Difference between revisions of "Judging rubric"

 
 
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Each of the 10 categories, including the final 'Wild Card', is worth 0-10 points. At the end each battle or quest, the results of each category are tallied and your character is awarded a final score, from 0-100, for the thread.
 
Each of the 10 categories, including the final 'Wild Card', is worth 0-10 points. At the end each battle or quest, the results of each category are tallied and your character is awarded a final score, from 0-100, for the thread.
  
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The rubric for a quest is:
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Over the long term, the focus on a detailed writing based rubric has significantly increased the writing quality of Althanas at the cost of a significant flow of new younger role-players. Althanas 3.0 is all about finding new ways to bring in new players without losing touch with the foundation of the game. What we've done is taken both writing and role-play elements and combined them into 10 categories. This rubric focuses roughly 70% on the writing side and 30% on the role-play side of Althanas.
  
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=== Story ===
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== The Rubric ==
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A good score in the Story categories will require three things: first, it will need to be well-placed in time and location; second, it will need to proceed with sufficient development to interest the reader without boring him or her at the same time; most importantly, though, it will need to be original and creative.
 
  
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* '''Continuity''' ~ Continuity situates a thread within a broader sheath of a character's storyline or personality. This should be done so that a moderator need not read any of a character's back story, yet can still figure it out readily based on the information provided. Does the player describe how a character arrived at the current location? Are there descriptions of past events? Continuity does not require a massive, epic storyline, or even keeping all threads in perfect harmony with another. Instead, continuity requires an explanation: Why is the story taking place?
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* '''Story:''' Story is worth 10 points on the rubric, and it asks the questions of 'does this thread have everything a good story should have'? This is simple enough to score on. Did the story have an introduction that made you want to read more? Did the rising action continue to take its hold on you? Did the climax make you gasp or cry or show some other emotion? Did the conclusion leave you feeling satisfied, leaving all questions answered, or teasing you with a 'to be continued' type ending? A good story has all four of the previously listed elements (Intro, rising action, climax, conclusion), and will be scored upon to how well each of these four were done.
  
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* '''Setting''' ~ A good story requires both a place and a time. Closely related to continuity, setting asks another question: When and where is the story occurring? Setting will be scored according to how well these things are described -- do we get a sense of the landscape, do we understand where we are? -- and how well it is used. For instance, if a character describes a chair, is the chair used as a seat? Is the pen on the desk merely mentioned, or is it also picked up and twirled between a character's fingers? A good setting not merely describes the place, it also makes use of objects within that place. Setting is not simply canvass on which to paint a story -- it is a world in which you ACT a story.
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* '''Continuity:''' Continuity is ten points on the rubric. It focuses on how well a character fit into the Althanas canon, or how the Althanas canon related to the character? Did the character go to Fallien but play it out as a jungle setting? Did anybody in Akashima speak a foreign (asian) langauge that your character was not familiar with? Did they roleplay Knife's Edge being destroyed (as is current) or continued as if nothing happened? A good writer makes sure he knows the canon of the area he's writing in, and is able to grade a character on it thoroughly. A five would mean the character acknowledged he was in Fallien, and had a couple of details to incorporate it (a hot sun, lightly dressed people), where as a 10 puts forth excruciating details to make sure anybody who reads knows exactly what Fallien is all about, and enthralls them to do threads there personally.
  
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* '''Pacing''' ~ If Continuity asks “Why?” and Setting asks “Where,” then Pacing asks "How?" Are your character’s actions clearly described? In scoring Pacing, the moderator will try to determine the author's intent. If the intent is to keep the reader from putting down the story, then a good Pacing score requires that the story delivered: it kept the tension high, releasing it in certain places and building it in others. It kept you guessing. If the intention of the Pacing is to develop a particular character, then the development of the plot must serve to provide the character with specific ways to grow. In other words, the thread’s story must keep you reading, but must also serve the intent of the author.
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* '''Setting:''' A ten point category that is similar to continuity. If your character is fighting in a concert hall, are there felt chairs about? Do their feet stick to the floor? A good setting answers for the time and place for the character. A good writer will incorporate time of day, a location one can picture in their heads, and a sense that you could actually feel yourself being there. If I read a thread on the Steppes of Salvar, a writer should want to know how cold the wind feels, how deep is the snow, has the sun reached its peak or not? Details such as that. Setting isn’t about just visual, but all five senses that would assist with creating a detailed and dynamic environment.
  
