You are hereby invited to take part in the second Beat the Staff AIF Writing Contest!

Here’s the short:  You submit a single AIF cut-scene of any length you want, it conforms to the assigned theme.  All six of us staff members each write a cut-scene of the same theme.  All the cut-scenes get published next month.  Everyone votes.  Someone wins.  If you beat the staff, you get ultimate bragging rights.

Here’s the long, drawn-out, list-format rules:

· Submissions must be in the format of a single AIF cut-scene or ‘turn’.  The cut-scene must include the player command.

· There is no limit (minimum or maximum) to the length of your submission.

· Submissions must be original, never released before (though they may be drawn from a work in progress).

· The deadline for submissions is June 25, 2007.

· All received submissions will be published in the July edition of “Inside Erin”.

· Following publication, a Yahoo! poll will be set up.  Everyone will be invited to vote.  Voting duration will depend on the number of entries received (how’s that for a novel idea?)  A single winner will be announced.

· Entries should be e-mailed to ninnyAIF AT gmail DOT com.

· This is the most important part:  Submissions must conform to the following theme.

· “>X chick”.  Your cut-scene should contain a description of an AIF NPC.  Despite the theme being “>X chick”, it isn’t necessary that the NPC be female.

· The criteria.  What’s going to make your entry better?  Well, keep in mind that you’re not writing an entire AIF.  That means that this cut-scene is a self-contained entity.  Typically, “>x chick” translates into “provide a description of the chick.”  How can you make this better?  Think about ‘x’, which actually means ‘examine’ - an active verb.   The PC should be involved in the examination somehow, adding the feeling of interactivity to the scene.