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Contests, Challenges ... and Changes. Help us out!


Nathan Caroland

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Some notions, not in any specific meaningful order though ...

1) I would like to see the 3 classic Wyrd contests continued (Rotten Harvest, Femme Fatale, Total Testosterone)

2) I don't care for Iron Painter as far as actual entering goes. It just doesn't go down well with my overall busy schedule.

3) I hate cash prizes. The probability of winning cash brings out the worst in people and can destroy a community. For the exact same reason I would never ever enter a contest or tournament where a cash prize is offered.

4) I like vouchers as prizes. A limited edition mini would also be nice. Probably just a variant of an existing mini for the Malifaux game.

5) I would like to see a change to the "exactly 3 votes" rule in the classic contests. It creates much confusion for many voters and doesn't really work well with categories which have a low number of entrants. Maybe some weighed voting (1st, 2nd and so on) could be an alternative.

6) I would like to see the "Comment on everything" prize removed. There are lots of silly one sentence comments out there, which obviously have just been written to write something, anything to fulfill the requirments for that prize. It would also get rid of the awkward situation of commenting on your own entry ...

7) Mini contests, I like them. Low threshold, gets people involveld in the community. There are some on the Reaper Forums from time to time, like a speedpaint contest (you get 4 hours on a given day to paint a (specific) mini). Could be done with small prizes (5$ voucher or a special forums feature) or without any.

just my 2cents ...

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What I think would be a ton of fun, although not really a "Wyrd" contest specifically.

Industry Throwdown!!

Each mini company puts forward 3 staff painters, (or 1 painter, 1 sculptor, 1 terrain builder), and have a set amount of time to do their best entry based on their line of minis/world/system. At the end there is voting done by a panel of impartial judges (to eliminate the rabid fanboys of larger companies skewing results), and the total score of each 3 person team determines the winning company, who has bragging rights as the most "skilled" company and a Trophy with their name engraved on it until the next year, when it's done again, and the trophy is passed along.

Would be fun!!!

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....

7) Mini contests, I like them. Low threshold, gets people involveld in the community. There are some on the Reaper Forums from time to time, like a speedpaint contest (you get 4 hours on a given day to paint a (specific) mini). Could be done with small prizes (5$ voucher or a special forums feature) or without any.

just my 2cents ...

Technically, they'll pretty much all be mini contests! :P Sorry, couldn't resist! (But to stop being silly for a moment, it's a good idea.)

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I really like the contests here since they not only display some wonderful painting, they also create a sense of community. Most of the feedback is incredibly helpful and is usually why I enter.

Things that I like:

*Iron Painter. Love the whole idea of the contest. Having an IP trophy would be a nice bonus, especially if it's contest specific (i.e. "Iron Painter Four Champion").

*Femme Fatale and Rotten Harvest.

*Anonymity with the rest of the contests. I've always enjoyed seeing who painted what after all of the voting and commenting. It also ensures that votes are based on the work, not the person that did it.

*The "Random Schmuck" prizes. Whether it's voting or commenting, it gives people an incentive to get involved, even if they weren't able to enter.

*Vouchers/gift certificates for winners.

Ideas:

*What about a point system for the contests? For example, each person that enters a contest gets a certain amount of points. If they win/place/show, then they accrue additional points. Those points can then be used for discounts on purchases at Wyrd or something special. It would probably be a bit of a headache to keep track of all of those points, but it could probably be done.

*A winner's gallery. Perhaps photos of the winning painter with their mini(s) in the following issue of Wyrd Chronicles.

*This is more of a "pet peeve" than anything else, but when the winners are announced on the front page, could they be linked directly to the entry?

Prizes (in addition to many of the ideas already put forth):

*How about a terrain piece/playing surface from the city/world of Malifaux? Probably a pain in the rear (and expensive) to ship, but might be very nice to have.

*Once the rulebook gets released, how about offering a signed edition? Or maybe a signed hard copy issue of Wyrd Chronicles?

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Just a couple of comments, and believe me, I'm reading everything ya'll are putting up here, if I don't address it directly, its not useless, just I am still mulling it over.

Voting and a point system. I know for the longest time folks have gone on about about a weighted system for voting and while I really like that idea, as of yet, I have no way of implimenting it. It is probably down the road a bit but I'm going to go ahead and make an inquiry into the coding folks and see if there is a way to do something along the lines of giving everyone 100 points to distribute in any percentage of their choice, across the range of entries in a particular category. Idealy that would allow for folks to dole out their points and when its all said and done its done on a point system which tallies, etc.

Not sure how difficult that is to impliment. Beyond my abilites and might very well be beyond my pocket book at the moment, but I will look into it as a possible option.

Rest of these are all great suggestions, keep them coming as I'm getting some thoughts boiling on the matter.

