Thoughts on the FFXI Contests

[Toadie-Odie]

I hope this is the right place for this post. Anywho...

I noticed when the Mog House decoration contest went up, a lot of people posted entries. Which was great I think. It gave so many people the chance to show off their hard work and savvy in their design of the space. There were some things people had done that I had never thought of doing and it changed the way I looked at my mog house.

Hence, Mog House decoration has become a new hobby of mine. For the record, I didn't place in the contest, but I enjoyed myself, the process, and looking at all the other houses.


Anuran's Mog House at Time of Entry


Anuran's Mog House Now

Then came the Thanksgiving contest. I was really excited about this one. I set to work on my story and screenshots right away, receiving a lot of feedback from my highly opinionated 11-year-old son. We were both looking forward to seeing a great turn out with many stories to read. Not may people participated. My son wondered why, and I began to think about that too.

What made these two contests different? Both offered furniture as prizes. Both involved screenshots. Both required some writing. Perhaps the difference was the Mog House contest allowed people to show off their pride and joy while the other was just a hunt? Maybe it was because the Mog House contest featured a grand prize while the the hunt contest did not? I don't know. I really enjoyed participating in both contests.

Yes, I was chosen as a winner in the hunt contest. I am really excited about that and I would like to share wth everyone my experience with that because the presentation of the prize was a part of the contest as well.

You see, I've been playing this game since my 11-year-old was just starting to cut his teeth. Even now I can remember needing to go "AFK" in a party to wind up his swing again because that was the only thing that would console him. In all those years, I have never seen a GM in-game. Yes, I've spoken to a few, one rescued Rhae from her mog house when she couldn't move and other time discussing the possiblity of implementing spam filters in the game.

So to me, it was really cool to see one in-game, not because I was in trouble or in distress, but because they wanted to present the prize in person. That is awesome. I think that was cooler than the prize itself. I'm a person, and I got treated like a person. The GM Emdub is a person, and spoke to me like a person. I think it is safe to say that the process made both our days. I also think the game NEEDS this. The reminder that we are all people, GMs and players. So this part of the contest should definitely stay and become part of the norm.


Presentation of Prize


Rolanberry Delightaru in Toadie's Mog House

To close my long post, I present these questions to all my fellow gamers:

1. What makes a contest good in general?
2. Why do you choose to enter, or not to enter, into a contest?
3. What kind of contests are you interested in seeing in the future?
4. What sort of prizes are you interested in seeing?
5. Do you like the idea of personally presenting the prizes?

[Economizer]

Contests can be a fickle thing. I hope they continue to have contests that have an entry prize, because I knew that upon entering this latest contest I'd get to pull a few friends into a BCNM.

I'm have mixed feelings about having items in the game that are only given out to people who were at an event or won some contest (Moogle Suits come to mind...) but giving things out, especially the door prizes so that everyone who enters gets something, is very fun.

I slightly regret where I met up with the GM who gave me the inventory clogging Love Chocolate (surprisingly no player has bought it from my Bazaar yet ). Being in the middle of nowhere and without my friends around was a mistake on my part (in my defense I thought they were just arranging to dbox the thing!).

These contests are pretty creative, and I hope they hand out more of the fight orbs this way in the future, even if only a few dozen people enter, although I kinda wish there was a way to have BCNMs available depending on the time of year (imagine a Mumor vs. Ullegore BCNM fight, but it is only available during that event... it could drop past exclusive tagged event rewards from that event like the swimsuits for free instead of for a fee, and you enter the fight by doing the dances in the city).

I'd also hope the rewards continue to be cosmetic type things, but I think they shouldn't be totally unique. As an example, let's say SE designed a Chocobo Suit. The right way to hand it out would be to make it available in the game normally at the cost of a lot of busywork, but then have contests to win one. The contest specific ones could potentially be signed items with a year or contest name as the signature, or items that are functionally identical but have a different name, making it special but without robbing 90% of players from getting to have an item that ate up developer time.

Again, I'll state my like of door prizes. Handing out a Mihgo Mithkabob or some other rare item like an event fight orb to everyone who enters should pretty much be required - after all it is just valueless bits that are being handed out! Part of the allure of the Mog Bonanza was knowing that no matter what happened you'd get something for your troubles was great.

Contests are really only one side of the coin though, there are also other events that could be done. For example, I hope to see the initial roll out of the Play as a Monster system on the Test Server have some sort of even where players have to team up against GMs and Community Reps who are playing as monsters, with some video recorded of the event for posterity.

