Forum Brawl #4 - Round 1 Voting

[Physsion]

Team Vote Round 1 by Physsion

Boss Red Stars Gravy Train Co. Artist Gravy Train Co. Red Stars CD Red Stars Frostbite Borealis DB Meaning Of Life Ragnarok FE - - OT - - Writer Frostbite Borealis Gravy Train Co. Bonus - -

Spoiler for Boss:

Meaning Of Life: submission was entertaining, but it felt more like a World of Warcraft quest than an Elements recipe.
Frostbite Borealis: sounds delicious, but I felt like the recipe itself wasn't tied in with the Elements theme. The Cockatrice, Gavel and Nymph's Tears were the only cards mentioned. If the theme was given more attention, this would have my top vote.
Ragnarok: what's a Fire Ball? Difficult for me to give an unbiased opinion when comparing it to my own team's Arctic Squid recipe, but I don't think it was as well written.
Red Stars: well-written, closely tied in with the Elements theme, and sounds tasty.

Spoiler for Artist:

Meaning Of Life: concept is really good, but would have liked to see more time put into the presentation.
Frostbite Borealis: close third. Love the effect it created, but the line work took away from the entire piece for me.
Ragnarok: nicely made, but as others have mentioned, it doesn't fit the task. And... MLP? No thanks.
Red Stars: was impressed with this as soon as I opened the spoiler tab for it. Reminds me of an album cover artwork, and ties into your team's theme nicely. Great work.

Spoiler for Card Designer:

Meaning Of Life: close third. I like the concept, but I don't think it's as mechanically useful as my top two picks.
Frostbite Borealis: really liked this one. Fits nicely with Naesala's self-proclaimed image () although as eljoemo said, it might be a little too powerful.
Ragnarok: same thoughts as eljoemo, again. The ability is interesting, but besides willng3's elemental affinity, it doesn't feel much like a Life card to me.
Red Stars: I cannot think of a better-suited card to a forum veteran than this card to Higurashi. Perfectly designed with the member in mind, and aptly named. Awesome work, Red Stars!

Spoiler for Deckbuilder:

Angelic Furball is SoSac on steroids. No offence intended towards anyone's building abilities, but I can't appreciate a deck focused around a card like that. I'm not a fan of OTKs either.

Spoiler for Forum Expert:

Did nobody actually make a new web page?

Spoiler for Off Topicker:

tl;dr at the moment, I'll come back to it later.

Spoiler for Writer:

Feel like I'm copying a lot of what eljoemo says at this point. I picked whichever ones made me smile the most.

[Calambar]

Non-Brawler Round 1 by Krzysiekxd

Boss Meaning of Life *** Artist Red Stars Gravy Train Co. CD *** *** DB *** *** FE Meaning of Life Frostbite Borealis OT Frostbite Borealis Meaning of Life Writer Meaning of Life Frostbite Borealis Bonus *** ***

Spoiler for explanation:

Hopefully proper explanation:

BOSS:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Meaning of Life

Your team took a unique approach to this task, it was funny and RPG based, I liked it that's why you got my vote.

The Rest

All of the other teams did this task in a very similar way, it was all ok, but too common. It was very hard for me to decide which team should get my vote, so finally I'm not giving the vote to anyone, I'm that mean >:-)

ARTIST:

Spoiler for Hidden:

New voting. Aftet what vrt said I have changed my mind as it seems all submissions except for Ragnarok's one can be more or less defined as abstract. Therefore, the two arts that are the best to me are

Red Stars and Gravy Train Co.

Spoiler for previous voting:

Meaning of Life

Got my vote because it is perhaps most abstract of all.

The Rest

All of the other arts were so awesome... pity they were not abstract Especially Ragnarök's one (however I really like the art per se!). I'm not sure about the others if they are abstract or not according to this definition:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process (see action painting ). --- SOURCE

Thus, no vote again

FORUM EXPERT:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Meaning of Life and Frostbite Borealis

The choice was easy this time, Gravy Train Co didn't do anything and the two others teams perhaps didn't understand the task properly.

Ragnarök

You were supposed to change http://elementscommunity.org/, not just modifying http://elementscommunity.org/forum/.

Red Stars

I suppose video portal is the addition to http://elementscommunity.org/? Still I think it is not what the task was really about...

OFF-TOPICKER:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Frostbite Borealis
Very interesting and I appreciate the effort you took to write it, also well-thought and formatted nicely. Good job!

Meaning of Life
I like the way you tried to cover almost all groups of forum members, nice reading.

The Rest
They are all equally good, just not as good for me as the two that got my vote.

WRITER:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Shouldn't this task be a combo with an artist? Hmm, perhaps erasing original text and replacing it with your own text doesn't require much of an artistic effort, but two teams did take such an effort, I mean

Meaning of Life and Frostbite Borealis

These comics are also most funny for me.

Ragnorok

No comic here, but it is a really good piece of writing. I appreciate your effort, but sorry, I think the other submissions fit the task better. But please Zawadx, don't give up!

Red Stars

It's ok, just the the two I voted for were better. But it's funny as well.

Gravy Train Co.

I don't really get this one. Why Zanz is crucified? He says himself he is not Jesus, the other one calls him Zanzarino, but why the hell is he crucified and looks like Jesus? Can anyone explain me that?

