Late explanation of my vote: I voted
Elementals. It's not my first pick, but it was tying to win at the time & I can maybe think of a few ideas for it (though honestly, restricting it to only four? Sure recipe for repeats).
For the record, I see absolutely
no issue whatsoever with repeating previous Contest Themes. They were popular once, they can be popular again; many people didn't have a chance to join in back then, moreover, and so if people want it, there should be no compunction whatsoever about re-suggesting Themes.
From the Previous (Discussion) Topic:
Astaroth Zion said:
Lets Make the TechTree GRAND CHALLENGE Contest
Said that, I was thinking that one of the reasons that TechTreeContests tend to have so many abandoned entries (and few contestants to start) is the overwhelming amount of work that is needed to produce a good entry. Main game play mechanics' coding, 3D modelling (editing or creating new resources), 2D art (adjusting or recoloring), Abilities Coding, Game Balancing, etc.
In the end, this type of contest may end up being one of the most complex and all-round challenges at the Hive, and we should treat it as such. What I mean is that to produce top-notch entries and to rise it's popularity we could turn this contest into a community effort. Bringing people together from different backgrounds to compete into a team challenge, for example:
A 3 people team: Game Editor and Balancer, Coder, and 3D/2D artist.
We could even make a rooster with incomplete teams or single contestants to announce their skill area and find complementary teammates, also we could allow team member replacement if one contestant voluntary withdraws to keep its team on the race.
I think this is a fantastic idea. We had something akin to this in the ill-fated "THW Race Olympics", but I honestly think it could work, given the right constraints (specifically, only allowing 2-man teams (Artist & Coder, essentially)). Two people more than doubles the potential issues that can arise, but it also allows for some really amazing collaboration & entries.
Some of all-time favorite Contests (over at Wc3C, pretty much), both to watch & to participate in, have been these "grand challenges" with teamed contestants; the Hero Contests of Wc3C were of biblical proportions. A Techtree or Hero Contest of that nature here? Be still, my beating heart.
(seriously, I think I might draft up a "Hero Contest #X" thread, just so no one can beat me to it xD We need this.)
Spellbound said:
As far as mini-races go, I'm ok with that, seeing as how time-consuming making an entire race can be. A less taxing contest might bring in more contestants too, albeit it might not be as fun as the other ideas. Wc3 is high fantasy after all, and high fantasy loves to be grandiose
I am a huge fan of Mini/Partial-Races (like Naga, or bigger if necessary).
- Less work for Contestants to make
- Encourages more Contestants to join
- Faster turn-around time (so more Contests, sooner)
- Less work for people to test & then Vote on
- Encourages more people to Vote & Vote meaningfully, rather than superficially ("oh man, look at that cool model! *vote*")
- Less work for Judges to test & Judge
- Better, faster judging because it takes less time
Just better overall.
GhostThruster said:
not a fan of mini-race theme. we had an entire debate last contest about the fact that techtree contestants should be able to always choose the size and shape of their entry. pharaoh himself agreed that contestants should be able to choose for themselves.
Pharaoh is gone. And while I'm normally a big stickler for "consistency" in these Contests
(i.e. everyone should be trying to make the same kind of thing, so we don't have Hero Contests with "AoS hero vs. standard melee Hero vs. DotA hero" and Techtree Contests with "mini-race vs. full-race"), going mini-race might be my only option for joining (see above), so since it hasn't been stipulated I am probably going to run with it, despite the inherent issues. I'll save my soap-boxing for the real conversation. : )
BlackRangerXIII said:
Spellbound said:
Yeah but what if the resources are created specifically for this map by a third party? Would those be allowed?
So long that Third Party is Credited as a resource sharer not as part of a team
I am afraid of a Contest which allows custom resources; as has been pointed out, not all races have equal representation, making it overly difficult for some (though, it could be argued, that is purely an internal conflict decided upon by the Contestant rather than imposed externally; "if it's too hard, pick another race").
No Imports (or perhaps
Limited (1-3?) Imports) has been a wonderful method of maintaining equality (and/or while allowing some elbow room for cool resources). Please don't give me the bit about "we already
did 'no import'!"; first of all "No Imports" is not even a Thematic constraint, but rather a Design(-space) constraint (not about the Style of Contest, but rather how it's run & the rules governing it), second of all see the top of my post.
