- Location
- boundless optimism
mega proud to be the first isekai writer to be picked by SV's esteemed staff
Introducing: SV's Picks of the Month!
- Thread starter Skippy
- Start date
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
As your prize, we've scheduled your appointment with Truck-kun!
August 2020 Picks of the Month
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*waves hello*
So, considering the announcement of the Council elections, we delayed the announcement of selections a week, but here's the four entries Content Promotion is promoting for August! And, here are SV's Picks of the Month for August 2020! Hope you all enjoy them!
And as a reminder, we have a user submission thread for fics, quests, or other such thread that you feel would be interesting to promote on SV!
So, considering the announcement of the Council elections, we delayed the announcement of selections a week, but here's the four entries Content Promotion is promoting for August! And, here are SV's Picks of the Month for August 2020! Hope you all enjoy them!
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In User Fiction: Valerius at Telamon
by @EricD
Has summer under social distancing been making you feel a bit restless? Are your days filled with fantasies of travel, and seeing a bit more of the world? Of going on a journey with your friends?
Of holding your place in the line of battle as the javelins fly and men cry out in pain, meeting the Gaulish warrior in glorious single combat, and taking his weapons and his jewellery?
If so, then this wonderfully researched little historical vignette by our very own @EricD may be for you.
Article: SV's User Pick of the Month In Questing: DoofQuest- a Disney Villains Victorious CK2-Style Quest
by @Made in Heaven
Have you ever been watching a Disney film with your family, and begun to imagine an alternate universe where the villain won? Has your mind wandered to the strange and terrifying world this would create? If so, you're definitely on the right forum.
Also, we may have a quest for you! Doof Quest is a wonderfully original story of a shared universe where all of the modern day Disney settings happened at once - and then went terribly wrong.
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In Weird Fiction: hollow hill archives
by @indefinite
Bone white masks. A sun that watches. The hollow hill.
Venture, if you dare, into the hollow hill archives.
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In Grand Strategy Roleplaying: An Unravelled Tapestry
by @MJ12 Commando and Friends
Do you enjoy role playing, and games of grand strategy? Do you enjoy space opera? Do you enjoy the ideas of Arthur C. Clarke, of fantastical technology so advanced it may be magic? Do you enjoy post-apocalyptic stories, of the fall of empires, and the fraught periods of uncertainty and opportunity which come after them?
If you enjoy the idea of all these put into a blender, whizzed together and made into a smoothie, then you may want to check out An Unravelled Tapestry.
And as a reminder, we have a user submission thread for fics, quests, or other such thread that you feel would be interesting to promote on SV!
The banner is now live for:
SV's Pick of the Month In Grand Strategy Roleplaying: An Unravelled Tapestry
by @MJ12 Commando and Friends
My apologies for the delay in the banner going live.
SV's Pick of the Month In Grand Strategy Roleplaying: An Unravelled Tapestry
by @MJ12 Commando and Friends
My apologies for the delay in the banner going live.
September 2020 Picks of the Month
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*waves hello*
So, after some talk we've decided to move to the second Sunday of the month for posting, but there were a few delays for posting this month. Either way, here's the four entries Content Promotion is promoting for September! Thus, here are SV's Picks of the Month for September 2020! Hope you all enjoy them!
And as a reminder, we have a user submission thread for fics, quests, or other such thread that you feel would be interesting to promote on SV!
So, after some talk we've decided to move to the second Sunday of the month for posting, but there were a few delays for posting this month. Either way, here's the four entries Content Promotion is promoting for September! Thus, here are SV's Picks of the Month for September 2020! Hope you all enjoy them!
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In User Fiction: The Space Pirate King
by @EBR
Have you ever been browsing and seen one of those "What if the rest of the galaxy saw humans as X" stories? Have you ever wondered what it would be like if one of them was actually well written, funny, and gripping? Then look no further!
The Space Pirate King creates a vividly detailed galaxy, presenting its story through a series of vignettes presented as in-universe accounts. Read on as the one Jacob Grunberg of Earth makes an unlikely journey from victim of abduction to becoming... The Space Pirate King!
