Hair contest: petitioning

[Kolaina]

i personally dont see whats wrong with this contest. there are clearly ppl who are disappointed theirs werent chosen. there are those who believe the selected finalist dont leave much in the way of variety etc etc. unfairness has been brought up and whole bunch of other discussion in various threads. but in the end we should be happy they even involved the vocal minority of the community. if they wanted a real contest they would of made it an in game event where more than the forum dwellers could participate. or just not hold a contest at all for the sake of fairness. i love some of the hairstyles. other do not. its how it works

[Assirra]

This is not an uprising. We are having a discussion. Good criticism is always welcome.

However rudeness and bashing one opinions just for the sake of it, will not.

We love this and other contests.

Thats why we are trying to make it even better with some feedback, that we would like to reach SE.

Calling people whiners is not productive and surely not respectful, nor healthy for this discussion.

That is fine but when people use the "i pay for this game" card it's just really annoying and i myself replied to it as well. Why? Because that is not argument, at all not in this case. This is not about payed retainers (which are utter bs) or some other stuff, this is about a silly contest about hairstyles.
Also, i doubt we will see a contest like this again considering the amount of threads that are against the finalists (even if not explicitly stated)

[DawnSolaria]

Those of us who are upset over the lack of variety in the selected winners are by no means discounting their legitimacy nor are we arguing because our favorite hairstyle did not make the cut. It just seemed the wording of this contest was unclear. If SE was looking for hairstyles that were easy to rig or variations based on what we already have in game, or homages to past FF characters, then well... why label the contest as something clearly creative? The rules stated so long as it fit in the template guidelines, there was no issue. To me, that says they were willing to rig and model anything. And now the lack of creativity has already cost us one finalist slot (with one entry being removed for blatant plagiarism).

There ARE some awesome designs in the finals, but there's also a ton that were in that live letter that are now not even part of the voting, or the ton of awesome ones from the thread where losing entries were posted. But there ARE also repetitive themes within the top 25 for each category that leaves much to be desired. The females are full of pigtails, ponytails, and bob cuts (many of which we have already in the game). And the males are lacking anything that differs from the usual short, spiked or messy shag we already have in game, again.

Also not saying we don't appreciate the opportunity being given. In all my MMO experience, no developer has offered a chance for something community-created to be implemented in a game before. I think that's awesome. But I really don't think variety hurts either, and it couldn't hurt to add a bit more to the final selection in hopes of something unique at least having the chance. Wishful thinking, perhaps, at this point.

The blatant plagiarism aside, i was generally excited to see many of the hair in vote list and dont feel any lack in originality. I guess my point is that just because certain hair style(say ponytail) does not appeal to you, doesnt mean you can call it lacking in creativity. Currently the top voted ones are all very different from the ones we have in game.
You also have to take into consideration that Devs have to choose ones that will appeal to the largest possible player base, no point adding a hairstyle that only you(no one in particular) would use. Hope i come off this time as more civil and dont get told to leave again.

[Syrehn]

That is fine but when people use the "i pay for this game" card it's just really annoying and i myself replied to it as well.
Also, i doubt we will see a contest like this again considering the amount of threads that are against the finalists (even if not explicitly stated)

I really don't think anyone voicing objections are "against the finalists". For many of us there is, what we perceive as, a real lack of variation (e.g. multiple side pony's or similar to what we have already) and originality. Couple that with the cheating (which they pulled the entry) and a confusion with their stated rules (SE is notorious for not enforcing/following their own contest rules) and it brings about discussions like this thread.

We are grateful that SE holds contests and the hope is that these debates serve to help make future contests better.

You also have to take into consideration that Devs have to choose ones that will appeal to the largest possible player base, no point adding a hairstyle that only you(no one in particular) would use. Hope i come off this time as more civil and dont get told to leave again.

Despite the small jab that was obviously intended for me, this go-around you were perfectly civil and your thoughts and opinions are more than welcome.

It could be that Dev's thought the current entries would appeal to a bigger variety or it could be that with some of them being so similar to current in-game models they thought those particular selections would take less time to implement; quick and easy.

I also have to wonder, since SE didn't enforce a base model, if some of the voting is more "art" related vs. "hair" related.

[DoctorSecksy]

We should be happy with opportunities given to us in general. However, being happy that we get them at all doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't be disappointed with the outcome. I'm happy that there are contests, but unhappy with how it was developed. I feel it is like someone saying, hey, I'll buy you dinner, and you get to choose... so long as it is chicken, and only chicken. But you totally get to decide! Oh, it can only be grilled chicken or this other grilled chicken. You like chicken, yeah?

DawnSolaria: your response was great. C:

[KasKatta]

The blatant plagiarism aside, i was generally excited to see many of the hair in vote list and dont feel any lack in originality. I guess my point is that just because certain hair style(say ponytail) does not appeal to you, doesnt mean you can call it lacking in creativity. Currently the top voted ones are all very different from the ones we have in game.
You also have to take into consideration that Devs have to choose ones that will appeal to the largest possible player base, no point adding a hairstyle that only you(no one in particular) would use. Hope i come off this time as more civil and dont get told to leave again.

As I said, I was not implying all of the finalists lacked originality, just that many seemed to resemble similar styles to what we have, or to each other (there's like, what 3 versions of a side ponytail in the finals?). Whether or not I would use any of the hairstyles is not the point I was trying to make either. We just got a ponytail addition, why do we need another? There are several pigtails in each race already, why another? Based on what we have in game already, I would have considered those who stepped outside those more common styles and took a more creative route when judging a "creative" contest. Just as those who did not use reference to past FF characters more original (again, not saying paying homage is a bad idea, I just think it should not be included in a "creative/original" contest when that clearly does not apply to either of those words).

And no issues with civility here, it's nice to hear from both sides.

[Nestama]

This entire contest was supposed to be about the community picking what hair we wanted in game. Instead, SE picked a few for us, most of which add nothing truly different to the game in terms of aesthetic variety, and gave us a Hobson's Choice of sorts.

Yeah... it would have been nice if we could vote for 100+ or something. I'm sure there would be a hairstyle amongst the 100's 1000's that would look good on a Roegadyn... or actually use a Roegadyn as the model (we exist too!).

[DoctorSecksy]

I feel limiting voting to only 25 shared between 3 regions was not the greatest idea in hindsight. I agree that 100+ would have been a great place to start. Id like to see a mature, boss style win so that Roe can have something other than the one decent style and 10000 other cutesie looks it has already.

[Nikkori]

Next time, SE should do a tournament voting.

This. right here. If they do another hairstyle contest, for the sake of having such a narrow window, i think there should be divided categories, like up styles, down styles, and length choices. it just seems like almost all of the hairstyles were "up" styles. up is nice, but it left a lack of differentiation between choices. It would also make your suggestion of a tourney vote alot easier to break down. if they did these types of things on a 6 month basis, or even yearly, i think there would be alot less of an uproar about the selection as well. as far as the whole rip off issue (#9 quistis hair that is still there), they could even do a voting selection of previous final fantasy character's hair styles, since the demand for them seems to be decent enough. god knows there's enough characters that they could do it on The Rising, and have a new hairstyle available every year, and not run out.

[Atkinsj7]

someone salty they didnt get pick