The World of the Week feature highlights a fictional world not associated with the Wongery that we think merits more attention. Worlds of the Week can come from literature, from comics, from games, or just from other sites on the web.

The criteria for the World of the Week include originality and development. A world that's just another generic ludic fantasy world with little to differentiate it from hundreds of other similar fantasy worlds will not be chosen as World of the Week, nor will a generic space opera universe that's little more than a list of uninteresting planets and alien species. A world heavily based on a preexisting property is also unlikely to make the cut. This doesn't necessarily mean that a world created as a setting for Dungeons & Dragons or another game will never be chosen as World of the Week, but it does mean that it'll have to stand out as really distinctive and creative for that to happen. As for development, a World of the Week should have some detail behind it. This doesn't mean that it has to have hundreds of thousands of words written about it; we may cut some slack for a very imaginative world that's only lightly limned. Still, if all that's been written about the world is a couple of paragraphs it won't qualify, regardless of how creative those paragraphs are.

Part of the idea behind the World of the Week, too, though, is to bring attention to a world that we think deserves more of it. That means we're not likely to designate a World of the Week that's already well known. No matter how original and well-developed, we're not going to choose the universe of a hit movie or TV show or a bestselling book, or the flagship setting of a popular role-playing game. We want to showcase Worlds of the Week that haven't yet attracted that much mainstream attention. (This does not necessarily rule out the universes of obscure cult movies or books, or the settings of role-playing games by small publishers, or even lesser-known settings by major publishers.)

(Of course, at this point since the Wongery is just starting out and nobody's heard of it, it's a bit silly for us to be saying we're bringing attention to the World of the Week; chances are the worlds we highlight, while still perhaps obscure by mainstream standards, will be much better known than the Wongery itself is. But we are ambitious, and hope the Wongery will one day be much better known than it is now...)

Ultimately, though, the real main criterion for the World of the Week is the Grandmaster Wongers' subjective judgment. We may bend some of the criteria above for a world that really enthralls us; conversely, even if a world seems to meet all these criteria, if it doesn't appeal to us we're not going to choose it. Still, again, the idea is to highlight interesting worlds that haven't attracted mainstream attention, and we're going to do our best to select Worlds of the Week that fulfill that goal.

Again, the worlds highlighted as World of the Week are not associated with the Wongery. The Wongery claims no ownership of these worlds, nor any rights to them beyond what is covered by Fair Use. If you want to find out more about a World of the Week or ask for permission to use it in your own project, contact the world's creators; the Grandmaster Wongers can't help you.

You can see a complete list of past Worlds of the Week here, and you can discuss the Worlds of the Week, or nominate future Worlds of the Week, in the forums.