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In Questing: Dungeon Mapper Quest
by @samdamandias
Have you played a game of Dungeons and Dragons, methodically clearing yet another chamber filled with monsters and traps, and wondered who could have made the map your party was using? Did you think that that being one of those mappers could be a more interesting game than the one you were playing?
Then you're in luck! Check out Dungeon Mapper Quest, where your objective is to chart lost catacombs and strange sunken citadels, and somehow get out alive.
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In Original Essays and Reviews: From A Certain Point of View
by @The Laurent
Are any of you familiar with the obscure 1977 science-fiction epic known as "The Star Wars"? Although a bit of a cult classic, it certainly has a loyal following amongst its fans!
A few years ago, an anthology of forty short stories based on the film was published, each taking a minor or background character and centring a story around them. This Let's Read covers every story in the anthology. Not only are the reviews incisive and engaging, but you may find that their insights deepen your appreciation for a piece of culture which is dear to all of our hearts.
Article: SV's Pick of the Month In User Fiction: Review of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
by @NonSequtur
It can be wonderful to read a review of a work of fiction from the perspective of an insider. Our community is founded on a group of people who have shared nerdy interests, and we all can call ourselves inhabitants of at least one fictional world. But sometimes, it can be a refreshing change of pace to read a review from someone with entirely new eyes.
If you would like an interesting review of the latest game in the Ace Combat series, then look no further. Whether you are an Ace Combat veteran or have not earned your wings, you may find it a rewarding read.
And as a reminder, we have a user submission thread for fics, quests, or other such thread that you feel would be interesting to promote on SV!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well...
Ace Combat 7 Review by @NonSequtur
Nonsequtur posted a really insightful review of Ace Combat 7 from the perspective of a series newcomer that becomes something of a deep, holistic reading of this long lived series' running narrative themes in the "Myths of Ace Combat" section. I think it's worth the consideration of the Content Promotion team for boosting.
Yet, what is a nation? - Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown News
I blame @100thlurker for this. The madman went and bought me a copy of this game based off one comment about how cool I found the idea of the aged, invincible pilot and in doing so kicked me down a rabbit hole. I'm playing the PS2 games now, you bastard. Anyway, now that I've logged 75 hours...forums.sufficientvelocity.com
So, no, they weren't arbitrarily disregarded.
We always look at user submissions, and then pick ones we think show merit, as well as which threads we think might benefit the most from a signal-boost. This means that not every user submission will necessarily be a pick of the month, if we look at it and decide it is not quite up to standard yet, or the thread is already quite popular.
Obviously, I don't want to comment specifically on the decision as to why any given thread was or was not chosen, because that could be unfair to do in a public space.
Obviously, I don't want to comment specifically on the decision as to why any given thread was or was not chosen, because that could be unfair to do in a public space.
Sufficiently Spooky (October) 2020 Picks of the Month
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*waves hello*
So, here's the slightly delayed announcements for what we've decided to promote as part of Sufficiently Spooky (and no, I didn't forget to post these in this thread, what are you talking about).
So, here's the slightly delayed announcements for what we've decided to promote as part of Sufficiently Spooky (and no, I didn't forget to post these in this thread, what are you talking about).
Article: Sufficiently Spooky User Pick in Questing: Equestria: House of the Sun
by @BirdBodhisattva
The world we know is only a decorated screen, a thinly painted façade of pastoral scenes through which the shadows of darker shapes may be glimpsed. Only the dubious mercy of our own ignorance prevents us from cohering these disparate forms into a true and hideous whole, and descending into a perfect insanity.
We are speaking, of course, about the world of My Little Pony.
Article: Sufficiently Spooky User Pick in User Fiction: Grass Tastes Very Good
by @AnonymousRabbit
You are a goat, and you like to eat grass.
Article: Sufficiently Spooky Pick in Original Essays and Reviews: How Does an RMBK Reactor Explode
by @Dartz
We all live in the real world. To the best of our knowledge, there is no Dracula, no Cthulhu, no demons or ghouls. But our world does contain a monster which had to be sealed within a steel tomb, which claimed many victims before it was sealed, some in the most horrible ways imaginable, and which sleeps still in restless undeath. A monster called Chernobyl.
