Ongoing Worlds logo
Ongoing Worlds or OngoingWorlds is a website that allows its members to create their own textual role-playing games. Besides the role-plays and associated character information, the Ongoing Worlds website also includes a blog. The Ongoing Worlds blog regularly publishes articles by authors from around the role-playing community about a diverse set of role playing topics. In addition to its hosting platform and blog, Ongoing Worlds also issues several awards throughout the year. Ongoing Worlds was officially launched in 2010 by David Ball.
History[]
David Ball
Growing tired of limitations due to hosting his Blue Dwarf sim on Yahoo! Groups, David Ball began developing the Ongoing Worlds platform in November 2008. He believed that a website specifically designed to host play-by-post role-playing games would be more effective than Yahoo! groups, forums, and other similar sites. His goal was to create a system that could not only archive posts, but also neatly organize character and other role-playing information. After the site had been in beta for over a year, Ball officially launched Ongoing Worlds in January 2010 with its primary mission to host independent role play games. A key feature of Ongoing Worlds that continues to this day is the ability of each host to customize the site for their specific role-play.
Ball also created the Ongoing Worlds blog in 2009. Although it originally began just as a place for Ball to write about the development of the Ongoing Worlds site, Ball began to post articles about role-playing and the role-playing community. The blog eventually grew to include articles about a vast array of role-playing topics from scores of authors.
In August and September 2011, Ongoing Worlds held its first-ever Flashback Week competition where players wrote short stories about the backstories of their characters. On September 4, Ongoing Worlds announced that Chas Hammer had won the first award for his story Rage!.
On March 10, 2012, Ongoing Worlds absorbed the Simming League and assumed all of its remaining operations, which included SimEnc, the Simming Prize, the Simming League Distinguished Service Medal, the SciWorld Online Convention, the Simming Fall Festival, and the Tournament of Simulations. Simming League Board of Directors members Chas Hammer and Tigra Tigress assumed similar roles with Ongoing Worlds.
On March 12, 2012, Ongoing Worlds announced the winners of the 2011 Simming Prize. The new laureates were Elena Vasilescu, Independence Fleet, Mike Bremer, Otherspace, and UFOP: StarBase 118. This marked the first time that the Simming Prize was awarded by an entity other than the Simming League. Ongoing Worlds then sponsored the 2012 SciWorld Online Convention in May 2012. Hosted by Dark Myst and chaired by Chas Hammer, it was a big success as players from 13 different clubs hosted events over a three-day period.
On May 23, 2012, a copyright complaint was filed against SimEnc by a yet to be identified party, and SimEnc was taken offline for the first time in its history. It was then fully restored without change on June 8, 2012. Shortly thereafter, SimEnc left Ongoing Worlds to become an independent entity, owned by Chas Hammer.
On August 1, 2012, Ongoing Worlds announced with winners of its first-ever First Person Fortnight competition. Aimee Shields Yankowski took home first prize for her story Not All Bad Out Here while Alleran Tan, Mark Vorenkamp, and Sue Wilson won second prize, third prize, and fourth prize, respectively.
On September 21, 2012, Ongoing Worlds sponsored the 2012 Simming Fall Festival, the second FallFest held. Hosted by the USS Asimov and chaired by Jonathan Swift, it too was a huge success as players form five different clubs hosted a variety of events over a seven-hour period. Just as with the previous FallFest, Landon Wakeland DJ'd the festival. Swift was awarded the first-ever Ongoing Worlds Community Honor exactly a month later.
On October 8, 2012, Charles Star joined the Ongoing Worlds Board of Directors, and it was renamed the Board of Advisors. Shortly thereafter, Chas Hammer resigned his position on the board and removed the Simming Prize, the SciWorld Online Convention, and the Tournament of Simulations from Ongoing Worlds. On October 29, 2012, Ongoing Worlds officially retired the Simming League Distinguished Service Medal.
Role-plays[]
Blog[]
The Ongoing Worlds blog is the primary news and information outlet for Ongoing Worlds. It regularly publishes articles on various role-playing topics by authors from across the simming community. The blog actually predates Ongoing Worlds as creator David Ball launched the blog in 2009. By 2012, many considered it to be the leading source for simming news, opinion, and analysis.
Awards[]
Excellence in innovation award 2013 - Awarded by Obsidian Portal. The award was announced at the ”How Technology Is Changing RPG’s” panel at Gencon 2013. Read the announcement on Obsidian Portal's blog. The winner is determined "by Obsidian Portal staff after extensive internal debate, bickering, and weighing of merit".
Moderators[]
3 members were elvated to the rank of "Squid Guard" in February 2015.