Telegram Sam:

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-This year's event broke two records: 

Longest judging period  :/

Biggest prizes pool (71 bil)  :]

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-Mundi Kundoni's “Biomass 2- Revelations” is our Grand Prize winner. [Telegram Sam's micro-review]: The story is a continuation of a prize-winning tale entered in last year's event.  However, it stands on its own, with no knowledge of the earlier story needed.  It does a great job of visualizing what it would be like to be in a ship and a fleet in New Eden space, I think.  And it's a great story, i.e. a good tale with an absorbing plot.  Congratulations, Mundi!  (There are many other stories deserving micro-reviews, but I'll save those for writers who request individual feedback).

 

-We received 52 stories this year, which is seven less than we received last year, but around the average we receive each year.  Several stories were by returning writers, but most were from names who are new to this event.  Very good to see both veterans people and new ones writing. 

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-Judging this year took a record long time-- sorry about that.  It seems that RL got in the way for about all of us.  Scoring was very tight.  For example, in one category, the difference between First Prize and Second Prize was 0.01 points.  (Judges award entries scores of 1 to 10).  The judges had pretty widely diverging opinions on all of the stories.  For example, one winning story earned these scores:  9,9,8,7,5.

 

-Of the 52 stories entered, 19% were 750 words or less and eligible for a Very Short Fiction prize, compared to 57% last year.  Many stories reached the 5,000 word limit, or close to it.  In comparison, most stories last year were in the 1,500 - 2,500 words range.

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​-Stories by Dantelion Shinoni, Katsumoto Moliko, and Korsavius earned both Very Short Fiction prizes and major prizes for their categories. 

 

-This year we again had proportionally more entries in the 8,000 Suns category and less in A Day in the Life than in previous years. And more stories in A Day in the Life were set in the New Eden lore, rather than in-game.

 

All in all, another excellent display of EVE players’ surprising talent writers of fiction.

 

Writers -- Congratulations on the fine work, and thank you for sharing with us. If you want to know how the judges scored your stories, or you want some feedback, just let me know.  ISK and loot for the prize-winning stories will be transferred/contracted over the next week or so.

 

Judges —Thank you for volunteering your precious free time, and thank you for your hard work! It's always great working with you all. Reasonableness personified.

 

Sponsors

Arataka Research Consortium, Mizhara Del'Thul, EVE Onion, OpusMagnum High Drag EVE Podcast, Raata Zaibatsu, Little Star Logistics, DomanarK, Celestia Via, Miyoshi Akachi  -- Thank you for literally making this year's event possible.  It looked like we were going to have to cancel due to lack of prize funds, but instead we ending up with a record 71 bil ISK to award. Your gifts supporting the creative arts show everyone that we're not just a bunch of internet spaceships nerds. We're creative arts nerds as well. Thanks especially to Arataka Research Consortium, whose 45 bil donation let us move forward with the event when it was on the verge of cancellation.  o7 all of you donors--your generosity is much appreciated.   

 

Finally, thanks going out to anyone who mentioned this event in a podcast, on reddit, to corpies, or wherever.  Getting the word out to writers is always the most difficult thing about Pod & Planet.

 

Well done everyone!  Keep on writing and keep on getting better!  o7

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