Nominations Open!

[press_start_mod]

 Nominations are open! You can find the tag set here.

Before we start nominating, some preliminary information!

Character Nominations
You are able to nominate characters and character combinations! This means the following:

• Character A (video game title) - A fanwork where Character A must be the focus;
• group: Character A & Character B - A fanwork where the gen relationship of Character A and Character B is the focus;
• group: Character A/Character B - a fanwork where the shippy relationship of Character A and Character B is the focus. You are also free to nominate group: Character A/Original Male Character or group: Character A/Original Female Character.

Matching is "OR", meaning that you match on a tag. If you want Character A and Character B in your gift, nominate them as a group. If you nominate each of them separately your creator only has to include one of them. Please keep that in mind when nominating!

Crossover Fandoms
Crossover character combinations are eligible. There are some basic rules though so that I don't cry a lot.

• When nominating a crossover, the fandom is Crossover Fandoms. I have already nominated Crossover Fandoms into the tag set so please use that spelling. Not nominating a crossover into this fandom will mean that nomination will be rejected;
• Nominations can be for gen fic or ship fic;
• Nominations are to be written like this: Group: Character A (Video Game 1) & Character B (Video Game 2) (or group: Character A (Video Game)/Character B (Video Game 2);
• There is no limit of the number of characters that are in a tag set, short of AO3's character limit;
• All characters in the crossover combination must be video game characters.

Series of Games
This year the test for whether a game is part of a series and should be nominated as one is as follows:

• Is the game marketed as being part of a series (i.e. a trilogy, games set in the same world etc etc);
• Are the games that make up the series part of the same continuity or different continuities?
• Is there a significant crossover of characters between the games?

Feel free to comment to discuss! At the moment:

• Dragon Age (Video Games) is the correct tag for any nominations for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age Inquisition;
• Final Fantasy games are separate to each other, except for the ones that are explicitly in continuity with each other
• Kingdom Hearts is a separate continuity from Final Fantasy;
• The Star Ocean games can be nominated separately;
• I am open to discussion for the Kiseki series (Trails in the Sky, Trails of Cold Steel etc);
• Fallout can be nominated separately;
• I haven't made up my mind about Avengers Academy (Video Game) as I don't know anything about it, so if you want to nominate it please tell me about it in the comments!

If you are considering nominating a game that could be a series, or could be a tie-in, please drop a comment below so that I can hash it out with you first!

Now have at! Nominations close at 11:59pm EST on 1 July 2017, though the post for tag set cleanup could be a bit later on the 2nd because I have a concert for video game music at around that time.

Comments

[tehexile]

Trails in the Sky games directly follow on from each other with the same characters, as do Trails of Cold Steel. Sky and Cold Steel happen in the same world as each other and occasionally characters overlap but they don't share playable characters. Zero and Ai are also the same world as the others, no idea about character crossover.

what is your opinion on the (classic) Phantasy Star series, the Shining Force etc. games and on the Mother series, out of interest?

[press_start_mod]

Good question! It looks like Phantasy Star is a bit like Star Ocean (same "universe" but discrete stories set in that universe) and I have no idea about Shining Force and Mother. Are the games in each series a continuation of each other?

[tehexile]

they're in the same Universe but pretty much separate stories with a small amount of crossover.

[press_start_mod]

Then they can be nominated separately or together. I'm guided by how the fans do it for these circumstances.

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

Hi there, how would you like Assassin's Creed nominated? I'm thinking they should probably all be together as they're a series, and part of the same continuity (even if there are hundreds of years between some of installments). There is also a bit of character overlap in some of the games, although many characters only appear in one game.

(Also, a concert for video game music sounds like so much fun! :D)

[press_start_mod]

I would consider Assassin's Creed should be nominated together unless there's some compelling argument against it.

[capsized]

Hi! I just nominated some characters from both the original Mass Effect trilogy and Mass Effect: Andromeda under one fandom ("Mass Effect (Video Games)", following the Dragon Age meta tag), but now I'm having second thoughts. How would you like these games nominated? I could see it going either way, given that a) they're part of the same world and Andromeda is an in-continuity sequel to the original trilogy, but b) they're set in very different places and there's not really any character crossover between the original trilogy and Andromeda.

