We have only two rounds left!
Be sure and vote in this semi-final round to determine who makes it to the finale to face Leah!!
What are some favorite WAR2 moments? What would you like to see changed for next time? What worked, what didn't?
Are you excited? I'm excited.
I know, it's so exciting! Im going to have to weed out my head to find my favorite moments ~ there's been quite a few.
FIRSTLY though:
FOR AVERY ~ awesome job.
Also ~ I know you've been busy Avery, but it is March, and I'm Alive :P
*hugs Avery, then runs back under his rock*
UTAH! Nooooooo, come back!
I want to commend Avery and Utah for running a tight ship despite a sometimes ornery and even mutinous crew.
I've barely logged onto the internet in a couple months. I give AD all credit for this thing. She's a fucking badass. If she were here I'd give her an actual hug for kicking so much ass.
My favorite WAR2 moment was each time the voting closed with me on top. Otherwise, the good-natured shit-talk in the forums.
I dug the prompts, even the weird ones, and especially that they came in various forms. There was only one of my seven I didn't care for, but even it yielded a story eventually: one that would've taken me longer to spark given the alternative of nothing.
Making the Pit flash was a good call, kept things speeding along while letting the writers maybe branch out a bit.
The flexing schedule was difficult to deal with at times, not knowing what to expect a few weeks in advance, whether it was a reading or writing week (I'm mostly a weekend writer, and had to block most of them off), but this is a volunteer-run thing, and we gotta be reasonable about that, too, so I don't really have a suggestion there. And the short deadlines are beneficial to the process.
One suggestion would be to get some folks to volunteer up some prizes for the Final Four or whatever.
No suggestions, it was fun. Can't wait for the next one. Favorite part was getting to know my competitors, ConMan and MattAttack. Didn't really know either too well before then.
I loved so many of the stories generated by WAR and I hated how the voting went both times I lost. Other than that, I have nothing to contribute by way of how to make it better, except to find some way to shorten the span. Mind you, it's called WAR and not Ring Around The Rosy for a reason, n'est pas?
I honestly don't have many (any?) complaints about WAR. Yeah, it sucked to lose, but I feel great about the fact that I created stories that I wouldn't have if I hadn't taken part. I got to know cool people, enlisted my friend Tom, and best of all, was able to read all these amazing stories everyone has cranked out under pressure with crazy-ass prompts. (I think the GI Joes were probably my favorite, though I was pretty jealous over the photo & music prompts).
Huge kudos to Utah & Avery for putting this together and keeping things as fair and noble as possible. I'm super excited to see what happens this round. Best of luck everyone. (You'll need it against Leah, guys!)
Ditto on all the thank you and hugs for Avery and Utah. You guys are amazing.
I definitely didn't expect the workload in terms of reading, but I learned so damn much from you guys...it's hard to imagine NOT having read all those stories.
I've LOVED getting to know so many of you, and I'm honestly just so grateful for everything. Like, ridiculously grateful. Like, look out, because I WILL hug you for REAL if we ever meet face to face.
Thank god, I thought Utah was dead!
...and I had killed him. I'm too pretty to go to jail.
Big round of applesauce to Utah and of course our long-suffering la belle dame sans merci Avery!
WAR was really fun for me - I loved having a finished story, since I so rarely finish things. It went on a long time, but it went very smoothly, all things considering. I can't wait to see who wins!
I think I enjoyed WAR more this time around than I did the first. Being in the loser's bracket was so fast-paced and awesome. I would love to be able to experience that again, the high of cranking out stories so quickly. It was great to go up against some old pals (Renee, Martin, Josh), and to get to know some really great writers (Jeffrey, Gordon!). I was sad that I didn't get to meet up with Richard, and that I didn't get to make it to a great battle with fellow Canadian Chris, but there's always next time. THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT TIME!
Those first few weeks were pretty intense, though, with the reading load and all that. Personally I think that WAR would be best if it remained a 32 contestent competition, with a loser bracket. I know that a lot of people now know about WAR and want to participate, but with a lot of new folks joining in at the last minute, you never really know who is going to end up dropping out, and that's just frustrating.
I hate the idea of excluding people, but if there were some sort of way you could "pre-qualify" for WAR to ensure that you wouldn't end up dropping out, and that you would stick around to read the other stories and not just vote for yourself in your own matchup, that would be pretty cool. Perhaps utilizing the Workshop in some manner would be a good idea. Like, maybe you have to review at least 5 stories in the workshop between a certain time period before WAR starts. Just spitballing here, because the community aspect in the workshop always slips during WARtime and it would be nice to keep it boosted.
