Reflexions of a (un)popular Superstar contestant

[Mike Welham]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Wow, and I was worried my ranting reply to Father Avon was self serving.

Believe me, between the contest and reading KGtGD #2, it gave me a lot of food for thought.

Plug alert. I did put a blog post up on my facebook page, called 'Why we write' :-)

Self Serving alert. It's a good thing for me that I got shot down. Learned a lot of my weaknesses, and then I fell and wouldn't have been able to finish round 3 anyway, since I spent days in a pain and drug induced haze. Better to not advance because of the better entries than advance and have to drop out.

Though I'd rather have avoided the fall down the stairs (still on a cane here).

Sorry to hear that--the falling down thing, not the learning experience thing. I hope you're off the (smurfing?) cane soon.

[Bagpuss]

Steven T. Helt wrote:

A few comments: I read your whole post. I thought it was immature and self-serving. You spent as much time telling us about your celebrity in Brazil as you did complaining about how you were jilted. I couldn't care less.

You must have been reading a different post to the one I read.

[Clark Peterson]

I'm still sticking with the SMURF angle on this one.

Smurf.

Hey, what happens if I say Gargamel?

[Jason Nelson]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Montalve wrote:

Steven T. Helt wrote:

As for all your "celebrity", one thing I know for sure: you can call your publisher and tell them you lost a customer by the way you handled yourself.

or a dozen

but that is not the point...i don't understand portuguese :P

It's all Greek to me.

** spoiler omitted **

Hey, why does this present say "Exp-" BOOM?

[Matthew Morris]

Jason Nelson wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

Hey, why does this present say "Exp-" BOOM?

Does anyone else find it funny that the random generator drew Jokey for my post?

[Eric Morton]

Gargamel!

Edit: Nope, doesn't do anything cool.

[Jason Nelson]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Jason Nelson wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

Hey, why does this present say "Exp-" BOOM?

Does anyone else find it funny that the random generator drew Jokey for my post?

I find it about as funny as when I typed "smurf" and "baby" in the same post I didn't get Baby Smurf, but Smurfette instead. See, it happened again! Gender... issues... RISING...

[Trevor Gulliver]

Do you get papa smurf if you say "retro" or "old school"?

EDIT: Nope. How about "Get off my lawn!"

[Samuel Leming]

Steven T. Helt wrote:

Finally...you're a hypocrite.

You're trying to pick a fight while everyone else is smurfing this thread? Dude...

I'd rather just let this thing blow over.

Sam

[Doyle Tavener]

When I saw Beraldo's comments, as much as I disagreed with his particular points, I have to admit I felt a certain amount of empathy for him.

I, too, have felt aggrieved about certain elements of the contest. (No, I don't intend to state what they are, because I recognize that they aren't very important or significant.) But I also feel that I can very clearly look to where I went wrong, and see what kept me from advancing.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard about character death was to make sure the player always understood the choice they made that led to their character's death. If you as a DM can't identify that 'bad choice' then it is a least probable that they should not have died, no matter what storyline logic dictated.

Joao, (if I may) try to focus on that one bad choice. What was it? This will help you, I believe, to accept the results of the contest.

In my mind, I felt that many had commented on how my 2nd round villain didn't grab them. So, I felt like I needed to throw a 'hail mary' in order to advance. However, the new villain I went with in the 3rd round needed a lot more time for the stat block than I could devote in the time between Tuesday and Friday. In the end, I had to cut the incomplete parts and submit the element that took the least amount of time to complete.

I ended up submitting it in the very last moment, which Clark correctly noted was a sure sign of a bad entry (even though the comment rankled me at the time, I had to admit later that it was true).

I should have stuck with the 2nd round entry, where I had a mostly complete stat block already, and focused on how to make it shine, and perhaps revise the descriptive text.

That was the error that killed me. And I was my error, all mine, with no one else to blame but myself.

That helped me to accept my disappointment in the results. Try to look for that error, and let the rest of us know what it was. That way, your experiences can help others in future contests like this, as well as help yourself.

Doyle

[Steven Helt]

Samuel Leming wrote:

Steven T. Helt wrote:

Finally...you're a hypocrite.

You're trying to pick a fight while everyone else is smurfing this thread? Dude...

I'd rather just let this thing blow over.

Sam

Well...I'm that D-type personality. I have a hard time letting insults go.

It doesn't help that I just can't bring myself to type sm...