[press_start_mod]

I'm of the view that they could be nominated separately and that they could be treated like Star Ocean is, but if the majority of people want it in one fandom tag that is fine as well. I'll leave that one for discussion.

[capsized]

Sounds good to me. I'll wait and see what other people think.

[press_start_mod]

I've decided to go with splitting the series into Mass Effect and Mass Effect Andromeda, so I am leaving your nomination alone for you to work out how to go about nominating.

[gamerfic]

Thanks for splitting these fandoms - I haven't had time to play Andromeda yet, and dividing them makes my offers a lot easier. :)

[capsized]

Got it! My nomination should be sorted now - I changed it to Mass Effect: Andromeda and included only Andromeda tags. Thanks, mod.

[(Anonymous)]

I would prefer it if Mass Effect Trilogy and Mass Effect Andromeda counted as separate nominations because there is so little possibility for character overlap, but I do also think it would be a totally fair call if you made the decision to keep them under the Mass Effect (Video Games) umbrella.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. Since this is a character-focused exchange, it makes more sense to consider them separate fandoms, because they don't have any characters in common.

If this were a more general exchange in which we could offer and request things like "theme: worldbuilding" I could see an argument for grouping them, but as it is, I see no reason not to consider them separate fandoms.

Marvel Heroes Omega

[sirvalkyrie]

I'd asked you previously about Marvel Heroes Omega and you said that you'd take a closer look at it. I do feel that it stands on its own as well as any other licensed games that could be nominated. The game's story is self-contained and requires no outside knowledge to enjoy.

Re: Marvel Heroes Omega

[press_start_mod]

I think the question of licensed games is difficult, and I'm currently leaning towards doing them on a case by case basis depending on how separate they are from the source material. For example: Knights of the Old Republic is eligible because while the Star Wars franchise is as a whole not eligible, the games are different in terms of characters, time period, and story. On the other hand the Naruto games would be ineligible given how closely tied they are to the anime and manga.

With that in mind, it's less about whether the game's story is self-contained and more how different the characters are from their original source counterparts. If the answer is "not really" and the appeal is having the characters from different continuities interact then it wouldn't really be eligible.

[(Anonymous)]

How many fandoms do we have to offer and request this year, and how many characters or groups per fandom?

[press_start_mod]

The minimum is to request 3 fandoms with one character or group per request, and four offers with two characters or groups per offer.

[(Anonymous)]

Are vids not allowed this year? The tag set only mentions fic and art.

[press_start_mod]

That's an oversight and I have put it back in. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

[weakinteraction]

Should I nominate the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games as a series, then? They are in continuity with each other and there's a few party members the same between the two, and various characters from the first who pop up for cameos in the second. On the other hand, they're from different developers and really quite different tonally.

(And I don't play it, but what about The Old Republic MMORPG? Same continuity but 500 years later. Should I be nominating under a tag broad enough to include that as well?)

[(Anonymous)]

And now I've spotted that they're already in the tag set so separately... Doh.

[press_start_mod]

Traditionally we've had the three games as separate nominations because though they're in the same universe, each game is realistically a separate game.

[(Anonymous)]

I wanted to make a note specifically about nominating from the Shin Megami Tensei series since I didn't see it noted. The series as a whole does have it's own multiverse thing going on, but AO3 separates most of the games as individual fandoms. It should probably go that way for this exchange too. The problem is SMT IV and SMT IV Final/Apocalypse since the latter is specifically a sequel and they share characters. AO3 separates them; do you want them as separate nominations or together?

[press_start_mod]

My view is that SMT IV and its direct sequel should be grouped together, but that the SMT series as a whole definitely should not be one fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you married to the 2 minute minimum for vids? It looks kind of arbitrary to me. 1 minute is what vid exchanges use, since it's roughly the dividing line between vidlets and full length vids.

[press_start_mod]

Not particularly - I was just told that was the equivalent of 1000 words back when the exchange first started.

[(Anonymous)]

The reason exchanges like this one tend to use 1K words as a minimum length for fic is because that's roughly the dividing line between a full fic and a ficlet, yeah? 1 minute is that for vids.

I would be thrilled to get a vid in the 1:00-2:00 range, as I have in other exchanges -- even more thrilled, considering that game vids are particularly hard to make. Realistically, I probably won't get one (I don't see any vids in the collections from previous years), but with odds this slim, I'd rather they not be made arbitrarily slimmer.