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==== Character ====
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* '''Creativity:''' Creativity is ten points based on how creative the writer is. In a one on one sword battle, a score of 1 would mean that the characters locked swords, did a traditional stare down and break away cliché that we see in so many movies/shows. No dialogue or anything. It's so flat and static that it warrants no extra points. However, if in the sword lock, Player A licks his blade to distract his foe, it's creative and so gets a higher score, and would get around a 5. Now if he say, comes out into a new area and uses his fireball ability to catch the ground aflame while locked in the swordplay, it's something a judge rarely if ever has seen done, it’s very creative take on a classic move, and a creative way to use a fireball, so they'd get around a 7-8.
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There is one important factor to keep in mind when judging Character. Do the thoughts, words, and actions of your character exhibit who they really are? If a particular character is doing something completely contrary to what they are normally like and do not justify that behavior in-character, then a low score will be awarded. If the character's actions truly illustrate who they are, then a high score will be awarded. Above all, a character should be BELIEVABLE. Does it make sense for an illiterate barbarian to talk his way out of a mess? No. Does it make sense for a dull-witted human to come up with a brilliant plan for ambushing the enemy? No. Does it make sense for a first-time lover to comprehend the depth of his emotions? No. In other words: simply because a character does something "smart" doesn't mean the player should get high scores. Sometimes, a stupid response to a situation can be just as important as an intelligent one.
 
  
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* '''Dialogue''' ~ Dialogue must be sensible and believable. A fighter in the midst of a battle should not USUALLY break off the fight for a longwinded speech. A poorly educated human would not be able to converse with an extensive vocabulary. A quiet, withdrawn person would not speak at all, but might do more internal thinking. A dullard might not do much speaking OR thinking. On the other hand, a particularly flamboyant, arrogant, or witty character might indeed decide to pull away in order to deliver a speech he or she thought of on the fly. A poorly educated human might, in a moment of crisis, say a few words which, although short and unadorned, are elegant in their simplicity. A quiet person might do the same thing, or a dullard might assert their dignity with a few protesting, angry, halting words. The question with dialogue is not "How much talking was there?” Instead, the question is this: does it properly represent the character?
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* '''Character:''' You must make sure that the writer is portraying the character correctly. Think about it, would Letho Ravenheart ever murder his daughter, of his own free will, randomly, for no reason at all? No, it's not in his character, and doing such a thing would probably result in a 0 for the Grand Marshal of Corone. Character reflects who our creations are, what they do. A 5 would mean that the character did everything normally, with a few exceptions that seem out of place. A 10 would mean that the character was perfect, they did everything that seemed in-character, as it were, with no real quirks that seemed out of place. Or, in turn, quirks that make the character realistic and come to life.
  
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* '''Action''' ~ This can be explained in virtually the same way as dialogue. For an example, consider The Lord of the Rings. When the Witch-King of Angmar was slain, it was because he had ignored the hobbit Pippin, who was able to creep up from behind him and stab him in the heel at an opportune moment. This is entirely fitting with Pippin's character...he cannot block the attack of a man, jump backflips, or cast spells. But he can crawl quietly and wait for a chance to strike. His action made sense for his character. Similarly, a dullard might not come up with a battle strategy in the thick of things, but he might be able to appear at a lucky moment and swing a sword just in time to protect a friend's life.  
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* '''Interaction:''' A 0 in interaction means that the character really didn't engage in any interaction, or the interaction in and of itself was flimsy. Something like 'Hey gurl, how you durrin?' while the character is -not- drunk or from another 'part' of Althanas would be a good example. A 5 is given if the interactions (not nessicarily dialogue) is both believable and enjoyable, but still left wanting. A 10 should be given if the interaction is both believable, and enjoyable, with nothing left wanting. Remember that two silent swordsmen can easily say enough with their eyes and their attacks then some could ever do with words. Interaction does not mean dialogue, do not judge it as such.
  
