View Full Version : Discussions: Procedures and rules for the Screenshot Contest
Dear Community and particularly, dear screenshot experts!
The ANNO Screenshot Contest starts here. :hello:
Remember: no rules, no competition!
The Screenshot Contest was a real institution on the 1503 board so, with the moderators’ permission, I have provided a link for you here to all the rules that were set up jointly by the 1503 community:
Link to the 1503 board (Screenshot Contest) (http://www.anno1503.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=18997)
The process of making the rules was one which all the interested community members took an active part in, and I personally think it would be great if we could do exactly the same for the Screenshot Contest.
There are, of course, a few points that are worth discussing, i.e. the size of the screens, the maximum amount of information, the exact procedures to follow, etc.
My questions to you:
Which games shall participate – all or just "1701"?
What do you think of the rules for the 1503 Screenshot Contest?
Would you like to adopt them?
Or: what aspects of these rules would you like have an input on how to adapt them?
We have had a few thoughts ourselves and would suggest the following ideas and voting phases for the competition:
The monthly Screenshot Contest will always have a specific theme. We will set the first theme to start with, but you can decide and vote on all future themes. The order could be determined using a ranking tool.
The themes themselves could also have a difficulty level rating, i.e. "hard" or "easy".
A jury of five members, who still have to be nominated, will be appointed from the pool of entries submitted by the participants of each particular competition. The jury should be permanent. An extra thread (http://forum.sunflowers.de/showthread.php?t=16124) will be provided for applications, pre-selection and election of the jury.
Entry submission phase
You can log in using your Sunflowers forum account.
Anyone can take part by uploading an image with a title (as a theme will be provided each time, this may only be 1 image max. per user).
The entry submission phase will last around two weeks.
Selection phase
The jury will hold an internal vote to select the images submitted to the Screenshot Contest.
The exact number of images still has to be decided.
After the jury selection phase, we will go direct to the open ballot phase.
Ballot phase
Every member of the forum can vote.
Visitors can also vote, but will be asked to log in or register after voting.
Members can only vote for one image. Any other suggestions?
The ballot will remain open for roughly a week.
Winner
The winner could receive a special avatar for a month (a sort of "challenge cup").
The winner could be appointed to the jury for a month to select the next batch of screenshots.
Rules
The 1503 rules (see above) could be simplified and adapted.
I will volunteer to organize all your rules and suggestions in list that will be constantly updated.
So…
Looking forward to your feedback!
Yours,
Betty
:angel:
ok, I'll go first...
q1)Which games shall participate – all or just "1701"?
This is probably the most difficult question.
While from a community point of view all games should participate, I frankly see forthcoming problems with judging, theme selection, and fairness (eg 1503 had its own SSC for quite some time and 1701 is a new game) if all were in the same 'run'.
Who's to judge such different pics (yes, I peeked at some of them...)?
q2)What do you think of the rules for the 1503 Screenshot Contest?
Being a beginner myself, I don't have a problem with them - they seem easy enough to understand...
q3)Would you like to adopt them?
Don't see why not... if they turn out to be 'insufficient' they can always be changed or adapted...
The only thing that is not clear to me is what difference the difficulty level of gameplay has to do with the screenshot taking ???
I also would like to see some way implemented that all submitted entries be made available for viewing (photoalbum, after the contest has ended if need to be)- it helps to see what qualifies/discards entries under given topics...
Well there, my 2c worth...:cheers:
oops, forgot,
Winner
The winner could receive a special avatar for a month (a sort of "challenge cup").
The winner could be appointed to the jury for a month to select the next batch of screenshots.
After the month has past, there should be a little reeve or such to be able to use in either her/his sig or next to the avatar (if possible with date eg reeve,SSCxxx) where it now says xxxgamer.
