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A couple days ago, a state of crisis was declared in the media of eCanada. With it came a request for more opinions, more communication, and more support for the community through the media in general. One stopgap solution involved holding an article-writing contest. Seems like a good idea.

Some opening reflections:
Although a quick way to generate some fun, Nyx Lynx thought a media contest was not the ideal solution for the crisis. Perhaps more is needed. I wondered what a returning player could add to the media scene. I notice there’s lots of new features for the war module, but I don’t understand those yet, and ditto for changes to the economy. Politics are flat. Drama, nada. I guess the only thing left besides running a media contest would be to actually write about media contests. Sounded like a silly idea so naturally I jumped on it like a stinky old bone.

To get a better idea what an upcoming article-writing contest might be like, some casual googling turned up a wide range of media competitions held in eCanada over the ages. So I’d like to share what I dug up during my game of fetch for this Brief History of Media Contests in eCanada.

#1—Title: The Ottawa Guardian Challenge
Launch Date: Day 158

Neam Milosu appears to have kicked off this country’s first media contest and paved the way for a fine tradition of short-lived literary excellence in eCanada.

The rules were fairly simple:

“I will give 50 CAD to the first place, 25 to the second, and 10 to the third.
The contest is:
Write an article in English about anything except for the Canada/USA war.
It has to be completely original and there are no word requirements.”

#2—Title: OG Lit Awards
Launch Date: Day 436

Nea enjoyed relative success with the first OG contest and even more so with subsequent versions he later titled as the OG Lit Awards. The rules became a bit more complex but overall people seemed keen to participate:

“Updated Rules Based On Public Opinion
1. Seven Days (One week) From Starting Time to Hand in article
2. There will be a theme that every article must relate to
3. The article can be first person/third person
4. Must be readable English, spelling and grammar are okay mistakes to make
5. The prizes will be GOLD and other cool things
6. The Judges will be Banach and two people I pick
7. No breaking eRepublik rules in what you write!”

#3—Title: Mini Media Mogul Tournament: SPAMM
Launch Date: 472

After the OG Lit Awards wrapped up, another less organized contest popped up called SPAMM. It appears that winner would simply have to get friends to spam the article with comments, subs, or votes to win.

The rules strangely were:
“You may publish 1 official SPAMM article in eCanada (others do not count). The SPAMM article must contain:

1) SPAMM headline image
2) The following words anywhere in the title: SPAMM Contender
3) The message anywhere in the body of the article: “This is an official article competing in the SPAMM tournament.”
4) A link back to the SPAMM contest homepage, posted anywhere.

The article with the highest number of votes by Wednesday, March 11 will be declared the "mini" Media Mogul winner and collect the prize.”

#4—Title: Canada Prize - PvP Tournament
Launch Date: 489

A group calling themselves the Writers Guild of Canada organized an Olympic-sized player vs. player competition that spanned 5 rounds of elimination matches. They called it the Canada Prize:

Round 1 (32 competitors)
Round 2 (16 competitors)
Round 3 (8 competitors)
Round 4 (4 contestants)
Round 5/Final Match

#5—Title: Canada Prize V2 – en/fr
Launch Date: 868

The Writers Guild seems to have attempted a second Canada Prize but the structure and results of the contest are not as clear, though it did appear to be a bilingual event:

“Anybody can submit an article on any topic and it will be evaluated by a panel of anonymous judges.” Unfortunately, it appears the contest was not carried through to completion.

#6—Title: Weekly Writer’s Challenge: Week I to VI
Launch Date: 1,082

And lastly, two political parties (DAL & CPP) and WGC ran a series of simplified or streamlined contests aimed at generating activity and/or discussion in the media, from poetry to current events to open topics.

Apparently there were 6 or more challenges yet some seem missing, but here’s what can be foun😛
WC Challenge Week I
WC Challenge Week II
WC Challenge Week IV
WC Challenge Week V
WC Challenge Week VI

#7—Title: [NID] National Insult Day
Launch Date: 1,088

This would appear to be the simplest of media contests…more of a cartoon than writing competition, actually. The rules were simple:
“4 Gold to the best cartoon insults published in Canada on Oct 17th 2011.