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My 2 cents

I’m still pretty new around here, but I rather like the way contests are set up. I like the themes with the sub-categories, the anonymous part, all of it really. I like the random participation prizes, as it encourages people to enter, vote, and comment. With the talented people on this site, the feedback can be very useful and encouraging. As for prizes, I would never want cash. Not from something like this. (not that I’d ever win ;) But Cash might draw in negativity and do what it does best. I’ve heard a lot of great ideas already, but a fun trophy, limited edition mini, gift cert. to Wyrd, fun feature on the forums, whatever, just not cash imo. T-Shirt?

I do think it would be cool to have more going on though. Art contests, Writing, terrain would be awesome! Sculpting would be cool. Maybe you should require wip pics/tutorial pics so we can learn how they did it. The winner of an art/writing contest could have wyrd make a mini based off the entry, or used as fluff in an ezine. Prizes could be a spot to do something related to the hobby in an ezine? That would crazy cool for the winner of that. I think some sort of partner job would be cool as well. Blind paring kind of thing, one person paints top half/front back, w/e, or makes a sweet base and the other finishes it. Random draw. Must take picture at passing off. Each person gets it for like 2 weeks? Something like that.

As far as the talent on the site I’m torn. On one hand I like entering against all the great talent, but on another I know I won’t win anytime soon. But that’s okay it’s not about winning, it’s about having fun, and I do. Maybe one contest you have different skill levels, professional, hobbyists, beginners. You enter whatever level you feel you are. Judges could boost people up if they thought something was too good for the submitted level.

I‘d love to see a judges only contest to. Let’s see FF, Ericj, Rob and Supervike paint something up for us and have us vote on them. As if you’re not busy already…

There’s my ramble. (Notice I will not be entering the writing contest.)

I like EricJ's idea: I'd love to see Wyrd challenge another manufacturer, that would be really cool. Or maybe a dual contest, say we challenge the infinity/reaper forums, we paint their minis and they paint wyrd ones? Something to mix it up a bit?

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I'm not really keen on the idea of an exclusive mini, unless it was a resculpt with the same gaming profile as an existing character, or else a mini for the Catacomb Prowlers line that won't have a profile in Malifaux. I always hated rare/limited miniatures that had unique gaming profiles, because it always makes for a mad chase to get the mini in question.

Agreed on all counts. I'm a terrible painter, and don't have a shot at winning any contests against the competition here. Knowing that there was figs I couldn't get a hold of would only make me (more) bitter.

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Did anyone mention a conversion competition yet? Might be cool to take characters from the Wyrd universe and mix them up a little, as mentioned before, perhaps have Perdita as a Rotten Belle or somesuch. The only problem I can see is that it might start off as conversions and end up as sculpting, so perhaps you'd have to specify that maybe a maximum of half the model can be GS/scratchbuilt (i.e., not parts from a Wyrd mini), for example. It might be best to keep it soley judged on the conversion, or maybe have before-and-after pictures of the conversion and then the paintjob, so people can vote on the best conversion, the best paintjob and then you can have an overall winner (whoever scores the most when the categories are combined).

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I'm a bit late to the party as well. I think all of the ideas are great, but as with so much with this hobby, not every thing will appeal to everyone. I like the idea of a terrain contest, but as others have mentioned, it is a bit of a subspecialty within the hobby and may not get a lot of attention. The writing bit is of particular interest to me--I would love to see something implemented regarding Wyrd fluff; that has always been of interest to me since I am more of a painter as opposed to a gamer. I think the opportunity to be a part of something like this would be a great thing indeed and I was moved to do a little bit of writing (something I had not done for a good 20 years) a while back when there was a fluff thread going.

With regards to the painting comps, more is always better for those of us sitting in the wings--having something always coming up is nice. That being said, I would have two concerns for the Wyrd folks. One is participation. The more contests you have, I think the higher the likelihood of a (relatively) poor turnout. I recall one of the HH contests having a lower showing than usual (in the 30 range if I remember correctly) and there was at least transient concern that the contests were losing their luster. Adding more to the yearly mix may aggravate that. The second concern would be financial (not any of my business, but I'll voice it anyway). I have no idea how much it costs the Wyrd crew in swag and prizes, but 3 winners per category plus BoS and BoW and random schmuck prizes AND voting prizes would seem like it would add up. If you did add a contest or two I would have them heavily (or entirely) Wyrd based to help offset the generousness this site has shown time and again. The time and effort invested in putting these contests together also has to be considered. I think this site has the best online contests in the community, bar none. I would hate to sacrifice quality for quantity.

I understand the need to keep things fresh and I know that if the past few years are any indication, these new ideas will be well thought out and just add to the Wyrdness I visit every day!

*Edited for extra rabid fanboi appeal*

Edited by Jabberwocky
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Just a quick thought concerning writing contests ... I suppose the prerequisite language would be English (like the site). Non-native English speakers might feel left out. Communicating in English is nice and fine, spelling and grammar errors are politely ignored (unless you're a lolcat ...), but those points come to attention when writing or judging a shot story or any other piece of prose.