That said, I haven't done much in the workshop lately, so if any you folks submit a WAR story over there, do let us all know!
I loved it even though I got eliminated earlier than I had hoped. Thank you Avery and Utah. I know it was hard work on you guys. Please let's do another one. It really encourages me to write. I've polished my first entry and think it might actually be getting publishable.
What would you like to see changed for next time? What worked, what didn't?
I agree with Bekanator. 32 contestants and double elimination would be better. WAR just felt too big those first few weeks. Plus, despite all the reading, those first rounds seemed to drag. I didn't like the change in schedule over the christmas/new year period. I know everyone had loads of holiday stuff on, I did too, but I have way more time to write during holiday periods. I would have preferred war to continue on through. I loved the introduction of flash in the Pit. I think everyone loved that, didn't they? Overall, I think war has been a major sucess. Everyone got a bunch of writing done, everyone seemed to get along. It's been a heap of fun. And it's not even over yet!
Hey, I know what we can do for the pre-qualification. We can conduct a series of mini-WARs, the winners of which will go on to WAR3. So WAR3 could have the 32 contestants, but WARpre3 could start with, say, 128 (or 256? Who's feelin' froggy?) and get whittled down to the "best" 32. Of course, for that to be fair, and to make sure somebody didn't get edged out in a fluke round, we'd have to make the 128-contestant WARpre3 double-elim, also.
And then in order to keep things interesting, WAR3 would have a word count requirement of 3500-5000 words. Same writing period, though, so no worries that it would go overlong.
What do you think, Avery? Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
bek is just DYING to kick my ass. well, get in line sister, obviously it's not that hard to do.
thanks avery, you are indeed a doll. the prompts ALWAYS rock.
always a blast. no complaints.
I have an ass-kicking list. Gordon's on the top of it now, though.
@Utah --- I like it. You think big. I'm feeling the gumption. But let's not play pattycake. We've all heard of NaNoWriMo. I think we should show those pansies a thing-or-two and make WAR3 into NaNoWriYe. That's right: 12 consecutive month-long rounds of writing, reading, maybe a little editing, and voting on dozens and dozens of >50,000wd novels.
J.Y is a lunatic - but man that would be fun!
Dozens?
Hundreds!
NaNoWriYe it must be!
^^ If only this were true, nothing worse than dirty pikers. ;)
Utah & Jessica -- thank you so much for your efforts. I know it wasn't easy a lot of the time, so I do appreciate all the time and energy you put into this competition.
Incidentally, er, what's happening with WAR? My membership expired and I've been out of the WAR loop.
Ah, Bek, generations of Canadian children would have sang tales of our epic battle! :)
Like everyone else, I'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to Avery and Utah for keeping this competition on the rails for the past several months. I can't imagine how much behind the scenes work was involved in herding us cats, so I more than appreciate all of the effort.
Changes for WAR3? Hmm... honestly, I think my only ""complaint"" (with two sets of quotes, because it's not actually a tourny design flaw) is the drop off in votes with each passing round. I mean, I totally get that it's a big commitment, but it's a bummer to know that so many people just wrote off the rest of the competition as soon as they were eliminated (or, worse, after they'd dropped their first match). I like Bek's suggestion of making people put in time in the workshop to prove they really want to participate, but I'd maybe even go a step further and make WAR exclusive to people who have LitReactor memberships for at least the following three months.
I hate to exclude anyone from such a great event, but I think the biggest factor in voter loss was the number of people who wanted to sign up, but needed to have other people spot their membership fees. I can appreciate that money is tight, or that not everyone has a credit card but - in an age of five dollar mochas and prepaid credit cards - if you can't find, like, six bucks in your monthy budget to sign up for a competition that you apparently really really want to join, forgive me if I doubt your dedication to the process.
Following on TomorrowHill's thoughts, how about future participants needing to have fulfilled a minimum number of workshop critiques? I don't know if it's something that can be kept track of (or already is, for that matter), but that's definately people who are more serious about improving their craft.
What if you used that as a requirement for ranking contestants. And you can have one single elimination battle round of 64 (Flash maybe 1000 words or less) before the real 32 tournament starts and that determines the 32 who get in the double elim war. Another option is to do real divisions. Where basically you have four 16 man double elim tournys at one and then winners have to battle each other to see who goes to the championship. Not sure if that could work double-elim style but I'd investigate it.