Your insult cartoon must be this offensive.”

It looks to have run each month on the 17th for a while afterwards. And as luck would have it, today is also the 17th, so here is a nod to the old NID.

[NID] eCanada’s Fashion Police

btw, use of a french poodle also makes this a bilingual entry

#8—Title: What Defines TCO
Launch Date: 1,557

The Crimson Order Military Unity held a competition asking its members to describe what TCO means to them and eCanada. The rules were basic:

“Judging was based on: truthiness, sticking to the subject matter, and quality of the media and/or text (in other words, how good we think the article is - not grammar and spelling, so don't worry about that.)

While I couldn’t find the official launch article, a list of entries and the winners can be found here: “The Crimson Canucks “WINNING” Competition.”

#9—Title: The “Damn Sexy ‘Canadian’ Contest”
Launched Date: 1,815 (or earlier)

Perhaps not a media writing contest, but “Damn Sexy Candians” did get players sharing stuff about, or rather parts of, themselves. Only Part 2 of the contest could be found, but I think the idea behind the contest is pretty clear:

“Here are the participates there is a womens (shocking that there is less women then men participants) and mens section so you can vote just for one section or both, or you can just see who some of the people on eRepublik look like in real life and not vote, its all good.”

This particular one caught my attention as being extra adorable.

#10—Title: Dart Comics Contest
Launch Date: 1,884

Dartreal, a player who published a series of comics before moving to Canada, ran a contest to create a group of superheroes called the Fredrok Four, named after Fredrok an eRep player who had passed away:

“The contest will see four people be selected as the heroes featuring in the new comic series to be dedicated in the memory of Fredrok. We've got some very creative submissions so far so the judges and I will be having a fun time going through them all. Click here to enter the contest! Good luck to those who have!”

#11—Title: (TMS)Fill eRep with Hugo Weaving
Launch Date: 2,403

Citizen 1411605’s Muppet Show ran a media event (not so much a contest) with an interesting concept:

“The idea is pretty simple, you comment below and I'll give you a mood. You then find a pic of Hugo Weaving expressing that mood and post it in a new article along with this explanation.”

People didn’t seem to understand the basic method of what he was asking for, but it looked like they had a simple bit of fun.

#12—Title: Poetry Competition: Code-name ‘Kami’
Launch Date: 2,438

Jenavive Rosethorn Gemstone put together a rather well constructed poetry contest following a similar model as that of Canada Prize’s PvP elimination matches. The rules were as follows:

“It must be Poetry
It must be between 50-350 words long
It must have somewhere in the title “Poetry Competition Entry” or "Kami Entry"
You must publish it in 32 hours (after I message you to)
You may request additional time if there is a good reason
It must be written by you

You will be judged on the following 5 things:

Power and Entertainment
Form and Flow
Originality
Grammar and spelling
Word choice”

The Kami contest appears to have been well organized and finished at a decent pace. A summary of the rounds can be seen here:
Kami Round 1
Kami Round 2
Kami Round 3
Kami Round 4
Kami Round 5
Kami Judgement Day

#13—Title: SUFFER - Contest 1
Launch Date: 2,589

An international group known as SUFFER (Spreading Unconditional Fun for eRepublik) ran at least one contest in eCanada that I know of and likely hosted more in other countries’ media.

Rules:
“Contest - 1 which asked you to complete the sentence "EREPUBLIK is _____________"

Simple, possibly effective, and likely a bit of fun. It is currently unknown if SUFFER ran any larger events that generated actual articles or major submissions. The group’s overall aims did sound encouraging.

#14—Title: Ministry of Entertainment Competition
Launch date: 2,669ish

The official launch article for the contest can’t be found but it appears to be a caption contest sponsored but the Govt of eCanada. Simple and fun premise, and this is what you get, courtesy of 1411605’s Muppet Show yet again:


…strange, but then again so was the Swedish Chef himself.