If you want to feel the icy chill of real horror trickle down your spine, then make a strong coffee and take twenty minutes to read through this series of excellently researched posts about the Chernobyl disaster, and learn how an RMBK reactor can explode.
Article: Sufficiently Spooky Pick In Other: Sufficiently Spooky Flash Fiction Event
There are countless ideas your mind spurs up, no idea how to bring it forth into reality. One can wonder in how such ideas can be brought into reality.
But then there are threads where such ideas can be brought into reality... with the stories they tell.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I am glad you posted it, I sort of skimmed what I guess was the earlier announcement?
This pick of the month thing has been pretty great since there's usually something that I wouldn't have read otherwise, but end up loving. So, thanks to the people making it possible.
This pick of the month thing has been pretty great since there's usually something that I wouldn't have read otherwise, but end up loving. So, thanks to the people making it possible.
Thank you.
Seeing this sort of feedback is honestly what makes it worthwhile for all of us on the Content Promotion team.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm a little curious; it appears the User Submission thread has been inactive for the past two months, and the recent November-picks-of-the-month also weren't posted here. So how was the User's Pick of the Month determined for November? Is this something discussed on Discord, or in another thread somewhere that I haven't found?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm super duper into the fact I got picked this month lol.
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, my apologies on that for not posting it in here yet. I was just rather busy for this month, and it slipped my mind. Because of the recent paucity of submissions to the User Submission thread, there was not a User's Pick of the Month, for the month of November.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
But there was a "User's Pick" this month, at least for questing. If I use 'Restore dismissed notices' in the preferences, I (again) see three Picks of the Month: "SV's User Pick of the Month in Questing" for THRONE//FRINGE, "SV's Pick of the Month in Questing" for 2021, and "SV's Pick of the Month in Original Fiction" for A prison, a body.
November 2020 Picks of the Month
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Apologies for the delayed announcements for the month of November, but here are the picks. I'd again like to recommend people to post interesting stories, quests, or other such pieces in the User Submission thread here! Hope you all have stayed safe so far throughout the month of November and continue to stay safe!
Article: SV's Pick of the Month in User Fiction: A prison, a body (nsfw)
by @Gargulec
Have you ever watched a friend make a choice and wondered why?
Do you like a mixture of kink, erotica, and existential questions about why we make the choices we do? Then a prison, a body might be for you.
It is a story about our will, about rights and transfeminist themes, but also about mind control, drones, and erotic desires.
Check it out!
Article: SV's Pick of the Month in Questing: 2021: A Cyberpunk Quest
by @FBH
Do you like 1980s cyberpunk but wish it was more Queer? Then try 2021 Quest, the story of one trans-girl's attempt to survive in a dark future not our own.
Article: SV's Pick of the Month in Questing: THRONE//FRINGE: Reweaving an Unraveled Tapestry
by @Cetashwayo
Ever wondered what its like to be an Artificial Intelligence tasked with creating and repairing the universe? Then you are in the right place. In THRONE//FRINGE: Reweaving an Unraveled Tapestry Original - Sci-Fi, you play as Arachne, who has awoken after a long slumber to find her universe collapsed around her and all her hard work broken to nothing. Chaos reigning supreme and reweaving the Tapestry is fraught with danger and mystery—but at least you'll make a friend or two along the way. (Don't worry: I'm sure the definition of 'friend' in the corpse of a post-scarcity hypercapitalist hegemon is not at all something to be concerned about!).
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay, that was admittedly just a communications error with regards to banner setup and has been corrected; apologies on that.
prometheus110
Join Cayman-Global & be part of the 1E-9 percent!
- Location
- La Ballena City Raft
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I want to suggest two projects for SV's Pick of The Month for next month. The first is @Blackstar's quest, Attempting to Fulfill the Plan VSNKh Edition, which is about the VSNKh attempting to fulfil the plan . They put in a ton of work, update regularly, and have managed to give brief glimpses of character in a quest that is fundamentally about making the Numbers Go Up.
The second project I want to recommend, and I'm not sure if it's already been suggested, is Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline. It's a detailed, well thought out timeline about an alternate universe where America becomes a Socialist state --among other things.
