Millionth Member Competition

The millionth member competition is all about community; it means that over 1,000,000 people have registered on Nexus sites to join in on the forums and download modifications for Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3. To celebrate the amazing community following these games have TESNexus and FO3Nexus are running a modding competition that any member of the sites can enter with a grand prize of $125 in Amazon.com vouchers for Oblivion and Fallout 3.

Theme

The theme for the competition revolves around that of the Oblivion and Fallout 3 community respectively. I want modifications that contain unique and innovative representations of members or locations within the community that have influenced your time within the community in a positive way. Perhaps you’d like to make a tavern on some well travelled road containing NPCs representing your favourite community members, or maybe a companion mod with a representation of Buddah wielding a mighty hammer of bannage + 5. Maybe, just maybe, even a quest mod to save your friends from the evil clutches of the worm like Dark0ne? The idea is to make something fun and interesting with the emphasis on including your community friends. It’s all about the community, folks!

Requirements and judgement specifications

This competition is for Oblivion and Fallout 3 only, and entries are separate for the two games, so Oblivion entries will not be competing with Fallout 3 entries. All entries will be judged by myself and a panel of independent judges.

Here are the requirements that entries need to keep to in order to be accepted into the judging process. All entries should:

• be uploaded to the “Millionth Member Competition” category on TESNexus for Oblivion entries and Fallout 3 Nexus for Fallout 3 entries.
• follow normal mod submission etiquette including proper documentation such as a readme.
• be archived in omod, zip, rar or 7zip format with all files properly archived in appropriate directory structures for easy installation.
• work with vanilla patched Oblivion/Fallout 3 without the need for any other modifications.
• contain the authors own work ONLY. You cannot use other author’s content from any other modification.
• optionally provide a small (750 words or less!) written document explaining choices made when designing and implementing the mod that might help the judges better understand why the mod turned out like it did.

Please ensure your entry is easy to install (as easy as any normal, popular modification) and well documented or your entry may be void. Here are the judgment criteria that will be used to judge entries in the competition:

• How easy is the mod to install? Is it well documented and well published on the site?
• Does the mod capture a sense of community and integrate community members well into the premise of the mod?
• Is the mod well made? Is it pleasing to the eye? Missing textures, bad dialogue, spelling mistakes, lack of innovation, lack of creativity, lack of originality and lack of matching content to the personas of community members will be considered as bad! For example try to make any NPCs unique and relevant to the person you are trying to represent in the game both in their dialogue and their physical appearance.
• Is it entertaining? Does it provide an interesting experience for the user, whether it be funny, challenging or informative?
• Has a good effort been made? Is this a mod that has had a lot of effort put into it or does it show signs of being a quick hash together. The judges understand that not all authors are master craftsmen, but effort can be judged accordingly.

Closing date

All entries need to be submitted and uploaded to the site at midnight 50 days after the Nexus Forums hit the one million member mark. The date will be published on TESNexus and FO3Nexus when it is reached. By my estimates that gives you 60 days! Any entries that do not contain a file by this time will be automatically removed from the database.

Prizes

The prizes are split equally between Fallout 3 and Oblivion with three teirs, there can only be one winner in each tier for each game. The winners will be selected within a month of the competition closing.

Grand Prize – the mod considered by the judges to be the best based on the judgement criteria provided
$125 Amazon voucher

Runner-up – the next best, as decided by the judges
$75 Amazon voucher

Highest potential – the mod that had great potential but fell short for one reason or another
$50 Amazon voucher

Total prize pool: $500

Entrants in countries in locations other than America can have their vouchers in their respective currency (so long as Amazon accommodates your currency) based on the exchange rate at the time of the competition’s closing.

Vouchers will be delivered online via the Nexus Forums and email to all winners.

Blurb

This competition is open to all users who are at least 18 years of age or older. No alternative, financial or otherwise will be provided to winners and it is recommended users check at Amazon.com to make sure their country is supported by the site.

Sole choice of winners is granted to Robin Scott (Dark0ne) who will make his choice of winners based on his own reviews of entries and based on recommendations from his panel of judges. Robin reserves the right to disqualify any entry without warning should an entry or the author of an entry act outside the terms and conditions for either this competition or the site.

Authors are required to use only their own work, apart from that already offered by the original Oblivion or Fallout 3 games and their respective patches and are highly recommended to seek permission to include representations of other community members within their works to avoid any potential drama. Shivering Isles is the only supported expansion for Oblivion that entries can make use of.

All entrants retain the rights to all the work they produce, deciding where and if they want to have the modification published for public availability after the end of the competition. However by submitting an entry you grant your irrevocable permission to Robin to publish your online alias (not your full name, unless your alias is your full name), the name of your entry and any comments you may have made in regards to your entry.

This competition is not endorsed or sanctioned by Bethesda Softworks, its parent company or its subsiduries.