Bubbawheat

Absolutely, we need more servers. I'm running out of character slots and I'm too cheap to buy more. I know a couple good names we could use for them too: Union and Defiant (and... whatever they are).

Loser - Beck (though I might have a few words wrong)

Thanks for the playthrough on Matchstick Women. You make some interesting points and you have a very unique style of critiquing an arc, very different from any previous review I've had. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and in a way, left you wanting more. Though I don't have any current ideas for furthering the Matchstick canon, I may in the future.

Currently, you *can* still see your rep comments. The last 3(maybe more) on a post anyway. You just have to look at the actual post itself and click the rep button. Obviously this is difficult for many of you with high post counts. But it's still there if you hunt for it. (Unless they eventually remove that part too)

here it is

A little bonus!

Behind the Scenes - insight into the judging process for those who are curious how myself and the judges came up with the finalists.

A few topics for discussion along with congratulating the winners, as I'd like to do this again next year (and also have a little something cooking for December possibly). This was the first time running this contest, and there were a few snags, but only a few.

Author voting: I allowed author voting, and it didn't cause any upsets, but it did have the possibility to. If I stick with a 2 vote system, I thought one better possibility is to assume every author would vote for themselves for first ignoring any other factors, and allow them only one second place vote.

The nomination process: I wanted to avoid allowing authors to nominate their own arcs which I thought would create a massive flood of arcs that I wasn't prepared to take on. But this nomination process created the problem that a few of the arcs were by authors who are no longer active, so it really didn't matter to them whether they won or not. Also, many of the authors didn't know they were nominated until towards the end of the process (my fault for not better notifying them as I should) One thought is to have authors post their arcs for qualification in one thread, and have players choose nominations from the qualification thread in a second thread. That might be a little convoluted though.

The categories themselves: There was a bit of conflict over the level range categories. One of the TO arcs, which ended up winning, contained an AV in it, which many thought were too tough for a TO range arc, but many others thought differently. Also, in the so-called "Epic" category, some felt that Blap Blap Blappy Day had a disadvantage because it was not "epic" in feel, even though it covered the level range.

The number of arcs for voters: There was a large amount of arcs for possible voters to play through in a limited amount of time. It's hard to pin down a correct amount of time for something like this, but I ended up with a lot of votes in all the categories, many people who voted in all the categories, and many who voted in most.

Anything else to discuss, feel free. I'm interested in your thoughts and opinions to help make the MA a great place for authors!

And our first category is the TO level range (1-15) arcs:


In 5th place, with 2 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 7 points is:

15+ Minute Tutorial - Knowledge is Power: Architect Entertainment #28470 @Paula

In 4th place, with 4 first place votes, and 5 second place votes for a total of 13 points is:

Day Job Hell: A Villain’s First Day Job, # 322480 @Clave Dark 5

In 3rd place, with 5 first place votes, and 4 second place votes for a total of 14 points is:

Nuclear in 90: The Fusionette Task Force #58363 @Cavatina

In 2nd place, with 6 first place votes, and 6 second place votes for a total of 18 points is:

Mercytown, the one with the fish #6017 @Tangler

And our winner, with 7 first place votes, and 6 second place votes for a total of 20 points is:

The Marconeville Horror #178278 @Footloose

Some statistics: This was a close race, with the Mercytown coming in a very close second, and tied for first at one point. Even though some have called into question the suitability of using difficult enemies in a "TO" range arc. Also, if first and second place votes were equally weighted, Nuclear 90 and Day Job Hell would be tied for 3rd place.

Our next category is for the DO level range (15-25)


In 5th place, with 0 first place votes, and 1 second place vote for a total of 1 point is:

PUG Hell #7415 @Beach Lifeguard

In 4th place, with 1 first place votes, and 0 second place votes for a total of 2 points is:

Cutthroat Competition #10171 @Frozen Northman

In 3rd place, with 4 first place votes, and 4 second place votes for a total of 12 points is:

Sibling Rivalry #118690 @Sister Flame

In 2nd place, with 8 first place votes, and 8 second place votes for a total of 24 points is:

Ctrl + Alt + Reset! #137561 @Bubbawheat

And our winner, with 9 first place votes, and 9 second place votes for a total of 27 points is:

The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! #61013 @Aliana Blue

some statistics: If authors had not been allowed to vote in their own categories, Ctrl + Alt + Reset and Bikini etc.... would be tied with 8 and 8 votes. And if I had voted for myself, I would have won. But I wouldn't have this any other way.

