Right from the get-go, I read the Contest Theme & thought "huh. Huh? Hm..." "
In What Way are we supposed to represent our chosen User?" was the primary question; the manner by which we create a rendition seems like the most important question to this Contest (especially if you consider adhering to the Contest Theme a matter of importance to the Judges
(nothing in Criteria, but still probably important)).
After consideration, it seemed to me that our entries must needs exist on a 'spectrum of representation fidelity'; that is, how faithfully-to-the-source (i.e. the user) we represent things. This is complicated by having to 'make a Hero fit for Warcraft', which can mean a lot of different things to people.
I'll take myself as an example, since I know me pretty well. : )
On the extreme-fidelity end of the spectrum would be what I'd call "Level 0", something akin to literally recreating that individual in Warcraft; i.e. a hero named Kyrbi0 (hero class name: "Warcraft Modder", lol) who's just a regular human. Caucasian, average height & weight, brown hair and a bit of facial shrubbery... With some ability related to an actual IRL capability of mine (say, spellchecking or typing too much xD).
Seems pretty boring, aye? I doubted this was what was intended (but it *is* technically within the purview of the Contest, on the extreme end)
So with that as a boundary, moving in the other direction we get further away from "perfectly" recreating the individual, and incorporate an increasing amount of "artistic liberty/creativity". Let's call it "Level 1". So maybe this "Kyrbi0" hero is some kind of Jungle Troll (easy). But my model looks like myself (or my avatar), and my Jungle Troll is decked out with, like, a keyboard or a pair of headphones or something. His ability might be something I do IRL, but turned Warcraft-y (like "typing too much" is casting a group Silence that deals DoT or something).
This is better, methinks. I don't know where on the spectrum it is, but it seems like the kind of thing that
@Misha 's team is doing with
@Apheraz Lucent (because what Warcraft hero is carrying around a giant paintbrush & paint palette? That's definitely an out-of-game homage to her
Skillz of an Artist!).
Even
further up the spectrum is, I would submit, coming up with a Warcraft class that most closely 'fits' or represents the User. Let's call it "Level 2". This leads even further away from "recreating" an individual, but introduces more chance for artistic liberties & more Warcraft-iness. I would classify what
@Exarch 's team is doing to
you: Are you literally an Anti-Paladin? Do you ever walk around in full plate or cast dark-paladin spells or wield a skull-bedecked spear-sword thing?
I hope not Of course not. But it represents you as a person, your mentality, philosophy, idealogy, etc. It's much more like as if you were playing D&D. Barring some kind of crazy experimentation, what class/race/alignment combo would best represent you?
Despite my earlier protestations, I can see now why it fits rather well. I'm actually really impressed with Exarch & Co for going to the trouble of 'interviewing' you; personally, I kinda think we should
all be doing that, to really get a handle on who our chosen User is & how best to represent them (perhaps, in a future version of this Contest, the Host could provide a short little questionnaire for this purpose, to standardize things & make it easier to do).
If we again take me as an example, my "Kyrbi0" hero might now not only be a Jungle Troll, but would perhaps (due to my general lack of physicality but strong mind) be some sort of caster-type hero; maybe a "Medicine Mon" or something flimsy but smart. xD The spell might be some kind of generic spell associated with that class (might instead be something about myself, turned into a spell?)
This, I might submit, is the best way to do this Contest.
Now, I think one can go further up the spectrum. In fact, part of why I've been thinking so hard about this & waiting for the chance to say something was because I was worried my team & I had done that very thing. That is to say, one picks a User & starts to make a hero, but perhaps takes a few too many artistic liberties, or doesn't really craft a Hero Class that "fits" the User in the same way as Level 2 does, but instead makes something that
really fits into Warcraft. In a way, this might be like making a sick-awexome Jungle Troll Warlord hero & naming it Kyrbi0; yeah I love Jungle Trolls & it's cool, fits into Warcraft, but it's kinda not what I'm about (as a person). I'm not very physical, or strong, or violent.
I'm not sure yet what to do about that. But I've already pre-emptively apologized to Deolrin, explaining that our entry doesn't reflect how we think of him. xD So hopefully that helps.
(Note: This whole just sorta ignores the "superficiality" of the representation; i.e. to your "Keiji => Geomancer because Terrainer" point. I suppose it's superficial to simply base things off of the avatar (i.e. would I
really be a Jungle Troll? I may like them the most, but honestly I'm pretty normal & attached to my creature comforts of modern living; Human or Dwarf would fit better), but we've gotta start somewhere, and we can't
all be Humans (or we can, but at closer to a Level 0/1 approach, as aforementioned))