[flyingcat]

The point was Zanz was saying he can't come back from the dead... except he already has. Implying that although he has the power to change the game, he doesn't actually want to. Was also comparing Zanz with Jesus.

[ddevans96]

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way.

What do you think our art depicts, then?

[Espithel]

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way.

What do you think our art depicts, then?

A pretty pattern.

[Calambar]

The point was Zanz was saying he can't come back from the dead... except he already has. Implying that although he has the power to change the game, he doesn't actually want to. Was also comparing Zanz with Jesus.

I get the joke, I just didn't get why Zanz is depicted as Jesus on the cross. And you still don't explain me it.

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way.

What do you think our art depicts, then?

It is too regular for me and resembles a snowflake to me.

EDIT: The truth is I cannot say what is abstract or not. If vrt or anyone who is sure he can distinguish abstract art, can confirm that arts made by Red Stars and Train are abstract, I can vote for them. Still, you won't get my vote anyway. However, it's a good art, but I just find that two are better. It's subjective.

[ddevans96]

Spoiler for Possibly off-topic, response to Krzy:

Alright, so, you see a snowflake. Let me quote you again:

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process (see action painting ). --- SOURCE

Of the four people who said what it looks like, Zaw gets 'more of a space vibe'. andre says it is 'remniscent of ice', Frozen calls it 'a pretty pattern', and then your response. Four people, four different responses. As such, I'd argue 'the subject of the work' that the four of you see is based the 'color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale' of the piece and not a single 'person, place, or thing'. Feel free to not vote for it, but I'm not sure it's not abstract.

And in case someone thinks I'm swinging votes by posting this - members of other teams have done their full votes on this thread, with clear support for their own team as well.

Regarding your edit - vrt implied that both Ragnarok and Gravy Train submitted art that isn't abstract, without mentioning the other three.

[Calambar]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Spoiler for Possibly off-topic, response to Krzy:

Alright, so, you see a snowflake. Let me quote you again:

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process (see action painting ). --- SOURCE

Of the four people who said what it looks like, Zaw gets 'more of a space vibe'. andre says it is 'remniscent of ice', Frozen calls it 'a pretty pattern', and then your response. Four people, four different responses. As such, I'd argue 'the subject of the work' that the four of you see is based the 'color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale' of the piece and not a single 'person, place, or thing'. Feel free to not vote for it, but I'm not sure it's not abstract.

And in case someone thinks I'm swinging votes by posting this - members of other teams have done their full votes on this thread, with clear support for their own team as well.

Regarding your edit - vrt implied that both Ragnarok and Gravy Train submitted art that isn't abstract, without mentioning the other three.

Hmm, if what you say about vrt is true and he can confirm your art is abstract, you will surely get my second vote ^^ ... if Red Stars' art is not abstract as well... But if your art and Red Stars' are abstract I can change my vote.

[andretimpa]

My avaliation on the styles:

MoL: textbook abstract. Look for almost any painting by Mondrian to get something similar.
Red Stars and Frostbite: still abstract. Look for Frantisek Kupka to get some examples. His "Reminiscence of a Cathedral" is an example where you have shapes suggesting an object.
Gravy: it's a parody of Delaunay's "Premier Disque", which is an icon of abstract art. The gravity mark on top of it is what vrt was complaining about, but it still gets the abstract feeling imo.
Ragnarok: it's a parody of Dali's "Persistence of Memory", a famous surrealist painting

[Espithel]

If these are all abstract, then I suppose I dislike the genre in general.

[vrt]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Spoiler for Possibly off-topic, response to Krzy:

Alright, so, you see a snowflake. Let me quote you again:

Abstract art can be a painting or sculpture (including assemblage ) that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process (see action painting ). --- SOURCE

Of the four people who said what it looks like, Zaw gets 'more of a space vibe'. andre says it is 'remniscent of ice', Frozen calls it 'a pretty pattern', and then your response. Four people, four different responses. As such, I'd argue 'the subject of the work' that the four of you see is based the 'color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale' of the piece and not a single 'person, place, or thing'. Feel free to not vote for it, but I'm not sure it's not abstract.

And in case someone thinks I'm swinging votes by posting this - members of other teams have done their full votes on this thread, with clear support for their own team as well.

Regarding your edit - vrt implied that both Ragnarok and Gravy Train submitted art that isn't abstract, without mentioning the other three.

Hmm, if what you say about vrt is true and he can confirm your art is abstract, you will surely get my second vote ^^ ... if Red Stars' art is not abstract as well... But if your art and Red Stars' are abstract I can change my vote.

They fit it well enough. Sadly, abstract art is a genre of art that's a little tricky to define, and very hard to get good at (despite the sometimes childlike look of its examples). I'd say between fitting the definition and showing an eye for design, Red Star should be a fairly easy winner. It's by no means a technical masterpiece, but I just don't believe that can be expected of this round.


I really like what Ragnarok did, and the Dali reference wasn't lost on me.. But Dali was a surrealist.

[vrt]

And since I feel like I should, I encourage everyone to look at these pieces which are more modern abstracts.

http://lucid-dion.deviantart.com/art/Moonlight-Dance-514863526

http://silesti.deviantart.com/art/the-Quiet-Place-47827532

http://ektosgfx.deviantart.com/art/Controlling-Chaos-129707531

http://escafan.deviantart.com/art/Iroise-446325225

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Rhythmatic-Structure-I-71837427