Curse

KiyaKoreena · Nov 05, 2008, 02:31 AM // 02:31

I pondered putting some of the shots on the side but didnt want it to look cluttered (stupid in retrospect I guess) or take away from 'the whole picture'. The picture I sent was 1200x800, so it could be viewed easily on most screens and shows a lot of detail. I really figured that the web addy on the picture was noticeable and that it would be taken as being an extension of the entry (especially since I did that last year too). (Dumb Kiya, dont guess that people do what you think is obvious. hehe) Im really pleased that so many people have enjoyed it and thought it was so good. My family and friends all told me it was great, but hearing members of the GW community say that makes me feel even better. Im not really sad that I didnt win one of the prizes, I had made it in the hopes of winning a rare minipet (hey, the last bunch of contests all had minis, who would have thought they wouldnt do it for this one?) or new skill pins (these were the same as the ones I already won, so that doesnt make me sad) but still wonder why I didnt even make honorable. Ah well. Its funny in a way; last year I won top prize and got some right nasty comments, this year I dont even place and I get some of the nicest comments I could ever hope for. :-)

xDusT II · Nov 05, 2008, 02:38 AM // 02:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Syve

I can imagine an excuse: the DA artist and the person in the contest are one and the same. Not saying it's true, just a possibility. If they are the same person, no shame in recycling your own art.

It's possible but highly unlikely. If he was that good of an artist, he wouldn't have done such a botch job on adding the stock Razah image, or the atrociously bad sign on the tree. You can easily notice the things he's added as they don't blend with the original at all and are mainly comprised of badly photoshopped items.

Regina Buenaobra · Nov 05, 2008, 02:45 AM // 02:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

congratulations to all!

Oh KiyaKoreena! You did a wonderful job

its marvelous. Filled with Holloween spirit!

hehe as usual i have questions, un-answerable ones

how is this cosplay better than this cosplay or this or this or this or this ? beside the winning entry being "known" around the Arena Net office since around march (i think)?

I'm just saying you know, the "1 Note: All judging was done on a "blind judging" basis, where those involved did not know anything about the contestant, including name, location, gender, or age." does not apply here as the winner have been know for sometime, weather you know her personally or not, this does not apply as the location and gender of the entrant is right here for everyone to see.

Not really. It wasn't only members of the Community Team who acted as judges. All the finalists were put to a vote by the entire company. Not all developers read forums, much less anime-related forums.

As you all know, art can be pretty subjective. Some of the art that ranked highly in the final results isn't art that particularly appealed to me, but again, I wasn't the only one judging.

Lady Syve · Nov 05, 2008, 02:46 AM // 02:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by xDusT II

It's possible but highly unlikely. If he was that good of an artist, he wouldn't have done such a botch job on adding the stock Razah image, or the atrociously bad sign on the tree. You can easily notice the things he's added as they don't blend with the original at all and are mainly comprised of badly photoshopped items.

Yeah, you're right. I didn't really think it was true either, but I like to play devil's advocate sometimes. :P

Besides, the image on GW is rather small so I didn't really notice all the small details you mentioned.

HawkofStorms · Nov 05, 2008, 02:48 AM // 02:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

congratulations to all!

Oh KiyaKoreena! You did a wonderful job

its marvelous. Filled with Holloween spirit!

hehe as usual i have questions, un-answerable ones

how is this cosplay better than this cosplay or this or this or this or this ? beside the winning entry being "known" around the Arena Net office since around march (i think)?

I'm just saying you know, the "1 Note: All judging was done on a "blind judging" basis, where those involved did not know anything about the contestant, including name, location, gender, or age." does not apply here as the winner have been know for sometime, weather you know her personally or not, this does not apply as the location and gender of the entrant is right here for everyone to see.

Yeah, the lawyer in me is looking at this suspiciously.

And very nice Kiya.

KiyaKoreena · Nov 05, 2008, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

Not really. It wasn't only members of the Community Team who acted as judges. All the finalists were put to a vote by the entire company. Not all developers read forums, much less anime-related forums.

As you all know, art can be pretty subjective. Some of the art that ranked highly in the final results isn't art that particularly appealed to me, but again, I wasn't the only one judging.

Regina, I think its rankling some people because even YOU posted the Gwen picture on a forum saying that it was circulating around the office. So that kind of says to people that the entry was known to people at the company before the contest even rolled around.

