PokeMMO Event Discussion: The Forums Signature Contest

[DopestDope]

What if I change my sig and then submit the one I'm using currently?

[Emlee]

What if I change my sig and then submit the one I'm using currently?

 

The point of the contest is to make a Signature, not submit one you have made previously. 

[DopestDope]

The point of the contest is to make a Signature, not submit one you have made previously. 

 

But I'm lazy :L

[Emlee]

But I'm lazy :L

 

Hahaha. Well you have lots of time to work on it.

[JWingWangWong]

It does look like what I wrote are my personal standards to some people. However, they are not. If you find a forum community with graphic artists, these are some of the things they will tell you and each other.

For example, I mentioned the rule of thirds. It's not something I made up for me personally to come and be rude to you all. Check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

It's one of the checks that some artitsts use as they do their work. It's like a guideline – one of many. What you say is true rigamorty. It's true that the topic at hand is opinion to some degree. Art is always opinion to some extent. However, most people would not be happy with "a pile of dirt" as a signature. That's why there are general guides, like the one above, that many artists use as generally accepted "standards" to make their sigs of quality to others.

The rule of thirds is a standard of photography. I learnt this in grade 10 and to be honest it helps, but it doesn't make up the entire photo. The problem about a photo is it just needs to capture someone's interest and if it doesn't it's useless. Art is always opinionated and will always be, however all art is perfect. Art will only last as long as humanity will let it and by time, time alone will show the life of a piece of art.

 

Now, what do you see in something like this?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

You may just see a thumbnail, something out of no value, but to the user of this channel, it's $1000 of cpm, 5000 additional subscribers and advertisement that helped people get their attention. To me, it's an accomplishment as I made it for him. 

 

So how does this relate to the contest? Just because you may not like it does not mean it's right and the value of it will alter between person. Even if a signature that got scored perfectly based on your criteria may not please anyone. In short, it's just a contest the staff put for us and it will be judged how they will judge it.

[Ninjaspartan88]

It does look like what I wrote are my personal standards to some people. However, they are not. If you find a forum community with graphic artists, these are some of the things they will tell you and each other.

For example, I mentioned the rule of thirds. It's not something I made up for me personally to come and be rude to you all. Check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

It's one of the checks that some artitsts use as they do their work. It's like a guideline – one of many. What you say is true rigamorty. It's true that the topic at hand is opinion to some degree. Art is always opinion to some extent. However, most people would not be happy with "a pile of dirt" as a signature. That's why there are general guides, like the one above, that many artists use as generally accepted "standards" to make their sigs of quality to others.

 

I'm not that good anymore at sigs. I have many years experience and used to spend a great deal of time in signature communities, but I'm extremely rusty right now. I haven't made a sig in forever. When I intially read this thread I thought I might try to make something for another person, but I got discouraged. The reason is because i'm assuming that a sig will not be judged by if it's made correctly or not based on typical guidelines. As you can see, my post with criticism has been interpreted as hostility. To me, this is another sign and proof that I was right in my assumptions.

 

The reason is this. To be honest with you, I used to try to get criticism from everyone I could before I entered a siggy contest on sites in the past. So did everyone else. I would finish the sig and put it up and hoped other people would even care to tell me what was wrong with it. Some people just told me I sucked, others told me what to specifically work on. If you got lucky enough to receive commentary from a legendary sig maker, that stuff was considered gold by others. The more I could fix before the end of the contest, the more likely I would be to win. It's that simple. Someone telling you what you are doing wrong or giving you their opinion is the first step toward improving. I think that some of you people around me here just don't understand because you haven't had those experiences. This is why it was discouraging for me to read parts of this thread. I'm not trying to be rude or hostile. I'm just giving my honest opinion. Really, the initial post I made in this thread was hidden gold. It was frank, but it had a lot of value. It gave judges some ideas on things they could judge by if they didn't have any ideas before. It also gives artists ideas on what they could possibly read about to improve on if they are interested in improving. I had to do a lot of reading and learning and spent a lot of time figuring out general guidelines that artists tend to go by. I threw out a chunk of stuff there to think about for anyone interested in learning or reviewing. I'm not perfect either, I will always have a great deal to learn. However, I try my best to accept criticism from my peers as something to make me a better person. If you say my sigs are bad, I will try to improve on them. Good luck to you all. May the criticism you receive help you create beautiful art.   

 

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura it's the grand wall of text.

 

[spoiler]Get it?[/spoiler]

[Nodak]

I felt like I had to some how defend the sigs I've made out of egg waiting with some more fancy ones.

With what I have to work with and no experience in any art stuff besides like a high school drawing class just to get an easy credit for I think they're decent, but what do I know?

Liking my sigs makes you all ignorant apparently.

Oh and I made an example using your name Emlee.

 

I need feedback from you almighty pro sig makers so I can better myself for this contest.

 

Feedback contest wise so I can post this all here,

GREAT IDEA LLOLLLL, CANT WAITTTT, SO EXCITED, U THE BOMB EMLEE WITH THESE FANTASTC IDEAS<3, GOOD LUCK ERRBODY.

