14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has unveiled the 2010 edition of its Global Writing Contest and is now accepting submissions from fans who think they have what it takes to write an interesting narrative that takes place in the universe of one of the three franchises belonging to the developer. The deadline for the contest entries is the 23rd of August 2010.
The winner of the Grand Prize will get to visit Blizzard in Irvine, California and meet the writing staff behind titles such as Warcraft III or StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. On top of that, they will get one collectable item, either the Overthrown Diablo III barbarian diorama, worth 300 dollars, or the official replica of the Frostmourne sword from the Warcraft series, worth 429 dollars.
Seven runners up will receive a package containing the Diablo Archive, the Warcraft Archive, the StarCraft Archive and the Warcraft: War of the Ancients Archive, that is collections of all the novels based on Blizzard's famous franchises. All of the books will be signed by Blizzard's vice president of creative development Chris Metzen, the cover artists and the company's entire writing team.
Now for the technical details. The stories can be no shorter than 2,500 words and no longer than 7,500 words. They must be written in English, grammatically sound and have a title. No poems are allowed, as the contest focuses on short stories. The only format that Blizzard allows for contest submission is the .doc format, with the exact specification that no .pdf or .rtf submission will be accepted.
The company is currently preparing for the much awaited launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the first of three titles that will continue the story of the first StarCraft and its expansion, Brood War. The developer has expanded both the single player campaign and the multiplayer component from the first installment in the franchise. In the case of the former, it has focused on creating a strong narrative, adding bits of role playing elements to the mix, while in the case of the latter, it has improved the Battle.net experience, adding a layer of social networking and better overall support for online play. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is set to be released on the 27th of July.