In order to encourage innovative role play among new characters and alternate characters, we are happy to announce two RP oriented contests. The basics of both contests are the same but the participants differ.

<span style='color:green'>New Player Contest</span>: This contest is open to new players who either became citizens for this first time this year or will become citizens for the first time this year. If your first registered citizen was created in 2005 (or you will register for your first citizen before the end of 2005) you are eligible for this category.

<span style='color:green'>Alternate Player Contest</span>: If you created the alternate character this year, or if you create a new alternate character before the end of this year, you are eligible for this contest.

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HOW TO ENTER:

Send an email to: <span style='color:blue'>threshold@thresholdrpg.com</span>

Include in this email:

1) The subject of the email should be either:

<span style='color:red'>RP CONTEST: NEW PLAYER CONTEST</span>

or

<span style='color:red'>RP CONTEST: ALTERNATE PLAYER CONTEST</span>

2) The character name that is entering the contest.

3) Your full real name.

4) The name of your main character (account name) if #2 is not your primary character.

5) An essay/description of the role play goals, concepts, and ideas for your character. This should be at least 500 words and no more than 2000 words. You will eventually be judged partially on the quality of this write up, as well as the degree to which your character is able to effectively pursue these role play ideas. This does not mean your character cannot evolve or develop beyond or differently from these goals. You will be able to write a second essay at the end of the contest to explain how your character pursued these goals or evolved differently from them. It is these two essays, and how your character performs in light of these essays in game, that will determine the winners.

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HOW LONG WILL THE CONTEST LAST?

The contest officially begins immediately. It will last until December 31, 2005 at 11:59 pm EDT.

When the contest ends, you will have 2 weeks to complete the second essay about your character.

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HOW WILL WINNERS BE DECIDED UPON?

All essays will be posted in individual posts with the name of the character and the date of creation attached. Players and administrators will read through them and vote on which characters they feel made the greatest effort to pursue their role play ideas. The degree to which characters made these ideas and concepts evident in game is very important.

Depending on the outcomes, there may be multiple votes to narrow down the pool.

Scoring will work as follows:

The top 5 player vote getters will receive 15, 12, 9, 6, and 3 points.

Aristotle and Dalaena will also vote. Each of their top 5 vote getters will receive 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point(s).

This means the player vote counts for more than the total admin vote combined.

From these votes, 3 winners in each category will be selected.

Emphasis in voting should be upon how well and creatively the character actually role played in game. The purpose of the essays is to show some background that might explain some of the role play.

Also, it is fair to factor the date of creation into your voting decisions. If someone did more with less time, they certainly deserve some credit for that.

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WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?

<span style='color:green'>NEW PLAYER CONTEST PRIZES</span>:

<span style='color:blue'>1st Place</span>: $50 Registration, +2 Levels and +2 Guild Levels

<span style='color:blue'>2nd Place</span>: $25 Registration or 3 RP Storage Slots, and +1 Level and +1 Guild Level

<span style='color:blue'>3rd Place</span>: 25 ThreshCredits and 1 Boon


<span style='color:green'>ALTERNATE PLAYER CONTEST PRIZES</span>:

<span style='color:blue'>1st Place</span>: $50 Registration, $50 worth of Register Extras, +1 Level and +1 Guild Level

<span style='color:blue'>2nd Place</span>: $25 Registration and $25 worth of Register Extras

<span style='color:blue'>3rd Place</span>: 50 ThreshCredits

NOTE: For all level rewards, if the character is guild level 12 or higher, the reward will be 1 million xp and 200,000 coins.

The prizes are amazing! A lot of us have thought it would be great to find some way to reward RP, but I certainly didn't expect something this big. It sounds like a great idea, and I hope it becomes a recurring thing!

Are there some roleplay ideas more acceptable than others? If you're new, are there guidelines as to how to best create a character?

Irilathe

Are there really a lot of people to help newcomers? Mostly in games there's maybe one person who feels put upon if you ask. Or someone who drags you around and shows you so much you can't understand anything.

As a member of the STEA on Threshold, we have noticed a marked increase in new characters the last few weeks. There are still three or so weeks until this competition ends though, so there is still time to create and win!

The new players have continued to flood in, especially the last few days. Lots of exciting new characters are in the game, and I'm sure some of them are due to the contest. Not only are people in for some great prizes, but they're adding some really fun characters to an already rich RP environment. I hope we see more of these contests!

Both contests have come to a close. We are now in the final voting and winner selection phase.

The contestants in the "New Character" RP Contest have had their essays posted and all registered citizens are now able to vote on the outcome. In a few days, the winners will be announced.

Well, the winners were announced and we have most definitely seen a marked increase in new players and excellence of roleplay since this competition.

Kudos to all involved!