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Just a quick thought concerning writing contests ... I suppose the prerequisite language would be English (like the site). Non-native English speakers might feel left out. Communicating in English is nice and fine, spelling and grammar errors are politely ignored (unless you're a lolcat ...), but those points come to attention when writing or judging a shot story or any other piece of prose.

As a matter of fact, I even have that issue with some of the IP themes. I've never entered, and this really isn't the main reason (it's more a time problem..). But I usually follow the rounds and entries and I'm always surprised what people come up with. Then I start thinking about how I myself would interpret the theme, most of the times that would be quite straight-forward. But some typical English things (jokes, typical expressions, I guess you know what I mean) I just seem to have missed, simply because English teachers in Holland never teach you such things :stupido:.

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Just a quick thought concerning writing contests ... I suppose the prerequisite language would be English (like the site). Non-native English speakers might feel left out.

Well, not-great painters are left out of a painting contest. Someone with no love for making terrain would be left out of a terrain contest. You really *can't* please all the people all the time, sadly.

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Well, not-great painters are left out of a painting contest. Someone with no love for making terrain would be left out of a terrain contest. You really *can't* please all the people all the time, sadly.

Say it isn't so! We don't live in utopia???

You have just ruined my life forever!!!

I can paint decently. I can sculpt to the point where what I am sculpting is recognizable as the subject I intend. I can build terrain quite well. I can't write worth dog feces.

I'll let you guess what kind of contests I'll enter. That all being said, I greatly enjoy watching the very skilled painters compete. I love reading entries into writing contests. I am consistently amazed by what gets sculpted.

Even though I won't be entering those contests I gain a huge enjoyment out of watching the competition. There is almost a direct sports analogy here. There is an extremely small cross section of the general population that makes it as professional sports players. There is an extremely large cross section of the population that gets great enjoyment from watching those very same sports.

Just because someone doesn't feel that they are good enough to compete does not mean that they don't enjoy the competition process. I don't think that Wyrd needs to necessarily try to cater to everyone. As long as the majority likes what is going on I think that the status quo is fine.

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I can paint decently. I can sculpt to the point where what I am sculpting is recognizable as the subject I intend. I can build terrain quite well. I can't write worth dog feces.

I'll let you guess what kind of contests I'll enter.

My dream is that there is eventually some sort of Wyrd karaoke contest, so I have some vague shot at victory.

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Well, not-great painters are left out of a painting contest. Someone with no love for making terrain would be left out of a terrain contest. You really *can't* please all the people all the time, sadly.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I think there's a significant difference between the skill of miniature painting and writing or judging a piece of literature not in your native language.

With a second language you'll always end up missing some cultural references, sayings, whatever ... no matter how good your "skill" in that language is. I'm actively speaking English for most of my life (and actually live in an english-speaking country at the moment), but some references, jokes etc., I still don't get.

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The more different types of competitions, the greater the likelihood of allowing everybody to excell at something (it need be only one thing). This is where prizes should just be a bit of something (or nothing), so that folks don't feel too alienated. Under no account would I offer limited edition minis as prizes - or in fact make them at all!

As egalitarian and varied as possible community building, fun, inspiration, motivation and entertainment is cool: elitism of any stripe isn't. It can be a fine distinction and a rant, but I won't and LE is - by def - elitist.

I know the web mag asked for sculptors, writers and artists but competitions in all of those things, working to briefs with adequate background information, would be great - perhaps from there, Wyrd could headhunt and it wouldn't be a vague 'yeah, cool... I can do that... but what?' sometime never thing. I wouldn't promise that any winners be enroled in any way by Wyrd, because there might not be that many entrants and, frankly, all the entries might be crap - or at least not what the Wyrd folks envision for their universe. I don't want Wyrd Central's creative freedom constrained in any way: fun, not promises.

I'd offer the Random Schmuck prize for voting (if at all) but not reward comments on all entries (as Lauth said). Sometimes it seems like a parade relentlessly putting the boot in, all saying the same thing, to some poor bozo whose work obviously wasn't up to scratch, just to win a prize, which seems a bit distasteful.

PS: And if the site could refrain from logging you out if you spend more than a few minutes composing your post, that'd be cool.;)

Cheers for asking us all this, Nathan. Top banana!:)

Edited by v22TTC
Time pressure to type too fast and not proof read
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I was thinking of a multipart contest with different genres. The competition being the average score of your submissions. You submit a fantasy, a sci-fi, a historical, and a terrain. 4 different submissions each individually scored and added up or averaged for a final score. You could also add an under 10mm or over 48 mm category and allow contestants to drop the low score from the average. The winner in each category would get a prize and the grand prize would go to the best average or total score. That way somebody who has multiple DNF's still has a reason to submit something. (the first DNF would be dropped as the lowest score)

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