 

Alright so,

 

 

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

 

Not Pokemon but skill wise is it at least appealing in any way? 

 

Also say I do win...Instead of me taking the prize, can I ask for a friend to receive it instead 'cause that hat won't be flattering on my dude.

[JWingWangWong]

I felt like I had to some how defend the sigs I've made out of egg waiting with some more fancy ones.

With what I have to work with and no experience in any art stuff besides like a high school drawing class just to get an easy credit for I think they're decent, but what do I know?

Liking my sigs makes you all ignorant apparently.

Oh and I made an example using your name Emlee.

 

I need feedback from you almighty pro sig makers so I can better myself for this contest.

 

Feedback contest wise so I can post this all here,

GREAT IDEA LLOLLLL, CANT WAITTTT, SO EXCITED, U THE BOMB EMLEE WITH THESE FANTASTC IDEAS<3, GOOD LUCK ERRBODY.

 

Alright so,

 

 

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

 

Not Pokemon but skill wise is it at least appealing in any way? 

 

Also say I do win...Instead of me taking the prize, can I ask for a friend to receive it instead 'cause that hat won't be flattering on my dude.

The problem with the first two is the fact they are hard to read the names of the person. The fact that they blend with the background almost makes it hard to know who the sig is for. Contrasting the name from the background would be awesome. Also placing your Eevee or main character in the middle places you at a disadvantage. If you place the eevee on the right, you could have much more room to work with! Here's an example:

Edit: it's not the greatest signature, but I did this in 5 minutes to demonstrate the potential of how much content you could add.

[justicewhale]

This has kinda turned into a "hate on other people's sig making skills" thread.

 

Edit: This has now become a "talk about and recreate Emlees sig". I think you should change the event to that :P

 

 

I haven't seen anyone on these forums make a signature that was of outstanding quality. There's so many things to consider

-flow throughout piece

-effects

-text

-rule of thirds

-placement

-lighting

-perspective

etc

 

some example of quality sig

 

 

 

 

to think that something like chestbrah sig is something to be admired is a sign of ignorance. that is my opinion. couldnt be bothered to spend hours making something really nice for ignorant judges and a tiny prize.

 

Those are amazing sigs in terms of quality, artwork and effort put into making them.

In my opinion though I would rather use those as wallpapers as they seem wasted as sigs. Sigs generally need to be eye catching and give a quick easy interpretation of the person.

 

Example: The sig that Em uses shows her crazed obsession with Eevees, her IGN, the fact that she is part of the staff and that deejaye made awesome sigs.

Example: DopestDope.... well I don't think I have to go on about his sig....

 

The only thing I get from those sigs you posted is that the person likes Ghost Rider, Wolverine and a that wizard guy and most of the text I cant read.

 

These might be good on other forums but on these forums that style doesn't fit. It's my opinion though so don't look too much into it. Though I would like to know if you have these in wallpaper size :P

[Kelarr]

However, most people would not be happy with "a pile of dirt" as a signature.

What exactly are you implying?

[Croix]

What exactly are you implying?

He means most people are too dumb to realize the significance of the metaphorical meaning of the dirt. Of how a beautiful flower could sprout to show the progression of life in the world or how the person who may use it represents a newborn babe still growing and maturing. It could even symbolize the many possibilities in the future of what the dirt could be.

[Sakura]

He means most people are too dumb to realize the significance of the metaphorical meaning of the dirt. Of how a beautiful flower could sprout to show the progression of life in the world or how the person who may use it represents a newborn babe still growing and maturing. It could even symbolize the many possibilities in the future of what the dirt could be.

You remind me of my english teacher >_<

[Smoki]

Opinions so far? Worked on it for ~3 hours. Still not finished though. Hate 500x200 but I assume that is whats going to win.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

[Emlee]

 

Also say I do win...Instead of me taking the prize, can I ask for a friend to receive it instead 'cause that hat won't be flattering on my dude.

 

For this specific event the prize will be awarded to whatever IGN you put in the thread.

[JWingWangWong]

Opinions so far? Worked on it for ~3 hours. Still not finished though. Hate 500x200 but I assume that is whats going to win.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

It looks nice. Are you going to add a name to the signature? If so, you may want to move Jirachi to the right so you can have more space to work with. With the current state it's in now placing a name in the signature will be fairly small and if it's larger it will overlap the subject, which is in this case Jirachi. 

[AstroSpud]

Messing with some curved edges.

[Deejaye]

hype

[Munya]

hype

 

You can finally make me a sig and you can enter using it! 

[skazord]

I have to agree. Like we've seen in the past, having judges that don't understand basic concepts about art and never had anything to do with it make this kind of events pointless.

 

And also, the abudant amount of events lately that have nothing to do with ingame is just abysmal, and shows how uninteresting this game is right now, that even the staff has to make events that don't make the player go online. It's unbelievable for an MMO game.

 

Anyway, good luck to everyone interested in this, I guess

[Emlee]

I have to agree. Like we've seen in the past, having judges that don't understand basic concepts about art and never had anything to do with it make this kind of events pointless.

