Journal EggDye's Journal: D&D new setting contest and an introduction 3
About two or three weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast advertised a new setting submission contest. I played some Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in my day, so I was pretty interested in the contest. They way it worked (if you didn't look at the contest details themselves) is that they would have a first round where everyone would submit a one page summary of their setting. From these entries the best 10 would be chosen by WoTC. Round 2 would consist of the 10 remaining contestants writing a ten page summary of their setting. The top 3 of this group would be selected for the final round. This round would consist of writing a 100 page setting bible. Those who were able to get into this round would recieve $20,000 for producting the setting bible. One winner would get an additional $100,000 consulting fee for their winning entry. The winning entry would become a new setting that WoTC would produce.
Of course, I'm a big nerd and thought this would be a fun contest. At the very least, I get off my but and do some creative writing. I figured that there might be a thousand entries. D&D is fairly popular, but it does involve some motivation to think up a setting, write it out, and mail it in. Some people on the WoTC forums thought that there might be as many as five thousand entries. I figured these people were suffering from a serious case of false consensus(1). Turns out that we were all wrong. Over ten thousand people submitted one page new setting sumaries to this contest. Whoa. That's a huge mass of raw creativity.
Think about it. Five hundred sheets of standard computer paper is about 2.5 inches tall. The entries to the first round contest would be about five feet tall if they were put in a stack. They represent something on the order of about 40,000 hours of human labor.
If it was a random contest I'd have about a 0.1 percent chance to make it into the next round. However, it isn't a random contest. To make it into the next round of the contest I have to have had a better idea for a new setting that 9,990 other writers. I like to think of myself as a smart guy who can write well, but I'm not that damn good.
Since this is my first journal entry I figure I might as well say who the heck I am. I'm a recent graduate of a public university in the mid-west (why are people so vague?). I got a Master's degree in Computer Science. My focus was Computer Graphics, and my hope is to land a Computer Graphics related job. Ideally this would be a job doing one of these exciting things:
1) Programming computer games
2) Writing software for a Computer Animation/Visual Effects company
3) Writing general 3D graphics software
4) Doing Computer Graphics related research
Okay, this is getting a bit long. Stay tuned for more self-centeredness and wacky fun.
Whoa! (Score:1)
I had no idea so many people submitted ideas. I did, and I consider myself a pretty creative individual with some solid writing skills, so I figured my advancement to the second level was a shoe-in. Ten-thousand! I'll be lucky if they even read mine. Let me know if you made it, btw. It'd be nice to know that someone did. I haven't heard anything as of today, and I think it has been long enough I'm not going to hear anything.
Re:Whoa! (Score:2)
The Wizards of the Coast homepage said that because they received so many submissions, they've delayed the judging of the first round.
Here's the link: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20
(this is coming out with an extra space in the dx....)
The said they will have the judging of the first round finished by the first week in August. I'd be happy if you'd let me know if you made it as well.
I would really be interested in seeing the top ten entries, just to see how good they really are.
Re:Whoa! (Score:1)
Thank you for the information. That makes me feel better, I suppose. Of course, I know I'm really dreaming....
I went to the University of Illinois and I see no reason to be vague about that, btw. It's a pretty big school so there are a lot of people here someone would have to hunt through before they found me. Of course, I didn't just say what my degree was in, maybe that comment will be for some other day. Let's just leave it at the fact I really cannot claim to be a geek of any sort.
Best of luck on your submission. I suppose if neither of us makes it we'll just have to purchase the winning setting's bible to see what it was about (of course our immediate reactions will either be "wow, that's cool!" or "man, that sucks, mine was better," but such is life). Whatever it is, it had better not be lame.