Pick a Track Contest – Winner

Alright, so the Pick a Track Contest is over and the results are finally here. Counting the two votes took its time, but I’m glad you could bare with me 😛

Let’s get righ to it!

The Winner

So, the winner of our little contest is…

Artemis’ Arrow I, by JumperJack

The person who nominated this track was Heah.

This means Heah and JumperJack are our two winners in this contest! And, they’ll each get to pick a prize to be sent to them in the mail:

A BookCrossing book

A personal letter from me (Jozii)

A postcard from Sweden, possibly along with some other souvenirs

Anything else you suggest yourself (assuming it’s within reasonable limits)

I’ll contact the two personally. Hopefully they’ll pick something good 😉

Now: congratulate the winners!

Pick a Track Contest – Voting

Alright, the voting of the Pick a Track Contest is now on 😀 Here are the contestants:

1. Smashed (Stadium)
2. Harakiri (Stadium)
3. Artemis’ Arrow I (Stadium)
4. Eye in the Sky (Desert)
5. Snow its hardest (Snow)
6. Aeroooo >> Sive (Coast)

So now it’s time for you to cast your vote. You may vote once only, and not on tracks you’ve nominated yourself. To vote, simply make a comment to this post stating the track name and/or number (1 through 6) of the track you vote for.

Deadline: Monday, 23rd of June.

Votes will be tallied, and the track with the most wins. The person who nominated the track, and possibly also the creator of that track, will win a prize of choice 😀

Pick a Track Contest

This is partly an activity check post. I know I haven’t posted a lot lately, and I can see stats are falling (even though there are still hundreds of hits daily). So lets see how many take part in this little contest 😀

Alright folks, it’s been a while since we had a contest here. So I propose a simple one: you all pick one or two tracks each (from TMX) and link to them here. Your own track or someone else’s, doesn’t matter. Later, everyone can vote for their favorite among the tracks the others have nominated (you can’t vote for your own choice, in other words).

The person who picked the track most voted for gets to pick a prize to be received in the mail (regular snail mail, that is):

• A BookCrossing book
• A personal letter from me (Jozii), complete with breadcrumbs in the envelope
• A postcard from Finland, along with some other souvenirs
• Anything else you suggest yourself (assuming it’s within reasonable limits)

Deadline for posting tracks (max two): Wednesday, 18th of June, 2008

Deadline for voting: Sunday, 22nd of June, 2008

The voting will be explained later. For now, nominate one or two tracks by commenting this post and including links to the tracks 😀

Pimp My TM Day

Do you find yourself playing TrackMania on routine? Do you constantly try to improve your Solo times and/or race on the same online servers over and over again? Well, it’s time to break the routines and do things a bit differently. Here are five ideas to get you started:

1. Chat more online – TrackMania has one of the best online communities I know. However, TrackMania is also the least social online game I know. When playing on a server, you usually just hear the occasional “hi” from new players and “congratulations” once a race is over. But besides that, no one ever really takes the time to chat (with perhaps the exception of team members on team servers). Of course, you’re too focused on racing, but try doing it a bit differently next time by actually starting a conversation. After all, doing things together is what online play is all about!

2. Change the start/finish positions – Take your favorite track and simply let the start and finish positions switch places. All of a sudden, you have a brand new track! Of course, this only works for more simple tracks without too advanced stunts, but you can still have a great time doing this on tracks that become quite unnatural to drive when doing it backwards. Go ahead, give it a try. You might just be surprised.

3. Play an Environment you’d normally avoid – Whether it’s one you just haven’t played much or one you right out hate, try playing a few tracks of the Environment in question. If you really give it an honest try, you might just enjoy the ride. This also works with different styles of tracks rather than just Environments. Play a few technical tracks if you usually play full speed.  Go ahead and experiment.

4. PM a random user -Perhaps you’ve seen a name online, or perhaps you just pick one from the in-game ladders. Whatever the case, take the time to introduce yourself, ask a few simple questions and simply get a conversation going via the PM system. With any luck, you’ll be making yourself a new friend who shares your interest in TrackMania.

5. Start projects – That’s what I do 😛 If you ever feel just going with the flow becomes boring, start some kind of project. Interested in making videos? Than do one on TrackMania! Have an artistic side? Then apply that to your favorite game! Enjoy contests and events? Then start your own to get the rules exactly how you like them! Are you a good writer? Then write an article for this blog!

Hopefully, these tips can help you take TrackMania one step further. After all, it’s all about having fun 😀