International World Creation Month

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Death Jester, I would like to apologize if my words seemed in any way harsh.  Thank you for your explanation as to what Harping Monkey is about.  I joined the site, and I'll probably hang around, because there are some interesting facets of the site.  In all honesty, I've always found "contests without prizes" to be somewhat pointless... I guess it's just the fact that the word "contest" in-and-of-itself implies there to be a prize for the winner.  I guess if it was called more of a "Call to Arms" for building campaign settings, there would have been less of a hostile response.  Although that's really no excuse itself, because we're really good, cheerful people over here, and possibly/probably shouldn't have reacted this way anyway.  I won't speak on anyone else's behalf, and I won't be participating in said event, but anything to get people to be involved with creating fantasy worlds can only be a good thing, right?

[Wensleydale]

Well, I agree with all of that statement, but...

Really, writing that many words in a month will bring out some total crap. :P

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Maybe for you it will... for someone else, it may bring out a pure gem.  Many famous authors say their best work is done as the deadline is approaching.

[Wensleydale]

Touche!

Still, I wouldn't like to have to do that...

[Epic Meepo]

As for myself, I have confidence in the ability of the CBG to rise to any world building challenge, and I am honored that Death Jester shares this faith in the creativity and talent of our community.

[SA]

Sorry if this sounds in any way offensive, but I won't hold myself accountable if the poor guy can't differentiate between criticism of an idea and criticism of a person...

(If you haven't figured it out, it was criticism of an idea)

I for one thoroughly appreciated the sentiment, and admittedly it would have been a good idea for us to show our appreciation before we lunged into our critique, but my comments, and the comments of everyone else who opposed the idea still stand.

I don't think I recall anyone actually lambasting Death Jester.  He presented us with an idea - someone else's idea - and we criticised it, not him, because we thought it was somewhat preposterous.  That is our prerogative.  After all, we don't just nod our heads when the flat-earthers start preaching their nonsense.  It's bad form to attack and insult them, but as always, their ideas are fair game.

And I think we were pretty damn civil too.  The worst anyone said was that the idea was "bullocks", and I'm pretty sure we can all agree that no-one went out of their way to deride the idea, only to indicate their disagreement with its parameters and their subsequent unwillingness to participate.

Like Meepo, I agree that "if people at other sites are so exited about our community that they come here to ask us to create content for them, unless their selling something, I say let them come."  But I will not accept that it follows that we cannot disagree.  We may invite them for debate, for instance.  If I think an idea is stupid, nonsensical, pointless or otherwise of limited value, I'll be civil in my response but I won't necessarily be all smiles and kisses.

And it's an unfair assumption to suggest that this occasion is indicative of "cliquishness".  We didn't see much merit in what Harping Monkey had to offer, but once again, our statements were expressions of personal opinion and were not indicative of any real antipathy towards the idea.  When we see something useful or relevant, that's all well and good, but it is our right, as individuals, to refuse an idea we disagree with as individauls.

It is in no way indicative of a flaw in the CBG's character.

On another note:

Hell yes it's different if Monte Cook was asking for submissions!  It sure as hell ain't something for nothing, and as we all know it's all about the benjamins...

Moneymoneymoneymoney...

NOTE: Once again, let me be perfectly clear that Death Jester's initiative is commendable.  It's always great to know there are folks who have such an interest in the community.

[SDragon]

Sorry if this sounds in any way offensive, but I won't hold myself accountable if the poor guy can't differentiate between criticism of an idea and criticism of a person...

(If you haven't figured it out, it was criticism of an idea)

I for one thoroughly appreciated the sentiment, and admittedly it would have been a good idea for us to show our appreciation before we lunged into our critique, but my comments, and the comments of everyone else who opposed the idea still stand.

I don't think I recall anyone actually lambasting Death Jester.  He presented us with an idea - someone else's idea - and we criticised it, not him, because we thought it was somewhat preposterous.  That is our prerogative.  After all, we don't just nod our heads when the flat-earthers start preaching their nonsense.  It's bad form to attack and insult them, but as always, their ideas are fair game.