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As a last thought, I would like to see discussion on the higher quality of the entries from the last contest (including, but not limited to the winners). For one, I am starting to be weary of all the poisonous foods Mithra Assassins Chefs are serving to players, since they should be able to sniff those poisons out with their keen senses...

[Toadie-Odie]

Thank you for pointing out the door prize, I had forgotten to mention that. I agree completely with you. It's like saying "thank you for participating". I admit, I entered the Mog House contest just for the orb.

More in-game events would be nice too. Since the gift giving season is upon us, something like a "Seceret Moogle" event might be cool. Where players could take items to a moogle to be gift wrapped that would then be handed back for the player to give to their friend of choice.

I would like to see the developers take the recipe ideas from the contest and sort out the ones feasable as in-game food items for crafting and add them to the game. I think it would be a suitable prize on its own.

[Vold]

Ah the joys of mog house'n, something I cannot enjoy being a hardcore crafter. I really must protest whoever came up with the moghancement system. Specifically elements being involved. Or perhaps the lack of thought put into new furnishings. I really do tire of having very limited options.

[Toadie-Odie]

I have noticed the same issue with my mog house decorating endevours. Toadie as a cook really has to focus on wind based furniture, whereas my spouse Lupa - who does not craft - does not experience those limitations. It seems only recently that wind based furniture got some interesting new pieces.

I still feel most of the furniture is water based.

[Economizer]

Ah the joys of mog house'n, something I cannot enjoy being a hardcore crafter. I really must protest whoever came up with the moghancement system. Specifically elements being involved. Or perhaps the lack of thought put into new furnishings. I really do tire of having very limited options.

I've actually been thinking of a couple solutions to this that would help to solve all our Moghancement and limited floorspace woes at the same time, along with giving players more inventory space.

Option A (Easier)

The easier seeming of the two would be simply making it so players can quest for having multiple Mog House locations. You'd upgrade from having a Rent-a-Room in other cities, meaning that perhaps if you lived in Bastok, you could have another Mog House in Windurst, San d'Oria, Jeuno, Whitegate, and maybe any future cities with Mog Houses we visit in the future.

The way this would happen is by starting with a quest that "moves" you into Jeuno permanently (your home nation would remain the same, but it would now have a rent a room - this would be so you can change nations without worrying about furniture moving or whatever). This quest would probably require having a fully upgraded Mog Safe for progression. After this you'd have to quest a Mog House in each nation separately.

When you get a new Mog House, it has a brand new Mog Safe, and its own Mog Storage (which hopefully by the time this is implemented would be accessible from anywhere) dependent on furniture in your new house, that would be labeled with the city they are in (although you can only change furniture of the city you are in).

Now, for the Moghancements, you'd either get them all (no duplicates) from each of your Mog Houses, or, more likely, you'd have to select a Mog House to provide you with your Moghancement (something you'd probably be able to do inside the Mog House, or have to ask the Mog House NPCs outside your Mog House to do).

I feel this would solve many of the problems Mog Houses have, but you sadly would not be able to have multiple rooms in one house still...

Option B (Harder)

The harder of the two would be making it so players can upgrade their Mog Houses to have multiple rooms. You'd upgrade from having one room in your house, meaning that perhaps players would have to move somewhere if current Mog Houses aren't upgradeable. The Chocobo Circuit or perhaps somewhere with the new Seekers of Aldouin expansion could possibly be reasonable places for these new Mog Houses to be, although all storage and such would be accessible from old locations.

The way that would happen is by having a quest that upgrades your Mog House from having just one room, with more quests depending on how many rooms you expand to, or alternatively just upgrading the whole thing in one step. The quest would probably require a fully upgraded Mog Safe for progression.

When you get a new room, it would have a new Mog Safe with its own Mog Storage labeled by which room it is. For layout purposes, you'd have to pick which room you want to adjust before adjusting furniture.

For Moghancements, if getting all of them (no duplicates) wouldn't be feasible, you'd pick a room for your Moogle to hang out in, and this would be the room you get the Moghancement from.

Now, this idea still comes with the idea that there would be the no furniture carpeted areas in the center of each room with walls on each side (the House would be in a + pattern, with an intersection in the middle, and the fountain/fireplace/smoke/whatever fixtures at each end), but SE could conceivably go all out with a large room (although this would possibly ignore fixing the Mog Safe/Moghancement problems) or some other layout choice.

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I'm thinking perhaps this should be in its own thread...

[Toadie-Odie]

I think it would get more reception if it was in its own thread, but its a very good idea just the same. ^_^