After nearly three months of sorting through tons of fan-made stories of all variations, Blizzard has announced (here) the winners to their writing contest announced back in March of this year. The wait is over!
Quote from Bashiok »
The first ever Blizzard Entertainment Global Writing Contest is now complete!
We would just like to say how impressed we are by the overwhelming number of high-quality entries we received. Ranging from epic to earnest and hilarious to horrific, your stories conveyed true devotion, passion, and insight. The judges went through several rounds before selecting the finalists, but in the end only the big man himself, Chris Metzen, could choose the winning entry. We would like to thank all of the contest entrants for the time and effort that they put into their stories. It is always a pleasure to see our fans demonstrate their immense creativity and talent!
The grand prize winner will be flown to Blizzard Entertainment headquarters to meet the Blizzard creative writing staff, and will be the owner of a brand new shiny (and pointy) Frostmourne replica sword by Epic Weapons.
Grand Prize Winner!
In the Shadow of the Sun by Sarah Pine
Runners Up - (Alphabetical Order by Author)
The Runners Up will be receiving signed copies of the Diablo Archive, StarCraft Archive, Warcraft Archive, and Warcraft War of the Ancients Archive.
Kuma's Song by Tzu-Mainn Chen
The Baron's Bird by Andrew Moeller
Where Loyalties Lie by Michael Edmund O'Reilly
Into the Void by Benjamin P. Reeves
The Last Days of Crank Fizzlepop by Sean Lucas Riley
Why We Fight by Jason Matthew Rodriguez
Flag of the Black King by Erik Sabol
Honorable Mentions - (Alphabetical Order by Author)
While the Honorable Mentions haven't won a place in the contest, they've won a place in our hearts, and their stories have earned at the very least a mention to their greatness.
Eyes of the Dead by Luke Jackson
Dalaran Noir by Eric F. Kelley
The Princess and the Peon by Ben Lappin
Vengeance by Pamela Manasco
Windmills by Brendon Mroz
A Feast Fit For a Murloc by Kyle Schliesman
Mason by Charles Shattuck
The Defias Gambit by Craig E. Stalbaum
By Whatever Means Necessary by Laurie Tom
Inevitably Northward by Sam Zucchi
What's more, Bashiok has also noted that winners may have parts of their hard writing work posted around the official Blizzard site! What would be a better reward than that?
Quote from "Bashiok" »
Thank you again to everyone who entered! We'll be posting select stories and excerpts on our website in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned to share in these truly inspiring stories.
Is anyone here eager to read what Blizzard has deemed top-notch work? Has anyone been announced a winner here? And, more for speculation purposes, does anyone think that Blizzard may use some of the fan-created material from this contest to fuel the lore for Diablo III and other games?
Thank you again to everyone who entered! We'll be posting select stories and excerpts on our website in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned to share in these truly inspiring stories.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
I might be being cynical here; but looks to me by the titles that most if not all of the winning and honorable mention stories are about Warcraft. I'm not one of the WoW haters either, but I dunno, just reading the titles lead me to believe that they are in that universe. Nothing wrong with that, maybe one sided, but it would be nice if at least one is a Diablo story. Some statistics would be nice like x% were Diablo and x% were Warcraft and x% were Starcraft.
Actually, everything they provided was rather vague. It was a real let-down for me, personally. There's a lot they could have said but didn't. I'm guessing that they have their reasons, but who knows?
What's more, Bashiok has also noted that winners may have parts of their hard writing work posted around the official Blizzard site! What would be a better reward than that?
Is anyone here eager to read what Blizzard has deemed top-notch work? Has anyone been announced a winner here? And, more for speculation purposes, does anyone think that Blizzard may use some of the fan-created material from this contest to fuel the lore for Diablo III and other games?
(This was also spotted by Chemedeiros via our Dev Tracker- pop him a rep point or two, ladies and gents!)
The world may never know...
I can't wait to read some of these if we get a chance.
Oh and Dunhac I thought that too but the Black King story MIGHT be Diablo I mean that was Leoric right?
The Necromancer says "All who oppose me...beware"
The Witch Doctor says "BOO NUH MA GA!"
The Cow says "Mooooo"
Deckard Cain Says.....Toy explodes....