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:Keep in mind that action is not limited to fighting! For example, a character might have a favorite book. A player could begin a thread with her reading it for a third time, and commenting on it as a friend walks in. Another example may involve a character who collects old coins - in a quest, one could come across a trove of them, and have the character go to great lengths to keep a hold of them as the quest progresses. Think of action as being just what it says: anything a character DOES. Just like dialogue, action is not defined by how cool a maneuver is or how intelligently the character planned and executed it. Rather, action is scored based on whether or not a character does what fits with the character.  
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* '''Strategy:''' Strategy judges the action of the thread mostly. Keep in mind that this doesn't actually just apply to battles, but can apply to other areas as well. Thinking about life, or having a picnic, could be seen as strategic for the character as well. A 0 in strategy means that absolutely nothing happened in the thread, at all. A 5 means that everything was fine, but not spectacular. It didn't make you 'wow' at either the unpredictability or sheer coolness of the actions. A 10 means you were absolutely amazed by what went on. Yes, a picnic may be boring to you, but depending on how the picnic was carried out, it could relatively be the coolest damn picnic ever. Keep in mind that when you judge strategy, you're judging more than just fight fighting and warrior stuff, you could also be judging lovers, or even scientists as well.
  
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* '''Persona''' ~ Persona refers to how well a character's emotions are depicted in relation to their personality. Emotions can be one of the trickiest things to talk about -- either one doesn't portray them enough or one does a bit too much. Characters, for the most part, do have emotions. They feel pain, they feel love, hate, anger, confusion. A few pointers can help with improving your Persona score. First, the characters should feel emotion, but not always know what to do with it. Most people feel emotion, but they often struggle with knowing the precise emotion they are having or determining how to act on the emotion. Whether a player portrays this conflict or not should determine the score. Second, is the emotion believable? Absent a specific reason, emotion should not be overblown. A lengthy description of how much love you feel for the person you just had sex with, for instance, can be rather obnoxious.
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* '''Mechanics:''' Mechanics judges spelling and grammar. Are all your commas well placed, all words spelled correctly? We're supposed to catch spelling/grammar errors and deduct them in this category. I'd start automatically giving everybody a 10 in this category, assuming that the thread is spelled and written perfectly, and the more errors your see, the more points they lose. A 0 means almost every other word is a spelling error, there are tons of run-ons, and you can't differentiate dialogue from action. A 5 means that about half of the thread had spelling errors in it (in an average 10 post thread, lets say 5 of the posts had 1-3 errors), whereas a perfect 10 means there was absolutely nothing wrong. Commas, periods, and correct punctuation were all used. Almost no grammar or spelling misuses (1-2 mispelled words in 1 post in a 10 post thread, for example, could be waived, but no more than that)
  
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:Keep this in mind, however: both these rules can be suspended if the emotion depicted is well-done in relation to personality. For instance, a character might be a warrior, used to pain -- used to not reacting with tears or cries if a dagger pierces them, for instance. Or they might have tried to harden their heart to love, or ignore feelings of hate because they think hate is a bad thing to feel. Or a character might be the clingy type, ignoring subtle emotions in favor of seeking that clear feeling of "I love her so much" that may characterize an adolescent boy. Or the character might merely be expressing emotions of an overblown nature as a way to mask their underlying uncertainty and fear. Persona is one of the hardest areas to judge; However, in a sense, it is like what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography: ""I shall not attempt to define the kinds of material I understand to be pornography, but I know it when I see it."
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* '''Clarity:''' Did the reader understand the thread? Did they know what was going on at all times? If a character 'gets into a fighting position', what does that mean, exactly? Did they raise their hands to their face and shift their feet forward? Or did they simply bounce up and down and swing their arms? To a judge clarity means you understand everything, and it was stated clearly so even a child could understand it. A 0 means you had to reread the entire thread 3-4 times in order to know what was going on, and even then had to ask the person via IM at certain parts what had happened. A 5 means that you understood some parts of the thread, but other areas were hazy. (Like 'gets into a fighting stance' with no specifics, 'having a picnic', without stating what exactly that entails, etc etc). A 10 means that everything was completely understood. You didn't have to re-read anything, and that you could judge the thread almost as soon as you finished reading it.
  