[press_start_mod]

Would it be possible for you to link me to those exchanges? Vids aren't my forte at all, and I'd like to get a feel of their rules generally before I make a decision. Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Here you go:

http://festivids.dreamwidth.org/profile

http://equinox-exchange.dreamwidth.org/1969.html

[(Anonymous)]

Hi!

First and foremost thank you for running this exchange again!

A quick questions: according to this year's rules how should TES series be nominated? It's the same world, but most of characters differs between games and any of them could be played as standalone completely - but on the other hand, it's the story of the one world and some background figures&info are relevant to every installment of the series.

As for Avengers Academy - I'm not sure if I'll nominate it, but it feels like a standalone game, not a part of bigger comicsverse to me. It's happening in it's own part of multiverse, has separate plot and is mostly crack-ish and meta, full of battling via dance and poor evil minions hiding in the bushes. OTOH, it still have the same comics characters, just in different, more lighthearted version.

It's anecdote, but I'm playing it despite not reading a comics in my life and seeing just a few Marvel films and have no problems with understanding what's going on.

[press_start_mod]

I have never played an Elder Scrolls game in my life (I have Skyrim in my depressingly large backlog but that's as close as I have come) so I don't know! How significant are the background figures to the main story (if you removed them, would there be a coherent story or would there be no real story at all, I suppose)?

I'll have to think (or play) Avengers Academy as on the one hand it sounds pretty crack-tastic, but on the other I don't want a situation where this becomes an avenue to allow people to request the MCU at large, for example.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for your quick answer!

I have Skyrim in my depressingly large backlog but that's as close as I have come
I know the pain! My tower of games-to-be-played-someday is probably taller than me... and I still can't persuade myself to stop buying games and book (le sigh).

Re: TES
Background figures are more easter-eggs/lore level, I think - they're not relevant to mine story, unless in some distant "they were the political figure behind event X" way. Political&historical events&figures have some impact throughout all games, but the main characters and the plots are different.

Comparing to KOTOR, the games in TES series are definitely much less connected - more like SW's EU series, I think. There's basically one universe and the universe shares the history, mythology etc., so big events from game X would be mentioned in another part of the series, but the installment Y itself would be usually about something totally different and with different characters - and there's no "main plot" connecting all these parts.

Either way is fine with me - keeping them all in one fandom tag would spare me wondering "how should I nominate the diety, which plays the most important part in game C, but, as a diety, is of course mentioned and worshipped in all other games, too, and I'm interested in particular in its relationship with X, and we are told about it in game D" or similar problems. ;) But I can easily imagine that someone more interested in main stories, not lore, would prefer to have all canons separated - so I feel it would be a little unfair to insist on 'one tag to rule them all' solution.

I'll have to think (or play) Avengers Academy as on the one hand it sounds pretty crack-tastic, but on the other I don't want a situation where this becomes an avenue to allow people to request the MCU at large, for example.

I understand! Personally, I feel MCU-fying it would be rather hard (characters are eternal teenagers, their relationships and adventures look very different etc.), but I guess there's no limit to people's... resourcefulness, sometimes.

[press_start_mod]

I think I'll go with having the games nominated individually, if that helps, from what I've read about TES.

Leave Avengers Academy with me - I'll see if I can get it on my phone.

[(Anonymous)]

What is the protocol for nominating a group of characters where none of them have an official name? Would something like "group: Jane Doe & Jane Doe's Employees" be acceptable?

[press_start_mod]

That's fine, and has been accepted in the past!

[(Anonymous)]

sorry this might be kind of a dumb question but when nominating pairs, do you have to include the word "Group"?

[press_start_mod]

Yes, you do! We're entering tags into the Character field rather than the Relationship field. (To do otherwise would mean characters individually couldn't be nominated). If you enter a ship without "group:" at the front and it's a canonical tag it will not save your nomination.

[roseargent]

I'd like to nominate characters from Tales of Xillia 2. Tales of Xillia is currently in the tagset, and 2 is a direct sequel with significant character overlap. Should I nominate them under Tales of Xillia (Series) or something similar, or just under Tales of Xillia 2?

[press_start_mod]

Either Tales of Xillia (Series) or Tales of Xillia would be fine!