player-stories
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Write fiction for EVE Online, win fabulous prizes
EVE Online lends itself to stories. Not just news stories, although those crop up with fair regularity, but stories about the vast and hostile galaxy filled with spaceships, mining, and corporate warfare. If you've got a story to tell about the game, then you're in luck: An officially endorsed writing contest has just been announced, judged by representatives of CCP Games. And the prizes are nothing to sneeze at, including a new graphics card, a year's worth of PLEX, and over 20 billion ISK. The contest offers two ways for players to enter. First, you can write up a wholly fictional story based entirely in the lore, or second, you can write up an account of events centered around your characters in the game. Either way, contest entries are expected to be between 1500-5000 words in length and must be submitted by December 2nd. If you've got a story to tell, take a look at the full contest page and get writing.
The Game Archaeologist jacks into The Matrix Online: Your memories
What can you trust when your memories are merely the by-product of intelligent machines tinkering with your brain? When you come right down to it, who's to say that our alleged recollections of The Matrix Online weren't just computer viruses uploaded into our cerebral cortexes -- and that the game never existed at all? Real or not, The Matrix Online is in no danger of being forgotten. Whether it's because of the meta setting, the too-hip-to-stay-on-cows fashion, or the interactive stories, MxO never fails to evoke passionate testimonies. After speaking with developer Ben Chamberlain last week, today we're going to turn the tables on the players themselves to see what they have to say. Was The Matrix Online really all that and a bag of computer chips? Was it merely a good-looking graphical chat room or something more? And how will it be remembered many years from now when we sit our grandchildren on our laps and tell them about how we took the blue pill? Or was it red... I can never remember!
Player stories on the official site
Blizzard asked for real-life stories from players a little while ago, and now they've posted a pretty big collection of them over on the official site (this page was around last year, but they've added many stories since then). As Bornakk says, these are personal accounts from players of how playing the game with others has helped them grow relationships in real-life. I'm not sure what exactly the point of posting these is (maybe Blizzard wants to stave off some of that negative media reporting about the game and addiction to it), but then again, if you dive into a few of these, you can see that they don't really need a point -- they're really interesting (and in some cases pretty heartwarming) stories about how players are using this game to enrich real-life relationships.They're still accepting more stories as well, so if you've got a good tale of some WoW-sharing in real-life, hit them up over on the submission page and put yours in the mix. Hopefully Blizzard will figure out a way to get these out into the real world -- harsh stories about addiction are so easy for the media to jump on, but great stories like these are the real reasons we all play this game.
WoW Player Stories updated: Military stories
The official World of Warcraft Community site has updated its Player Stories section with two new stories from military personnel. Both are short and easy reads, so I'm not going to spoil them here for you. They're kind of heartwarming, and help put WoW in a little bit different light. The stories definitely show another side of why some players play the game. It's pretty easy for some folks to forget that there are people on the other side of the computer. Real live human beings, who have friends and family. And, for some players, the whole reason they're sitting down at the computer in the first place is to get access to those friends and family. And, remember, even Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says one of the great things about World of Warcraft is its social experience.
Nobody's perfect
If you play WoW long enough, you're bound to make mistakes. Whether it's accidentally picking up the wrong piece of loot off of a boss or pulling a bunch of elites before your group is ready, everyone messes up once in awhile. While I normally make a habit of doing research in order to avoid such things, the other day I made a mistake that only affected myself, but it was pretty annoying nonetheless.I had been spending a lot of money power-leveling professions for a few of my alts when I got lucky and picked up a couple upgrades for my main character. I was low on funds and needed to grab some enchants and gems quickly so that I'd be prepared for an upcoming raid. With little time to farm, I hit the auction house and looked for some deals. When I noticed the low price of Nexus Crystals, I was reminded that my enchanter alt could transform those into Small Prismatic Shards and then again into Large Prismatic Shards. After double-checking the prices for the various materials, I concluded that I would not only save a good deal of money, but I'd make a bundle by selling extra shards. I bought all of the Nexus Crystals on the auction house and shipped them off to my enchanter. Gleefully imagining the piles of money I'd soon be raking into my coffers, I switched characters and converted the first crystal into a shard. My schemes where short-lived, sadly, when the realization that the conversion of Nexus Crystals has a cooldown, much like an alchemist's transmutes. Oh well, at least I'll have a nice stockpile of shards after about a month or so.What are the biggest mistakes you've made?
Blizzard wants your WoW stories
Blizzard is constantly asking its player base to contribute to the WoW community website: Fan art, comics, screenshots and now stories. If you have an inspirational story about people you interact with in World of Warcraft or how you use WoW to teach your teenagers, then hurry on over to the Story Submission page and show off your leet writing skillz. Selected stories will be featured on the site. Stories must be 3000 words or less and while this may seem short for some people, your story will be much more enjoyable to your readers if you keep it under 2000.The most inspirational story I've seen is the one about Ezra, but Blizzard would be tooting their own horn if they put that there. I also think the long lost brothers story is pretty heartwarming, but I'm biased.I know many of you have great stories to tell because I've read them in the comments and received them in emails. Now you have the potential to get your stories seen by a wider audience, if you like that sort of thing. Let us know in the comments if your story gets featured on the site. Good luck!
