Winners Announcement of Interior Design Contest: What are your Thoughts?

[Luna_Ariana]

The Winners of the Eorzean Interior Design Contest has been published. With that we see many creative Entries yet with the Announcement there are also mixed feelings towards ingame and other Social Media.

Therefore what do you think bout it? Is it ok if someone won in more than one Category? Is it fair that some Winners broke the Rule by modifying their Entry by changing/adding Furniture? Is it fine that JP gets their own Section while NA & EU goes all together? And what about the Glitches what people talk of thinking of being it either unfair or more a feature being?

I'm curious what people on the Official Forums think of this current Discussion which actual Members of the Square Enix Team can view aswell.
Yet please keep this in Mind: Not every Winner did that and actually join fair and Square so please do not get them in there too.

By else I would like to Congratulate the Winners and thanking them for giving us Inspiration for more Decorations to do. ^^

[Vidu]

Is it ok if someone won in more than one Category?

Under the given rules: Yes.
It was clarified before that you were allowed to enter in more than one Category - what would be the point of that, if you couldnt also win in more than one? A contest sould be about giving the prices to the best entries - not distribute them with the idea of "Mmh, who hasnt gotten a prize yet?"
If someone did well decorating a room, a small, a medium and a large house - why shouldnt they be "rewarded" for all them and if only in the sense of finding their name amongst the winners just so someone who did a "worse" job gets the items too? Doesnt that slightly defeat the idea of a contest?

Is it fair that some Winners broke the Rule by modifying their Entry by changing/adding Furniture?

Tricky. I think we need to consider that that rule was most likely in place so that the judges could take a better look at the design and not only go by the pics.
Quite frankly, I believe that minor changes (like, for example planting different flowers or moving an item slightly to the left) dont have sucha huge impact that they should be immidiatly disqualified. I also assume that the judges were looking over the entries for a certain period of time - so if you got lucky and yours were one of the first ones they looked at, they probably didnt notice...
Bottomline: I think as long as the newly added furniture didnt had an impact on what was judged, I dont see a huge issue here. Those who decided to change their furniture did so at the risk of being disqualified.

Is it fine that JP gets their own Section while NA & EU goes all together?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... I was under the assumption that NA got their own thing and EU got their own thing, hence the two entry-threads in the english forums?
Considering differences in laws and the game basically being "split" into the two regions for stuff like servers and fanfests... I do think its fine that every region gets their own contest. And as I said, I was under the assumption that thats the case - please correct me, if I got that wrong.

And what about the Glitches what people talk of thinking of being it either unfair or more a feature being?

Well, I actually tried to get an answer out of them regarding those glitches and wether or not they'd be allowed. Never got one.
I suppose they dont wanna say something like "Oh, yeah, we're fine with you guys using glitches in this area of the game!" Pretty much "dont tell" - just how it works with parsers. And considering that parsers are clearly visible in livestreams of the game and specially stuff like world-first, thats being watched by the devs aswell, I dont see how anyone can be surprised with their stance here.
On the matter of fairness: People have won without making use of any glitches - you can decorate a nice house without using them, so they didnt gave anyone a huge unfair advantge. Secondly - and more important - the most used glitch (to let items float) is very, very easy to execute and basically anyone whos intrested in decoarting will discover it. There are guides here on the forums and basically everywhere else, which makes it even less of an unfair advantge, because everyone was/is able to make use of that glitch.

I havent been following the discussion on any social media, but to be honest: Most of your posted questions here sound like stuff that people who are upset about not winning are whining right now.
Entering in multiple categories was allowed; changing your furniture put you at risk of being disqualified and if you didnt: lucky you!; NA and EU should be sepearted afaik; those glitches dont give anyone an unfair advantge, not even in the light of this contest, and are easy enough for everyone who wishes to do so to use.

[HyoMinPark]

Is it fine that JP gets their own Section while NA & EU goes all together?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... I was under the assumption that NA got their own thing and EU got their own thing, hence the two entry-threads in the english forums?
Considering differences in laws and the game basically being "split" into the two regions for stuff like servers and fanfests... I do think its fine that every region gets their own contest. And as I said, I was under the assumption that thats the case - please correct me, if I got that wrong.

No, NA and EU appear to have been lumped together. I find that unfair, frankly, since the two regions combined are larger than JP by almost double, if you go by unofficial censes. Which means the amount of people who could have won from each region was sliced in half (assuming they did 100 from NA/100 from EU).

[Vidu]

No, NA and EU appear to have been lumped together. I find that unfair, frankly, since the two regions combined are larger than JP by almost double, if you go by unofficial censes. Which means the amount of people who could have won from each region was sliced in half (assuming they did 100 from NA/100 from EU).

Oh okay, wrongfull assumption on my part then! I seem to have this memory of screenshot-contests from a few years ago being split totally by region... but its possible I'm wrong about that aswell.

In this case they should indeed consider seperating the two - its only digital items anyways, so its not like they'd have to spend something on 200 more of them...

[Xarchon]

There are some entries I love, others not so much (but that is more down to my tastes in most cases).

While you raise some good and intersting questions what upsets me the most is the fact that some ppl have won multiple times. Of course well done to them for winning in multiple catergories (pretty sure people were allowed to enter one in each if they could), they clearly have talent to achieve such a thing and I have nothing against it. But isn't it pointless picking them as winners in multiple catergories? If they win in one catergory why pick them as a winner in others since they can only get the prizes once right? If I counted right 23 potential entries lost out due to multiple wins.

Of course correct me if Im wrong or missed somthing - but this is just my observation.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I dislike people who clearly broke the rules appear to have won. While a minor change like picking your flowers is one thing, it's unfair some were overlooked when other contestants knew they couldn't make any changes.

Another odd decision is winners where one room has nothing in it. Just seems a bit odd, though I suppose if they showed off more of the other rooms, it evens out.

[Dustytome]

It looks like the 'no changes' part of the rules were either in place more to verify the person was in fact submitting their own house instead of just swiping images off random sites or they took a gander at the house before changes were made. My guess in the former.

Another odd decision is winners where one room has nothing in it. Just seems a bit odd, though I suppose if they showed off more of the other rooms, it evens out.

I believe that person just wanted to show off the areas they used up all their furniture on, but as per the rules they submitted the empty room as well. Some people don't use every floor when they're making a lot of smaller details in a confined area.

[Rokke]

The rules said you could have multiple entries as long as they were different properties, i.e. you could enter your FC house, your personal cottage, and you apartment room since they’re all diff locations. That some people won multiple times is unsurprising as some people are really really good at decorating.

The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is that apparently JP got it’s own category which would have make it easier to win if you entered in JP.

[Jandor]

It bothers me that some winning entries appear to have used gpose and/or reshade, the rules stated no gpose .

NA/EU getting combined is also a bit

Not too bothered about the other things, people who redecorated probably thought they were disqualifying themselves and are now pleasantly surprised. Some people winning multiple times is a bit annoying but not against the rules or anything.

[Canadane]

The gpose entries should be removed.
It's a very specific rule they put in place.