From This Topic
That can be
However it's best we left it as one pick when voting to avoid a draw between themes
If there's under 10 themes, multipoll usually ain't a good idea.
Given past experiences and also personal preference I would strongly recommend to use multiple choise polls when we got more than 3-4 options.
(Suggestion for the next contest)
From what I saw, people tend to have a prefered theme, but also a couple of "good enough themes". A multiple choise poll enable the contestant to choose all their prefered ones, on the other hand with a single option poll contestans vote for the theme that is more feasible to win not what they wanted to participate on as a first option.
For example, in my case my favorite themes are:
ALLIANCE > MYTHOLOGY > INSURGENCE
I will vote for Mythology cause I like it enough, but mostly because it has a chance to win instead of my first option that currently has 0 votes.
Exactly my point. Draws are a non-issue; they can arise no matter what kind of Poll you have, and it's a simple matter to ask around in a pseudo-vote or even run another quick Poll. Preferential Voting (i.e. through a multi-vote poll) is simply superior in nearly every way to the alternatives.
I would've voted for
Alliance or
Insurgence as those were the coolest & best fit for me, but they were doing so badly in the Polls I decided to put my vote into
Elementals (kinda have an idea for them, maybe), where it might actually count (which, as it turned out, didn't matter).
I know what you mean. Mythology is very specific. It'll be difficult to find corresponding models to fit one particular mythos. I guess we'll see
Mythology might be the broadest category ever. ...set a pin on a map, and chances are they have a long history of religion of culture
Yeah, I'm glad The_Silent was here to do the job I was too lazy to do; "mythology" is INCREDIBLY broad. Literally every country has a handful, and going back into history you can add exponentially more to that list. Sure, many will default to the classic/well-known Greek/Norse/Egyptian (I know I might; I loved
Age of Mythology, after all
), but many others will choose to be inspired by some of the more esoteric choices... and all the better.
Also I have an Idea for the next contest:
Take all the themes that weren't chosen and use them as voting material?
Yeah, that's usually how these things go... If anyone remembers, that is. But there's no reason to neglect previous suggestions.
Gr8 job complaining about the theme during the poll and not the actual theme discussion.
Well if he was anything like me, he is simply too busy to be checking all over the site for new developments like this. It happens, but I don't begrudge him the opportunity to voice concerns. : )
I think I've identified why I'm not into Mythology as a theme for this contest: you have restrictions. There is a 'frame' that you cannot cross, and so to me this feels like your creativity is being boxed into this already-established lore (some might say that's a plus as it cuts down on brainstorming time since all the 'material' is already there if you research).
I'm not sure if you were around for our previous conversation(s)... But if you were, you would've heard me harp time and time again: "Constraints breed Creativity". I am a firm believer in the reality that, given a blank sheet of paper, even the most "creative" among us would be stymied; it is only in constraints that true creativity/originality/uniqueness is found.
Religiously as well as metaphysically as well as scientifically, I don't believe in "creatio ex nihilo"; nothing is created out of nothing. Everything exists as a combination of existing elements & influences. Nothing is truly 'new' in the sense of "no part of this has ever existed"; it's more like "this thing is a combination of existing elements not seen in quite this fashion". And that can best happen when constraints exist. Whether it's time, design-space, thematic or stylistic, constraints make the creativity & thus, the Contest.
Now, I'm sure we can agree that there is such a thing as "too many" Constraints... But I hope you can be convinced that "having restrictions" is a necessary, even
preferable state of affairs. Creativity isn't not having a box; it's having the just the
right box. In the case of mythology, that box is wiiiiide open; make a race of various mythological creatures! Make a race of humans/whatever that worship/turn into/sacrifice their gods! Make a race which features Grecian pantheons or Samoan hakas or Egyptian river rituals or Africans spiritual entreaties or Nordic war-chants or all of the above! Take various combinations of the above and you already have 32 different combos; plenty for the one of the most successfully-attended Contests this site has ever seen! : )
There's more to be said, but it's late, and I think I'm coming down with something. Interested to see how this goes.