Next up is the SO level range (25-40)


In 5th place, with 1 first place vote, and 1 second place vote for a total of 3 points is:

Twisted Tongue #1444 @Days

In 4th place, with 3 first place votes, and 2 second place votes for a total of 8 points is:

Polar Emergence Neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN) #29205 @Tubbius

In 3rd place, with 4 first place votes, and 6 second place votes for a total of 14 points is:

Escalation #6143 @FemFury

In 2nd place, with 6 first place votes, and 8 second place votes for a total of 20 points is:

Astoria in D Minor # 41565 @The Cheshire Cat

And our winner, with 11 first place votes, and 7 second place votes for a total of 29 points is:

Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335 @PW

some statistics: This was another close race with first and second places switching a couple times over the course of the voting. Also, no matter how I would calculate the votes, they all came up in this same order.

And the last of the level range categories: Best Epic level (40-50) arcs


In 5th place, with 1 first place vote, and 3 second place votes for a total of 5 points is:

Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! #2019 @Wrong Number

In 4th place, with 2 first place votes, and 1 second place vote for a total of 5 points is:

The Fracturing of Time #171031 @Tahlana

In 3rd place, with 3 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 9 points is:

The Most Important Thing #266877 @Aisynia

In 2nd place, with 3 first place votes, and 9 second place votes for a total of 15 points is:

A Warrior's Journey: the Flower Knight Task Force #260284 @PW

And our winner, with 10 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 23 points is:

One Million Eyes #71933 @minimalist

some statistics: this category had the fewest total votes out of all of the categories. Also, the tie for 4th place was broken by using only the first place votes.

The best short arc, for those with 3 missions or less:


In 5th place, with 3 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 9 points is:

The Monster Hop #27861 @Big Daddy Vio

In 4th place, with 4 first place votes, and 1 second place vote for a total of 9 points is:

Of Sound Body and Mind #13107 @Mr. Mud

In 3rd place, with 5 first place votes, and 5 second place votes for a total of 15 points is:

Becky's Revenge #60197 @New Age Ronin

In 2nd place, with 6 first place votes, and 8 second place votes for a total of 20 points is:

Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns #8925 @Hydrophidian

And our winner, with 7 first place votes, and 8 second place votes for a total of 22 points is:

Celebrity Kidnapping #1388 @PW

some statistics: This was yet another close category, with Forget the Rose leading the category by a fairly wide margin up until this last week. Also, this was the category with the most total votes at 25. And, the 4th place tie was broken by using only the first place votes.

The best arc with more than five missions:


In 4th place, with 3 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 9 points is:

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine #1013, 174557 @Turgenev

In 3rd place, with 3 first place votes, and 5 second place votes for a total of 11 points is:

The Lost Choir #123675, 136959, 141011 @MrSquid

In 2nd place, with 4 first place votes, and 10 second place votes for a total of 18 points is:

The Audition #221240, 221241 @MRCaptainMan

And our winner, with 12 first place votes, and 5 second place votes for a total of 29 points is:

The Consequences of War #227331, 241496 @Dalghryn

some statistics: This category had the winner with the most total points, and the most first place votes.

The best serious arc, or drama, or just plain non-comedy:


In 6th place, with 0 first place votes, and 2 second place votes for a total of 2 points is:

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine, Act I #1013 @Turgenev

In 5th place, with 3 first place votes, and 1 second place vote for a total of 7 points is:

Karmic Exchange #47550 @Braxzana

In 4th place, with 3 first place votes, and 2 second place votes for a total of 8 points is:

Kiss Hello Goodbye #156389 @Kitsune9tails

In 3rd place, with 4 first place votes, and 0 second place votes for a total of 8 points is:

Blight #140423 @Witch Engine

In 2nd place, with 3 first place votes, and 4 second place votes for a total of 10 points is:

The Storyteller: Sabrina's Tale #1237 @Redbone1

And our winner, with 3 first place votes, and 7 second place votes for a total of 13 points is:

Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name #178774 @Silvers1

some statistics: This was another extremely close category, and the only one that was decided by second place votes. Almost every arc in this category got 3 first place votes. And the love it or hate it arc Blight had the most first place votes, but 0 second place votes. Also, four of these arcs are now dev choice, three of them because they were nominees in the official MA Awards, and The Storyteller was the winner of the official contest. A very close race between many great arcs.

