Curse

A11Eur0 · Dec 22, 2007, 06:47 PM // 18:47

You people are not understanding the point I'm making, that salaried employees are already there doing their job regardless of who is giving them the concept art. This equates to a gain in corporate assets by receiving free work from fans while the paid employees are freed up to do work on other things, such as GW2.

Regardless of the level of difficulty in the concept art, it's still a gain. If you look up general pricing guidelines of this artwork, you'll find a single 2d image value at a couple thousand dollars from a "nonprofessional" artist. In fact, professional and amateur means nothing in the art world because talent is talent. If an amateur can come up with something equal to a professional, the values are the same.

Design-a-weapon contest, design-a-hat contest, next thing is a Design-a-hero contest. The point is the company is claiming to be giving to the fans by allowing them to put their work submissions into the game, and get rewarded for it if chosen. They claim to be making nothing off of this. Well, in fact these submissions are assigned a dollar value as an asset and put into the books. This dollar figure more than makes up for any imaginary added cost of running and organizing this contest, which is AGAIN all done by salaried employees who would be getting paid anyway.

Webmaster: one page is nothing to the webmaster of a site such as theirs.
Lawyers: retainer.
coders: already working for anet, and are assigned projects. Period.
design team: same as the coders.
prizes: expenses that are made up for by the value of the art submissions.

I've noticed Gaile hasn't responded to this yet. The only reason Gaile has neglected to respond to this series of comments by me is the fact that either she'll have to admit it's correct, or lie. She can't lie legally because she's a company representative, and saying I'm correct would be a problem for Anet because it would give me credibility and would completely remove all reason for saying it's a "conspiracy theory". Instead she leaves it alone and allows the children of this site who just can't be convinced that this company giving them "free stuffs" is merely out to make a quick buck a reason to call me an alarmist or conspiracy theorist, and paying no mind to what I say. However...all you need to do to prove or disprove my claims is take a college class on marketing, business, or accounting. All three if you wish. Hell, you could just audit it and not pay anything.

Actually, on the balance sheet that the accountants deal with, any "added" expenses of the contest are totalled, and the value sum of the art submissions is applied to the other side of the sheet to BALANCE it out. So, the more the contest "costs" the company, the more value is assigned to the artwork. This is called creative accounting, because there is very little negative cash flow involved in these types of programs. It's a win in the company's book...they got something for relatively free. Sure it may just be a hat, or a sword design, or something else that you can claim to be insignificant. But it adds up. No I'm not going to buy a game for a hat. I would however buy a game based on the ratings the game gets for how well the company treats players of the game after they make the initial purchase. This contest is designed to bring their public image up as a sort of philanthropic organization. The christmas cards are the same way. The cost in time and dollars to do these things is nothing compared to the potential business they will get, either for GW itself or retaining loyal customers for GW2 or any other game they make.

I will say one last thing, and I've said it before: aspiring artists who don't mind being paid nothing for their submissions, by all means go ahead. If seeing your work in the game is compensation enough, great. seriously. I'm happy for you, especially if you're chosen. All I'm doing is giving you the chance to make the most informed decision possible. The problem with this is I get attacked by people who feel I'm making the company out to be an evil corporation who is taking advantage of the little guy. I can see where this is coming from, but when people brush off my factual information as a conspiracy theory, especially when I have extensive business and accounting background and I DO know what I'm talking about...this is where it gets childish. Fanboy comes to mind. Oh noes, can't insult the company that makes your favorite game.

eeks · Dec 22, 2007, 07:34 PM // 19:34

Personally, I think the winners can speak for themselves. If they feel gypped, then they can go ahead and exclaim it. Thus far, it certainly doesn't seem they feel that way.

Congratulations to them once again.

Nian · Dec 22, 2007, 08:30 PM // 20:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by eeks

Personally, I think the winners can speak for themselves. If they feel gypped, then they can go ahead and exclaim it. Thus far, it certainly doesn't seem they feel that way.

Congratulations to them once again.

Not in the least. I complitelly disagree with A11Eur0 but I'm not gonna make a point of it. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

Anata · Dec 27, 2007, 06:14 PM // 18:14

Are these headgears going to be 60/70/80 AL? Or is it just for show?

Inde · Dec 27, 2007, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Really, the delusion in this thread is astounding. Yes I said it! It's a friendly contest. Gets the community involved. Communities like involvement... hence this message board. And no, arenanet does not have time to read every single post that numbers in the thousands to knock down the latest disgruntled user or explain themselves for an issue I'm sure they would just roll their eyes at. Doesn't really deserve their attention.