Man. I want to. I want to let go and be fun. But I just can't say it!

I am over the post after defending my favorite game companies, though. Just not into the little blue guy phenomenon.

EDIT: And by quoting you, I have jinxed myself. TO add insult to injury, on a day that I feel pretty old and run down, I got the Papa.

Rats. : }

[Carl Flaherty]

Taliesin Hoyle wrote:

Lord Fyre wrote:

Dead Horse wrote:

Mommy!

For some reason, when I see this poster, I find myself compelled to keep beating him.

Thus betraying your sadism, necrophilia and bestiality to the whole thread.

What's your point? :P

[Stefan Schulz]

I prepared to write an at-length dissection of this, but when i read through the thread, I found that "Smurf!" is the much superior response.

So be it, then.

[Eric Morton]

Smurf.

Edit: Interesting. If I edit out the word "smurf," the smurf avatar disappears. If I edit the word "smurf" back in, I get the exact same smurf avatar I had the first time.

[Hawthorne]

Smurfs are smurfing awesome, like quite a few other things from Belgium such as beer, chocolate, and waffles. Did I mention beer?

[The 8th Dwarf]

Hawthorne wrote:

Smurfs are smurfing awesome, like quite a few other things from Belgium such as beer, chocolate, and waffles. Did I mention beer?

One name to put you off Belgium Jean-Claude Van Damme

[Gorbacz]

Oh noes, ze Muscles from Brussels ! SMURF !

[Matthew Morris]

Matthew Morris wrote:

So it seems to have struck a nerve

Matthew here does observe
Unlikely accusations does the OP imply
Readily parried, not to let pass by
Flames and derision are not all he must deserve.

Spoiler:

Ha! got that one past the snarf trap.

[Matthew Morris]

taig wrote:

Sorry to hear that--the falling down thing, not the learning experience thing. I hope you're off the (smurfing?) cane soon.

Thanks. Stitches are out, hole in my foot, but tramadol makes the pain go away. wheeeeeee!

[Nume]

João, vai em português mesmo, que é pro pessoal não entender: quando se está lidando com autores e artistas em geral, você precisa falar tudo de um jeito que, mesmo que esteja xingando o fiodaputa, ele ainda vá se achar o máximo. Acredite em mim, política de boa vizinhança sempre é a melhor opção.

So, now for all, leaving the part of conspiracy and Clark's professional conduct for the Limbo, I have to agree with certain parts of what João said. The comments of the judges really have some influence over the people's vote.

But, if the rules of the contest said the judges will comment the subscripts, that's a thing the contestant will handle. Just do a good work and wait this can be enough. Or maybe made some research to secury the judges will like your subscript. What they like? Clark problaly like things of the old D&D 1st edition, a villain whit the spirit of this times probaly make he cheers up the subscript. Off course, it's a huge challenge make something the judges AND the public can like. But, if that going easy, dont will be fun after all, right? ;)

(And sorry for my poor english :P)

[Seoni, Portella]

S
e
o
n
i

*Seoni Casts Tongues*

Acredito que Nume esta certo. Antes de dizer isso quero lhe pedir desculpas mais achei que o seu vilao era bom mais a historia nao. De qualquer maneira, ed greenwood gostou da idea, ignora tudo que os outros falarao e so usa o que o ed falou. O resto a cheio de si, sabe como e.

*Tongues expires*

Ate ma--re hope all goes well... huh!? damn spell.

[Portella]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

So it seems to have struck a nerve

Matthew here does observe
Unlikely accusations does the OP imply
Readily parried, not to let pass by
Flames and derision are not all he must deserve.

** spoiler omitted **

is that what smurf means?

[Taliesin Hoyle]

Nume wrote:

(And sorry for my poor english :P)

Be proud of how good your english is as a second or third language. I teach english. You are doing well.

[Keith Duperreault]

Nume wrote:

Clark problaly like things of the old D&D 1st edition, a villain whit the spirit of this times probaly make he cheers up the subscript.

Clark....I think he just called you old ;)

[Hugo Solis]

If you don't have anything good to say...say SMURF!

[Nume]

Taliesin, thanks a lot for the cheers, but I am to far away of something I can accept as well. (Read: speaking like a normal person, and not like a clichê of some holywood movie).