 

And also, the abudant amount of events lately that have nothing to do with ingame is just abysmal, and shows how uninteresting this game is right now, that even the staff has to make events that don't make the player go online. It's unbelievable for an MMO game.

 

Anyway, good luck to everyone interested in this, I guess

 

 

I believe the lack of communication between the judges choices/reasoning behind them and the community has been the issue, and has made it seem as though winners are chosen at random. This should be altered in the future so that the community has a better understanding of why certain people won, and conversely some insight into why certain people's entries did not win. :)

 

We have contests that do not relate to the game so that players who have interest other than Tournaments/catching contests can enter into events. We attempt to cater to all our players with our events and these events are a result of that. Also I enjoy seeing the creative abilities of the community so I choose to host these types of Forum events. 

 

Hope that clears it up a bit for you, Skazord!

[ThinkNice]

Emlee, this is a suggestion. Wouldn't it be better if we saw the reasoning of the judges when the winners are announced? For example:

'We viewed and judged a lot of beautiful signatures but out of all the submissions 'this one', 'this one' and lastly 'this one' really stood out.

Piece A:
Tranzmaster: 'I really like how the designer used a Steelix NEED I SAY MORE?'
Archinix: 'What am I doing here again?'
Emlee: 'Lack of Eevee AND Absol, that is kind of dissapointing."



Atleast it would be something I'd like to see.

[Emlee]

Emlee, this is a suggestion. Wouldn't it be better if we saw the reasoning of the judges when the winners are announced? For example:

'We viewed and judged a lot of beautiful signatures but out of all the submissions 'this one', 'this one' and lastly 'this one' really stood out.

Piece A:
Tranzmaster: 'I really like how the designer used a Steelix NEED I SAY MORE?'
Archinix: 'What am I doing here again?'
Emlee: 'Lack of Eevee AND Absol, that is kind of dissapointing."



Atleast it would be something I'd like to see.

 

That's the exact change myself and a few others are intending to make! I will also be making more of an effort to state what we are looking for in the contest OPs. I will be leaving the Signature contest a bit wide open because I do not want to limit people at all, but for example the Shadow Art contest requests that submission adhere to the theme, and heed the example. So in other words there could be an amazing submission that everyone can agree was produced from a great amount of effort and artistic ability but if it doesn't adhere to the theme the judges won't be placing it first, or at all. 

[skazord]

We have contests that do not relate to the game so that players who have interest other than Tournaments/catching contests can enter into events. We attempt to cater to all our players with our events and these events are a result of that. Also I enjoy seeing the creative abilities of the community so I choose to host these types of Forum events. 

 

 

Basically, 5/11 active events are writing/art and completely unrelated to ingame, in an MMO. We're talking about half the events going on, and of those 11, 5 don't involve ingame content AT ALL. In fact, besides the Egg one, they're all completely unrelated to the game at this point. And like I said before, the judges are extremely suspicious in this, since their picks aren't explained and none of them, apparently, has any formation in arts whatsoever.

 

Then, another huge chunk of them (another 5, that is) are tournaments which are all part of one big competition, in which there will be only a single first prize to the guy that wins it all. No intermediate prizes or anything. The competitive scene isn't amused, and actually, most competitive players aren't even registering for this, look at the brackets, it's mostly shiny traders and hunters. Not to mention that this time, somehow, the staff managed to make the registration for this even worse than all of the previous methods. As if the current method wasn't bad enough, you decided to make it even more random and keep players guessing if they will be playing or not. For competitions with different tiers, where players might need new pokemons or their teams needing tuning, and you let players thinking "should I go make a team and risk not having to use it, or should I wait and risk not having enough time to make a team".

How are you catering to your competitive playerbase with these competitions? How about you bring back regular competitions for the regular brackets that we used to have, and with actual decent prizes for once? Maybe that would bring back some players to the game, you know.

 

And at last, we have a hunting event following the bad model from before, which includes rare to find pokemon (1% Lapras) with certain natures, for hours and hours of endless searching to win a fantastic common shiny Tentacool. I might aswell just go hunt for a lucky egg in the same time or even train a competitive pokemon and then trade for a shiny tentacool.

 

The events are following bad models that only tend to get worse, instead of making the players want to get ingame and play, you drive them as far as you can, with boring and outdated competitions. You're not catering to anyone, you're making older players leave, just like the current ones will leave in the future. You should keep a growing number of players interested in these events, and right now, the number is steady or even dropping. And if you want an explanation for this, just read above.

[Munya]

There is an event suggestion and feedback thread if you have any ideas to fix tournaments getting old because there is only so much you can do on here I am sure they would love to hear your new  fresh ideas that have never been done before.

[skazord]

There is an event suggestion and feedback thread if you have any ideas to fix tournaments getting old because there is only so much you can do on here I am sure they would love to hear your new  fresh ideas that have never been done before.

 

See what says below my name? What's that? "Member", you say?

 

[spoiler]And also, there's 12 pages of suggestions there - and I didn't see anything new for a while now. Are you telling me that in 12 pages nothing was good?[/spoiler]