Contest Followup

In the follow-up to the contest it seemed that Rob and obsidian were considering canning all further contests. As a somewhat instigator of this, I decided to send him a PM explaining my criticisms more succinctly, as follows:

Heyya Rob,

First of all, let me say please don't consider shutting down the contests. I think they are a great idea to help promote the community.

I am guessing that the criticism you are talking about is (at least partially) relating to my own comments. These were meant to be constructive, but as per all written communications, they can be interpreted in ways the author did not intend. Following are some clarifications.

On Contest promotion:
To a certain extent I think you have been a victim association with the Bioware writing contest. I know in my mind, I envisioned something similar with spotlights on the vault or possibly various general games sites posting about it. Of course, none of this was ever a given on your behalf, merely a false assumption made by myself (and possibly others).

On contest Clarification
I don't think this is really so much about making the rules clear, as an issue of time investment verses feedback. As I am sure you know, even a 30 minute mod can take the equivalent of a weeks full time work to make. With a target mod time of 30-120 minutes, most people going for the win were aiming at 90ish mins or 100+ hours build. This is a significant investment for a hobby, especially over a four week period.

At the end of the contest a single overall winner was presented (and a couple of runners up now). However, without more detailed context from the judges on what they liked or did not, it is hard to discern where they were shooting from. A paragraph or two for each of the winners would provide a yardstick for contestants to look at their own work in relation and thus gain valuable feedback.

If the time spent was a couple of days, most would have written it off. I guess it was the high investment that makes myself feel there should be a greater return.

On prizes
Personally, I have never cared about prizes, but some may do and knowing exactly what is up for grabs can motivate them.

In closing
I certainly hope to see more contests in the future, and appreciate the work you guys do. After all, your support of the community on NWN2 is better than virtually all other developers. I also appreciate the honest development postings rather than the shrouded PR talk that is often prevalent elsewhere. When looking forward at the next contests, I would personally see the following as a good thing:

* An occasional highlight post / mid contest recap post on the vault.
* Longer time periods for creation (you seem to have done this already).
* A more limited scope on potentially time-intensive contests (or far greater feedback/promotion)
* A few short paragraphs on each winner and why they won.
* More varied winners as well as overall eg., most humorous / best art / best combat etc.
* A mention to the larger gaming community on higher time investment contests (for example bluesnews.)
* A snazzy custom avatar/title for winners on the vault/here.


Thanks for your time,
Lorft
_


And here is the response:


That was great feedback!

What you haven't seen are the multitudes of PMs I have gotten where people were pissed off at our choices for the winner(s) and attacks as to how we handled the contest and the fact that we weren't giving prizes to everyone that entered.

As was mentioned in the beginning, this first contest would be rough since we had never held one before. The contests will evolve over time.

It is much more preferable to receive feedback such as yours than to just be attacked and insulted.

Rob


Hopefully my comments and others will be taken aboard, and the next contest will run a lot more smoothly. I think that mini-contests are a great idea, and it would be a pity to see them end.

Thus, to all those posting passionate mails on the author's behalf to Obsidian, please stop. No, this contest was not run well in my opinion, and yes I do feel a bit let down. However, Obsidian has recognised this and insults and attacks have never helped any cause.

The community has two sides, and they need to work together, not be at each others throats.