Forum Brawl - Rules

[TheManuz]

I like this competition idea!
My preferred roles would be Artist and Card Designer.
I don't know if i will have the time to actively work on this, but i would like to partecipate.

I will decide when the competition will be open to subscriptions.

[Zaealix]

I like this competition idea!
My preferred roles would be Artist and Card Designer.
I don't know if i will have the time to actively work on this, but i would like to partecipate.

I will decide when the competition will be open to subscriptions.

Same, except I have...Well, just look at my card suggestions if you want to see how weak my art is.
So Artist/Card Designer, but with a perferrance on Card Designer.

[Scaredgirl]

Hopefully we will get enough participants for this. I'm a bit worried because not only do we need 72 active participants, we need people with specific skills. That Artist role is my main concern right now. It's going to be difficult to find 12 artists, and it's going to be even more difficult to find 12 artists where skill level is roughly the same. Otherwise it could easily lead to a situation where the same 1-2 people win every single challenge. My first reaction for this problem was to expand the role somehow, but I'm not sure how we could do that so that it would still make sense.

You can always limit the artists' tools and possibilities to force them into a somewhat fair 'fight', like letting them use only MS Paint (...), or to specify a single source of basic art for everyone, and such. We had things like these in previous competitions.
Also, making team flags/banners here too, like in War, may prove useful to keep them busy for awhile :]

MS Paint was something that came to my mind as well, but I think the problem is that no matter what tools or the assignment is, a good artist will always beat a not so good one when creating art. Even though anyone can paint funny images with MS Paint, when it comes to voting, most people will probably vote the image that looks the best. Unless I am wrong, this is exactly what happened with our previous MS Paint competitions. So while MS Paint would certainly be a step in the right direction, I don't think it would completely solve the problem.

Basically what we would need to to have a task that requires creativity but has heavy limitations on creativity. Sounds weird, but we need to prevent a situation where someone with superior skills, wins all the tasks. I have a couple of ideas on how to do that, both of which should work better than MS Paint, although maybe we will have that MS Paint thing as well.

I would prefer one of the online programs that anyone can use.

Yes, we should try to limit Photoshop usage as much as possible. Maybe not in all tasks, but in most of them. I know some online tools that we can use.


If anyone has any ideas (or websites) for art tasks (or any other tasks), please do not post them here because we want to avoid spoilers. Instead post them to me, and we'll pick the best ones for the event. Thanks.

[Time_lord_victorius]

this is something i don't want to miss, im IN

*EDIT* we could use, oh, i don't know, GIMP? it's pretty simple, gives nice tools to all users and is IMO an upgrade to paint without being overly powerful and it's FREE (compatible with windows, mac AND linux)

*EDIT2* there is also lots of addons that can be implemented for FREE by other users

[Jocko]

You know, art isn't limited to pretty pics.
I don't oppose to the restrictions you want to apply to the art thing, but there always be someone more skilled with higher chances to win, not only on the art section.

[Scaredgirl]

*EDIT* we could use, oh, i don't know, GIMP? it's pretty simple, gives nice tools to all users and is IMO an upgrade to paint without being overly powerful and it's FREE (compatible with windows, mac AND linux)

Yes GIMP is one option, but software is not the problem, potential difference in artistic skills is. One team could get a professional artist who would have a huge advantage over those who just do art as a hobby, and the team that gets that individual, could win the whole thing because of it.

You know, art isn't limited to pretty pics.

Yes, but tell that to the average user who will vote for the technically superior pieces of art in 99% of cases. I think that a professional artist will produce better art ('better' as in people will vote for it) regardless of the tools, just like a professional video producer would produce better video or animation. They just have the experience, technique and creativity that a hobbyist cannot beat.

I don't oppose to the restrictions you want to apply to the art thing, but there always be someone more skilled with higher chances to win, not only on the art section.