Oh, and Thanks Jessica, I think you did awesome at war. ANd Utah for a bit, but this is one hell of an ordeal and you handled it about the best way imaginable. Kudos.
Personally, I don't think tightening the circle by adopting a pay-to-play model would be advisable. On the other hand, if you did require payment and a bunch of people wanted to do all the same stuff for free, they could go and do it elsewhere. Or do it here, for that matter. There could be pay-WAR and free-WAR. It's an easily-joined forum.
And kudos to AD for the inspired song choice above.
You could have the early rounds be double- elimination, but have four people competing on each story Instead of two. Three people would lose. Losers still get a second chance, but you would narrow the field twice as fast. Just a suggestion.
The biggest issue is how long it drags out and how the voting drops. That major drop off tells you all you need to know. Almost two thirds of the participants aren't even participating. This year some of us sponsored new members. I'm not sure if they kept up with LR, but I don't see them participating in the WAR threads, so it's probably not a stretch some of the new recruits aren't playing anymore either.
Cut the field drastically, at least in half. It can't be all inclusive. The numbers from two WARs show that. It's a bunch of people waiting their turn to speak rather than listening. Once they lose the opportunity to speak, they bail. Call it what it is.
I wasn't a fan of the Thurs night through Sunday deadlines. I know a lot of people write on the weekends. I'm more social on the weekends and get less writing in. Plus, I take weekend trips, have friends, etc. Now - I get that you'll argue "if you don't have the time, then don't play." But when something lasts 4 months, chances are things are going to come up. I was actually relieved when I lost the last time round. I had a friend from NYC coming in from Friday morning through Monday. I can't tell the guy who planned that weekend three months in advance to go get lost for a few hours a couple of the days during his visit. I'd ask for consideration of some of the 'weight' being taken off on weekend writing - especially since this is going for months on end. If you want the best possible stories, give us a little more flexibility.
All of this rolls into how long it takes to work our way to the finals - which should be alleviated if you whack 32 spots. If you want to get creative for pre-War tourneys for newer or less established LRs, by all means. But asking EVERYONE to do it again is just kind more of the same - a lot more reading/writing and an even longer period of time.
Just my thoughts.
I loved it for the same reason all of you who stuck around did. I got to "know" you better. I read a shit ton of great stories. I think I wrote 8 or 9 new stories, one of which will be published at Pantheon. I probably wouldn't have put out that kind of work if I wasn't involved. That's invaluable.
To agree, the biggest disappointment is the dropping in Reading/voting, I know I'd be gutted if I had fought this long and only maybe 17 out of an original 64 were still reading ~ i mean seriously, the reading load just gets easier and easier, hardly any kind of time-drain at all (Plus the stories are always excellent)
I like the pit rounds, not only because they allowed me to last one round longer than last year, but also because of the fast & furious balance they created. So yes to double elimination.
I don't know how serious Avery was when she suggested paying to play, but that doesn't sound too crazy to me, it would be nice to have some prizes (and I say that as someone who would probably never win them) although on the other hand people pay hundreds for the online classes and still drop out.
While I think 32 players in a double elim sounds good my major, major fear would be missing out on a place, just look how quickly it filled up this year ~ one idea would be to contact people who show dedication to the whole war first and allocate them slots, then make it free for all. Of course this always seams like a kind of jack-ass elitist move, but on the other hand when you consider the drop out rate... Also the danger of this is that we could exclude some awesome people. Loads of new LitReactors signed up for this war and stayed with it all these months, we could potentially shutting them out.
Ahhh, what do I know anyway.
War ~never been so much fun :)
yeah, i could see cutting the field in half. maybe you have to have XX amount of points in the workshop or something, to even get in.
For the record, I joined LitReactor when I learned about WAR....I'd done ScareUs, but still hadn't become involved overall. I wouldn't have had anywhere near enough points in the workshop to get in. That said, I think a smaller field would be good...so long as I can still play!
I think pay-to-play is awesome. Seriously.
I'd pay.
But I also cannot emphasize enough how much I feel I've gained from this contest. New friends, some confidence I don't think I'd have ever found, a couple of stories placed...I am so 100% grateful for this experience. It's been a ride.
Shoot, now I'm all tearing up. Stupid girl-emotions. I hate them.
I'm with Leah. I had no workshop experience - submitting or reviewing - prior to WAR. ScareUs and a couple of classes were all I had under my belt.
But I would be in favor of a pay-to-play or workshop participation or some combination of both requirement for the next WAR. I would do whatever I had to in order to weasel my way in.
