About Contests in Arena

[Apheraz Lucent]

Well, this just came to my mind. The participants in the Arena are working hard to get their place on the scoreboard. There are a lot of new users that are joining the contests, in hope of the prize and being in the spotlight for a while. Until, suddenly, a usual set of five people (there is one set for each contest) appears out of nowhere, and those people take the first five places on the scoreboard, effectively leaving others with eye rolls and stupid faces. For their hard work, it ruins the day.

What I suggest is to add a small reputation prize for each contest, that will (at least) make some grins. I suggest 5 or 10 reputation gems - that's how much you can easily get from two to three users.

If you have other solutions, say them.

 

[Magtheridon96]

I like this idea.
I can participate in contests, submit shit and get +5 rep

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Actually, you can't. Most contest have some sort of requirements, so you will have to work to get it.

 

[Magtheridon96]

True that.

/serious face

I approve of this.

 

[Ironside]

I like the idea.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

I voiced this a few months ago (internally) as a way to encourage more people to produce acceptable entries. Mainly because the texturing contests have really low activity, or rather, low amount of completed entries. I don't know if I'd go that high with the reputation points, though, or alternatively give all contestants regardless of positioning this symbolic amount of reputation points. Wouldn't want to make winning less attractive, and some people seem to care a lot for that reputation bonus. Moreover, I'd really prefer a way to do this without reputation points, but a solution evades me.

 

[Skycraft]

I like this idea.
It could help prevent people from quitting because they 'think' they don't stand a chance.

 

[SA Dashie]

I came 3rd on the last mini game mapping contest and got knocked out by some two other users with no rep DTickles had no rep at the time)

 

[Kazzo]

This is a good idea,+1

 

[SA Dashie]

well if this does happen it shouldn't be to much rep anyway.

 

[Vengeancekael]

I came 3rd on the last mini game mapping contest and got knocked out by some two other users with no rep DTickles had no rep at the time)

So...? Also Tickles did have about 4 orange gems.

Also why does this need the approval of other users, this doesn't need to be made official, IF the host/judge (most likely the judge) thinks that a user worked hard, yet didn't attain third place, then he can still give the user a small amount of rep himself, it doesn't need to be in the guidelines. And if you want to give the user more than 4 rep (although that would be exaggerated in my opinion), just discuss it with a moderator.

 

[scorpion182]

i agreed with 5 reputation gems

 

[Deleted member 157129]

So...? Also Tickles did have about 4 orange gems.

Also why does this need the approval of other users, this doesn't need to be made official, IF the host/judge (most likely the judge) thinks that a user worked hard, yet didn't attain third place, then he can still give the user a small amount of rep himself, it doesn't need to be in the guidelines. And if you want to give the user more than 4 rep (although that would be exaggerated in my opinion), just discuss it with a moderator.

The problem here lies in the limitations of the reputation system we have now. I don't spread enough of it to do such a thing. Moreover, without it being official, there wouldn't be some form of guarantee, and thus the whole motivation side of things is gone.

 

[eubz]

I agree, but only for the first 5 runners up and not all the contestants should be given rep. This can increase the motivation of all the participants.

 

[watermelon_1234]

Might be nice encouragement ^_^ even though rep doesn't mean anything at all in real life.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Well, that's why shiik ʞııɥs mentioned that there probably is something else we can share, but we can't get through it right now.

Anyways, I would be delighted that, if you are going to say "No", to write why you picked that answer. It can help us figure out where this should go.

 

[Magtheridon96]

Instead of Rep, why not give all contestants some sort of "Participation Award"?
These shouldn't appear below user's avatars, only on their profiles.

 

[fladdermasken]

Instead of Rep, why not give all contestants some sort of "Participation Award"?

No. I oppose any and all things that adds to the time I waste scrolling.

 

[Magtheridon96]

No. I oppose any and all things that adds to the time I waste scrolling.

That's why they should be at the bottom. (And they are)

 

[Gilles]

It seems like your beating a dead horse here. I doubt 5 rep will revive the horse.

 

[mckill2009]

a good review on how to improve your entry, and faster contest result is better than rep, so I vote for no...

 

[GhostThruster]

No;

• 5 or 10 rep is nothing; actually, rep is nothing
• people will just churn out shit submissions for rep (be it deliberately or because they are not skilled enough)
• contest is for competition; only the winners should be rewarded

 

[Lord_Earthfire]

I disagree that the reputation gain is the real stimulation for joining a contest. Instead, you could just submit a good map/skin/icon of yours which gets approved (I don't say here that this is easy, i would just recommend it if you want some rep), and you could gain for this more rep than from a contest where you just gain 5 points for a bad entry.

I rather believe that the competition is the real stimulator (and this little award icon :>), so the reputation gain would be obsolete. I rather believe that we could at least improve the quality of entrys a bit with this.

I think that some people believe that they would not get into the first 3 places anyway, so they don't competete at all (Maybe because they think that 3 mods will gain this places for sure). Even if judges or other user add rep sometimes for good entrys, there is no security for the user who submitted the entry. So all in all, i suggest to guarantee some reputation points to this users, if the judges declare that it is well done. Even if this is something unwritten but still common, i would just say that adding this is neither harmfull for the freedom of jugdes, since they can decide when they add reputation or not, nor it is harmfull for contests itself, since people needs still to submit good entrys to get rewarded with a few reputation points.
The bottom line is that this would change almost nothing for judges or contests (except that its likely that more reputation is spread around the contest), but people would be poked to submit entrys because they have the illusionary guarantee to gain something, i would say it would be more like a psychological trap.

Edit: I would just say that, since the judges does decide who gets reputation, that the amount fo reputation is written bejond the judging to compliment the users, since they can see at least that their entrys received attention at all. With this, the judges should consider the amount they add, like 1-3 reputation gems or something like this.

 

[Vengeancekael]

a good review on how to improve your entry, and faster contest result is better than rep, so I vote for no...

Reviews are usually good since the judges are selected appropriately and well.
And the second point you're raising can't exactly be improved.

 

[Ken-E]

As long as the entries are legit and good enough to qualify the contest then it would be a great idea to give them some cookies. Although if the entries are invalid, broken, and made it just for the sake of getting small/large amount of reps, then don't.