Edit: oh lol, I put this in the wrong thread. Teach me not to submit things while playing Elite
. They put in a ton of work, update regularly, and have managed to give brief glimpses of character in a quest that is fundamentally about making the Numbers Go Up.The second project I want to recommend, and I'm not sure if it's already been suggested, is Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline. It's a detailed, well thought out timeline about an alternate universe where America becomes a Socialist state --among other things.
Edit: oh lol, I put this in the wrong thread. Teach me not to submit things while playing Elite
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Queen Fiona
Am I good enough for your heaven?
- Location
- The Throne of Want
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Can I just say that I dislike how all the recommendations have to fit a rigid format?
For the most part, they don't read especially well, and the authors don't seem to have much input (unless, perhaps, they're staff-adjacent). Plus, forcing them to be written by someone else can completely change your view of the story; I know I was chatting to K about this with Contact's. The 'do you like?' format reads as a little amateurish and homogenous to my eyes, which does a disservice to the authors and the works. We're not all the same, right? We shouldn't have to be, either!
I think it'd be better to have some loose guidelines (wordcount, work-safety, etcetera) and allow the author to write their own blurb - or, indeed, pick another person's if they like that one and were nominated by someone else, or have the staff do their own only if they want. This is especially the case if the staff doesn't have the time to go through the whole thing, which depending on length is fair enough.
For the most part, they don't read especially well, and the authors don't seem to have much input (unless, perhaps, they're staff-adjacent). Plus, forcing them to be written by someone else can completely change your view of the story; I know I was chatting to K about this with Contact's. The 'do you like?' format reads as a little amateurish and homogenous to my eyes, which does a disservice to the authors and the works. We're not all the same, right? We shouldn't have to be, either!
I think it'd be better to have some loose guidelines (wordcount, work-safety, etcetera) and allow the author to write their own blurb - or, indeed, pick another person's if they like that one and were nominated by someone else, or have the staff do their own only if they want. This is especially the case if the staff doesn't have the time to go through the whole thing, which depending on length is fair enough.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I mean, in this case the person who wrote Contact did in fact write their own blurb in the end, with moderate amendations for length. I mean, 'do you like' was used in that case, but we do in fact usually pretty thoroughly consult the author, though there is discomfort (which others could explain better) in the general case with setting out a line-item veto, anyways.
cB557
voOOP
Yeah, I feel like the "do you like?" format takes the focus away from what makes a particular story interesting and instead just reminds you of other works you already like. And since it's not doing a great job of selling you on the new work, it's just like "why would I read this story instead of just rereading one of the ones you're comparing it to?"
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- They/Them
I mean, I don't actually know if any of them have compared it to a specific work in the latest one, rather than instead basically being a summation of genre.
December 2020 Picks of the Month
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Right, uh, apologies again for delays w/ the December picks. I'd again like to recommend people to post interesting stories, quests, or other such pieces in the User Submission thread here! Hope you all have had a good New Years' and continue to stay safe!
Article: Sufficient Velocity Holiday Pick in Questing: Seele Vollerei: The end of reality, and what came after. A GPT-3 Quest
by @Baughn
The world has already ended.
That's alright though, because the writing got a lot better after it did!
After the world-tree died, a handful of survivors were left marooned aboard the last battleship, sailing a sea of quantum foam. Where will they go? What will they do?
A first for Sufficient Velocity, this Quest has been jointly written by a human and an AI. Have a look, and see what questing adventures our future robotic overlords have in store for us.
Article: Sufficient Velocity Holiday Pick in User Fiction: Lieutenant Fusilier in the Farthest Reaches
By @open_sketch
Do you like lasers, robots, and improbably anachronistic sci-fi?
If you like any of them, then this story is for you!
Set in the same universe as Maid To Love You, the protagonist is a robot, Theodora Fusilier, one of many such Theodoras, who takes the unprecedented leap for a machine from Sergeant to Lieutenant in the Army of Space Britain (in space!). She gets in cool battles, barely survives basic social interactions, fires a space musket (pew pew)... and confronts mysteries and terror among the stars. Will Theodora do her duty for Regent and country, and perhaps even get a date?
