2013 Kurofai Winter Olympics - theme and scheduling poll!

[mikkeneko]

It is 2013, and so time to start seriously thinking of the 2013 Kurofai Winter Olympics!

Thanks to the suggestions of everyone on our early poll, we have several very strong competitors for this year's theme.

Feudal vs Future - also known as Science vs Magic, or Sci-fi vs. Fantasy. Explores two different flavors of speculative fiction settings for the price of one!

Drama vs Comedy - also known as SRS vs LOL. On one side a perfectly straight-faced, serious-business interpretation of a prompt, with all the grim consequences and earnest drama thereof. On the other side... laughs abound.

Let us know your preference, and while you're at it: if you plan to write for the 2013 olympics, let us know what weeks you would be available to write. We'd like to accommodate everybody's schedule as much as possible!

Poll #12487 2013 Winter Olympics!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

View Respondents

What should the contest theme be?

View Answers

Fantasy vs Future
17 (65.4%)

Drama vs Comedy
9 (34.6%)

What weeks would you be available to write? Check all that apply.

View Answers

Week 1: Feb 3 - Feb 9
7 (50.0%)

Week 2: Feb 10 - Feb 16
8 (57.1%)

Week 3: Feb 17 - Feb 23
11 (78.6%)

Week 4: Feb 24 - Mar 2
11 (78.6%)

Week 5: Mar 3 - Mar 9
9 (64.3%)

Week 6: Mar 10 - Mar 16
8 (57.1%)

Comments

[mikkeneko]

The reason we chose that wording (and we may yet change it,) is because sci-fi and fantasy are themselves slippery terms (hence why they're usually grouped together in the 'speculative fiction' section of the bookstore.) Many books can and do blur the line between magic and science, such as in the Crystal Spires And Togas type world (fantasy in a futuristic setting) or steampunk (science in a historical setting.)

For the sake of this contest, we'd like to keep the two categories as distinct as possible -- hence specifying future/science in opposition to feudal/magic. Essentially, it's Piffle versus Koryo.

[little_echo]

@mikkeneko: Does Infinity also count? I mean, unfortunately one didn't see a lot of the world, aside from the game but Infinity always occured to me as one of those dystopian settings and they did have robots.

@mindlessadri: honestly, my first approach to a new subject is always wikipedia. :) There is a nice list of science fiction elements. The one thing that needs the approval of the mods is aliens, I guess. Because... aliens don't quite fit to the CLAMP in my opinion (though bottan made a lovely fanart about Kurogane Fai and Syaoran being in space and getting friendly with some little gray aliens) - unless the aliens are cute mascots like Kero-chan or the Mokonas. XD
Chobits is in a way also a SciFi setting although the only futuristic aspect is the humanoid computers.
Piffle is a good example for a world with advanced technology only - no dashing around in fancy spaceships as far as we've seen, but signs of robotics (Nokoru assumed Mokona was a robot, after all), though no humanoid ones.
Of course there are SciFi shows and movies who have everything (like Star Wars, Star Trek, Andromeda, Stargate and many more): aliens, spaceships, artificial intelligence, robots, sometimes humans with psionic abilities. And yeah, well, most of the storylines are in the future.
And then there is awesome stuff like Space Western. 8D

But the wikipedia article is very detailed on that so maybe you have a look on that first to get an idea what you would like to do, or which elements you want to have in your story, otherwise I'll just start to randomly recommend you stuff. >.>