A $50 mic for a passionate individual/individuals is hardly an means to state insufficient equipment. As for other things there are many people using programs to make computer synthesized music these days. Not to mention free sound Assets at freeSound.org that could be remixed for a new purpose. All I'm asking it a more themed environment in witch people can post sounds. At witch, I don't see why not having a Voice Acting competition wouldn't strengthen the community, and make maps better.
As long as there's enough space on the server and such.
Also consider more possible moderator Jobs' Instead of just plain moderator. Like sound moderator, map tester and so on.
Also anyone with a good ear can judge a sound just like anyone with a good eye can judge a well done skin, icon or model.
Obliviously If the systems are put In place then People can see people who are good at creating sound asset's, These will be able to moderate eventually.
Merely suggestion's but, Anything is possible.
Everything you mention is good in theoretical level, but reality tends to prove us wrong. I've seen it, I've experienced it. Go to Arena Submission and also check previous Voice Acting Contests. Apart from the first contest, the rest were only having 3 contestants, when the volunteer competitors were a lot more, upon the launch of the contest.
There are a lot more sites, where you can obtain free sounds and a lot more sounds, which you can get from games. If you shift their tone a bit or other values, it will be hardly noticeable. A judge however should be so experienced, to recognize such attempts, just like a Models' judge can realize that the bone structure is definitely not made by a user.
I hear what you're saying, I honestly want such a database myself, because I find sounds to be very refreshing for a map and they also add a lot of realism, if used correctly and in coordination with the actions in the map.
The multiple judges for one section, where each one of them is taking responsibility for a very specific part of the upload is very ambiguous regarding its efficiency, because it restricts the full potential of a proper review and it will require tons of reports by one moderator to another to finalize the decision of approving the sound or not.
You are trying to make it sound simple, but a good ear is very subjective to arguing. Define good ear. It can only be defined in a very personal level; someone that doesn't have 'good ear' cannot easily evaluate if others have or not - which makes it hard for potential recruitment of staff.
To sum up, there is reason why the voice acting contests, throughout all these years, have been very few. They hardly gained activity, although, if you ask me, it's my favorite contest, after cinematics.
There will be such a section, but we primarily need to discuss all these issues that prevented us from doing it in the first place. Additionally, we would want to have sheer evidence that people will want to be part of the section and by that I don't speak of simple downloaders, I speak of uploaders with the experience and passion to work for such section and boost its content.
