Hair contest: petitioning

[Adire]

You truly think OP would have made this thread if his/her favorite/own submission was in the final?

I did not even have a design in the contest and I'm of a very similar mind to the OP, just saying.

[Zeonx]

Threads like these are why we ignored most of the time and others get more attention.

Cause nobody can be happy on what they get. Instead lets light the torches and grab pitch forks and charge, I say let it be accept it.

Then maybe we would be accepted more with open arms instead of ignored.

[Adire]

Threads like these are why we ignored most of the time and others get more attention.

Cause nobody can be happy on what they get. Instead lets light the torches and grab pitch forks and charge, I say let it be accept it.

Then maybe we would be accepted more with open arms instead of ignored.

Accepting any scraps we get with a smile on our face, sitting down and shutting up, and avoiding criticizing doesn't sound like a healthy environment to encourage. In fact, that sounds an awful lot like a certain government regime. One that has not turned out well.

We shouldn't have to do those things to be accepted or heard. What's the point anyways in being heard if you aren't allowed to criticize without being ignored? Criticism is just as important as praise, moreso even. No, I think people speaking their mind is a good thing. And any company wanting to improve things should be of a like mind. Especially when suggestions are made in addition to criticism, as people have been doing.

[DoctorSecksy]

I want to be "accepted" by being who I am and expressing myself clearly, thoughtfully, and honestly. I don't want to be "accepted" by not speaking up for myself, resigning to accept less, or by just "going with it and letting it be". That feels like oppression, to me.

[DawnSolaria]

Would not more diversity in the finalists have quieted those not pleased? It is true there is no possible way ANY selected 25 per category would have pleased everyone, but with a wider range, you're hitting more chances to cover a lot of tastes, and therefore pleasing the majority. I 100% agree that it's a contest, there's going to be happy people, and unhappy people, as well as those that are neutral. That's the nature of the contest. But even you yourself pointed out how a rule oversight allowed an entry that should not have had a final place make it through. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a bit of care in selecting such in the future.

im rather confused. Only one hair gets in the game, why would it matter if there are more choices? If I were to vote now i would vote for the ones that would have a chance to win. You can vote on what you like the most, but has no chance to win, based on principle, but then you would just be failing democracy. Its unlikely that it would please anyone, because the follow up thread would be "The most voted hair should not be implemented and heres why".

Also should be noted that you are assuming majority is not pleased. I highly doubt that is actually the case.

[Nestama]

Cause nobody can be happy on what they get. Instead lets light the torches and grab pitch forks and charge, I say let it be accept it.

So I guess we should have just blindly accepted FFXIV 1.0, hm? I know, that and this are completely different, but criticism does help others to improve in future endeavours.

If SE were to start another hairstyle contest, they should split it up into short, medium and long hairstyle options and when the finalists are shown, they're spread evenly so then we can have a top three finalist vote (one short, one medium and one long). SE should also make it a requirement to only make hairstyles on the race templates they provide (and make it Midlander and Highlander templates). I feel some people voted for how nice the art looks, rather than just the hairstyle itself.

I also snooped into the Japanese forums and saw that some players there are also a little disappointed with how the contest was handled.

[KasKatta]

...

It's actually stated that multiple finalists have the chance to make it in game at a later date. That aside, with only one guaranteed selection making it in game, all the more reason to have a more diverse number of finalists to choose from. So, by limiting the entries, you're saying it is more fair based on the principle that only those with a chance to win get votes? Who determines what has the chance? Any one had the chance. There could be a design out there currently not in the finals that a ton of people would vote for over the ones now, but we'd never know cause it wasn't given the opportunity.

And if a hairstyle won over a ton of unique designs, awesome, well done. But there'd be less a chance for someone to complain over a more open and varied finalist set. If the style similar to one we have in game came out on top, then so be it. But as it stands now a good number of people do not see that varied choice in the current listings.

I don't think I ever said I assumed or believed the majority was unhappy. I did however, point out that a good number of us are; enough to question how the contest was handled. But neither you nor I can say with certain who the majority is based on just the number of people who chose to speak out in this thread. But there is no denying a good number are unhappy. It's now been said that it has even been addressed in the Japanese forums.

[DawnSolaria]

snip

The only way that would silence everyone is to include every single entry and have forum vote on it, which would be impossible as it would be too time and resource consuming. On the other hand, any method involving any sort of secrecy on SE part regarding selection process will have forum crying for blood.

If we are discussing better way to handle the contest, how can SE possibly satisfy everyone?

[Adire]

If we are discussing better way to handle the contest, how can SE possibly satisfy everyone?

Tournament voting. Start it considerably earlier than when you plan to implement the winner into the game, every so often and in sequence have a thread of 15 entries or whatever random number you need being voted on, the winners of the first bracket compete in the 2nd bracket against each other and so on.

Not time consuming for SE to do work wise, not resource consuming. It could be done the same way they did it this time, using threads and the like system. The contest would only need to be conducted over a longer period of time, but if other tournaments can be done this way, I'm pretty sure SE could manage. All it takes is some planning ahead. It wouldn't require much more effort or working time on SE's part than this contest did. And if it was conducted ahead of time, such as right after a major patch when there are months between it and the next patch, the extra time it took for the process to complete wouldn't matter anyways.

Many other contests are held with this method because of its efficiency and fairness. Don't see why it couldn't be done here.

[DawnSolaria]

....

This solution is very time consuming. If the current hair contest is open for vote for a week, then a tournament can possibly take months based on numbers of entries. I highly doubt SE wants a trivial community event that is mostly only visible on the forum to last that long. Again, this contest was suppose to be a simple "get community involved" type of event.
I am not saying the contest should not be taken seriously, but SE would not do month long event to implement one hairstyle.