Doppelganger Screenshot Contest (NA) - Discussion Thread

[Vaen]

paraphrased: because I didn't have fun no one should

That's rude of you to insist that SE should stop having contests just because you didn't like how this turned out. If you didn't like it, then don't participate in future contests. Find other things in life to enjoy! It's ridiculous to demand that they ruin the fun for everyone else just because of your opinion.

[Vaen]

I would've enjoyed this event a lot even if I had lost. Even if I had lost and I thought that my entry was better than the winning ones, I still had fun looking at everyone's screenshots and making mine. Sure, if I lost I would've been disappointed. It's fine to believe in your own entry and think that it should've won. But the judge's decisions are out of your hands and you can't prove that they didn't have their reasons for their choices or that they weren't "careful." Even if you argue about who posted an idea first or what their subject/theme was, that doesn't prove anything definitive.

I participated in a screenshot contest event in Aion once. I LOVED my entry and I REALLY wanted to win. But I didn't, and I thought some of the winners had way worse shots than me. What did I do after I was disappointed by that outcome?

[Vaen]

I congratulated the winners and told the mods how much I was looking forward to the next event. Because it adds something special to an MMO's quality and community when they have events like these. And because I don't want to make a fool of myself and ruin everyone's fun by being so negative about a lighthearted event.

[Vaen]

For future entries, I suggest making the entries private and making an OPTIONAL entry thread so that people may share their pictures if they choose. This would decrease the amount of copy cats and competition within a particular subject.

There's a limited amount of subjects to doppelgang (yup I'm making that a verb) and a lot of people were going to have the same ideas even if they couldn't see everyone else's entries.

In fact, a bunch of people checked out everyone else's entries to make sure they WOULDN'T be the same/accused of being a copycat. Thus it's entirely possible that there would be even MORE people doing the same thing if we couldn't see everyone's entries.

For example, I was going to use this screenshot:

[Vaen]

But then I realized a lot of other people were using that same set of NPCs, so I went with this NPC instead:



I posted my entry with the snowman NPC quite early on in the competition. I was only on page 9. And I got a lot of likes. So there was LOTS of opportunity for people to "copycat" my idea. But no one did. So I think what you're assuming to be copycats is just a lot of people having a common idea. Stuff like cactuars, sylphs, uniform NPCs occur to everyone, doesn't mean they're copycats.

[Selkie]

If you think I'm trying to ruin everyone's fun, I would suggest you go back a few pages and read comments from some of the other users regarding this event. You might find, strangely, a trend in their criticisms.

I am not upset I lost, as I must reiterate time and time again since that's a very easy attack to make. I am upset, rather, at how winners were selected and disappointed in how little the judges put into it. I want these contests to be the best they can be and therefore I care enough to make sure those who are in charge might know and grow from it. Those who respond to me with threats of, "With that attitude, they'll run no more contests!" think that will silence me. My point is that it will not make me shy away from my views.

Congratulations on your win by the way. I thought your entry quite clever, Vaen. It made me laugh when I first saw it.

[Selkie]

That's a spectacular shot. He looks so cheery and gleeful.

[DieLorelei]

Don't worry everyone
In the years to come there will be plenty of exclusive events and prizes with items 80% of the player base will never have a chance to receive - each which are sure to come with a thread filled with dissatisfied players... (80% because it sounds like a good number, but you're welcome to debate it)... Though, I'm not fully educated in statistics, I think with 77 pages and ~750 entries meant we had ~15% chance of winning. If it was randomly pulled from a hat, it was still pretty decent odds... Or atleast its good enough for me... 15% is much higher than the chance of harvesting most of the level 10 materials on my level 8 miner ( I cant stand gathering... )

Anyways... Though many of us might disagree with some of the winning entries, SE isn't going to retract their decision...
So congratulations to the winners I'm sure there will be more to win next year, enjoy your victory while it lasts >:P

[stanrir]

I'm just glad that odin one won, as soon as i saw that pop up on the same page as mine I knew it would be a winner ^.^

[PiperC]

I would agree with Vaen... you're stirring your own pot and making yourself stew... I don't agree with some of the winning entries either but everyone has their own opinion so it's very subjective. I entered nearly every FFXI art contest and lost them all but it was fun to participate. If you are severely unhappy with the way they do contests I would suggest not entering anymore... as for this contest I believe what's done is done... there is no changing the outcome so there is no sense on dwelling on it.. Do something that makes you happy and take your mind off it