And I think we were pretty damn civil too.  The worst anyone said was that the idea was "bullocks", and I'm pretty sure we can all agree that no-one went out of their way to deride the idea, only to indicate their disagreement with its parameters and their subsequent unwillingness to participate.

Like Meepo, I agree that "if people at other sites are so exited about our community that they come here to ask us to create content for them, unless their selling something, I say let them come."  But I will not accept that it follows that we cannot disagree.  We may invite them for debate, for instance.  If I think an idea is stupid, nonsensical, pointless or otherwise of limited value, I'll be civil in my response but I won't necessarily be all smiles and kisses.

And it's an unfair assumption to suggest that this occasion is indicative of "cliquishness".  We didn't see much merit in what Harping Monkey had to offer, but once again, our statements were expressions of personal opinion and were not indicative of any real antipathy towards the idea.  When we see something useful or relevant, that's all well and good, but it is our right, as individuals, to refuse an idea we disagree with as individauls.

It is in no way indicative of a flaw in the CBG's character.

On another note:

Hell yes it's different if Monte Cook was asking for submissions!  It sure as hell ain't something for nothing, and as we all know it's all about the benjamins...

Moneymoneymoneymoney...

NOTE: Once again, let me be perfectly clear that Death Jester's initiative is commendable.  It's always great to know there are folks who have such an interest in the community.

i agree wholeheartedly. if death jester enjoys writing 50,000 words a month with little to no regard for quality, then its not my place to tell him not to. like i said in my last post, this is, ultimately, for fun. personally, i dont find it fun to do word-crams; id prefer to work at my own pace, and try whatever quality i can achieve. his word-cram style isnt something that resonates with me.

[Lmns Crn]

I don't really understand the disdain for the idea.

If I were to write 50,000 words in a month, a lot of the result would be eyeball-searingly awful. But a lot would also be pretty good ideas that I could later adapt and use for the Jade Stage, after I sort through it all. The way I do things already anyway, I write vast amounts of horrible garbage that never get used, because they're horrible garbage. I sort through my stuff, cherrypicking and revising, before I commit to it. 50,000 words is a lot of raw material to sift through later, and there will certainly be gems amidst it.

Maybe my IntWoCreMo project would take on a life of its own, and become a viable, independant project in its own right. Either way, the project certainly wouldn't be a waste of time.

I see the word count requirement as an accountability safeguard, the equivalent of me telling my friend I'm going to work out at the gym three times a week. I'm more likely to get the exercise done if I've made that promise to someone else, because I know that if I wuss out with a lame excuse, I have to admit it to my friend when he asks me later if I've been keeping up.

Will I be doing this project this December? Probably not, but that has more to do with end-of-the-semester workload than anything else. I still think it's a good idea, in the same way that eating five servings of vegetables every day is a good idea: you probably won't like it at first, but it's good for you, and establishes some very healthy habits that you may grow to love.

[Death_Jester]

Hello All,

I would like to thank everyone for the welcome to the site and taking the time to explain their position on the world creation month.  I can see all of the points of view being valid for the individual that posted them.  If you aren't interested in taking part in it, that is cool.  Believe me I understand.  I was very dubious about posting my 50k setting to the site too.  I'm taking it as a personal challenge to get my butt in the seat and write till it is done.  If it takes 31 days or 6 months it will be done, damn it.  :soap:

I have had an idea for a setting in my head ever since I started playing Role-Playing games.  As a matter of fact that is one of things that drew me to the games in the first place.  While I have grown so has the world idea and now it needs to either come out or something. Gaming and Writing are the only places where building a world from starch is cool.  

So, I will be spending January working on the world but before I do that I would like to be able to come to this community to kick around ideas and the like.  With that in mind let me clear some things up.  I was not offended at the responses that I got, but I was surprised that not many others felt the way I did.  Of course that is because I can only see things from my perspective.  It wasn't until I got the feedback that I started to understand that unlike me others may not need an external motivator to get started.  Let me apologize for the assumption here. I understand that this entire forum is for the express purpose of creating, critiquing and refining topics related to world building.  I would like to join and help with this and in the process tighten up my own concepts at the same time.  So when January comes around I have some ideas and a better fleshed out concept of what is going to go into that "First Draft".  