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==== Writing Style ====
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* '''Wildcard:''' Wildcard is a judge’s discretion category. Did you enjoy the thread, and the characters involved? Did you find it lacking, and wish for more? Are you now going to follow this character, even if you're not judging their threads? All of these are factors in wildcard. A 0 means that the thread had absolutely no redeemable qualities to it. You didn't like it, it was horrible in your opinion, and there was nothing good about it. A 5 means you enjoyed it, but wished for more. Maybe a character didn't draw a fight out long enough. Perhaps the thread seemed a bit rushed to you. Minor things that irk you should still result in the average score of 5. A 10 means you really loved the thread. Everything about it was fun to read, and you may even read it again just for kicks.
  
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* '''Technique''' ~ This refers to special literary devices, such as foreshadowing, allusion, symbolism, or other "advanced" forms of writing. This can be judged in a few ways, often interacting with the other categories (especially “Pacing”), in the sense that certain devices, such as foreshadowing, can be used to build tension and so forth. However, Technique can also be applied to how well a special device was used. For example, if someone does a battle in poetry, Technique can refer to whether or not the poetry was good.
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== Judging Method's ==
  
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* '''Mechanics''' ~ This should be obvious. Are your commas in the right place? Are your sentences actual sentences, and not fragments? Do you spell words properly? In other words: are you following the basic rules of English? As is said in writing style, these rules can be broken without detriment, provided they are broken INTENTIONALLY in order to MAKE A POINT. And, as always, the moderator will determine whether poor mechanics actually serves the purpose of enhancing the style.
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Either Full Rubric/Full Commentary, Full Rubric/Low Commentary, Condensed Rubric or Workshop. The time required shall be approximately 2 weeks for full rubric/full commentary to five days for the condensed rubric. I obviously can't make promises here, as schedules change frequently, but I can say this is what we hope to maintain.
  
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* '''Clarity''' ~ Basically, this refers to whether or not it makes sense. For instance, read the following few sentences: "Becky was a rat. The billygoat jumped over the wall. "Oh no," said Allan, "I have no idea what to do with my life. The pretty penguins parked in their parkas while praying." These sentences were technically correct. The last sentence even showed evidence of stylistic touches, using alliteration. Yet, did they make sense? Did one follow from another? Was the narration clean and easy to follow? I think we can all answer this question. Clarity, in a sense, is a way of expressing what we used to express with Brevity, only without implying the need for a short post. Clarity, in the purest sense, asks this: do you say what you need to say using effective, clear, easy-to-follow language?
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The Condensed Rubric will be: Story, Character, Writing and Wildcard. Story, character and writing will be out of 30 points, wildcard will be out of 10. This is the same as it currently is.
  
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* '''Wild Card''' ~ Wild Card takes into account any facet of writing that does not fall under the description of another category, such as the use of content from the Althanas regions.
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== Judging Submissions ==
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Here is how judging is done behind the scenes. After you submit your thread for judging, it comes into a queue we have in the moderator area. The current Head Judge assigns the thread to a judge. They assign based on a number of different things including judging availability, judging tier (an internal training system), player preference, and number of threads in each judge's queue. The moderator then acknowledges the assignment. It is going to be set up using our "favorites" system built into Vbulletin. That should send you a PM when the judge "accepts" your judgment. Judges will post updates in the thread as they see fit. These will automatically be routed to you as PMs.

Latest revision as of 14:01, 24 January 2011

The judging rubric is a set of criterion used to determine writing quality on Althanas. At the end of each completed battle and quest, an Althanas moderator will use the rubric to post a score for each player in the thread.