Article: Sufficient Velocity Holiday User Pick in User Fiction: Contact with the Enemy
by @The_Letter_K
Are you interested in deep characters? Comedy? LGBT representation? Maybe even something... Not Safe For Work?
Lyle's best friend Sally wants to kill him in the name of love, and his gynoid deputy Beepatrice is, if anything, even more obsessed. On the run from the human world, he is thrust (barely) unwillingly into changing to satisfy the needs of those around him, thrown into the center of a perfectly dysfunctional polyamorous relationship. But… no plan survives Contact with the Enemy, and in a new world full of charismatic and complicated monster girls can Lyle truly remain as he once was?
An explicit slice-of-life romantic comedy about love and lesbians, identity and transhumanism, self-discovery and the complicated relationships between monstrous cuties trying to satisfy the deeply human urge to understand each other and be understood in turn.
Article: Sufficient Velocity User Holiday Pick in Map and GSRP Games: The Sufficient Velocity ISOT Map Game
by @ScottishMongol
Have you ever wondered what would have happened if the last survivors of Khwarezmia, fleeing the onrushing tide of fire that was the Mongol invasion, were transported back in time to Palaeolithic New Zealand along with the mythical Xia Dynasty in order to fight a desperate battle for control of its precious moas and kakapos?
If so, then we want some of what you're having.
Also, you may enjoy this game, where SV's historical enthusiasts take turns colouring in shapes on maps, and wonderful things ensue.
Queen Fiona
Am I good enough for your heaven?
- Location
- The Throne of Want
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Summations of genre are in and of themselves pretty vague, though. 2021's was basically entirely that. It had a few updates by the time December rolled around, but all that could be said about it is 'cyberpunk with a trans protagonist', which says basically nothing. Like, that's nice, but it doesn't say much about why I should read the story besides 'if you like this genre' or 'if you have a vague sense of social responsibility to read diverse protags'.
It also feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth when I have been writing 'a cyberpunk story with a trans protagonist' for months, although I recognize that's more of a personal thing.
Even so, if that's all that needs, by those standards...or, hell, even just whether drone fetish stories can be posted as long as they've got the extremely fuzzy and hard-to-define 'artistic' quality, when I've been sitting on a work for ages because I thought SV wouldn't accept that kind of erotica even in the context of a larger story...
From what I heard re: Contact, there were still certain pressures regarding format, and it took outright asking to get that much. (Plus, the originally written blurb was written without reading the story...again, time-wise I don't think it'd be doable for a story of that length, but...) I also remember someone had their work put on a banner without being asked a few months back, and it was only then consultation with authors was even considered. With the latter, at least...I think I have reason to be skeptical.
Plus, I, um, did write my rec in the style of a blurb, which then got rewritten before the consultation even happened...
It's also been kind of skeevy how much of this stuff is staff-adjacent?
Like, I guess I'm not against the idea of promoting your friends on principle, like. I do that all the time, it'd be hypocritical of me to say otherwise, especially when you've gone out of your way to provide user picks. But it does feel very strongly like favoritism, given the 2021 thing, and also hearing about how the Grand Strategy RP thread 'An Unravelled Tapestry' was posted as a 'pick' before it even had an IC thread. And well, we were all pretty distracted in November for obvious reasons, but no one thought to go 'hey, can we ask the thread for user recs last-minute so we have user picks for November'? And they even had a blunder that passed off a staff pick as a user pick, as seen in this thread.
It contributes to a feeling of alienation and disconnection on the creative forums, or that the staff doesn't really care about stuff outside their own sphere. We're all working so hard, and if we look at works getting gilded, clearly there are a ton of works appreciated by people that could use attention, but the non-user picks are all incredibly insular and seemingly picked more out of who's close to who than anything else. That also does a disservice to the User Picks, because if people don't trust staff picks, they're not liable to actually look at those banners rather than closing them...
I recognize that especially this year, the staff have been under unprecedented pressure. Fuck knows working with the discussion forums can't be easy at the best of times. But, really...
how are we supposed to feel engaged, if there's not engagement given to us in return?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Parts of this, especially regarding Contact are factually untrue. I'll say more when not on phone. E: clarification, I don't mean you are lying, just misunderstanding events. Still on phone.
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