What I have learned from the "Good as Gold" contest

[T-of-the-Triad]

(Immediate disclaimer: Been a long day of not getting Fanfest tickets, getting my lunch stolen, then coming home after work to find my screenshot wasn't a winner in the contest. Note that this is mostly a joke and take a grain of salt before reading. I have plenty to spare. Congrats to the winners.)

LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND OTHERS I WELCOME YOU ALL TO BEAR WITNESS TO MY "TRULY SCIENTIFIC" FINDINGS AFTER RESEARCHING THE WINNERS OF THE LATEST SCREENSHOT CONTEST. SO NEXT TIME THEY HAVE ONE, YOU TOO CAN HAVE AN EDGE OVER THE COMPETITION!

[T-of-the-Triad]

The unofficial rules for winning a screenshot contest
1. Use a zoom, tilt, sparkle, or border effect. Odds are you lose by default without one.
2. Clever use of emotes are good, using any event item reward from the repeat quest is better. (Coins)
3. Nobody cares about triple triad, and astrologs are better off showing their cards in front of anything else apparently.
4. Should've worn bunny ears.
5. Should've been riding a mount.
6. Should've been in front of an arcade machine instead of behind a triple triad table.
7. Don't have what you need for 4-6? No problem! Just strike a pose with a weapon and follow rules 1 and 2 (and 3 if you're an AST) and you might just win anyway.

and lastly

8. Never consume half your body weight in salt before viewing contest results lest you lose and take in that final grain that makes your heart stop. I'm typing from beyond the grave. I need a rez. Halp.

[Mihana]

*offers rez*


Nice read. I went through some of the winning entries and think I kind of agree, you definitely need to add something to the shot to make it more eye-catching. Though and I don't want to downright accuse them of it, it is somewhat annoying when someone tries to copy your idea. I noticed it happened to a couple people including myself. Same pose, outfit, location, only difference was the lighting and border used. Could of been a coincidence but I'm a bit skeptical.

[T-of-the-Triad]

Thanks for the rez.

Yeah, I mean most of the shots were good. I can't speak for people copying each other but I will say it feels bad when you spend 2 hours setting up furniture in a specific way and working with people on discord for a very particular group shot of peeps playing a minigame while I do an unrelated but still fitting emote to go with it... (AST, /bstance, triple triad game) ...and end up losing to several posts of just a guy riding a mount. I feel that getting a group and having fun together better fits the theme of the Gold Saucer. Shows off more prizes, peeps are having fun, and it was relatively unique compared to other AST posts. Would it have been better if I had used a sparkle effect? Who knows. I just feel that effort doesn't necessarily mean results and that makes me sad.

[TitaniumVulpes]

I definitely get the sentiments here. Last year my partner and I entered the Songbird contest and lost to, if I may be so bold in my opinion, a couple hetero copycats (seriously, the only other entry in the same place, and at the same time, with the same dyes.. just a week later and with worse lighting. Doesn't feel like a coincidence). But we keep entering stuff, and he's won a couple others since then - including this one, and now he's rubbing the chocobo barding in my face, but such is life - so just keep entering contests and hope you win! And if not you can always hang out in the loser pile with me :P

[T-of-the-Triad]

Yaaaaaay! Loser pile! *Faceplants in Goobbue poo*

[Schan]

you people need hugs /hug

[Rowde]

I do know the feeling because I've lost several contests as well at this point... though I did manage to win this one.

Just posting because I will admit that I made adjustments to my entry after viewing the Entries and Practice threads.

This is the first screenshot I took after reading the theme:


I actually let the theme guide me, because I already had my squadron set up like this. I did not dress them for the contest.
The original message stated:
"The Community Team challenges you to capture a screenshot of your most prized possession from the Gold Saucer. What winnings have you been enjoying most? Show off for us and present your favored item in a creative and original manner for a chance to earn yet another prize on top of it all!"

So yah... my bunny squad seemed liked the obvious choice to me for the subject of my entry.


However, after viewing the entries that had already been submitted I felt like my entry could use a bit more "pizzazz" before submitting, so I made some adjustments to the lighting placements and settings, added Particle Effects, changed me minion (Wind-up Twintania is also a Gold Saucer Minion, and technically more of a pain to get than Water Imp), and adjusted my character pose. Took me several tries to get a screenshot with all the characters (couldn't freeze the squad in this scenario) and particle effects positioned nicely too.

I submitted this as my entry:


So I meet like half your criteria:
1) Check
2) Check (I'm using the /fume emote with the /biggrin expression)
3) Check
4) Check
5) Nerp
6) Nerp
7) Nerp
8) Nerp?

[T-of-the-Triad]

Congrats on the shot. I'll have to remember hard to use those particle effects. I feel my shot followed the theme well enough by focusing on triple triad and the triple triad table but the gambler and bunny costumes were present in it. That aside I guess the lighting wasn't good enough? I dunno. Next time. Rule number 1. Most important rule. (And to a degree rule number 3... since I'm a weirdo for liking triple triad enough to show it off over my Fenrir mount.)

[TitaniumVulpes]

The unfortunate thing about art is it's hard to break down into a science. Personally, I prefer a tilted image because I feel like it's more dynamic, but other people prefer perfectly, well, horizontal horizons. I also think lighting is possibly the most important part of a picture (to the point I literally sat in Gpose for over an hour waiting for decent lighting), but some of the winning entries were imo really bland in that regard, so whoever picked those either doesn't find lighting as important or has a different opinion of what good lighting is. You can try to keep to the rule of thirds, or position your composition so it perfectly matches the Fibonacci spiral, but in the end it all comes down to whatever the preference of the particular person picking participants' entries is, and you've just gotta hope yours matches those preferences of whichever specific judge sees yours :/

...That was a lot of Ps.