Are you a player with a well-known and established in-game character? Would you be interested in doing something totally different? Read on.

So, while looking at the most recent parts bill for work on my car (damn you, Lucas!), I was thinking about how we have many, many pilots who are entrenched in a particular mode of play: Dr. Lecter/Trakus are particularly evil, unforgiving pirates, strat and a few of the more active and capable VPR are single-minded dogooders, Ecka is a taur III flying trader/miner, leber is a never-serious bumbling drunk, tumble is... well, tumble. And aside from brief forays into a different character for the purposes of infiltrating other guilds -- /me waves to Lahmi and Impavid, among others -- we don't really change it up much. Many of us run alts with differnt flavors, but I don't think many of us really spend that much time on them relative to our "main."

So, for my own and VO's collective amusement, I am proposing the following contest.

Describe, in detail, your current "main" character. Then explain, also in detail, what your proposal is for either (1) playing a totally different character as your main, or, (2) a conversion of your main character into something very different. For a VPR, maybe it's going rogue; for Hortan, maybe it's overheating roids; for me, it would probably be being nice. Whatever it is, make it something you'd be interested in committing (on your honor) to playing as your new "main" for 6 months, thereby bringing someone new and interesting to the game for half a year.

I will select a winner (the standard being my totally unfettered discretion, whim, and caprice) assuming there's enough interest (determination also mine, using that same standard) to bother. The winner will get a 1 year subscription for either their current account or a new one (their choice) paid by me, in one lump sum (stated value under the billing options is $89.99) -- I'm ineligible to win, being the judge and all, but will be making some significant RP changes to all three of my main characters over the next few months anyway.

Let the creative thinking commence!

**Devs, if there's a problem with my contest, either as described or as a general idea, please just let me know.

dude are you high?

well i guess peytros is a 12 year old drunk college student who trolls newbs who most people thought was either a 16 year old girl or a 30 year old man for a long time.

So if i was going to be the opposite I would be a 21 year old sober feminist trader/anti-pirate protecting the galaxy from chauvinistic pirate douche bags who ask me for "pix pl0x" and to "show tits" I would start a guild for all the women of vo as a safety net to retreat from the low maturity levels of the vo community

so when do i have to start doing this? Also are our new chars supposed to be public ( i mean we are describing them on here) or are we supposed to keep the names a secret?

I was thinking there had to be a more fun way to spend 90 bucks than on a new angle drive unit for my damn speedometer, pey. I mean, I still have to buy the new part, but this will be a lot more fun.

I think new chars should be public, since they're being described here. Plus, it's easier to know if the winner is actually playing the new char as their main then.

It's hard for me because I've done everything, I still have several active characters no one knows about. I would suggest keeping it secret for the duration of the contest. It's very difficult to really RP a character when everyone knows it's you (and I'm really good at playing different characters, ask the Vipers ;)), particularly when you're a player like me who is, erm, "well known" we'll say. If I create a new and different character and play it as such I'll still be attacked by Vipers and shit talked all over the place because lets face it, I'm still me. Look what happened when I promised to only trade for a week!

So, I'm in if we can do it quiet, maybe we create the character and e-mail the details to only you so you can evaluate for your contest.

I think (and I could be wrong here) that there's a difference between you, Tumblemonster the pilot, saying you'll trade as Tumblemonster the pilot for a week -- and you, Tumblemonster the player, creating a new pilot that is a trader. Unless strat wants to explain why each and every new character doesn't start with a blank slate. Not that I'd expect them to admit your new character into VPR, even if he behaved himself, but I don't think they'd attack your mining moth in B8, either. I assume that they'd even escort you if you asked for it.

I think a big part of the fun here is a public and creative narrative about what you are now, and what you think would be an opposite character of that, either new and separate or evolved through RP. The RP forums have been pretty stagnant for the past several months, and while I'd like to see that change some, I don't really have time to pick up where Operation Firestorm left off.

But you raise a good point. Maybe the right route is for me to receive the entries by e-mail, make a determination, and then post a very generalized description of all entries, omitting names, guilds, and other identifying specifics here. Not sure whether I'd name the winner at that point, but probably I'd just let their new character's playing do it.