Ok, I need to clear something up real quick before I go explore other topics on the boards here.  I do NOT work for or am in anyway affiliated with the harping monkey crew.  Much like this board I just happen to be a guy that posts there and that is it.  They didn't request me to do this; I did it on my own accord for the reasons stated before.  If you think they are asking anything of this board, let me clearify, they are not.  Also I don't even think they know I have posted anything on this board so if you go over there don't expect them to know what you are talking about.  I do post over there under the same screen name though so it is easy enough to track me down.  

Ok everyone, nice meeting you all, even the ones that disagreed with the idea.  I hope we can agree to disagree and take it from there to make better worlds for all.  :D

Thanks for your time in advance.
Jester

[Lmns Crn]

"Let's agree to disagree" is practically our motto here at CBG. ;)

Glad you found our little community. Welcome aboard and all that stuff. Talk to ElDo for your complimentary welcome-aboard coconut drink with little paper umbrella.

[Elven Doritos]

Glad you found our little community. Welcome aboard and all that stuff. Talk to ElDo for your complimentary welcome-aboard coconut drink with little paper umbrella.

That's Isaac, get it right. :P

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and I'm sure the community looks forward to helping you hammer out some ideas.

[Túrin]

For completeness' sake, allow me to apologize for my earlier reaction. I didn't realize fully that you were new here and might take my reaction the wrong way. So I'll say now what I should have said at first:

Hello and welcome, Death_Jester. [insert joke about Isaac and coconut drinks with paper umbrellas] Glad to see you found your way here and expressed your interest in worldbuilding and specifically the worldbuilding of our members here.

That said, you should have laid out the idea of the contest more clearly in this post, and/or provided a link, because I had a hard time finding it on the Harping Monkey website. Now, instead of letting you explain it, I tried to save everyone some time by explaining it myself, but I couldn't help having some irony filtered in with my description, because I personally think the idea of writing 50,000 words in a month is ridiculous. Then again, my opinion is personal and quite possibly wrong: NaNoWriMo seems to be a great success, so why couldn't this be? Therefore, I advise everyone to take a look at the link I provided earlier rather than looking at my biased description of the event. I won't be partaking, but anyone who wants to, certainly should, most specifically you, Death_Jester. Feel free to ask questions or post material for reviewing on this site, just make sure not to post in the Homebrews forum until you've got at least a paragraph of your own material down on paper (but I think you already noticed this; feel free to repost your question in one of the other boards).

Enjoy,
Túrin

[Epic Meepo]

So as not to belittle anyone's opinions, please allow me to clarify: I in no way meant to imply that it was wrong for people to be critical of an idea, and apologize for sounding as though I did. I just meant to emphasize that the best thing about the CBG is our ability to offer not just criticism, but constructive criticism. I was just a bit surprised that there were so many objections to World Creation Month with so few suggestions about about how to improve upon the idea. (For example, it could be framed differently when presented to people who rely less on external motivations, and it would make more sense if it were called a challenge instead of contest.)

Oh, and welcome to the CBG, Death_Jester. My apologies for making the assumption that you were affiliated with the folks at Harping Monkey.

[SA]

I think the issue with that is that when one complains but does not complain to the individuals with whom one has issue, the criticism is pointless and there is therefore little point in adding anything constructive to the mix.

If, on the other hand, we actually presented our criticisms to the Harping Monkeys, there would be some point in being constructive, but that isn't the case.  Which is not to say that bitching for the sake of bitching is good, only that constructive criticism is rarely spoken when those who should hear it cannot.

Having said that, you are right in that if we do have issue with it, mayhaps we should be good chaps and advise them on how the competition might be improved.

On another note:

I might enter if I can just add 50'000 to my existing setting, but I won't make another one from scratch.  That'll depend on an entirely original vision, and there's damn well enough originality going into Dystopia without doubling it up for another setting.

Snoog.