those goblin bastards into a nice, fine paste.

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Obsidian 11th, 1059
The titan Bekat Obinrodem has come! Then he got caught in a wooden cage trap. We put him in the lounge.

Granite 22nd, 1060
Today we finished damming both ends of the river. Let's see how those pointy eared f*cks like THAT.

It was honestly pretty grueling work. When I told the mechanics I wanted to build some waterwheels along the river to power pumps, chief mechanic Iden Idenûz presented me with his plans for a self-contained power generator. I pointed out that I was pretty sure his idea violated at least two laws of thermodynamics and he just laughed. And I'll be damned if it didn't work just as he described. Who would have guessed that waterwheels can work the very pumps that pump the water keeping the wheels spinning? And on top of that, they generate enough extra power to run ADDITIONAL pumps.

Getting the pumps set up was easy. Dealing with all the water they pumped out was not. Most of the area inside (and a bit outside) the outer wall is now a muddy mess. Although we tried to pump the water downstream, a lot of it backed up.

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Galena 4th, 1060
Some of the best news I've gotten in years; one of the latest yahoos to lock themselves in a workshop came out a legendary armorer. I immediately put Tekkud Delerkilrud to work crafting steel plate armor. I still don't know what in the world we're supposed to do with a platinum high boot. I asked Tekkud to make some regular iron high boots and he doesn't even know how. Only low boots.

Slate 11th, 1061
Runners came rushing into the fortress, warning of a goblin ambush at the strip mine, northwest of the outer wall. Everyone was hurrying back into the tower and I sent the military out, lead by Zas the Champion. Nearly a dozen goblins cut down with nothing more than bruises on our fine soldiers.

Malachite 30th, 1061
SON OF A Female Doggo! As if Mayor Araknish wasn't bad enough, now the Count has gotten into the action and the new Hammerer Tobul Udilråsh does his dirty work. The Count wanted electrum items. We have no electrum. When he didn't get his precious electrum gewgaws, he blamed the WEAPONSMITH. Two "hammerstrikes" later and the guy was dead. He never knew what hit him.

Galena 27th, 1061
It's like someone put something in the water. Or the rum. People are suddenly going crazy around here. Everyone's angry and depressed and the slightest thing set them off. A farmer got angry enough to start a fight and got tossed in jail. One of the weavers started throwing a tantrum and smashed a drawbridge at the outer wall. Along comes the Hammerer and BEATS HER BRAINS IN. This is the last straw. I've been reluctant to make a move agains the mayor or the sheriff, but they've been relatively harmless so far. This Tobul Udilråsh is a true psychopath. He has got to go.

I'll have to make it look like an accident. Like "oops, we accidentally installed reciprocating spike traps in his bedroom and turned them on as he was walking to the door."

Galena 28th, 1061
The tantrums continue. In a particularly gruesome scene, a peasant beat one of the masons to death with his bare hands. Just started hitting him and then bashing his head against the floor. He was sentenced to a 2 hammerstrikes, a beating, and then 260 days in jail. There's no way he'll survive.

The mason Onolanriz went insane without warning. He'd thrown a few tantrums, sure, but I was not expecting him to drop everything and wander around weeping. He refuses to eat or drink. He's not the only one either. One of the cooks did the exact same thing. Things are spiralling out of control.

Limestone 5th, 1061
Somehow the peasant, Kadol Onshenkilrud, survived the hammerstrikes, though his right thigh bone was completely shattered. He's lying in the infirmary, where he'll be kept until he's recovered enough to GET HIS BEATING. After that, when he's well enough, they'll through him in jail for 260 days. I know he won't live that long; he's not eating or drinking.

The farmer Asmel Besmaraban had started a fist fight and got himself thrown in jail. He couldn't take the confinement. After a few days, he just went apesh*t and started clawing and biting at anyone who came near. Including the other prisoners, who could not easily get away. I ordered the military down there and they put the poor sap out of his misery.

Limestone 21st, 1061
The cook and the mason both died from thirst. And then the Captain of the Guard lost it. There's just this empty, dead look in his eyes.

I don't know what else I can do. I pulled the masons off of working on the 20th floor's roof and put them to task smoothing and decorating stone. The liquors supplies are full to overflowing. It's like the insanity is infectious; like a plague.

Moonstone 14th, 1061
Gods, what a day.

Count Meng Usânolon has gone insane. Absolutely stark raving mad. I honestly don't know what happened. One minute he's tearing down a wall. The next he's wacked out of his skull.

