Changes Are Coming...

No, not the wintery kind. 

Besides, winter has already come- haven't you experienced some of that polar vortex stuff yet? Which, by the way, is not a new thing, its just a particularly potent thing this year. Anyway, changes are coming and they have everything to do with the blog and nothing to with winter- and don't challenge me on that by finding some kind of abstract connection, smartasses >_>. Expect a facelift here, some possible format changes among other things. Pretty soon, the blog will be moved as well, but that might not happen for a month or more.

If you come back in a couple weeks and find that we have some dust lying around, you'll have to pardon the mess, we're in the middle of renovating. In order to keep serving you up a fine product, we have to keep tweaking the recipe, making little changes here and there, working towards finding that sweet spot where things work so well, you don't need to make changes. Well, until you do, because life is change and changes are inevitable. I mean, sure, the phrase if it isn't broke, don't fix it certainly has its validity, but sometimes things are not quite broke but will snap clean in half before you know it.

Or something like that.

Anyway, we've come to the part of the introduction where I start babbling and then get snarky- hey, I'm aware of my own blog tropes, thank you very much. I have a formula for success and I'll keep drinking my kool-aid (the cyanide adds a fine, spicy accent) thank you very much. Anyway, before I make a bigger fool out of myself, I better get the blog going. 

What's Happening Valucre?

The Chosen: Round Three Continues- @__________@

Valucre's 2013 Awards!- Hey, if you actually read my blog more regularly than you check for updates on Valucre, you are probably a figment of my imagination and I need to go see someone about that. However, if in such a case you are not one of my ‘pretend people’, then I have some information for you! Well, even if you have been around Valucre, you might appreciate the reader’s digest style explanation of what all is going on here, or just a bit of history on it, no?

Anyway, the Valucre awards started a couple years ago with the 2011 fan favorites and have evolved to include several other awards given out on an annual basis. The idea is to recognize the work and efforts of the members of Valucre, giving props where props are due. Fan favorites originally allowed people to identify who some of their favorite writers were, giving the top five members recognition as having the most ‘serious fans’. The next year, we increased the awards to include other scopes of our RP practices so that people could be recognized for the great things they bring to Valucre’s RP experience. Now, let’s break down what you can vote on and how it is working:

Fan Favorites: This year, you are allowed to pick up to your top –seven- favorites. If you do a lot of reading on the website, you’d be surprised how difficult this can be- so put some thought into it. Those who have the most votes (through 7^th place) will be the 2013 fan favorites. With fan favorites, we are hoping people pick their favorites based on whose writing you most enjoyed in 2013 (be it in RP directly, or written submissions or lore, etc). If they were out producing creative works of some kind, and you just looked forward to reading it- this is probably a good one to mention. ;)

Role-Player of theYear: Ah, this is a coveted one indeed. We have many candidates up for this one and as such, we will need two different poll votes to get us to our finalists. Finalists will have a feature in the blog and will then be put up for a PM vote on who should be the best among the best. Ideally, our winner is someone who posts reliably and with at least reasonable frequency, produces quality writing and awesome characters. The polls let you vote for more than one, so you are advised to pick several favorites.

Best Hero and BestVillain: This contest is for us to identify who did the best, and who did the worst, things in all of Valucre this year. Board leaders held discussions and led up to our final list of names for the site to pick through- one late addition has been added by popular demand. This will be a one-poll vote before taking finalists, with finalists getting a special feature in the blog before determining the best among them.

Best New Role-Player: We have had some real quality come through our site this year, and as such, we are leaving it to you folks to help us figure out whom all that was. We put together a set of criteria that we felt helped qualify a person as a contributing (new) Rper and after having found all who qualified- it comes to you. Finalists shall be featured here on the special update!

Best Role-Play of theYear: With a set of qualifying criteria, we compiled a list of role-plays to begin looking at and then, with gathered input of others, board-leaders broke down what they thought were among the best and most popular role-plays in 2013. Now, we need you to help us pare it down to a list of finalists, which will  be featured here, in the blog!

Most Improved Member: An open ended nominations process, we are gathering names of people you all felt made significant strides in their writing this year, and then a staff discussion will decide the winner from that pool. So far though, it looks like that only one person has garnered votes!

Other Notes: Any poll vote has a write in option, so please use it if you see a name missing you want added in. We will definitely be holding a debriefing when the process is over to get feedback and make changes, so that we can make something that is amendable to as many people as possible. If you see a mistake- please let me know ASAP. When it comes time to debrief the process, please contribute ideas on how to fix things, or specifically what you though did not work, other than just complaining and making statements- ‘constructive criticism’.  And lastly- you don’t have to wait until this time of year to let people know you like their stuff- do it all year long. ;)

Oh, and a vote for the blogger never hurts. Just saying. >>

Federal Investigative Service of Terrenus- Think of this group as the investigative fact gathering resource for the military of Terrenus. Your job is not to go take on the bad guys but to root out their criminal activity, discover plots before they hatch, and make sure that they get brought to justice. Now, nothing stops you from trying to apprehend them, but the Terrenus government won’t foot your medical bills on that one- you’re on your own. Anyway, if you like things such as CSI, you get to take on that role- help find the bad guys, then call in the back up to come take out the trash. ;)

Last Call [Celin City]- Do you like drinking contests- a silly question, of course you do, isn’t becoming an alcoholic one of the requirements to adventuring? Speaking of alcoholism and adventuring, isn’t getting into brawls another great thing about living the life? Well friends, we got a little event going on that is going to be the place for you, right down in Celin city. It’s the last call, and there are free drinks and the promise of violence- are you in?