And now... intermission


And we're back with the best Comedy arc!


In 3rd place, with 2 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 7 points is:

Verner von Grun's Extraordinary Extradimensional Excursions #115174 @Igor Blimey
Freakshow U #189073 @Lethal Guardian
Seeking Men #169114 @Fatare

In 2nd place, with 5 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 13 points is:

Captain Dynamic, the Great, Faces the Great Face #190069 @Aehaed

And our winner, with 7 first place votes, and 5 second place votes for a total of 19 points is:

In Poor Taste #259920 @Wrong Number

some statistics: A pure 3 way tie for 3rd place, and I don't see any need to break those down into a tiebreaker. And the top two arc's authors voted for each other for their own first place vote, how generous.

And finally, best use of mechanics in an arc.


In 5th place, with 0 first place votes, and 2 second place votes for a total of 2 points is:

Grim Riddles #1396 @Mantid

In 4th place, with 1 first place vote, and 5 second place votes for a total of 7 points is:

The Beating Heart of Astoria: A Play in Five Acts #170547 @The Cheshire Cat

In 3rd place, with 4 first place votes, and 3 second place votes for a total of 11 points is:

Speeding Through Time # 51728 @Geek_Boy

In 2nd place, with 4 first place votes, and 4 second place votes for a total of 12 points is:

Macguffin Delivery Service #1567 @Lazarus

And our winner, with 9 first place votes, and 4 second place votes for a total of 22 points is:

The Next War on Drugs #245042 @anachrodragon

some statistics: Um... no real interesting statistics in this category. Move along, nothing to see here.

December Player Choice Award Results

Best Group

In third place, with 1 second place vote, and 1 third place vote for a total of 3 points is a tie between Laser Jesus's Freedom Militia and Clave Dark 5's WickerWork.


In second place, with 3 second place votes, and 1 third place vote with a total of 7 points is my own
Matchstick Women.

And in first place, with 2 first place votes, and 1 second place vote for a total of 8 points is Wrong Number's The Wannabes


Best Character

In third place, with 1 first place vote and 1 second place vote for a total of 5 points is New Age Ronin's Becky, the Tarantula Mistress.

In second place, with 1 first place vote, 1 second place vote, and 3 third place votes, for a total of 8 points is Fem Fury's Erica Lashion, aka Escalation

And in first place, with 2 first place votes, 1 second place vote, and 1 third place vote for a total of 9 points is Wrong Number's The Firecracker Kid! Congratulations, you may call yourself Queen of the Customs! Thanks everyone for participating!

January Player Choice Awards: The New Year


Best New Arc

In 6th place with 2 second place votes for a total of 2 points is @Clave Dark 5 with his arc Against the WickerWork Khan! #346904

In 5th place with 1 first place vote and 4 second place votes for a total of 6 points is @Lazarus with his arc Breaking the Barrier (and Putting it Back Together Again) #347029

In 4th place with 2 first place votes and 2 second place votes for a total of 6 points is @Jail.Bird with his arc The New Paragon Society Reborn #355351

In 3rd place with 1 first place vote and 7 second place votes for a total of 9 points is @FredrikSvanberg with his arc Fear And Loathing On Striga #350522

In 2nd place with 5 first place votes and 4 second place votes for a total of 14 points is @LaserJesus Drakule vs The Werewolf Bikers from Hell #340316

And this month's winner with 7 first place votes and 1 second place vote for a total of 15 points is @Tubbius with his arc Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City #351727

Best Unknown Author

In 5th place is @Calash with their arcs Time for Reflection #303046 and End Game - Final Moves #17006

In 4th place with 1 second place vote for a total of 1 point is @Oubliette with their arc Evil by Inches #349967

In 3rd place with 6 second place votes for a total of 6 points is @Arctic Princess with their arc Simplicity #365497

In 2nd place with 4 first place votes and 3 second place votes for a total of 11 points is @Celestial Nemesis with their arc The Coldest of Wars #299972

And this month's winner with 6 first place votes and 1 second place vote for a total of 13 points is @Sister Twelve with their arcs The Long Road Back #340454 and The Union of the Mask #352400

Voting is officially closed

The results thread will be up shortly.

