Reiginko writes:
In honour of the 10th birthday of the greatest series of games of all time, your long-suffering B.net Moderator team has organised a chance for you to win a metric heap of Really Cool Stuff™. This contest is unlike any other ever held, as it is in fact a hyper-contest with three completely different separate categories:
[*]First off, we’re holding an [b]essay contest[/b]. It has often been asserted by many people that Marathon should be included in the syllabi of English courses at both secondary and tertiary level. Well, okay, replace “often” with “at least once”, and “many people” with “just Reiginko”, and we might be getting somewhere. But that is so beside the point. Marathon and its story is such a rich topic that it’s criminal to [i]not[/i] write an essay about it. Anyway, somebody already [url=http://www.bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?section=LettersToTheWebmaster&subsection=Main&page=2]beat us to it[/url] (look for “NoiVad”), so you can’t blame us for starting [i]this[/i] one. If you still aren’t sold on the idea, just remember that essays are only boring and stupid when they’re actually about [url=http://maddox.xmission.com/cellblows.html]boring and stupid things[/url].
[*]If analytical writing isn’t quite your thang, but you still fancy yourself (Narcissist!) quite the wordsmith, perhaps you’ll take a shine to our [b]poetry contest[/b]. It’s basically against The Law™ to [i]not[/i] hold a poetry contest about Marathon, since Marathon poetry contests in one form or another have been going on since [url=http://marathon.bungie.org/story/citadel.html#Six%20Thousand%20Feet%20Under]the W’rkncacnter first swam on the surface of Lh’owon’s sun[/url], so we reckon it’s pretty natural to hold one today. We’ll accept any sort of poem. I think Yoozel wanted to include a rule that we’ll only accept neo-pre-metaphysical flea poems, but that would have been [url=http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm]silly[/url].
[*]Finally, if poetry isn’t your best suit either, but you do know how to tickle the humerus, maybe you should have a peek at our [b]joke contest[/b]. Long-time readers of the [url=http://bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?section=LettersToTheWebmaster&subsection=Main&page=1]Letters to the Webmaster[/url] will remember that your mum’s favourite drunkard-in-a-gorilla-suit held a similar contest for his correspondents a while back. This time, however, you won’t have to follow the rather esoteric rule that the punchline had to be “frog blast the vent core” (and anyway, one of the winners of that contest didn’t even bother to follow that rule).
For more information, including rules, prizes and some handy hints, check out [url=http://bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=1479208&viewreplies=true]this[/urll] forum thread. Now get writing!
- Reiginko