A little while later the most horrendous thing happened: a baby fell down suicide shaft. Either it crawled over there or someone dropped it. The frustrating thing is that I don't know who to blame! This is so awful, and yet his parents somehow don't even seem fazed by it. With all the lunacy going on around here, these two are so dedicated to the cause that even their death of their precious child doesn't seem to upset them.

Moonstone 22nd, 1061
The Captain of the Guard died of thirst today. And one of the dwarves pulled me to the tower balcony to watch something. The Count, completely out of his mind, is trying to kill himself by leaping into the moat. It's a drop of about 8 feet. He jumps in, lands without a scratch, walks up the stairs, and then tries again. Over and over he tries this. I considered closing the hatch to keep him down in the moat. I just don't have the heart.

Obsidian 17th, 1061
"Stand here," I said to the dwarf. Who the dwarf was, isn't important. He nodded dumbly. I turned the key in the inner door, then locked all the outer doors save one. "Now pull that lever," I told him. He walked over to it and I opened the final outer door. "Keep pulling it until I tell you to stop." With that, I stepped out and locked the last door.

The two sets of doors did well at muffling the screams of the Hammerer as spikes shot up from the floor of his bedroom, retracted, and then shot up again. Over and over they did this until a satisfactory amount of time passed. The screaming had long since ended. I unlocked the doors and released the visibly shaken dwarf from his task of pulling the lever. You just can't trust them to sit at a lever and work it continuously unless you lock them in.

I unlocked the inner door and verified with my own eyes that the murderous son of a Female Doggo Tobul Udilråsh was dead.

Granite 1st, 1062
The beginning of the new year is here. Strangely, I feel... encouraged. The tower is done except that I am not fully satisfied. I have revised the design of the spires and any grumblings that I may have expected seem to have been offset by the relief at the Hammerer's death.

Granite 21st, 1062
Kadol Onshenkilrud went berserk. I had to call in the military to put him down. The Hammerer's loathsome touch continues on past his death.

Slate 6th, 1062
Our Countess arrived today, along with a new Hammerer. I assigned the latter to the old Hammerer's room.

Slate 8th, 1062
Drat, the new Hammerer is dead.

Felsite 14th, 1062
The dragon Arifi Nayithìfi assaulted the fortress! However, the fine cage traps arrayed around the outer wall easily captured him. I had him put in the lounge.

Opal 2nd, 1062
Isingar is completed! We threw a huge party in the dining room to celebrate and broke open the finest casks of rum and beer.

The new owner is expect to arrive in the next couple of months. "What will we do until then?" one of the dwarves asked me.

"Rumor has it there's an adamantine vein not to far to the north," I replied with a smile.

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Eleima wrote:

You're a repeat offender when it comes to its =/= it's, but that piece is still awesome, Higgledy. Quite the competition we have going on!

I definitely wouldn't make it as an editor .

Edit: I've been through and fixed the 'it's' situation.

Here's my entry. Hope you like it.

Spoiler:

I can clearly remember the moment I decided I would never play Bioshock. I’d just eagerly shown my older brother the trailer, ready to bask in mutual excitement. We’d shared our games all our lives, swapping Gameboy cartridges and splitting the cost of our first ever PC game; his opinion meant everything to me. Then he spoke one sentence that changed everything: “Isn’t that the game where you kill little girls!?”

The words rang in my ears, plucking Bioshock from its pedestal and plunging it directly onto my blacklist. It took four years for the echo of my brother’s question to subside enough for me to consider purchasing and playing Bioshock. I had one condition: I would not kill a single Little Sister; I would set them all free. I was not prepared, however, for the freedom this game would grant me in return for my descent into Rapture, unaware that I was also descending into a journey of my own self-discovery and healing.

“Would you kindly pick up that shortwave radio?” Atlas’s urgent, yet welcoming voice crackled in my ear. I picked up the radio and listened to the voice of the man who guided my path, taught me to defend myself, and offered me hope. I learned to trust him, to rely on him. His opinion meant everything.

When I finally entered Andrew Ryan’s office and stared through a pane of glass at the monster-become-man, I felt ready for the revenge I had promised Atlas. Then he spoke one sentence that changed everything: “A man chooses; a slave obeys.”

I stared, unmoving as the scene continued, as my character killed Andrew Ryan. In the silence that followed, a phrase returned from the depths of my mind, words that had enslaved me for years: “Isn’t that the game where you kill little girls!?”

“No!” I cried back. “I set them all free!”

The moment struck deeper, resurfacing the overwhelming force my brother had on my life, bubbling up the once-spoken words of my mother as she told me she wasn’t sure if I’d ever develop a personality of my own. Tears welled in my eyes as I relived the moment as an adult when I finally stood up to my brother over a deep-seeded issue and he responded with the words, “I release you from my shadow.”

