Hoooo... this easily tops the list of "Things I Did Not See Coming."

Folks, it has been one very interesting contest. Without going into specifics, let me just say that a whoooooole lotta eleventh-hour work went into this puppy, and I never could've gotten it done on time without the most excellent contributions of my fellow staffers. In particular, I'd like to thank our most excellent judges; Vigivalgus, Tiptail, ASV, kweee, RunScottie and my man SlayerGhaleon. But most of all, I take my hat off to Roku. You really helped me out, man, I can't thank you enough. I'm baking you a cake as we speak. A chocolate cake. Made of eeeeeeeeevil. And chocolate.

Anyway, on to the winners of this prestigious event. As you can see, our judges were a rough bunch, and they didn't leave even our winners unscathed. But we argued, and we fought, and we debated... there were some obscenities, a knife was pulled, one guy went to jail (We'll be waiting for you on the outside, kweee!); but we got 'em. Of the eds we agreed were the best of the bunch, these six fought their way to the top.

The good Carmine M. Red scored first with his thinkpiece on character levels in World of Warcraft, he'll be walking away with a Laharl figurine and a plated Makai Kingdom poster. Misters Bechtle and Monarc picked up second place with a classic ed about "something," and one about our collective future, in that order - they get Plenaire and Archer figurines, not necessarily in that order, and a Makai Kingdom poster of their own. Rolling in to third place are Ben Avner, Conrad "Tical" Collins and DragoMusevini, on topics from storytelling to repetition to real people where real people aren't normally, and each of these fine fellows gets a Makai Kingdom poster as well. Folks, you all did a bang-up job, you oughta be proud of yourselves. You don't have to be, I don't wanna force you or anything, but you can. I know pride isn't for everybody, I don't have much of it myself, but you guys earned it, you really did.

Extra-special thanks go to our good friends over at NIS America for gracing us with prizes, swag, other names for the same thing, and the lovely Prier. You make the world a better place, Nippon Ichi, you really do.

To all those who submitted, to all those who contributed, to everybody that wanted a piece of the action... I thank you.

CONTEST WINNERS

Entry	Judge 1	Judge 2	Judge 3	Total Score
1. WoW, and Why Character Levels Are Imperfect by Carmine M. Red Judges: Roku; Vigivalgus; Tiptail	85	84	79	248
2. En-gender-ing the "Something" by John Perry Bechtle Judges: Karlinn; RunScottie; ASV	80	76	75	231
3. The Future of an RPGamer by Monarc Judges: Roku; Vigivalgus; Tiptail	82	86	56	224
4. The Telling's The Thing by Benjamin S. Avner Judges: Karlinn; SlayerGhaleon; kweee	78	52	80	210
5. Repetition is Good by Conrad Collins Judges: Roku; Vigivalgus; Tiptail	77	78	51	206
6. Real people? In a game?! by Drago Musevini Judges: Roku; Vigivalgus; Tiptail	74	71	50	195

John Boske
Editor@RPGamer.com