Aethon

Merry christ...oh. Happy birthday!

Not sure if this is Extreme or not but...it seems I finally found my long lost twin!

Bumpety bump.

It was a joke at first but actually, there was a villain of the year once, wasn't there? Perhaps this could be the opposite category to that? And could reintroduce villain of the year?

"The Sweetest Player" The player that is just so adorably sweet you want to wrap them up and take them home. :D But seriously, I think Pip's above statement is a rather good and valid one.

I've tried biting my tongue and holding my opinions on the whole event and will continue to do so (for now...). Though the one idea I would like to see implemented is; If the auction is to remain a "slave" auction, then <x> leashes should be created randomly out of the pool of active players. This way the leash may truly be a "slave" item. To help balance this though, possible slaves would be able to buy their own freedom for either a) a set price, b) winning bid's price + <x%> or c) by bidding like everyone else. As to the other ideas and comments...I'll just keep watching for now.

I've seen in previous years that people have sent one another christmas cards in real life. I'm not sure if people are still up for it but I know I am! Feel free to post your name here to let people know you're up for sending/receiving, then you can privately message details of addresses and such. Message me if you'd like a christmas card! :)

I think it will be the same topic that will be opened when voting for categories start? At least, it makes sense to have the post there and then in my opinion.

As some of you may know, I have been growing Bushies whenever I can. Lately, however, my obsession for them has become quite...worrying. All I can dream and think of are Bushies; bushy pie, bushy people, bushy babies, bushies, bushies, bushies! And so, instead of denying my obsession, I have chosen to embrace it and even share it with you all, giving you all the chance to become just as obsessed as I am! Kind, aren't I? Anyway, I digress. Below are the quests that will form this "competition". Each quest will have their own rewards, judging and rules. They will be staggered, as to when they become "active", and a new post (in this topic) will be created to explain the rules further. Please sign up here - http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/16848-master-of-the-bushies-sign-up/ Extra Information: Bushy points will be awarded for each quest, so the more quests you participate in the more likely you are to gain more points. As usual, points mean prizes! The winner of this competition will be the one with the most accumulated points and will be rewarded with a very special prize Quests will not begin until around the beginning of the new year, so plenty of time to prepare, sign up and sponsor rewards! -------------------------------------- Cook a Bushie! For this quest participants will be required to create a realistic recipe that would incorporate Bushies. You may choose any fruit that you believe represents the in game fruit, though it will be required to explain why they relate the two. Winner will be decided through public voting (1 vote = 1 Bushy point) and through anonymous judging. Entries that create their recipe, and provides proof, will be given and extra 10 bushy points. Draw a Bushy! Participants will need to draw three forms of a bushy - The seed, the bush and the fruit. Points will be given based upon an anonymous voting system. Example: Public voting score + Judge 1 scores 20public voting, Judge 2 scores 15 public voting and Judge three scores 18 = Total Bushy points awarded. Grow a Bushy!(Pt1) Players will be required to grow their own bushy plant, documenting growth and explaining why they think their chosen bush represents the in game version. Each entry will be given 20 bushies, 1st - 50, 2nd - 40 and 3rd - 30. Winners chosen by panel of judges. Grow a bushy (Pt2) Grow Bushies! Points will be given on a 1;5 ratio for bushies held by a player (10 bushies = 2 points). Bushies personally grown by the participants receive +1 pt every 5.(10 bushies = 4 points) (Evidence required) War of the Bushies! - TBC A HC'esque competition... Bushy, bushy, where art thou bushy? "Simple" quest where participants work in teams of three to write a humorous script for a play that they will perform in public. Judging will be done by a panel present for the event, rewards and bushy points given to the winning team. Sing a song of Bushies - As the title suggest, the participants will be required to create a song (working alone or as a group) about bushies! Points rewarded based on 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions. Current prize pool and sponsors: - 1 x Sharptear (Creature - BFH Lightning) - 1 x One time visit to the Necrovion Crypt (Closed area access - Azull) - 1 x See Through Stone (Item - Aethon) - 2 x Gold Coins (Item - Aethon) - 1 x Wishpoint (Aethon) -5 x Wiiya bubbles (Harvesting item - Rophs) - Heat Stones (Spell stone - Ungod & Syrian) -3 x Mirror Ritual Stones (Spell stone - Aethon) - 1 x Weaken Stone (Spell stone - BFH Lightning) Any sponsorship will be doubled by Mur Please message me, either through forum or in game PM, if you are willing to sponsor.