Threats of Regression- A level two quest, so it comes with an element of danger! A risky quest with greater reward, hear it out if you are looking for a challenge. An ancient artifact resides in Old Palgard and brings pain and ruin to everyone around it. They beseech any who can control its magic to come in and do away with the object. Use of the object entails great risk- it likes to backfire or cause other complications (such as blowing up your surroundings, a highly inconvenient thing). This one is filling decently fast, so if you want a spot, you better get in there!

Calling All Unnaturals- Are you an unnatural? Do you creep and crawl, or perhaps go bump in the night? Do you strike fear into the hearts of lesser men, or wear a grin sure to make children scream of fright? If such is the case, there is a calling for all those who are of this kind, a call to come serve in a bigger, better purpose. Sure, you might die in the process, but it will be for a greater goal. Answer your calling.

Starting From Bare Bones- Do you like to start characters from scratch? Would you want to go out and journey with a likeminded character who also needs growth and development? This could be your opportunity to pick up a longtime ally and build upon your character’s history- so if you want to start up someone new, this would be a good place to start.   

Featured Read of the Month- 

Promised something special for this month, and so it is. It got brought to my attention that there is a role-play that has spanned three threads now (three chapters if you will) with continuous activity between two members over the last three years- they just had their three year anniversary about ten days ago. This is one hell of an achievement- getting a single thread to go from start to finish can be a monumental task at times, especially when you clocking in nine and eleven pages of content between the first two- with only two people going back and forth.

In my opinion, this definitely deserves some recognition, so I would like to extend my congratulations to The Hummingbird and Cordeliane for staying so dedicated to a storyline- it's impressive in my eyes. Everyone give them a quick round. ;)

Strange Magic-->Missions and Misadventures-->Returns and Reports- 
This thread encompasses the adventures of an unlikely duo, two opposites who go from chance meeting to adventures with highs and lows and eventually a politically motivated marriage. Cordeliane is a runaway noblewoman from Nvengaria in search of others with powers like her own. Little does she realize that her blue eyes marks her for being a part of the Arcantian prophesies, a fact that may have saved her life, given that her counterpart is a cold, cynical man who hates everyone and gets along with nobody. Nevertheless, Shawn takes her to his people and agrees to undergo a quest for a rare artifact, all the while, they unaware that her brothers pursue her trail.

The brothers eventually catch them and inform them of the politically arranged marriage. Along the way, two different brushes with death come with the kidnapping of Cordeliane, who suffers greatly at the hands of her captors. Things work out, and now they have come to where they have finally wed- but the adventures go on.    

Lore of the Week!

Lore pages are being overhauled, and this section will likely reflect that as well- stay tuned... 

Newly Awarded!

Got nothing this week (awards are on hold due to no awards mods and the Valucre annual awards going on right now) but expect lots of updating here soon!

Valucre Blog Challenge!

Alright, I can see this is dead in the water. My celtic stubbornness can only carry me on so far and for so long- this section will be retired. :(

New Members and Returns!

Welcome:

~Vaughn~
~Likestarlight~
~NorthernBard~
~Chief Steve~
~Ironyz~
~Cosmo~
~Shade~
~Menthol~
~MaxtheFeral~
~Sindrågosa~

Returns:

~Zotar~

I will all but promise that we will be returning to a more personalized method of greeting people beginning with the new month. I got hammered this month with other things, and thus did not prepare for the blog- everything has been by the seat of my pants. ;-;

Other Highlights?

New Method to Request a Storyteller- Forms are out of commission for the moment, so for a bit of time there, you had no means of requesting a Storyteller- well fret no more, for we have created a solution! Inside the Watercooler you will find a new stickied form called 'Storyteller Requests', where everything you need to know about requesting a storyteller is listed up and ready for your use. Best yet, you drop your request in that very same thread by use of a pre-made format. Not bad, eh?

Did You Know-  The ignore feature received an upgrade of its own when we switched to IPB? You now have the option to choose specific types of data from certain users rather than just having them on a blanket ignore. Want to ignore their posts but still be reachable by PM? You can do that! To learn more, click this word right ---->Here and go to the thread. For more of these little tidbits, dig through the Announcements forum. ;)

Closing Thoughts?

These awards do a little bit to get people thinking. Thinking about who we do like and what we like about their writing and perhaps- thinking about how often we actually express that. A few people have already brought it up, and it my experience I find it is certainly true, that it’s often those post-reps (now likes) and mentions in the Notice of Excellence threads that really make your day. The awards are nice and you love to have the recognition and the knowledge that others enjoy what you do, but really goes much further when you get little bits along the way.

Which brings me to the thought of the day- take the time to tell people. A simple thought, but I think it can be meaningful- take the time to let people every once in a while how much you enjoy what they do. Even the steadiest writer needs a little affirmation now and then- it just helps make things feel worth it. I think that sometimes we only think to mention something when someone puts out that ultimate post- that one that was just unabashedly good and you just have to put that one up in the NOE thread- but what about all those times they post consistently well written stuff?

It is a short thought for the day because I am absolutely drained and I have a feeling I might be coming down with something. I just wanted to share the thought that perhaps we could all make it a goal to mention every now and then- hey, I love the way you write, and I am damn proud to be writing alongside you.

You never know how much of a difference it might make. :)

Alright you fine folks, I will see you at the special updates following awards finalists.

-         -  Acies

"Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world." ~George Bernard Shaw