Nominations are open!

[press_start_mod]

Nominations are open! You may find the tagset 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 (video game title) - A fanwork where the gen relationship of Character A and Character B is the focus;
• group: Character A/Character B (video game title) - 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.
• group: Character A/Character B & Character C (video game title) - a fanwork where the shippy relationship between Character A and B, as well as their gen relationships with Character C are the focus.

The above examples are for two-three characters, but there is no maximum for how many characters can fit into a relationship tag (outside of the character limit in the nomination form itself).

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!

Putting the video game title in brackets after your nomination is essential. This is to aid me in identifying wandering tags and in cases where some fandoms are synned to each other in weird ways I can force the tags to go where they need to. Do not nominate without it!

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 Fandom. I have already nominated Crossover Fandom 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
The test for whether a game is part of a series and should be nominated as one is as follows:

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

At the moment:

• Dragon Age (Video Games) is the correct tag for any nomination for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age Inquisition;
• Mass Effect Andromeda is a separate game to the Mass Effect Trilogy;
• Final Fantasy games are separate to one another, except for the ones that are explicitly in continuity with each other;
• Kingdom Hearts is a separate continuity to Final Fantasy;
• The Star Ocean games can be nominated separately;
• The Kiseki/Trails series can be nominated as individual series (i.e. Sora, Sen etc etc)
• Fallout can be nominated separately.
• Final Fantasy VII is separated in Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
• Assassin Creed games are by individual subseries.
• Danganronpa is to be nominated into Dangan Ronpa (Hope's Peak Arc) and Danganronpa v3. Hope's Peak Arc includes Danganronpa, Danganronpa 2 and Ultra Despair Girls.

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.

Eligibility of Games
For a game to be eligible it must:

• Be released by the time that signups close; and
• Not be heavily dependent on another, non-video game canon.
• If it is a game that is coming out in instalments, one instalment must be released.

Finally, a reminder: if you defaulted after the no-penalty default deadline in previous years, you remain ineligible to participate in this round until you complete your penalty gift. If you don't remember what you need to do, please email me and I will let you know what you need to do!

Otherwise, happy nominations! Noms close 11:59pm on 29 June.

Comments

[cypher]

How do you want Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse handled? It's an alternate timeline that splits off from IV proper; the main cast is new characters and the plot follows a path that isn't possible in the first game, but it's the same setting and major characters from the first game are supporting cast in Apocalypse.

[press_start_mod]

That's a good question, because there's arguments either way: it is a separate timeline caused by Nanashi's actions, but Flynn and Isabeau are really important secondary characters for the game. Do you have a preference? Otherwise I might open it up for discussion as a whole.

[cypher]

Yeah, I think it could be argued either way pretty reasonably. I don't have strong feelings about it -- I'll have enough fandoms & enough fandom slots whichever way it goes. For now I'll hold off on making any Apocalypse noms until other people have had a chance to weigh in.

[dreemyweird]

How do you feel about the HITMAN series? It technically is an unbroken continuity but some things have been retconned in WoA in comparison to older games (e.g. Absolution or Blood Money).

[press_start_mod]

I have never played a Hitman game! What do you recommend?

[dreemyweird]

Personally my opinion is that it would be best to nom them as a single series. This is the current fandom convention (e.g. Absolution fanfic just gets posted to the general Hitman (Video Games) tag, not to a separate Absolution tag), and they all share the same protagonist, Agent 47, so excluding games from the series can get finicky.

[press_start_mod]

Then that works for me!

[tehexile]

should i nominate phantasy star as a series or separate games?

[press_start_mod]

What's your preference?

[tehexile]

I think either would work. They are a continuous series in the same world but the separate games and their characters rarely overlap.

I think overall its best to have it as one big series. There's a tag for it already.

[laurelwisp]

Hey, I've never done one of these before--how exactly does one nominate a relationship? Clicking 'Nominate' just lets me put in fandoms and individual characters. Do I just type out the relationship tag in the 'Character' field?

[press_start_mod]

Yes, you type "Group: Character A/Character B" into the character field! (Or "Group: Character A & Character B", depending on whether it's a ship or gen.)

[laurelwisp]

Thank you! I might have a bunch of other questions, but I just can't help looking into this considering my interests. A couple of them are actually on there! <3

[press_start_mod]

Not a problem! I'm happy to answer questions.

[alana_exchange]

Hi! I have a question about a series:

Dark Souls!

3 games, same setting-ish (spanning hundreds or possibly thousands of years), all in wildly different time periods and with very little cast overlap. About the only character that's *explicitly* in both is Dark Sun Gwyndolin (and Patches, a merchant who's in almost every game from the developer, including games in different universes), though there's implications of other characters from DS1 being involved in DS3, and characters in DS3 being characters that were mentioned in DS1... but all those characters (who are only implicitly present) are explicitly immortal gods...

Should I nominate the series as a whole, or should I nominate Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3 and their characters as different fandoms?

[soryenn]

Hi there!

Kind of a complete beginner to this kind of thing, so please forgive me for the probably dumb (and very last minute) question: can you create fancontent for someone without nominating anything in return?

[press_start_mod]

You absolutely can! They're commonly known as "treats" in exchange spaces, and they are very much appreciated by their recipients.

[press_start_mod]

It looks like for the last three years, Dark Souls has been nominated as a series rather than individual games. I'm honestly fine approving it either way.

[alana_exchange]

Okay! I think I might nominate as one series then, if that's the precedent. Thank you!

[soryenn]

Great, thank you!