#15—Title: Yami – The New Kami
Launch Date: 2,464

JRTG was riding high after a successful run of Kami. Her next short story competition, unfortunately, paled next to Kami, so much that Yami would turn out to be more of whammy. While this may be due to the overall decline of activity in eRep’s media, the lengthy list of rules may have discouraged competitors from signing up:

“Rules:
1. If you submit your story before the time you're supposed to submit it, it will not count.
2. If you submit your story after the time you're supposed to submit it, it will not count.
3. It must be between 2000-10000 words.
4. Your title must have "Yami" in it somewhere.
5. You may write notes before and after your story, but not in-between.
6. It must be an original story written by you.
7. The story must not be one you've posted before on this site.
8. All entries must go under "Social Interactions and Entertainment".
9. You must use Canadian spelling.
10. You must use English.
11. No eRepublikans may be used in your story apart from yourself.
12. No Political Party shall be ridiculed in your story. If you can't play nice, you can't play at all .
13. No songs may be used in your story (because I HATE song fics).
14. The Rules may change at any given time during the *sign up* period.”

#16—Title: Personal Anecdote Competition
Launch Date: 2,478

Undeterred by a weak Wami, JRTG’s next contest (under sponsorship of the MDP political party and CAF Military Unity) aimed to bring out personal anecdotes about meaningful experiences in eRep.

“Rules:
1. Must be an experience from eRepublik
2. Must be somewhere between 50-1000 words
3. You must be eCanadian to get the sign-up bonus.
Judges will be decided by moi”

Scaling back on the rules made this a streamlined contest any eRepublikan could easily enter. The contest folded without any follow-up, probably due to the declining social module. JRTG never launched another contest, nor ever wrote again.

#17—Title: Ultimate Challenge + Ultimate Price
Launch Date: 3,022

Managed by who is now the current Minister of Education, chopp dks, the Ultimate Challenge is what could be called one of the ‘biggest’ contests in that it generated a total of approx. 200 submissions to the competition. Sounds fantastic, but keep in mind the following rules…

“The rules are simple:

-Every day approximately in this time(11:00-12:00 erepublik time) I'll post a comment at the bottom of this page/article as a last comment…
-You job is simple. All you need to do is reply/make a comment on that specific comment that I made today and comments I post in a following days in time.
-You will have 24 hours from the moment I posted first comment to reply on that comment…
..yaddayadda…
-We'll do that every day until there's only one player replayed on my comments every day in time I give to you, and that's 24 hours for every replay.”

While simple, Ultimate Challenge generated activity and it would appear a few had fun surviving to the bitter end.

###UPDATED###
#18-Title: -Article Contest-Who Are You?
Launch Date: 3,194

Aiming to bring eCanada's media scene from the brink of starvation, Nyx Lynx organized a media contest to rejuvenate some community activity.

"RULES:

1. It has to be written in Canadian media. Foreign players let me know if you need to be reimbursed.
2. Anyone can write.
3. Contest will run for 1 week.
4. Write at least 100 words. Easy."

Interest in the event was also picked up by players in ePortugal, who pledged to contribute as well: Concurso de Artigos. ...to be continued...

Some final reflections:
Perhaps it is fitting eCanada’s last contest was called the Ultimate one (ultimate: adjective. being or happening at the end of a process; final). Compared to what the Ottawa Guardian kicked off 2,800 days previously, the Ultimate Challenge and the most recent attempts at contests would suggest the days of such media events may have exceeded their ‘Best Before’ date. That’s not to say any further attempts to rejuvenate the literary scene on eRep will be as doomed as recent ones, yet it is an admission that indeed much has changed.

The game is war. War sells gold packs and boosters. Boosters make money. Money keeps the eRep Labrats employed. Employees design new booster packs and special events to keep the game going with more war. There’s not really any room in that equation for your creativity or any actual need for your ideas or reflections.

Nevertheless, if certain players aim to create a space for those fruitle$$ pursuits, then who are we to cast doubt on those misadventures. With that said, I’d still encourage you to set aside a half-hour or so to participate in any upcoming media contests. There’s some merit in being an active witness to what could be the last of a dying breed.