And a few comments from Matchstick Women:

Name PW
Comment "Very good story of Emily's descent into madness and villainy. First mission especially cool; have not seen a fire fighting mission in MA and this arc portrayed it effectively. Emily's back story and final release handled very well. Nitpicks: why fight the Council firefighters in mission 1? How did defeating Emily set her free? (As a hero I assume I didn't KILL her?)  Where did this magical flame giving me missions come from? Despite these questions, I found the story compelling. Will post more on forum."

Name PW
Comment "Really like fighting the fire in the first mission and the story in the last one; I did see that the final fate of Emily was made clearer in the final mission."

Name Proto-Spyne
Comment "A flaming good time!"

Name "M I Abrahms"
Comment "A sad arc.  Would love to see if there's anything else to the story.  Reviewed for Aentertainment Tonight Aug 27"

And finally, comments for Whack-a-Mole, love these comments, they're so much fun:

Name "Wrong Number"
Comment First off, love the concept! Really nice idea. Humor wise I would rewrite the contact to be more carnival barker like and maybe even change it to a custom. Instead of "accept" how about "Waste your $2 on this silly game. no one ever wins" BTW I ran this 2 times and won it the 2nd run. The Moles I am assuming are chained bosss fights. They need dialog. How about "mole" taunts and humor. i.e." Don't Mole-est me!". Also, the contact should say the first Mole is in the very back of the map . WN.

Name Bo'Tanika
Comment "dagnabbit! this is addicting! Now I have to do it again!.... and again!..... and again! tee-hee hee hee!"

Name Aehaed
Comment Always great to find an arc that can so readily be called, "demented".

Name Geekboy
Comment I found that to be kinda cute. I have two small suggestions: First is that in the mission description, I think "step right up" sounds better than "step right down." Second, I think your top score should be whatever the max number of tickets/mission is. Just as a little wink and a nod to the player. I played it at Villainous, so of course there wasn't much challenge at all since I'm still using DO's and won't boost the difficulty yet.

Name Lazarus
Comment "Yay, I won!"

Name "Lethal Guardian"
Comment "(Pro Payne) Heh - this was a very amusing little mission; it really is a pity the I16 changes will seriously nerf the XP for this, it's really a cool little idea.  I wonder if there's a way to incorporate your current score into the mission objective line - it'd make it a lot more visible, and increase the feel that your playing a cute little game."

Name PW
Comment "Fun game!  Very clever use of MA to make a carnival game."

Name MrCaptainMan
Comment "A fun time-passer indeed. Can see myself repeating thisevery now and again when my scrapper needs a fun workout."

Name "Wrong Number"
Comment "Ran it on Bad Manners level 22 Brute and was able to finish it in time.  Next time you are on send me a tell.  I would like to run this as a PERC event on Justice.  WN"

Name "Shadow Conduction"
Comment "Nicely done for what it is."

Name "Homeless Ronin"
Comment "Great boss rush style, awesome mechanic, I was disappointed no-one announced that he was Cornmolio, tho :-)"

Name Golden-Age
Comment "Love the concept and the creative use of MA mechanics! 5 stars!"

Name Eraserdog
Comment "I never get tired of this one "

Comment time again! Been a while, first up: Ctrl + Alt + Reset:


Name Rokkwarr
Comment "I will strangle you.... I open a box.... And I get rickrolled.... /e smack"

Name Tremor.
Comment "Thank you for entertaining me i especially loved being rick rolled in the 3rd mission "

*note* some people love it, some people hate it

Name Zamuel
Comment "I'd say that the arc is good for what it is: a time loop. In my own personal taste I tend to avoid time travel stuff but that's due to the head scratching nature of many time paradox stories. Part of me wants to say that you should do small tweaks so th first two parts are little more different so there's less repetition but in ways that would be betraying the actual time loop itself. Also, I don't remember Wyvern hitting that hard redside but that was probably due to spawn size."

Name "Mr Right"
Comment "The glowie idea in the third mission is cute, but I really don't think that many clues need to be there. It just clutters up the clue tab and obfuscates the story I could normally follow through the clues"

Name Archdevil
Comment Marx final mission dialogue: "you're commander" should be "your". No clue from the X-files episode where the bank kept exploding? Or maybe I missed something. Still one of my favorite arcs.

Name "Lia Bete Noire"
Comment "Nicely done! Love the Red Dwarf, Star Trek, Rocky Horror references. The geek was strong with that arc. "

Name Tatmia
Comment "Wonderful, thank you for making this."