And, yeah, the drop-off in readers has been disappointing. Not that the WAR vets didn't warn all us rookies. So huge round of applause to everyone still participating.
I can't really think of anything else I would want to see changed.
Last, but certainly not least, AD and Utah are Gods. Seriously.
Great job everyone on writing about 5476 seriously kick-ass stories.
If stories were feet, we'd have written more than a mile of stories.... Damn, I say... Damn.
Also, I would vote against having any kind of pre-registration requirements for the next War. The drops are unfortunate, but I only just got in at the last minute because of a drop-out before things started. And I made some great friends, wrote some good stories (which I hope to turn into great stories), and became truly and fully absorbed in this community, all because of War. If there'd be any kind of pre-reg requirement, I would have passed it up.
Just my 2 cents.
This final battle is going to be amazing. I'm also biased both ways, because Leah is a woman and I'd love for her to carry on my legacy. Also, Chris is Canadian and I'd love for him to carry on my legacy.
Is WAR a once a year thing?
Even though I was "here" a good 6 or 7 months prior to WAR, I wasn't all that active. I didn't become more active and get to know a lot of you until I was a part of all this. So WAR brought me in tighter to the LR community and I'm grateful for that.
That said, consider this: 64 participants, 4+ months, 2/3rd voting dropout a little after 2 months in, X amount of 'no shows' giving people cheap wins, workshop dropoffs (which may negatively affects our other community members).
Doing it the same the next time around is expecting more of the same. I think we can improve it. While we need LR the vets, we also need the new blood.
The way to help alleviate those substantial drop offis is to alleviate the amount of hours & months. I think the only way to do that is lop the field.
You could do an invite for the first 2/3s of the spots based on the first two WARs. Then keep maybe 8-12 spots open for new WAR participants. And I do think this spot needs to be earned in some way. Maybe through a couple of preliminary battles (off-season), they are paid memberships, have a minimum amount of posts and maybe at least 5 reviews in the workshop - something to show they're committed to LR.
I think we can find a balance to lessen the load on everyone and inject new blood into the tourney.
I do think a workshop memborship should be a requirement. Several people joined without it, wich insured they never read or voted on a single story. I think you were joking when you mentioned pay to play, but everyone here who is still reading and voted had to pay 36$ to do that. Granted, we got to use the workshop and take atvantage of the essays for that money too. I think it is well worth it, though I didn't get to use those other things as much while WAR was going on, 9$ a month was reasonable for WAR alone, just getting to read all of the communities great stories and write and learn and grow.
So I say no to an extra fee, but atleast a three month membership minimum requirement or something.
And I like most of Otis's ideas above.
And we should make newbies Thunderdome to earn spots in ;) Just kidding. Unless you think that works ;)
Like Leah, Ian and Otis have mentioned, I participated in Scare Us and even became a paid member afterward. So I was "here" but I didn't really participate much on LR until WAR came about. I'm very grateful for the experience and that I was able to get into the competition, but I'm also thankful that I've gotten to know some of you better and LR overall. Now that WAR is nearly done, I don't plan to vanish as I did after Scare Us and I'm looking foward to checking out the workshops soon.
I'd be willing to Pay to Play if it came to that, even if that meant paying a small fee on top of my membership. As of right now, I don't have any reviews out there in the workshops, but I'll get there. Had that been a requirement to get into WAR, I wouldn't have been able to participate at all. Still, I see the point Otis is making, that we need to see that people are committed, and I agree for the most part, especially if you're reserving 8-12 spots for noobs. I also think Covewriter is onto something with having more than two writers on a prompt at the outset. Would something like that work to move things along more quickly, or would that just result in too many ties?
I was a member for a while before WAR, but it was WAR that really got me to participate and now feel like part of the community. I think 32 is the right amount of people, but I don't necessarily like how many people wouldn't get to participate. One idea would to make it double elimination after the first round. So start with 64 people, but only 32 move on. After that, it's regular double elimination. That might solve the problem of including everyone while also trimming the field faster.
Also, I think pay to play is a good idea. Even if it's a small amount, money always adds an exponential level of "take it seriously" to something.
I kind of like people being in the workshop before war. Many of us were up against people we never heard of. I guess that is okay, but it's nice to read other peoples work if they can read yours. I don't care about the little complications though> I just want to be in the next WAR.
i've always been interested in this, but never knew how to get in. I figured it was like the FBI, or CIA, someone would tap me on the shoulder and i'd be in.