Creative Tales fans could find their work showcased in a magazine.
If you’re a Western fan of the offbeat, niche Tales series, you’re probably intimately familiar with the tsundere-like relationship Namco Bandai has with its fans. For example, it released an excellent installment, followed it up a few months later with a really mediocre one, then waited four years before releasing two more good ones. What did you do between 2008 and 2012? If you are sane and reasonable, perhaps you played another JRPG series, but we both know that Tales fans tend to be a little more obsessive than that. Whether you drew the most squeal-inducing sketch of Zelos, fooled a convention into thinking you were the real Tear, or wrote the definitive story of why Senel belongs with Chloe, Namco Bandai wants to see it. To celebrate the relase of Tales of Graces f in the UK, Namco Bandai will showcase the best Tales fan projects in an August magazine.
The “Your Tales of” contest begins today, and has exceedingly simple rules. Simply use your best creative Artes to produce a piece of art, cosplay, fan fiction, video, music, or whatever else you do best, then submit it to the official thread. The fine print is pretty standard stuff: You must be 13 years of age or older to enter, cannot upload anything obscene or malicious, and agree to abide by the copyright laws of the UK (even though you do not have to be a UK citizen to enter). Entrants should be aware that while simply entering the contest does not affect image ownership, winning the contest will effectively transfer the creation’s copyright to Namco Bandai. This restriction is not the end of the world, though, considering the dubious legality of selling fan material based on existing properties in many countries.
Tales fans can find the winning entries in a 16-page booklet to accompany the August issue of NEO Magazine, while winners will receive a copy of the booklet signed by Hideo Baba, the series producer. If you already have a Tales fan project, now seems like as good a time as any to submit it to the contest – although if you’re the author of that Senel/Chloe slashfic, please consider sending it to me instead. I never did like that cloying Shirley.
