It's Friday night, and I'm at home staring at my inbox like an idiot.

Friday's the day Blizzard Entertainment's Writing Contest results are announced. It's getting rather late in the day. Their front page is still not updated with the results.

I'm growing more annoyed by the minute. In boredom I start browsing their forums. Lo and behold, I find the results posted in a sticky on one of their official off-site forums.

I didn't win.

I stare at the winning entries. I'm not happy.

If there's one thing I'm good at, it's tearing apart stories to shreds. The winning stories aren't even released, and I was already eager to read them and point out how badly they suck. I was so furious last night that I cut myself off from everyone I knew because I was worried I'd say something I'd end up regretting.

So I went to sleep early. I woke up today late. Little has changed and I still feel as pissed off now as I did last night.

Blizzard Entertainment was looking to hire a new writer, and this Contest was going to be my way of getting them to pay for all my expenses in flying out to their HQ for the job interview. That plan sure ended up going nowhere.

And the part that infuriates me the most isn't even that I lost - it's the fact that I feel I was robbed out of even the smallest possibility in being able to win.

A little background info on what I mean here...

Blizzard Entertainment is the copyright owner and creator of three major lore franchises:

Diablo: Spiritual-Religious fantasy setting dealing with a war between heaven and hell. Think Spawn, I guess.

StarCraft: Sci-Fi fantasy setting dealing with humanity caught in the middle of a war between two alien races. Think Alien vrs Predator.

WarCraft: Cookie cutter Knight-In-Shining armor fantasy setting. Think Lord of the Rings.

The winning results were announced on a WarCraft forum, and judging by all the story titles (the only thing that was released in the winners list were titles and author names) all the winning entries are also WarCraft story-based as well. I submitted a StarCraft entry, and there was not a single obvious StarCraft or Diablo title in the winners list. They are all WarCraft.

They are looking to hire a new writer for their StarCraft lore, yet all the winning entries are WarCraft-related. How the hell does this add up?

Seriously. This is the winner's list.

Grand Prize Winner!

In the Shadow of the Sun by Sarah Pine (This sounds like a generic title, but if this story actually has nothing to do with the character Anveena from the WarCraft series, I will shoot myself. That's how positive I am it's a WarCraft entry.)

Runners Up - (Alphabetical Order by Author)

Kuma's Song by Tzu-Mainn Chen (100% positive this is about the Panda-humanoid bards of WarCraft)

The Baron's Bird by Andrew Moeller (If there weren't a million Baron characters and bird pets in World of Warcraft, I could be almost inclined to say this might be a Diablo story.)

Where Loyalties Lie by Michael Edmund O'Reilly (No doubt in my mind dealing with the Blood Elves and their various dead/undead/crazy/powerhungry leaders.)

Into the Void by Benjamin P. Reeves (Hello Outland of World of Warcraft?)

The Last Days of Crank Fizzlepop by Sean Lucas Riley (Seriously? The last days of a Goblin? This thing better be worthy of a Morgan Freeman casting roll to be on here.)

Why We Fight by Jason Matthew Rodriguez (Everyone knows why the hell they're fighting in Diablo and StarCraft: for survival. WarCraft story without a doubt.)

Flag of the Black King by Erik Sabol (Possible Diablo story. Seems unlikely, but the possibility is there.)


Honorable Mentions - (Alphabetical Order by Author)

Eyes of the Dead by Luke Jackson (The major undead are in WarCraft. Very slight chance this is Diablo)

Dalaran Noir by Eric F. Kelley (Dalaran is a major city in WarCraft)

The Princess and the Peon by Ben Lappin (Peon's are a worker class in WarCraft)

Vengeance by Pamela Manasco (100% sure this deals with Paladins of WarCraft)

Windmills by Brendon Mroz (100% sure this deals with the farm land known as Westfall in WarCraft)

A Feast Fit For a Murloc by Kyle Schliesman (Murloc's are a humanoid-frog type species in WarCraft)

Mason by Charles Shattuck (100% sure it deals with the Defias Mason's guild in WarCraft)

The Defias Gambit by Craig E. Stalbaum (See above.)

By Whatever Means Necessary by Laurie Tom (The only one that could potentially be any of the three.)

Inevitably Northward by Sam Zucchi (The latest World of Warcraft expansion is about the northern continent called Northrend. What creativity!)