Looks like it's happening again today. Logged on at 11:25 (13:25 ST) and it was happening. Don't know how long it's been going on beforehand.

I'll be adding descriptions soon (perhaps this evening, was just waiting on some feedback and sponsorships.)

Yay! My first ever won WP thanks to my awesome friend Lady Luck (you may know her?) :P Thank Asthir for this highly confusing but challenging quest! I'm extremely surprised I won. :D

Aethon 254077

Aethon 254077

And myself.

Well here we go yet again! It's time for another quest! Well, "soon", not yet. But there will be one! Just not yet. But sign up now! Or you'll miss out on the fun... Several miniature quests are currently under construction, each one different and of varying difficulty -- something for everyone! There will be drawing, singing, writing, fighting, finding and all the other "tings"! There is bound to be something to tickle your taste buds and whet your palate, so what are you waiting for?! Sign up now! Please add the following: Name Player ID Current Active Days Mindpower Favourite Fruit (and why)

Not a bid, was saying it's 23sc with hands of emit, not 25sc. :)

23sc

Oh, there's plenty of exploits and info gathering going on! :P

Psht, is that all! That's nothing! ;)

Results! (2nd) Entry 1: Points and feedback. A poetic story created by Aeoshattr. Whilst I enjoyed reading it, I have to agree with judge 2 that it tends to meander on a bit longer than perhaps it could. Sometimes short and to the point poems can say more than a 1000 character essay ever would. The use of language is good though you tended to wander in and out of different writing styles which lost the feel of it for me. Creativity: 13 Uniqueness: 14 Conformity: 12 Flow: 9 Story strength: 10 Voting: 0 Total: 58 [log=Judges' Feedback] Judge 1: This story is my favourite of the five, although in terms of enjoyment for a broader audience I would not say it is the best of the five. I personally get a lot of enjoyment because I know the events described very well *chuckle*. I love the use of language, and metaphor, however while it is well used it is lacking in certain regards. Given the subject matter, it would have been fairly easy to adjust slightly to have a subtle baudy undertone while retaining all of it's foreboding and cautionary message. Alternately, the use of more subtle, cross stanza imagery could have helped reinforce the primary narrative elements. All in all, very well written, but I do think that with a bit more time this could have been a richer piece. Judge 2: Uniqueness took a small hit because, like so many other entries, it took the form of a poem. However, it was about “the Sisterhood,” and, frankly, I’m surprised someone chose to write about that, so good on the author for that. Sadly, or annoyingly, it took a while to get to its point, so the scores for both could have been higher had the author made the subject more obvious earlier—really, don’t spend 2/3 of your story being vague and only drop the actual subject toward the end. It’s confusing but without a good reason for being so. The lower score for Conformity is because I saw nothing that really made me think “MD,” though nothing that really put it somewhere else. Again, the first 2/3 of the story is just vague and could be about anything. It’s not until the end that the author places the story within the world of MD. Flow took a HUGE hit because of the poorly constructed poetry. It was not a pleasure to read. It was clunky. This was clearly meant to have meter, but it failed. The Overall Story score is low because, again, it’s just so vague, and it doesn’t really contain any characters. It would have been more interesting to read about a specific “Sister” running around the realm, doing what the author claimed, than to read about the Sisterhood in general.[/log] (3rd) Entry 2: Points and feedback. Ungod's entry into the competition. First thing I noticed was that the rhyming and timing for this piece was all over the place and lacked structure, that instantly made me enjoy it less than I might have done. The story seemed a little...lost, in itself, jumping from one scene to another with little explanation and caused me to imagine and hyperactive and over-enthusiastic leprechaun being the main character. Other than that (and a few spelling/grammatical mistakes) it's a fun, lighthearted piece that I feel was made good wit (just perhaps not written down so well!) Creativity: 14 Uniqueness: 11 Conformity: 12 Flow: 9 Story Strength: 10 Voting: -4 Total: 52 [log=Judges' Feedback] Judge 1: I can see a