Each of the 10 categories, including the final 'Wild Card', is worth 0-10 points. At the end each battle or quest, the results of each category are tallied and your character is awarded a final score, from 0-100, for the thread.

Over the long term, the focus on a detailed writing based rubric has significantly increased the writing quality of Althanas at the cost of a significant flow of new younger role-players. Althanas 3.0 is all about finding new ways to bring in new players without losing touch with the foundation of the game. What we've done is taken both writing and role-play elements and combined them into 10 categories. This rubric focuses roughly 70% on the writing side and 30% on the role-play side of Althanas.

The Rubric

  • Story: Story is worth 10 points on the rubric, and it asks the questions of 'does this thread have everything a good story should have'? This is simple enough to score on. Did the story have an introduction that made you want to read more? Did the rising action continue to take its hold on you? Did the climax make you gasp or cry or show some other emotion? Did the conclusion leave you feeling satisfied, leaving all questions answered, or teasing you with a 'to be continued' type ending? A good story has all four of the previously listed elements (Intro, rising action, climax, conclusion), and will be scored upon to how well each of these four were done.
  • Continuity: Continuity is ten points on the rubric. It focuses on how well a character fit into the Althanas canon, or how the Althanas canon related to the character? Did the character go to Fallien but play it out as a jungle setting? Did anybody in Akashima speak a foreign (asian) langauge that your character was not familiar with? Did they roleplay Knife's Edge being destroyed (as is current) or continued as if nothing happened? A good writer makes sure he knows the canon of the area he's writing in, and is able to grade a character on it thoroughly. A five would mean the character acknowledged he was in Fallien, and had a couple of details to incorporate it (a hot sun, lightly dressed people), where as a 10 puts forth excruciating details to make sure anybody who reads knows exactly what Fallien is all about, and enthralls them to do threads there personally.
  • Setting: A ten point category that is similar to continuity. If your character is fighting in a concert hall, are there felt chairs about? Do their feet stick to the floor? A good setting answers for the time and place for the character. A good writer will incorporate time of day, a location one can picture in their heads, and a sense that you could actually feel yourself being there. If I read a thread on the Steppes of Salvar, a writer should want to know how cold the wind feels, how deep is the snow, has the sun reached its peak or not? Details such as that. Setting isn’t about just visual, but all five senses that would assist with creating a detailed and dynamic environment.
  • Creativity: Creativity is ten points based on how creative the writer is. In a one on one sword battle, a score of 1 would mean that the characters locked swords, did a traditional stare down and break away cliché that we see in so many movies/shows. No dialogue or anything. It's so flat and static that it warrants no extra points. However, if in the sword lock, Player A licks his blade to distract his foe, it's creative and so gets a higher score, and would get around a 5. Now if he say, comes out into a new area and uses his fireball ability to catch the ground aflame while locked in the swordplay, it's something a judge rarely if ever has seen done, it’s very creative take on a classic move, and a creative way to use a fireball, so they'd get around a 7-8.
  • Character: You must make sure that the writer is portraying the character correctly. Think about it, would Letho Ravenheart ever murder his daughter, of his own free will, randomly, for no reason at all? No, it's not in his character, and doing such a thing would probably result in a 0 for the Grand Marshal of Corone. Character reflects who our creations are, what they do. A 5 would mean that the character did everything normally, with a few exceptions that seem out of place. A 10 would mean that the character was perfect, they did everything that seemed in-character, as it were, with no real quirks that seemed out of place. Or, in turn, quirks that make the character realistic and come to life.
  • Interaction: A 0 in interaction means that the character really didn't engage in any interaction, or the interaction in and of itself was flimsy. Something like 'Hey gurl, how you durrin?' while the character is -not- drunk or from another 'part' of Althanas would be a good example. A 5 is given if the interactions (not nessicarily dialogue) is both believable and enjoyable, but still left wanting. A 10 should be given if the interaction is both believable, and enjoyable, with nothing left wanting. Remember that two silent swordsmen can easily say enough with their eyes and their attacks then some could ever do with words. Interaction does not mean dialogue, do not judge it as such.