It's easy to find 12 Card Designers with similar skill levels. We could probably even find 50 of them because Card ideas are closely related to Elements, and everyone here plays Elements, so everyone has at least some expertise on what kind of card ideas are good. Also anyone can throw in card ideas because it doesn't need any training, only some creativity. It's different with art because drawing art is 100% separate from the game and requires a specific skill set that only a few here have. Most people here don't even have Photoshop, let alone know how to use it.



I don't know if the problem would be as big as I think, but it's something we should definitely take into consideration when developing the event.

[kev]

If the Artist position is the only real issue, maybe eliminating that position is the right way to go.  (Maybe replace it with a PvE'er position or something.)  Those with mad art skillz can still be useful in card design, etc.  Or maybe the rules for artist events should clearly say "the picture that best represents x", emphasizing the idea rather than the artistic ability.  That's prolly not enough, though.

I don't think this is an issue here, but it's always worth considering what happens if one team runs away with it.  We can't expect teams that are essentially already eliminated to maintain interest over the last four weeks.

I know this defeats a lot of the ideas you've set forth and is ultimately not as good as what you already have, but it's too bad we can't have four larger teams.  You'd be able to have four teams of Artists and it'd be easier to find Artists of similar skill levels to head those teams than it would be to find twelve.  Meh.

Masters are given a bonus for success in War during the Trials.  Is the plan also to give a bonus for success as a Boss during the Trials?  Or is that a bad idea given that being a Boss isn't compulsory?

[Jocko]

What i meant by art not being limited to pretty pics is that there are other areas, not only plastic art.
Now i realize that there are already a literary part, and it could be hard to find 12 people that make music.

I don't think removing the whole position and replacing it would be the best idea, since i wanted to apply for that (and i can think of more people that wanted too), but i can't come up with some solution. Do you really think its going to be a big issue?

[Xenocidius]

Masters are given a bonus for success in War during the Trials.  Is the plan also to give a bonus for success as a Boss during the Trials?  Or is that a bad idea given that being a Boss isn't compulsory?

I didn't think being a General was compulsory either. The only thing that should be compulsory is managing the card section.

Still, giving a bonus for success in Brawl could be a good idea.

[Legit]

Hopefully we will get enough participants for this. I'm a bit worried because not only do we need 72 active participants, we need people with specific skills. That Artist role is my main concern right now. It's going to be difficult to find 12 artists, and it's going to be even more difficult to find 12 artists where skill level is roughly the same. Otherwise it could easily lead to a situation where the same 1-2 people win every single challenge. My first reaction for this problem was to expand the role somehow, but I'm not sure how we could do that so that it would still make sense.

Perhaps you should combine the Artist and Writer role into one role. This way more people can fit into the role and you will only need 60 participants instead of 72, essentially killing two birds with one stone. You could also name it something like "Creative Arts" and incorporate a variety of art styles such as video, music, writing, and both digital and hand-drawn art. For example a task could be: Create a work of art that captures the themes and abilities of your team's element. So the Creative Artist of the Air team could write a poem about Air, use Photoshop to make an epic picture of all the Air cards, or record a video where he/she jumps off buildings in an attempt to capture the freedom of Air. The submissions would be judged by both skill level and how well it captures the element as a whole, so if one person is the greatest digital artist in the world, he/she will not necessarily win every challenge.

[Naesala]

Perhaps you should combine the Artist and Writer role into one role. This way more people can fit into the role and you will only need 60 participants instead of 72, essentially killing two birds with one stone. You could also name it something like "Creative Arts" and incorporate a variety of art styles such as video, music, writing, and both digital and hand-drawn art. For example a task could be: Create a work of art that captures the themes and abilities of your team's element. So the Creative Artist of the Air team could write a poem about Air, use Photoshop to make an epic picture of all the Air cards, or record a video where he/she jumps off buildings in an attempt to capture the freedom of Air. The submissions would be judged by both skill level and how well it captures the element as a whole, so if one person is the greatest digital artist in the world, he/she will not necessarily win every challenge.

I dont like this, I think the difference between artforms is great enough that they should at least be split between visual and writing.

[Jocko]

or record a video where he/she jumps off buildings in an attempt to capture the freedom of Air

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