Shaking myself, I regained control and resolved to finish Bioshock on my own terms. Never again would I allow an uninformed opinion to overtake my own. Never again would I accept another man’s careless thoughts over a chorus of acclaim. Never again would I allow myself into the shadow and control of another. In that moment, I became a man who chooses.

I still freed the remaining Little Sisters; I’d lived the torment of their slavery and wished them the same freedom I had been given. When the credits rolled and I saw my character’s aged hand encircled by the hands of those he had saved, I pictured my own hand sliding into place alongside the others. The gratitude of freedom is not something you express with words. A touch -- the right touch -- says far more.

A man indeed chooses, and I choose to play Bioshock. To my older brother, whose influence stretched throughout my youth, whose passing words inhibited my game selection for years, from whose shadow I have stepped out on my own, I make a simple request:

“Would you kindly play Bioshock for yourself? Then let’s talk, okay?”

Higgledy wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion Eleima, I don't think I could top this any time soon and this submission definitely comes from a love of that game:

Spoiler:

After some time playing Assassin's Creed: Black Flag I realised that you can take out bigger ships by finding fights between Spanish and English ships and then running in and boarding a target just as they are about to go down. One such fight was the moment when I realised just how spectacular Black Flag's naval combat was.

I was out on the high seas, south of a group of islands, when I saw an English frigate being chased down by three Spanish Man O' Wars and a posse of smaller ships. The frigate was running ahead but was being peppered by the cannons and mortars of the chasing ships. I sailed the Jackdaw along side and watched through the rigging of my ship and over the heads of my crew. The scene looked like it had been lifted straight out of some classic naval painting. The fleeing English frigate's hull was gold and brown; it's sails were tattered and torn. The black and reddish brown hulls of the Men O' War had three rows of tightly packed cannon ports. Their vast sails shining cream and white in the sunshine with red and yellow flags trailing jauntily from their top most masts. All the ships were rising and falling as they traversed the glistening, turquoise waves.

Eventually two of the Spanish men O' War turned back, leaving the last one to chase on, still followed by a random collection of smaller ships. Unfortunately for the Spanish, shortly after this reduction in fire power, their eager vessels ran into a larger flotilla of English ships including a massive English Man O' War. The two sides glided elegantly towards each other until, with a blaze and boom of cannon fire, a more even battle commenced. Canon rounds threw up gouts of water and kicked splinters off the sides of circling ships. I'd been intending to steal the English frigate from under the noses of the Spanish but now I saw a chance to take the Spanish Man O' War as my prize.

With the sound of racking cannon fire rolling across the waves to me I manoeuvred around the battling ships, trying to avoid stray cannon rounds and drifting fire barrels. The Spanish Man O' War and most of it's tiny companion boats were now struggling. With my massive target's sails shredded and it's once pristine hull smashed and torn, I sailed into the fight. My little ship was quickly enfolded into the chaos. All around me were boats and sails. It took all my skill to avoid being rammed or ramming passing ships. Cannon shots from both sides tore up the water close by and my ship was raked and pummelled by fire. Squaring up to the Man O' War's back end I fired at near point blank range. The big ship tried to turn and retaliate but I fired as fast as my men could reload. All the while our swivel guns picked at weak spots. Suddenly, with a cheer from my crew, the Spanish Man O' Wars masts started to fall and explosions wracked it's decks.

We threw grappling ropes onto the enormous vessel and pulled our boat in close to it's mountainous hull. Along with many of my crew I left our ship and scrambled up onto the vast deck. The two forces clashed with a clatter of swords and a smattering of pistol fire. Two sharp shooters on platforms at the top of the masts fired down into the melee. I fought my way to a counter weighted pulley, grabbed it, kicked out the brake peg and was propelled up to the top of one mast. Landing on a narrow platform next to a slightly startled rifleman I drew both of my cutlasses. As the man tried to stab me with a bayonet affixed to his rifle and I danced back to the edge of our tiny platform, I could see, out of the corner of my eye, the Man O' War's deck far, far below scattered with bodies and fighting men and then beyond our two boats, out on the churning sea, the larger battle between circling English and Spanish ships.

It was an incredible moment.

Thanks, Higgledy. I played ACII and Bro, and decided that was plenty of assassaminating. Then I got sold on Liberation, and also decided to give AC1 a shot (which I'm currently and surprisingly in love with). Now you've made me wishlist Black Flag. Sure I wish it was just a pirate game, without another douche in a peaked hood and a frame story I've heard is more bonkers than ever; but your story sounds too goddamn appealing.