So, you can either post here OR e-mail to me at Dr.LecterVO a-t gmail d-o-t com

you mean lulz right?

Thanks, pey, I just don't have enough dickspam in my life.

lol ill edit it

So, given that one of the main detractors from the success of most other player initiated "contests" in the past has been any sort of reliable time line in regards to judging/announcing winners...

...what's the time line here?

Also, what is the basis for evaluation? Is it the competence and creativity of the writing, or is it the ability to follow through on the writer's intentions? If it is the latter, then what is the time line for that?

Which part of my totally unfettered discretion, whim, and caprice was unclear, Gav? I'll make a decision when I feel like it, which will happen sometime after enough submissions occur, assuming they do. The focus will be on the creativity of the idea put forth, though I'll surely think about whether said player can/will actually play what they've described. After the contest is over, the winner will be on their honor to do what they said they'd do. If I hear from Ecka that he's going to become a voracious Serco military pilot, he wins, and then he spends the next 12 months being regular ole Ecka, I'll surely post his stuff and make fun of him for being a low down, no good, lying piece of trash. But it's not like I'm going to ask for the prize back if someone has RL get in the way of their executing just as they'd hoped. This is just for fun.

I'll probably give it a week or two for people to see this, think about it, and actually get back to me here or by email. After that, I'll either post results and make arrangements with the winner re: prize, or, explain that three people got back to me and two of their ideas read like pey's first post above, so I'm saying fuck it.

If anyone finds this too off the cuff, they're welcome to do their own thing.

I think (and I could be wrong here) that there's a difference between you, Tumblemonster the pilot, saying you'll trade as Tumblemonster the pilot for a week -- and you, Tumblemonster the player, creating a new pilot that is a trader. Unless strat wants to explain why each and every new character doesn't start with a blank slate. Not that I'd expect them to admit your new character into VPR, even if he behaved himself, but I don't think they'd attack your mining moth in B8, either. I assume that they'd even escort you if you asked for it.

Correct. The Vipers would not treat a character as KOS just because they are an alt of a KOS character. A well-known tagged pirate who is trading in a moth is still KOS and is fair game to be attacked. An alternate and completely separate character of a pirate, even if we are aware of the identity of the player, is not KOS until that specific character does something that makes them KOS.

And strat speaks for the entire playerbase? I don't think so. He barely speaks for all the vipers. I'm in, I'll email a plan once I've got one.

hey that was not my submission i was just getting the general idea of the competition!

You'll note that I said "pey's first post" and not "pey's one and only submission that I'll consider."

noted

My main--and only--character is Captain "Nice" Hardrive: a down-on-his-luck commissioned career officer from the Union of Independent Territories' perpetually under-funded (and, indeed, almost nonexistent) military arm, UPK. Honestly somewhat bumbling, and not exactly competent at the helm (declared vocation is in commanding Trident bridge crews, not piloting combat fighters). Despite having some mild background in black-ops work, he's generally considered rather harmless.

Something I've always wanted to do (but never got around to due to said incompetence or general absence from the game at large) is to have 'ol Cappy start a war.

You heard me.

One day, "Nice" finally has enough with the war profiteering, the corruption in the senate, the fact that the Peacekeeping Corps is considered a joke, and the general lack of national pride in the UIT, and snaps. He decides that he's just not going to sit and take it anymore, and conspires with his disillusioned fellows to show the universe what the 'trievers are really capable of. This (hopefully) results in the bloodiest, most convoluted role playing conflict since Mogul Velaio's sanity took an extended holiday.

How's that?

Okay, since I play a goofy, godless bumbling Itani drunk; I think my POLAR opposite would be a humorless, competent, ruthless Serco zealot who went around killing itani without cause or provocation that everybody loves to hate.

Oh, wait.

Done that.

Do I win?

(You n00bs may not know the story of Lexicon, oh well, your loss.)

No, you don't win, Leebs.

Lexicon, like you, was totally incompetent.

My main character disappeared. Thus the opposite is someone who starts playing again. I think I can do it, but it'll be tough!

Lecter, you had a good idea!

When you said Diversity, i was expecting that you was about to come out of the closet.!.!.!

What if, for contest purpose, the alt's name must (preffix|suffix} the name, like "PplName +" or "_OtherName"?