:hello: I SSC you SSC ... we all SSC - kombrende? :hello:
:hello: I SSC you SSC ... we all SSC - kombrende? :hello:
:rofl: ... no comment ... :rofl:
Translation from the German Forum:
At first a little note: There are two threads discussing the procedures, one is several weeks old because there has already been a discussion about a SSC in the German forum a while ago. I will merge those two threads together here, one contains a lot of spam anyways; and my campaign to have 1503 in the contest as well. But shhhhh…
1. Which games shall participate – all or just "1701"?
- It would be nice to allow submissions from all versions. Should people be allowed to submit one picture per version or just one picture overall?
- The Webmaster has pointed out, that only submissions from 1701 will be allowed. This is still being discussed.
2. What do you think of the rules for the 1503 Screenshot Contest?
- Most people seem to like the rules.
3. Would you like to adopt them? What aspects of these rules would you like have an input on how to adapt them?
- The size of the pictures should be changed to being anything inbetween 800x600 px and 1280x1024 px.
- Should people be allowed to submit only one picture or a maximum of 4 pictures with the jury choosing one? (The trend is going towards allowing only one picture.)
- Should every person submitting a picture take part in the contest (with the jury choosing between multiple submissions from one person) or should the jury choose a certain number of pictures before the voting begins, e.g.:
12 pictures for 1701
4 to 8 pictures for 1503
4 pictures for 1602
(In the German forum almost everbody seems to support the version with the jury choosing a certain number of pictures.)
Note to self: translated until post #27 / #336
There was vote fraud in 1503 SSC.:angry:
What exactly do you mean?
There was vote fraud in 1503 SSC.:angry:
Yes there was!
Maybe we have the tools available to prevent that now, at least to a certain extent.
What exactly do you mean?
People logging on with multiple accounts to vote for their own screenshot or people sharing with their friends which was theirs and getting them to vote for it.
Dobber (and everybody else) one thing I'd like to know about the translations: Is this okay for you or do you want more information (e.g. who said what, including quotes etc.). Right now I'm "just" summing up the general discussion.
If you don't understand something please ask, maybe I get chose the wrong word sometimes.
Also I'm translating the things said here for the German boards, so if you'd like to reply to anything directly on the German board just post it here, maybe with something like "reply to..." in the beginning. You are also welcome to send me replies via PM, although I think it would discourage discussions in the original boards.
LotharK answered to the following thing on the German board:
I also would like to see some way implemented that all submitted entries be made available for viewing (photoalbum, after the contest has ended if need to be)- it helps to see what qualifies/discards entries under given topics...
Das wäre ganz schlecht für denjenigen, der den Screen eingeschickt hat, der aber nicht veröffentlicht wurde, da der dann nicht mehr an einer anderen Abstimmung teilnehmen kann.
Vor allen Dingen würde das zu Diskussionen führen, warum der ja und der aber nicht, da der ja besser als der Veröffentlichte ist, usw.
Transl: This would be bad for people having submitted a screen but not entering in the contest, because the screenshot cannot be resubmitted in another contest.
Apart from that discussions would arise from people who have submitted screens but have not gotten into the contest, because the screen is better than another and so on.
Originally Posted by C-F
I also would like to see some way implemented that all submitted entries be made available for viewing (photoalbum, after the contest has ended if need to be)- it helps to see what qualifies/discards entries under given topics...
Correction:
I missed the following part in the opening post:
(as a theme will be provided each time, this may only be 1 image max. per user).
which in turn leaves my suggested 'Album' empty as was kindly explained to me in the German forum as the pics that are not picked to participate in the 'finals' are eligable to be resubmitted in a future contest.
A little update from the German forum:
Mainly, there are two discussions going on right now, one being that it is questionable (or not) if enough people will submit pictures in the 1701-Contest. There is also a poll about this topic but we still don't know if it has to be revised or not, as soon as this is clear I'll point you in the right direction to vote.
In case you want to vote now:
This (http://forum.sunflowers.de/showthread.php?t=16173) is the link to the poll. The question is, if you will participate in the 1701 SSC.