Thanks a lot.

I took some liberty with the expression 'favorite game', but it is about a game that influenced me greatly as a child. Part of me hopes you like it, while the other part hopes you groan.

Spoiler:

My mother told me that this world would show me its dark side. I never expected that evil would come in shades of green.

As I walk down these endless hallways, I think about the hope my mother had tried to set out for me. She told me if I could find my way through this world, if I could calibrate and follow my moral compass, if I could just just endure, I could be saved. I would cascade with my brethren into that milky heaven, and there would be my freedom. How naive.

Milk isn't our Utopia. Milk is our extinction. So many consider it to be an inevitability. 'It's what we were designed for', they say. 'It's our nature.' They would rather believe that their fate is one of hope rather than one of destruction. But, in my opinion, either belief is pointless, because that is not our fate. No, we make our own fate. We are not a people that will cower to The Almighty Bowl. We are a proud and resourceful people! We are Chex, and this is our Quest!

I continue down the corridors. The Flemoids could be around any corner, their formless bodies leaving a trail of sludge behind them. They never sleep. They never eat. They have but one goal: extermination of cerealkind. When I think of my brothers that have fallen victim to them...

No, I mustn't. This quest is not for the fallen. This quest is for the living! For the aged couple that have lost their children, and their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren. For the hardworking widow and mother of two. For the children.

Oh, how blissful it must be to be a child! I know they relate scary stories to eachother, fabrications to make sense of all the missing people. Stories about demons and the undead. I could almost imagine those creatures in these halls. But, no - the reality is far worse.

I see something in the distance. I rest my hand on my trusted spork.

It's not moving. I relax as I realize it's not green, the color of Death. No, it's more brown. Oh, no! Could this be a fallen comerade? A fellow Warrior?

I run over to him. Although the odds are against him, if there's a chance, however slight, and I don't save him, what sort of Chex am I!?

...I'm going to be sick. He was a short, stalky balding man. His face was tan and handsome, but now it's paling. His arms and legs are limp. And his abdomen... is GONE! It's as if something just took a chunk out of his center and left. These Flemoid bastards are savages!

Wait! There was an inhalation! My god, he could still be alive. But will he want to be? Would I want to be if I was in his position? I... I don't know... Perhaps it's better if he didn't have to live like this...

"Cheerio!" he shouts. Oh, the poor sap must be delirious. But I haven't the heart to take his life while he's conscious.

"Hello," I mutter. "How are you?"

"Cheerio!"

"I see." I can't leave him here for the Flemoids to eat him alive. "I'm going to protect you."

"Cheerio!" he says again, and... stands up.

"But... aren't you hurt?"

"Cheerio!"

He walks over to me.

"Cheerio!"

I can't believe my eyes. Apparently he's not hurt at all. This must be a new species of cereal. What a discovery!

Around a corner, comes a Green Menace. I'm caught off guard. I reach for my spork, but it's already too late. My new friend "Cheerio!" has already knocked him out cold. I take out my weapon and finish the job.

"My, Cheerio, I'll need to keep you around. You're my Lucky Charm. Let us move forward. This is a new dawn for cerealkind!"

We contine venturing forth.

This is only the beginning of my Quest. What does the future hold? This isn't going to be easy. There will be danger, no doubt. And discovery. But will there be doubt? Never. We are Chex, and we decide our own fate!

Thank for the great entries, everyone!

I'm just popping in to let the thread know that I'm taking off for vacation, and there will be basically no Internet for me. I'll be back in about two weeks. Try not to burn the thread down while I'm gone, and I look forward to catching up on entries when I return!

Here's mine! An ode to my favorite game ever, from the late '90s. It's the story of the game's development and community, not about me personally, but still fun.

Spoiler:

If you happened to catch a friend playing Subspace on his or her lunch break, you might dismiss it without a second thought. I know I did. A blurb about Subspace in a magazine caught my eye, so I went to the game's web page to check it out. "Weak," I thought to myself. "It looks like Asteroids." Of course, Asteroids was beloved when it was released in 1979, but after 22 years or industry progress, games are expected to be somewhat deeper and more immersive. A few weeks later, at the urging of a friend, I downloaded the beta and tried it out. When I looked up, it was 3:OO in the morning. I was convinced, and so were reviewers and fans alike.

Subspace garnered praise for its perfectly balanced gameplay and the developers' willingness to take technology risks too bleeding-edge for many others to attempt. Kevin Rice of DailyRadar says "So what's the big deal? Why are people still playing a technologically and graphically outdated game? In a word, gameplay. This game is the epitome of substance over style." The highest praise, however, is the thousands of people who still play it to this day.