  • Strategy: Strategy judges the action of the thread mostly. Keep in mind that this doesn't actually just apply to battles, but can apply to other areas as well. Thinking about life, or having a picnic, could be seen as strategic for the character as well. A 0 in strategy means that absolutely nothing happened in the thread, at all. A 5 means that everything was fine, but not spectacular. It didn't make you 'wow' at either the unpredictability or sheer coolness of the actions. A 10 means you were absolutely amazed by what went on. Yes, a picnic may be boring to you, but depending on how the picnic was carried out, it could relatively be the coolest damn picnic ever. Keep in mind that when you judge strategy, you're judging more than just fight fighting and warrior stuff, you could also be judging lovers, or even scientists as well.
  • Mechanics: Mechanics judges spelling and grammar. Are all your commas well placed, all words spelled correctly? We're supposed to catch spelling/grammar errors and deduct them in this category. I'd start automatically giving everybody a 10 in this category, assuming that the thread is spelled and written perfectly, and the more errors your see, the more points they lose. A 0 means almost every other word is a spelling error, there are tons of run-ons, and you can't differentiate dialogue from action. A 5 means that about half of the thread had spelling errors in it (in an average 10 post thread, lets say 5 of the posts had 1-3 errors), whereas a perfect 10 means there was absolutely nothing wrong. Commas, periods, and correct punctuation were all used. Almost no grammar or spelling misuses (1-2 mispelled words in 1 post in a 10 post thread, for example, could be waived, but no more than that)
  • Clarity: Did the reader understand the thread? Did they know what was going on at all times? If a character 'gets into a fighting position', what does that mean, exactly? Did they raise their hands to their face and shift their feet forward? Or did they simply bounce up and down and swing their arms? To a judge clarity means you understand everything, and it was stated clearly so even a child could understand it. A 0 means you had to reread the entire thread 3-4 times in order to know what was going on, and even then had to ask the person via IM at certain parts what had happened. A 5 means that you understood some parts of the thread, but other areas were hazy. (Like 'gets into a fighting stance' with no specifics, 'having a picnic', without stating what exactly that entails, etc etc). A 10 means that everything was completely understood. You didn't have to re-read anything, and that you could judge the thread almost as soon as you finished reading it.
  • Wildcard: Wildcard is a judge’s discretion category. Did you enjoy the thread, and the characters involved? Did you find it lacking, and wish for more? Are you now going to follow this character, even if you're not judging their threads? All of these are factors in wildcard. A 0 means that the thread had absolutely no redeemable qualities to it. You didn't like it, it was horrible in your opinion, and there was nothing good about it. A 5 means you enjoyed it, but wished for more. Maybe a character didn't draw a fight out long enough. Perhaps the thread seemed a bit rushed to you. Minor things that irk you should still result in the average score of 5. A 10 means you really loved the thread. Everything about it was fun to read, and you may even read it again just for kicks.

Judging Method's

Either Full Rubric/Full Commentary, Full Rubric/Low Commentary, Condensed Rubric or Workshop. The time required shall be approximately 2 weeks for full rubric/full commentary to five days for the condensed rubric. I obviously can't make promises here, as schedules change frequently, but I can say this is what we hope to maintain.

The Condensed Rubric will be: Story, Character, Writing and Wildcard. Story, character and writing will be out of 30 points, wildcard will be out of 10. This is the same as it currently is.

Judging Submissions

Here is how judging is done behind the scenes. After you submit your thread for judging, it comes into a queue we have in the moderator area. The current Head Judge assigns the thread to a judge. They assign based on a number of different things including judging availability, judging tier (an internal training system), player preference, and number of threads in each judge's queue. The moderator then acknowledges the assignment. It is going to be set up using our "favorites" system built into Vbulletin. That should send you a PM when the judge "accepts" your judgment. Judges will post updates in the thread as they see fit. These will automatically be routed to you as PMs.

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