I am in no way saying it shouldnt have won, I think its a great cosplay. (Personally, I think it should have at least had some sort of Halloween-y border for entering a Halloween contest, but that is just my opinion.) But that it was seen 3 months prior could give judges a little more lean towards it and make a bit of an advantage over one they had just seen that day.

Regina Buenaobra · Nov 05, 2008, 03:09 AM // 03:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by KiyaKoreena

Regina, I think its rankling some people because even YOU posted the Gwen picture on a forum saying that it was circulating around the office. So that kind of says to people that the entry was known to people at the company before the contest even rolled around.

Her entry was put to a vote like the others. I made one pass on the hundreds of entries we received, just so the numbers were more manageable for the other members of the Community Team to go through. Because the other members of the GW Community Team in Europe (who, by the way were not included in the recipients of the links that had been circulating in the office, and the recipient list was actually quite limited -- no more than a handful) had never been involved in the judging process in previous years' art contests, I decided to let them have more say on which entries became finalists and which did not. I gave my opinions, but I usually deferred to their judgment, because again the European team had been excluded from judging in these contests in previous years. They decided to let this particular entry, and the rest of the others, through for the rest of the company to see.

prism2525 · Nov 05, 2008, 10:11 AM // 10:11

RUUUUUUUNNNN Guild Wars characters are escaping the servers and roam among us. Get the hell outta here before some wacko lich or shiro come out!!!

Seriously though, with all the talented fans around, I think many wouldn't mind volunteering for a gw movie. We already have Gwen

.

Arduin · Nov 05, 2008, 10:29 AM // 10:29

I really like the Rollerbeetle from Aalena Elluminai - USA

Congrats to all the winners.

upier · Nov 05, 2008, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Nice work guys!

kratimas · Nov 05, 2008, 11:43 AM // 11:43

Nice job to all and grats to all the winners.

BenjZee · Nov 05, 2008, 01:00 PM // 13:00

Anyone else wander how that rip off actualyl got in, yes the art on the scarecrows etc is really good but sticking a picture of razah on it doesn't make it better. The simple sign saying razah's home is what made me lol at how bad attempt it really was.

i am quite imprsesed by the rest. The costumes are brilliant although i think the winning combo is costumes on kids lol

Ive only jsut noticed that the rollerbeetle is a pumpkin and its glowing. i only slightly glanced at it earlier. NICEEEEEE

stretchs · Nov 05, 2008, 02:17 PM // 14:17

heh the Gwen costume that won looked nice and I am sure in a group of male programmers, that her looking like one of the icons of the game didnt hurt. My guess is, most wouldnt kick her out of bed for eating crackers.....

ZenRgy · Nov 05, 2008, 02:23 PM // 14:23

Bear pumpkin should've won.

BenjZee · Nov 05, 2008, 03:56 PM // 15:56

Anyone make any lego scenes or pixelated pictures, i would love to see. (if not there goes my original idea)

Nian · Nov 05, 2008, 06:34 PM // 18:34

Congratulations to the winner! The entries just seem to get better every year. I'm impressed with all of the entries. With the costumes I was especially impressed by people's choises in materials, if something is made of leather it should look like it! *Very nice. I totally love the little young Gwenling. It's so cute and it made me burst out laughing.

) I'm also pretty sure the GW staff love their character Gwen and to see someone pull it off so nicely must have made someone's day.

Not everyone can win but that doesn't mean the entries weren't great. I just wish they would show us more entries even if they didn't all win.

Anyway it's just a simple fun contest and it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Big congrats to all who won!

P.S. I think the pumpkin carving tradition is very big in the US but not so much in other countries. They are all very impressive and it would be cool to see it done in my country too but technically we don't even have a "Halloween". It is just a day to remember the dead. Halloween parties are only held because of US inspiration though.

Regina Buenaobra · Nov 05, 2008, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

I would tend to agree with you, however there may be other circumstances that I am not aware of, so I have given them once chance to explain what is going on. If we are not satisfied with it, an alternate winner will be chosen.

Update to this post.

I am now in contact with this person. Again, if they do not provide a sufficiently good explanation for this, their entry will be disqualified. I will update again when I have finished discussing this issue.

I'm quite irritated about this issue. Thank you to those who let me know about the potential problem with this piece of art.

