I did even more work than you,
Assumptions like that are ugly. Please don't say things of this manner.
If people chose to not change certain things about the forums, then that was their choice, discussed amongst three members, that that was the best design. Assuming people were "lazy" or "didn't try" just because things aren't radically different is sad. Please speak for yourself on that matter. You can say you didn't like it, but don't try to say you did more work or imply the other teams were lazy.
Agreed, that statement wasn't right and not really well thought and I wasn't really "sober" when I did it, so I indeed have to apologize and apologize for this.
However, we indeed should have had put more effort as a whole. it has not to do with teams or ratings, it has to do with Brawl itself. If we take a look at previous Combo Tasks, we can compare the amount of effort taken by every single team in those Combo Tasks and in this one.
Sorry for being offensive, my intentions were
never to humiliate anyone but to
motivate instead. My dissapointment is because it seems we lose motivation at Forum Brawl and motivation is what brings the awesomeness of this event. That's the reason I was harsh with myself and my team in the first place.
If partial and not fully remake was needed, then the objectives were NOT written properly (sorry, Brawlmasters, completely no offense here) and it should stay "Completely
or partially redesign the look of the forums", but since the Brawlmasters stated it is ok to revamp it even partially I can see it is ok now. Moreover, both
and
Combo submissions have their primary objective completed and they are not "off-topic" if you know what I mean, meaning both my judgement and my ratings were not accurate. Also, it gives emphasis on my previous comment
"(if complete redesing wasn't a primary objective, this could be a winner)" my true opinion of Expensive Clocks submission which is pretty good indeed and a very possible winner.
Hope we concluded and settled this, corrected any misunderstanding and may my apology be accepted...
However, I also have to answer to comments about our submission's navigation system, more accurately:
Having a fixed hierarchy like Forum Discussions > Card Ideas and Art > Card Art , means 3 clicks to get something you can get in 1 click with the current design, so it makes the forums harder to navigate. By your logic that means you guys have utterly failed your submission (which as you guessed is an unfair statement).
Also, Artist is only one of the three roles in this combo.
...and...
I like to think Team Expensive Clocks did a great job this round. It's a simple overhaul, but it's effective. Changing it completely and making it work would've been fine as well, heck, even better when points for effort get added in.
I don't see the point of making the forum more complicated, harder to read and navigate, or adding obnoxious moving imagery. I understand you guys were just trying to make something really radically different, but forgot about the number one priority in creating a user interface: Ease of use.
Don't be mistaken we haven't put into thought all of the above.
In my most honest opinion, you both fall into the trap to judge interface & navigation system as an EtG vetaran and an experienced member of the froums, while this judgement is more correct when done through the eyes of a newcomer. Do you think that our forums are easy-to-navigate? Yes, because we're here for a long time, we have experience and we know where to search to find what, however a newcomer will be lost in our big Home Page with dozen of categories and subcategories appearing all at once (I speak out of experience here). By reducing the core options and placing all forum-related stuff and all EtG-related stuff in two categories shows at every newcomer where to go for each stuff. Furthermore, the attractive interface of both the forums and the main page (
http://elementscommunity.org/) will impress a newcomer who found our community out of pure luck and stay here.
Also, adding new, easy-to-spot buttons leading to Guilds, Trilas, War, Brawl, League, Weekly Tournies etc. increases the chances newcomers will spot them and join such events (though I won't deny, a CI&A button paced there should be a must). Furthermpre. our interest in helping newcomers is being shown by the repeated appearence of both "The Game" and "Community Recommended Decks" buttons, the first button to make newcomers find the game and the second one to offer easy access to the best farming decks our community can offer (which, let's face, is a difficult topic for a newcomer to find).
A veteran can always find a section easily, no matter the interface, no matter the amount of clicks, cause he/she is familiar with the forums. You say about clickng repeatedly, I say about using wheelup/wheeldown repeately which is also bad (maybe even worse), but we accept it since we've get used to it. We aim for pleasing newcomers because they may leave EtG the first day if they're not pleased enough, while veterans who want to stay will stay no matter what.
Also, I would like to take an artist opinion about the buttons and the backrounds and other graphical stuff (winks at vrt). How should I've improved illumination and/or contrast? Any thoughts?