I was thinking about holding a series of short story writing contests, but before I commit I would just like to gage the level of interest on the boards. 

So the basic idea was that I would hold a series of contests where people would write a short story based on a common Videogame theme or setting like a post apocalyptic future or Medieval fantasy or even WW2 and then hold a final round where the best writers would compete for some kind of prise that would probably be a game from GoG or Steam. 

So would there be much interest in such a contest? 

P.S. If there is a lot of interest I may need a another judge or two so if you don't feel like competing you could still be involved.

P.P.S. If you have any questions, comments or are interested pleas post ; )

I'm interested, it should be fun, the only problem that you might struggle with though is giving out prizes. Who would pay for the games? You'd also have to find two really good judges (I'd recommend Kantor and Smeags) you would have to figure out a way to show off the short stories, without actually using a forum thread, it'd take way too much space and it might be a bit clumsy.

Anyway, I'm interested, I'll keep an eye on this thread and hopefully it works out.

I'm writing since a year on a sci-fi story about gamers in a virtual reality, i should finally finish it... and translate it into English.

i like the idea, but i think the theme should be closer to gaming or actual games, then a theme or setting.

I'd volunteer as a judge too

I thought it was implied I would be buying the prizes (if there was enough interest to warrant it) it would only be something old or an inde game something cheap, nothing like a full new game or anything. Unless anyone else wanted to pay for a more substantial prize. My idea was more that people entered because they like writing more than the prize being the main draw. As for actually giving them out both steam and GoG offer an option to buy as a gift.

Do you think a dedicated thread just for people's stories would pose a major problem? There will obviously be a limit on length which is TBD. If you have a better option I am open to  it, I guess I could set up an email account and just post the best ones in a thread, but that could be a problem with multiple judges and limit the number of people that can read the stories, I guess Google docs is an option for sharing with a small group of judges but that is hardly an elegant solution. So yea unless someone has a better option it will have to be a thread I know it's not the best option but it's the best one I can think of at the moment. 

well that side of things is a tad sketchy ATM I will put more thought and effort into arranging it if/when there is enough interest to make it worth it lol. The common game setting thing came as more of a way of linking it to games without making it a fanfic contest as I thought that would be limiting to a lot of people and eliminate people that don't like the games or never played it.

On the one hand... free oldschool game = awesome.

On the otherhand... I bet activision would just steal my story and make the game suck.

well I like the Idea, I know some VGCers that will probably compete. Myself my submition would be short:

" I stepped out of my house and my feet felt wet. I was in a puddle. Damn this heavy rain!"

actually that was it :-p

I believe other sub;issions should be longer than mine

i agree fan-fiction is the worst kind of writing ever conceived my humankind .

i would suggest a common theme that involves gaming or gamers, you know like we had a life.

a few suggestions:

"the future of gaming"

"the future of the gamer"

"gaming changed my life"

"how i survived the great console war"

ha, i got it!

i'm going to write a story about a gamer who goes back in time and alters history so that Sony would publish kinect for the Playstation 3, while Microsoft develops Move for the Xbox, just so he can compare and laugh at the difference in Forum Posts and opinions

Nice! I had an idea to cover the epic on-going battle between darth and Bueli.. But then I thought it would also be interesting to write a story of how game execs view VGChartz (sparked by Greenburg's comments).

I'd be very interested in competing but I don't know how much time I'd have to put into my story. There'd need to be some sort of page limit and other rules set to make the competition fair.