Keith, how old a person's are debatable, I have 21-years-old and a gray hair. Clark maybe have less than 30-years but like D&D 1st edition. Like my father have more than 60-years and still pursuit 20-years-girls. Yeah, he are a crazy dad. :D

[Keith Duperreault]

Nume wrote:

Taliesin, thanks a lot for the cheers, but I am to far away of something I can accept as well. (Read: speaking like a normal person, and not like a clichê of some holywood movie).

Keith, how old a person's are debatable, I have 21-years-old and a gray hair. Clark maybe have less than 30-years but like D&D 1st edition. Like my father have more than 60-years and still pursuit 20-years-girls. Yeah, he are a crazy dad. :D

I started going grey at 15 yrs old. I was fully 'salt and pepper' by age 21 so I feel your pain ;)

I just like calling Clark old...

[Nume]

About that Brazilian-mass-voting on Beraldo, it's true. And I have some participation on this as a autor on two popular Brazilian websites who have noticied Beraldo participation in the contest. (The rpg-d20-directed .20 www.dot20.com.br and the nerd-directed Ambrosia www.ambrosia.com.br, don't forgot to visit :3 :D). :P

Maybe Beraldo don't be able to get to the Top 16 without our and the other blogs and portal help, but that's past. As nothing to do about that, and also, how we can notice our visitours about the Beraldo designation to the Top 32 by the judges without they go into Paizo and vote for her country conrade?

[Nume]

Ah, Keith, in that case: Hey, Clark, you are one of the Old Ones? Can you get a Cthulhu autograph for me? Please. *-*

[William Senn]

I just want to clarify: I have no real objection to the "popularity contest" element of RPG Superstar. It makes perfect business sense for Paizo to give authors popular enough to bull their way into the upper echelons of the contest a shot at doing some work for them. If that popularity transfers to the product, they've got a real winner on their hands. If it doesn't, well, no one's going WIN Superstar purely on the basis of being a "home-boy"; they've surely got at least enough talent to make a good module without needing their fan section.

I was simply opposing the viewpoint that there's nothing that can be done about the popularity contest element. There are things that could be done. Paizo intentionally chose NOT to do them. That's pretty much all we need to know about that particular subject.

[Taliesin Hoyle]

I am sure Kruelaid and I can find some young chinese lass or lad, and coach them to enter the contest, then you would see mass voting.

[Lucas Jung]

Nume wrote:

(And sorry for my poor english :P)

Nothing to be sorry for. To be perfectly honest, you write better English than some of the people I went to high school with. It's definitely better than my attempts at Portuguese when I was in Lisbon.

It does look like an internet translation tool led you astray on a couple of words, so I'll do my best to interpret for everyone else:

Nume wrote:

...the judges will comment the subscripts...

"...the judges will comment on the submissions..."

Nume wrote:

...some research to secury the judges will like your subscript...

"...some research to ensure that the judges will like your submission..."

Nume wrote:

...probaly make he cheers up the subscript...

"...probably lead him to praise the submission..."

My favorite is "cheers up," because I have a pretty good idea of the colloquialism that came from. Translation tools can be so darn literal.

For fun sometime, try entering a sentence or paragraph into a translation program like Babelfish, translate it to another language, copy and paste that output to translate into yet another language, and repeat a few times before finally translating back into English. Here's an example (bonus points to whoever can identify the original):

Spoiler:

Little will be mentioned, our little is you happy, we unisono' s of the brothers for aujourd' today that huts is blood with my brother n' will be; never this way vulgar, today [exeygenisei] its period is not and Mijne lords in United Kingdom which maintains to the bed, will be believe that maudi he n' here, and keep their cheap male ages were not whereas n' sails in that speaks what fights with our.

(I began and ended the quote in atypical places to avoid a proper noun that would have given everything away regardless of translation.)

Hint:

Spoiler:

It's Shakespeare. Before running it through Babelfish, I "updated" a few words to more modern English to give it a fighting chance. Didn't help much.

If nobody gets it by the time voting ends, I'll post the answer in this thread then.

[Mike Speck]

Spoiler:

Henry V, the St. Crispin's Day speech

Maybe?

[Adam Daigle]

Hugo Solis wrote:

If you don't have anything good to say...say SMURF!

That's what my Grandma always used to say.

Spoiler:

Sort of

[Russ Taylor]

Lucas Jung wrote:

For fun sometime, try entering a sentence or paragraph into a translation program like Babelfish, translate it to another language, copy and paste that output to translate into yet another language, and repeat a few times before finally translating back into English.