Subspace was developed by Virgin Interactive Entertainment and published in 1997. Virgin hired producer Rod Humble from Kesmai after his success on the boxed version of the action-oriented flight simulator Air Warrior. "They asked him what kind of game he wanted to make. [He told them] and they said, 'Sure, go ahead and here's the money. True story.'" Rod brought on board Jeff Petersen, a talented programmer he had worked with at Kesmai, and within a month they had a rough prototype up and running. As development cycles in the game industry go, Subspace's was somewhat unusual. The development team was small and unproven as a group, and Subspace wasn't a flagship title, so "JeffP" and "Rodvik" decided to release the game to a public alpha and beta test. This meant that anyone with an Internet connection could download the work in progress, try it out, and send their comments straight to the developers. For a newly created, fledgling team, this was definitely a winning strategy.

There aren't very many clear accounts of what happened shortly after, but one thing couldn't be disputed. VIE disintegrated in a puff of smoke. Some of VIE'S assets - including the Westwood development studio, known best for the Command and Conquer series - were bought by Electronic Arts, some of them were folded back into Virgin, Inc., some were divested to Interplay (which now uses the VIE name as a brand name), and some of them simply vanished. Subspace was one of the assets that vanished. While it did exist, though, VIE created some landmark games and a lot of lasting memories.

As is the case with many games, Subspace's back story is inconsequential. This is due in no small part to its gameplay. Subspace is an unabashed Asteroids knockoff - at its core, it consists of spaceships that fly around and shoot at other spaceships. The view is top-down, the environment is a two-dimensional plane, and the concept is exceedingly simple. The one catch is that the movement model is true to Asteroids as well; the controls allow the pilot to thrust and affect the ship's momentum, following Newton's laws of physics. Beyond that, the ship's health, or energy, is also used as the ammo supply. Each bomb and bullet takes a certain amount of energy to shoot, and the ship's energy level is constantly but slowly recharging. This adds significantly to the depth of the gameplay.

This concept may be historically proven, but in 1997 it would have seemed tired and cliched. However, there is a piece missing. Subspace is an Internet-only game. The official term is "massively multiplayer," but the reality is much more immediate and powerful: the pilot doesn't play against a faceless computer opponent but against real people, from all over the world, at any time of day. The servers run 24 hours a day and remember each pilot's score and statistics. The Subspace was one of the first games to allow hundreds or even thousands of people to play in a multiplayer game at once, and its multiplayer design was a tremendous success.

The game design itself is also ingenuous. Bullets and bombs inherit both the ship's momentum and momentum in the direction fired, which can be used to a smart pilot's advantage. Ships bounce off walls with 80% of their initial speed, which is often used in intricate flight patterns. Maneuvering and combat are easy to learn but impossible to master, the hallmark of historically successful game designs like checkers, chess, and bridge.

Subspace's game design is also successful because it is massively multiplayer. Human beings are more unpredictable, more challenging, and simply more fun to play video games against than computer AI. In Subspace, there are always plenty of human pilots at any skill level to play against. Moreover, human pilots can learn from past battles and improve their skills - a human player would learn to counter a tactic that might beat a computer AI over and over again. Since the gameplay allows for intricate tactics and strategies, pilots often develop and identify with distinct styles of flying and fighting and unique maneuvers.

Subspace was one of the first truly successful massively multiplayer games in the commercial sphere. Reviews unanimously praised its gameplay and network technology. Reviewers also often commented on the little touches that added polish, such as the notifications of game events, integrated pilot list and chat window, different game types, and customizable server program and level editor shipped with the game. A small development team, an Internet-only game, a long public alpha/beta test, graphics that did not push the envelope, all of these were factors that most other development teams would have shied away from. Subspace broke ground in the massively multiplayer field and paved the way for many online real-time games, including Everquest, Asheron's Call, and Quake 3 Arena. It may have performed only modestly on the shelves, but Subspace accomplished big things in the game industry.

After the explosive demise of VIE, most of the Subspace development team struck out on their own and formed a development company called Harmless Games and a publishing contract with Sony. Building on their experience with Subspace, Harmless made online, squad-based multiplayer game called Infantry.

As for Subspace, the community of loyal pilots is still alive and kicking. Go to getcontinuum.com and give it a try, and don't let the resemblance to Asteroids stop you. Subspace was one of the first commercial massively multiplayer games. It has deep and involving gameplay, an active user community, sophisticated network technology, and strong opportunities for personalization. And despite all that, it's easy to learn and fun to play.

Originally published on snarfed.org.