Answer 1: Yes
Answer 2: Yes, but not on a regular (monthly) basis
Answer 3: No, I don't care
Maybe there will be another poll including 1503 and 1602, this is probably based on an answer expected from Sunflowers.
-----
Which leads me right to the second discussion in the German forum. Since I am very involved I this, I'll write down my thoughts instead of an actual, impersonal translation.
There are several players, who would like to submit pictures from older versions (1503, maybe even 1602). All of these players do not have 1701 but would still like a regular SSC since the one on the 1503 boards was closed. There have been hopes that 1503 and maybe 1602 will be able to play a small role, with 1701 remaining the major focus. Maybe people would also be able to submit screens from different game-versions to the same topic, with a separate voting for each version. So 1503 and 1602 would not "steal" any potential votes from 1701, they would also not have to compete against more advanced graphics.
However, the Webmaster has stated that the monthly SSC will be 1701 only. This has caused some uproar since the 1503-players have discussed about this topic for over 4 weeks now and feel as if their opinions weigh nothing.
My more personal opinion about this:
I don't have 1701. I wish I had, but it's not an option for probably another 6 months. However, I love to take screen shots and since the old SSC has been closed, I would love to be able to participate in the new contest. I know it's in the 1701-board. I also know and support that the focus should be on 1701. All I'm asking for is giving 1503 (and maybe 1602) a chance. I support the idea that 1701 would have 12 picture slots and 1503/1602 would have 4 picture slots each. Every member would have 3 votes for the best monthly screen, one per version. And every member could participate with screens from different versions. I'm sure some people who play 1701 will occasionally play 1503, or even have some cool screens collecting virtual dust somewhere. Maybe some even dig up 1602 sometimes.
I think it would be great to have a contest open to all versions, because:
- It would be interesting to see, how a certain topic is portrayed in the different versions. What tools are unique to every version to make a certain screen possible... ? This would also encourage a discussion about the pictures.
- Having 3 versions participate would spread the discussion on 3 boards. This would be a great advertisement for the contest itself, hopefully resulting in more participants.
- From a marketing point of view this would probably also get people to buy 1701. After all you'd have the exact comparison between the graphics right there.
But this is just my personal opinion.
--
I don't really want to take the discussion to this forum. This is a delicate matter since I am probably the one who is most strongly advocating a 1503 participation and I don't want people to think I am fishing for supporters here. I just want you to know what's going on in the German forum and why there are so many posts with so few translations here.
translated til post #69 / #354
Well, some questions and my opinion on other version participation. Why was the SSC at the 1503 forum closed? Lack of participation? I believe they were begging for shots and even allowing multiple entries from people in the poll. Always you could submit up to four, but only one per person was placed in the poll, but in the last few month's didn't they allow more than one per person to be placed because of so few people submitting?
I think that allowing Paraworld, Knights of Honor and Technomage players to participate in the SSC here would be more realistic than 1503. They are all three games that find their forum home here. 1602's forum home is here, as well. But 1503 has it's own separate board, they should restart the SSC there for 1503. Keeping the SSC Anno only is in my opinion the way to go, and I can understand it being 1701 and 1602 both, because of their home being here. Perhaps it is time to close the 1503 board and give 1503 a new home here as they did with 1602 two years ago! Then you would have an argument to include all three Anno's in one SSC. I am not anti-1503 BTW, I have 1503 w/expansion.
Another thing to consider is you are narrowing the possible candidates for the jury by including all three Anno's, because the jury would have to have knowledge of all three. Not many people have a relative knowledge of all three, there are a few of us but not many.
That's why there should be no more than 4 slots for 1503. The original contest had 12 slots, which was way too many, especially since a lot of players have moved on to 1701.
If you have only four slots, how many positions get recognition?
Only the first, nothing else makes sense. It's really just about letting 1503 and maybe 1602 participate. For me personally, it's just a fun thing to show my screens, I don't care if I'm first or last, the only challenge is to get past the jury. But I know I'm probably the only thinking so, I'll take this to the German forum to see what the other 1503 players think.
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