So yeah. I had to get that off my chest.

Time to lick my wounds and try to get over this. Grats to the winners, I guess, even if I completely feel that they're undeserving of it based on what little I know about their stories.

I'm gonna say a few things... and if they piss you off, and you lash out... or possibly never speak to me again, I don't care.


I think we should maybe exchange usernames for the time being. You seem more "jaded" than I've ever been.

But that's life, you don't always get what you want, nor what you think you deserve.

You never know, those stories could be brilliant and you might really like them, particularly the winning piece. So should you ever read In the Shadows of the Sun (generic sounding or not), read it with an open mind and don't be bitter about it, like you are now.

I'll agree with you that it makes no sense that they're hiring on a writer who submitted a WarCraft story when the position is for StarCraft but at the same time, there had to be an extremely good reason why they were chosen.

Maybe once you're not so upset over the whole situation, you'll understand it a little more.

I'm really sorry that you didn't get it, I can tell it meant a lot... but it must have meant very much to a lot of other people too.


You've just shown EVERYONE a side of you that few thought really existed... and I'm still shocked by it.

I guess I shouldn't have made assumptions.

Chill! From your post, it sounds like you're judging the winning entries by their titles (and you know the famous saying!) I think Diane has a point... maybe you'll be able to see why the other stories won once you're not so bitter?

It's very possible I'll get over this given a bit of time. I was hoping a good night's sleep would do the trick.

In a way I am hoping that I think these are good stories when they finally get released to the public for reading. If I feel they're better than mine it would easily help deal with the loss. There are tons of better writers out there than me, but me being able to admit that doesn't help any when I don't know if the winning entry was simply better than mine, or if they just got lucky in picking the right setting.

Until they're all posted online for me to read them for myself, all I have to work with is the titles. Which was really the main thing that angered me, the other being the location where the winners were announced (it's still not on the main website that originally announced the contest and the writing position). Because judging JUST by the titles, it tells me there was extreme bias against any non-WarCraft related entry.

Everybody's got an angry and bitter side to them. Doesn't help that mine popped up in the middle of exams, and what better place to show it off than a forum specifically for ranting...

Sigh.

I feel like I'm in dire need of stress relief.

I suggest...

More sleep, playing your favorite sport (though considering I think your current issue relates to the sport, perhaps that's not such a good idea), screaming along to really loud music, write something fluffy (it might make you happy-ish), or go search out and kidnap Harley... if it makes you feel any better.

I guess the plus side to your rant is we now know just how passionate you are about things.

I'm not particularly articulate today (and unless anyone hasn't noticed, I've been this way for a while). But I will say this.

The fact that they posted the results on a off-site forum, official or not, is just plain crappy. But maybe that means there's the merest glimmer of hope -shoot this down in flames if it makes you feel better- that somehow, those might be the wrong results. If you're feeling angry, maybe it'd be better to wait until something comes up on the main page clarifying either what you know or what I've said.

Stress relief? Well, I recommend lots of CHOCOLATE!

So a few friends of mine noticed I was down in the dumps and decided to drag me out into town. Just having people there that wanted to cheer me up... well simply put that alone cheered me up a bit. Who am I to complain - after all I got a free dinner out of it.

I guess I'm past that angry stage now. I probably should've waited to step back into the real world before I started ranting my head off. Now I'm just disappointed.

The official site still hasn't posted up the results. The "off-site," as I'm referring to it, is still owned by Blizzard Entertainment, and the winners were meant to be announced on the 22nd. There's little chance those are false results; though a friend of mine did suggest they might have decided to split the winners based on each one of the three settings for the contest, with WarCraft being the first.

I'm not holding my breath, since I personally think that's highly unlikely. Either way there's that slight glimmer of hope, which will probably be crushed in the coming days... but whatever.

I just got back in a few minutes ago and I'm tired as heck. More sleep sounds like the perfect cure right about now.

Going out to kidnap Harley... heh, thinking about her really did bring me a smile. That elderly man probably needs her more than I do, even after all this. Though I do hope he hasn't lost her again...

Thanks, everyone. You're my rays of sunshine.

Oh good you feel better... I can stop writing that cheer up fic for you!


EDIT: So yeah... it was mostly done. There was no point in trashing it!

Remember to smile

Smile like the SUNSHINE!

Glad you're feeling better, dude.