TakagiNaoSama · Nov 05, 2008, 08:07 PM // 20:07

I was checking the site every hour this whole past week to see if they announced the winners. I literally *squee!'d* when I saw the results *^^* All the winners are very impressive though! I of course LOVE the little Gwen, and I'm happy to see a good male Ranger cosplay

My favorite art is the Pumpkin Serum ad! And I love the Roller Beetle pumpkin! I've already commented on Koreena's entry, but I'm even more impressed to see it's actually a sculpture! Incredible!

But thank you SO much to everyone who commented on my Gwen costume! I worked very very hard on it to get every single detail correct. It took over 60 solid hours to make spread over a year. I actually wanted to submit it into last year's Halloween contest but it wasn't finished yet. A lot of effort and love went into her, and I'm overjoyed that she's gotten so much attention online (especially since no one recognized her at the convention I debut her at ;_; )

I'm not going to get into any debates, but as far as my costume being debut before the contest, doesn't that just prove that I made it for the love of Guild Wars and not solely to win some prizes in a contest? That makes winning all the more fantastic and like a dream-come-true for me that the people who made my favorite game actually recognized my love and appreciation for their hard work the past four years ^_^ I'm huge into cosplay and it makes me sad that some of the awesome costumes that have been submitted never see the light of day outside the contest website.

Amazingly huge thank-yous to Regina and all the rest of the ArenaNet staff who have worked so hard to bring us this amazing game, and care enough about their fans to recognize them as well!!

kokuou · Nov 05, 2008, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakagiNaoSama

I'm not going to get into any debates, but as far as my costume being debut before the contest, doesn't that just prove that I made it for the love of Guild Wars and not solely to win some prizes in a contest?

It does, but this was a contest specifically for Halloween.

Not that I don't think your costume isn't good--it is--it's just that if you solely made it for the love of Guild Wars, the recognition you (already) got should have been enough. It proves your love of the game, but the fact is that this was a Halloween-themed contest, and you didn't make it solely as a Halloween costume nor is there anything Halloweeny about it.

Personally, I think the Mad King scene made by one of the other posters in this thread should have won. She clearly put effort into making something that was both Guild Wars and Halloween themed. And if your real intention was to submit this for the Halloween contest last year (or even this year), wouldn't you have said that beforehand or waited until Halloween to submit it? You can say that your intentions were to submit it last year now, but it's kind of hard to believe after the fact. To me, it's clear that you made this as a cosplay outfit, and nothing more.

Meh, that's just my opinion though. I'm not a judge, after all.

Nian · Nov 06, 2008, 12:00 AM // 00:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by kokuou

It does, but this was a contest specifically for Halloween.

Not that I don't think your costume isn't good--it is--it's just that if you solely made it for the love of Guild Wars, the recognition you (already) got should have been enough. It proves your love of the game, but the fact is that this was a Halloween-themed contest, and you didn't make it solely as a Halloween costume nor is there anything Halloweeny about it.

Personally, I think the Mad King scene made by one of the other posters in this thread should have won. She clearly put effort into making something that was both Guild Wars and Halloween themed. And if your real intention was to submit this for the Halloween contest last year (or even this year), wouldn't you have said that beforehand or waited until Halloween to submit it? You can say that your intentions were to submit it last year now, but it's kind of hard to believe after the fact. To me, it's clear that you made this as a cosplay outfit, and nothing more.

Meh, that's just my opinion though. I'm not a judge, after all.

/facepalm

Dressing up in costumes is perfectly Halloweeney and dressing up as GW character makes it also GW themed. It doesn't say "Mad King Thorn & pumpkin entries only". I don't see why you need to question somebody's motivations for joining a contest and their love for a game... who are you to say such things really. I don't see why the hell not enter a costume someone worked so hard on into a contest. She mentioned having inteded to submit it in last years contest too but instead took her a year more before she could. Now that's dedication. Just stop with the bitter griping. This forum is full of it already.

Just a pointer that even if people start making these things a long time before the contests happen doesn't mean they cannot submit them when the time comes. And when you make an entry you have to also think how you are going to present them and when you put images together that creates a 'new' artwork so to speak.

About the Mad King scene. It may have been that the picture itself doesn't clearly give away that it is infact a very detailed miniature construction. I thought it was 3D modeling until I saw the website and it was delightful to watch photos of all the little details. I liked this artwork a lot.

But in the end you can only enter one picture in to the contest.