lot of effort went into this piece - it very clearly wasn't a last minute story. So it is a little bit saddening to have to give the feedback I am going to give, but don't be disheartened, it was still a good effort! First off, the story lacked cohesion. It's clear the story is about Valoryn, however the fact that it is "about" Valoryn has very little value to the narrative. There is a distinct feel of it being an "A, then B" story, listing events without exploring their actual impact on the characters. Events occured with no relation to prior events, and typically new events would begin with no trigger, or old events actually being resolved. The poetic elements also need a lot of improvement. I personally am a huge fan of freeform poetry, however the name itself is fairly misleading. Freeform poetry is actually a collection of very specific techniques, although which ones are applied varies from poem to poem - not, however, within a poem itself, typically. While this narrative is presented in poem form, it lacks proper rhythem, rhyming form, idea form, or flow of imagery. While oftentimes writting as a poem can help to enrich a short narrative, in this case it has actually been the biggest detractor to me. It's hard not to feel like this story would have been more enjoyable to read if it had been presented as a typical narrative, rather than a poem. The idea behind the story is a good one, but the delivery needs a lot of work, I'm afraid. Judge 2: Okay, this is not as terrible a poetic entry as I thought it would be. The author had fun with rhyme and meter and succeeded more than failed. It definitely has a few parts to smooth out, but the overall tone of it felt whimsical and fun more than a serious attempt at poetry. Flow took the hardest hit because I feel that there were parts that were supposed to be dialogue, but it wasn’t made clear as to who was saying what. There were three characters, but I don’t know when any specific one was talking, and that’s just not acceptable for a story. This entry was fun, and clearly set in MD. It was a good attempt at a poetic story. The only other thing to mention is that I wanted to give Uniqueness a higher score, but with so many poem entries, it doesn’t feel right to do that.[/log] Entry 3: Points and feedback. A poem of old by Asthir Again, another poem, so I can see why perhaps creativity scores are lower than they could be, but otherwise it's a good piece. I would agree with Judge 1 on the most part (especially the rhyming and how it hits the ear). I was sad to see this get few points but I can understand perhaps why. Creativity: 7 Uniqueness: 6 Conformity: 8 Flow: 11 Story strength: 8 Voting: 0 Total: 40 [log=Judges' Feedback] Judge 1: This was a well constructed poem, however the story itself was fairly predictable. I do have two pieces of imediate advice - First, in your poem there are a few lines where the rhyming either seems forced and hits the ear wrong, or simply fails to work at all. When writting standard rhyming poetry, try reading your poem out aloud (once you have lines on Both sides of it - sometimes the following line can make a rhym that would otherwise be flat work perfectly). Another way to approach the problem of difficult rhymes is by utilizing Un-rhymes, where you purposely choose a word that causes a pause in the readers or audiences cognitive expectations, generally achieved by useing an uncommon synonym for a common word which would have rhymed (or simply seemed to rhym, as is more often the case) perfectly. Secondly, you shouldn't have said "Mur". Describe the shape, but do not fill it yourself - there is a certain sense of satisfaction that the audience receives from being able to solve a puzzle, no matter how simple or even if they realize there was a puzzle to solve to begin with, that becomes a detractor if the solution is provided to them instead. This was a very good, well thought out entry, and I very much look forward to seeing your future efforts. Judge 2: …I have no idea what this story is about… It could, and might be, about anything, though at the end it mentions Mur. I feel like I missed something, though I feel the author missed it even more. To call this entry “vague” is to insult all things vague. It just… it doesn’t go anywhere and it doesn’t really say anything: it’s a collection of words that seem confused to be around each other. I really want to say more, to encourage the author to keep trying, but I really have no idea what more to say. I don’t know what this was supposed to be; I don’t know how to improve it.