I first heard of this game in the Galactic Pot-Healer, by Philip K. Dick. Writtn in 1969. How's THAT for predicting the future?

linky

[Sue Flaherty]

Mike Speck wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

Maybe?

Most definitely, I would say :)

[Trevor Gulliver]

Daigle wrote:

Hugo Solis wrote:

If you don't have anything good to say...say SMURF!

That's what my Grandma always used to say.

Spoiler:

sort of

My grandma used to say something similar.

She'd say, "If you don't have anything good to say, get the smurf out of my house."

Spoiler:

sort of

[Turin the Mad]

Smurfsmurffitysmurfsmurffitysmurftoejamsmurfenormouslysmurfjam

[Ernest Mueller]

Eh, the original post made me feel more Gargamel, but in the end... smurf.

[Vic Wertz]

Lucas Jung wrote:

For fun sometime, try entering a sentence or paragraph into a translation program like Babelfish, translate it to another language, copy and paste that output to translate into yet another language, and repeat a few times before finally translating back into English.

You could do that. You could also do this:

When regarding pleasure some, tries to input the sentence or section translator the program, if Babelfish, translates it for another language, duplicates and inserts that product to translate other language, and before final translates is redundant several times to return to English.

[Lucas Jung]

Mike Speck wrote:

** Henry V, the St. Crispin's Day speech **

Maybe?

Wow. According to the post times, you got it in 33 minutes, with no wrong guesses proceeding you. That's impressive.

"Crispin" was the proper noun I had to avoid when clipping the quote. Here's the original, with the clipped parts in italics:

Shakespeare wrote:

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

EDIT: Since you got it right first, now it's your turn to post a quote for the rest of us!

[Lucas Jung]

For even bigger fun, combine these two activities:

Sebastian wrote:

Anyone else have the urge to start copying and pasting Clark's posts into their own posts?

** spoiler omitted **

Vic Wertz wrote:

You could do that. You could also do this:

When regarding pleasure some, tries to input the sentence or section translator the program, if Babelfish, translates it for another language, duplicates and inserts that product to translate other language, and before final translates is redundant several times to return to English.

[Mike Speck]

I do like me some Billy Shakes.

Lucas Jung wrote:

Since you got it right first, now it's your turn to post a quote for the rest of us!

Fair enough. I left the proper noun in this one, 'cuz it's just that wonky:

Spoiler:

The road of country is of the last stretched with the hero broken in an a, the accidental can of behavior, that was all in the course tonight however it, gives has the place of dismissal for not of to hide Wendy together that we will live with the sadness, do not wants to know it with the whole insanity in my soul I of the small day when I was, the skirt comes to we want to go and we will enter of race that we the child, that we had been born from the course

Hint below:

Spoiler:

It's the last verse of a rock song that just had a major performance in the US not too long ago...

[Eric Morton]

Smurfin' postmoster!

[allen trussell]

Smurf, smurfity smurfin' smurf!

[Jason Rice]

Steven T. Helt wrote:

It doesn't help that I just can't bring myself to type sm...

Man. I want to. I want to let go and be fun. But I just can't say it!

I am over the post after defending my favorite game companies, though. Just not into the little blue guy phenomenon.

EDIT: And by quoting you, I have jinxed myself. TO add insult to injury, on a day that I feel pretty old and run down, I got the Papa.

Rats. : }

LOL!!!

Here I go!

*closes eyes*

smurf

[Adam Daigle]

You kids and your smurfing these days...

[Kruelaid]

Taliesin Hoyle wrote:

I am sure Kruelaid and I can find some young chinese lass or lad, and coach them to enter the contest, then you would see mass voting.

Dude, what a great idea.

[Sean McGowan]

Mike Speck wrote:

I do like me some Billy Shakes.

Lucas Jung wrote:

Since you got it right first, now it's your turn to post a quote for the rest of us!

Fair enough. I left the proper noun in this one, 'cuz it's just that wonky:

** spoiler omitted **

Hint below:
** spoiler omitted **

From Shakespeare to Springsteen, then?

"Born to Run"?

[Snorter]

Taliesin Hoyle wrote:

I am sure Kruelaid and I can find some young chinese lass or lad, and coach them to enter the contest, then you would see mass voting.

Well, if she's a hottie, you'll get a vote from Nume's dad, at least.