Name Fearghas
Comment Fun arc all around, great use of the game mechanics and the end made me go, "Ohhhhhhh Foreshadow!!" *fist shake*

*note* before he was the man we now call Dr. Aeon!

Name Ashcraft
Comment "Great arc, the details really make it shine."

Name Gunbunny
Comment "An Excellent arc. Good story, a twist in the plot, nice work with the possibilities MA offers. I rate it a 5."

Name "Turtle 3.5"
Comment I found your arc from the AE forums. I liked the mission, but am only rating it 5 stars so as not to mess up your record. The protagonist (player) should use what (s)he learns in each mission to further their progress each time, but instead, it felt like I was being being hit over the head with clues. I like my sci-fi to feel like it's "grounded" in something real or that could be real. I didn't feel like you convinced me of the plausability of this one. All that said, though, it's a really nice effort.

Name MissKitten
Comment "That was a really fun arc Good Job"

Name "Gaul MacFion"
Comment "A rare gem among the dungheap that the AE has become. very creative take on the time loop. probably one of the best missions i have stumbled across"

Name "blue bandana"
Comment "Nicely done! I like that even the large number of collectible items were easily done and their text was entertaining. The fights in the last mission weren't linear, but that's a problem with the AE UI - there's only three general-area selections, and you were working with four bosses, so you can't control their placement. Good story, well played."

Name "M I Abrahms"
Comment "It's a thin line to talk in stories of this nature, but this one managed to be repetitious enough to get the point across, withought being repetitive. Reviewed for AEntertainment Tonight, Oct 1"

Name "Destiny Rose"
Comment "Wow that was awesome - So creative - fun to play - Loved it!"

Name Razorwyrd
Comment "Well played sir, well played. CoH is really not where I would expect to get rickrolled~ Awesome arc!"

Name Golden-Age
Comment "awesome use of mechanics and nicely woven into an intriguing story! love the clues, but didn't get the Merry Xmas from Howie Mandell joke..."

*note* It's from a Christmas time loop episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from the 90s.

Name FemFury
Comment "Well writen. Interesting take on the concept. Some clever and funny clues too. My only concern is not sure Foreshadow is the best contact to detect a temporal anomaly. Maybe the Science Store guy from Brickstown? Or even Positron?"

*note* I like his look and his name, and his lore is little known enough that I felt I could take liberties.

Name Frija
Comment "Very neat, liked all the little references including the Red Dwarf one. I think the Time Shifter's ultimate form was also a very clever work around for a 'big boss' that's doable for low levels, though I think it might be better for it to trigger some TS ambushes to represent it projecting additional reinforcements."

Name Aehaed
Comment "Pushes arc mechanics to its limits in places, but still rolls along nicely as the story is VERY well written. Despite the theme, it is never repetitive. Loved the mechanics of the temporal anomaly that you created. Great work!"

sent a PM to Niviene a while back, never heard about it. Also made a post here before that, got a little support, but no action. Hope you have better luck than me.

Actually, found it, sent 9/21:

Still one more day of voting. I'll post sometime after 9pm Eastern time closing the voting, and I will have the results, statistics, and whatever else in a new thread shortly afterwards.

Currently a tie for the TO arcs. Need more votes if you haven't voted yet, either that or help me figure out how to handle a tie-breaker.

Only applies to MA, to my knowledge.

quick side note: You can invite teammates in the middle of MA arcs, there's just no team search window button. You can still type /search to bring up the team search window.

I think your character finds out where those missing people end up... >.> ... <.< ... >.>

My final votes, for multi-part arcs:

1st: Consequences of War
2nd: The Audition

Other maps with "indoors", several of which boggled me the first time.

The Zig - click the sewer pipes to continue. (see: Celebrity Kidnapping)
Just a couple weeks ago I played a map villainside that's a large city map and you have to enter one of the buildings.
There's a nighttime docks mission with a building in the center that you have to enter. (see: Fight The NITES)
The map talked about in this thread (which was one that actually never gave me problems).

I had thought it was Smurphy. I sent a PM a while back asking, but never heard back.

Ok, I've weighed in on both sides, and decided to stick with Monday the 9th. I've got something else in the works already too. So, we'll see how that goes.

I know you've got a lot of review requests here, but I updated Matchstick Women and wouldn't mind another quick look at it. Notably I added a brand new mission #2, and added a few bio/clue details in mission #3. Let me know if it answers any more of your questions, or if it just raises more.