[/log] Entry 4: Points and feedback. This particular piece was submitted by Jubaris. I enjoyed this story the most, I'd say, as it has the feel of one that would be passed down through generations -- perhaps a story that the Legend Speakers may have told. It has a few rough edges here and there but otherwise a simple, but pleasant, tale. Creativity: 10 Uniqueness: 10 Conformity: 15 Flow: 10 Story strength: 13 Voting: -8 Total: 50 [log=Judges' Feedback] Judge 1: I enjoyed this sotry. It was one of the easier to read, and for the most part my attention didn't wander. There were certainly moments the story could have been enriched, but it was a good effort for a quick story. One of the key detractors for the story to me, was the way the story jumped forward without proper resolution to events, or introduction to coming events. The story wasn't generally hampered because of this, but whenever there is a jump in events readers focus also needs to adjust, and these are the moments when audiences will shift focus to something else. A little more care in the buildup and introduction of narrative elements would go a long way towards improving this story. Judge 2: At least this one wasn’t another poem. Overall, the story isn’t so much a story as it was a retelling of actual events. Liberty went to war with Necrovion because Jester, or something. The Creativity and Uniqueness took significant hits because of that. Conformity, however, was boosted because it clearly takes place in MD, and the author mentions people and places from the game. Flow is rough in that there are certain word choices that simply don’t make any sense. It’s like the author wanted to sound creative and such, but it really didn’t work out in the author’s favor. This, and some grammatical errors, really hurt the flow of the story. In the end, it’s just a rehash of something that happened, and not even a particularly good telling of it.[/log] (1st) Entry 5: Points and feedback. This entry belonged to the one and only....Dstling! Whilst I enjoyed the entry I feel that it was a little short and that grammatical and spelling errors could have been fixed, so as to keep a steady flow to the story. Overall it was creative, cute and and enjoyable telling of a historical event -- deserves the points it received. Creativity: 12 Uniqueness: 17 Conformity: 16 Flow: 13 Story: 14 Voting: 2 Total: 74 [log=Judges' Feedback] Judge 1: A wonderful choice of medium, was a delight to see in this contest. On top of the presentation, the narrative itself was very well written. I am glad to see that, for the most part, you didn't focus too heavily on narrative elements that didn't progress the story, keeping the audience focused and directing the narrrative flow beautifully. All of that said, I do think that with more practice the story could still be improved. Some of the choices in language lacked subtlety. Remember - just because you have not written a poem, does not mean poetic elements like imagery and subtle emotive themes should be excluded. Creating a story that evokes emotions without telling your audience what they should feel is difficult, but does become easier with practice. Good work, and I look forward to seeing your future efforts. Judge 2: This one wins all the Uniqueness points (well, okay, 9 of them)! While I really did enjoy a different medium for the story, I knocked off a few points from Flow because of some minor (but repeated) spelling and grammar mistakes. I also knocked Creativity down as not only was the music not a particularly effective choice (I probably could have ignored that, though, had the creator narrated the entry), but because it’s, more or less, a retelling of what actually happened. Overall, though. this was a solid entry with no real weaknesses, but no outstanding strengths, save for the medium in which it’s told. [/log] Congratulations to Dst, Aeo and Ungod! Your prizes will be distributed shortly! Thank you to Jubaris and Asthir for their awesome entries as well! With that comes a close to another quest and I look forward to seeing you all participate in future quests (...soon)!

Well considering: "Rewards: Charms, possible rewards for runner-ups if i feel like it." I felt like we'd be given the time to complete it ourselves? Rather than be told the answer straight after? I don't mind it being a race, just if I'd known the answers were going to be given straight away (and rule out any possible runner up positions) then I'd have hurried a bit more. Just clarity is nice, that's all.

Didn't realise it was a race quest... :mellow: