[POLL] Rule Changes

[chacusha]

Please take this poll to determine rule changes for Game 2.


[PROPOSAL 1] Alliances in Game 2
A reminder of the alliance system -- The six teams here at ff_land get divided into pairs (alliances). The point values of allied teams are added together and the alliance with the highest total is declared the winner. Last game it was the Thief/Monk alliance.

For the next game, the new alliances would be Soldier & Thief, Monk & White Mage, and Black Mage & Dragoon. The individual team comms would all be combined as well, meaning that Thieves would be invited to the Soldier comm as members without posting access and vice versa. Of course, individual members can still choose whether or not they actually want to join/interact with their allied team but it seemed to help team morale overall last game.

• Rationale: Creates larger "teams" and allows uneven teams to be balanced.
• Arguments Against: I'm not sure if anyone brought up arguments but I can see it being more motivating to compete if you don't have to worry about the performance of your allied team. It also may interfere with building up individual team identity.


[PROPOSAL 2] Vagrant Story
While not a Final Fantasy game in name, Vagrant Story is officially part of the Ivalice Alliance along with games like Final Fantasy XII and Tactics (Advance (A2)). Originally intended to be separate from the Final Fantasy series, it was later purposely connected back to FF by references to it in later Ivalice Alliance games.

For more information see the FF Wikia.


[PROPOSAL 3] Kingdom Hearts original characters
Currently ff_land allows any KH fanworks that prominently feature the FF characters. However, things featuring ONLY KH original characters (I'm talking Sora, Riku, Namine, Organization XIII, Hayner, Aqua, Ventus, Eraqus, Ansem, etc. here, NOT Disney or imported FF characters) have always been a vague grey area.

I can see arguments both ways. While KH and FF are strongly linked and many people are fans of both, to me it's always seemed like a separate fandom. And while I love the KH games something fierce and even my mod icon and tag banner feature Aqua, I can see how allowing fanworks that only feature KH characters could be a slippery slope. So yes, please let me know your opinion on this one!


[PROPOSAL 4] Raising stamping and referral points
For this, I'm proposing to raise the points given for sorting an applicant from 5 to 10, and the points for referring someone from 50 to 60.

• Rationale: About 1/3 of the voters in the polls said 5 points was too low, and only 12% of last game's points were earned in FF Classchange (this includes referral points). FF Minigames and some scales in Moogle Workshop are getting a boost, so it might be good to inflate the sorting points to match. 60 is also a more easily divisible number than 50.
• Arguments Against: A majority said they were okay with 5 points per application, and 10 points might be a tad high for voting on an app... (but I don't want to use a non-round number, so it's got to be either 5 or 10). roax brought up concerns about too-high referral points here


[PROPOSAL 5] Occasional restrictions on games in contests in ultima_arena
For this proposal, there would be occasional restrictions on games allowed for contests, particularly fic contests. Currently, nearly all challenges in ultima_arena allow you to submit an entry featuring any FF game. The proposal here is to have challenges where the games you can choose from are limited in order to even the playing field, as not everyone is familiar with every game.

For example, a fic written for a highly obscure game might not get the same amount of attention as one with very recognizable characters. To solve this, there could be challenges where only obscure game fic is allowed, and other challenges that are focused on a particular popular game such as Final Fantasy X. See this thread for arguments for/against.


[PROPOSAL 6] One fewer short contest in the second half of the month
Currently, the contest schedule is: one month-long challenge, two half-month challenges in the first half of the month, and two half-month challenges in the second half of the month. The proposal here is to have only ONE half-month challenge during the second half of the month instead of two, for a total of 4 contests in a month rather than 5.

• Rationale: At most two challenges would be due at a time. Right now the max is three, with one of them being the big month-long challenge. It would also tone down the end-of-the-month point bonanza that happens in ultima_arena.
• Arguments Against: Not as many contests in the second half of the month to keep people occupied.



[Poll #1744111]



Thank you! :)

Comments

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

I agree in a way...I do feel bad that favoritism towards certain games or characters can sometimes sway votes or cause certain comments (I do know that if someone does graphics in an icon comm for a lesser-known game, they are less likely to receive as much comments as a more popular title would)--though I definitely hope that most would vote purely on the creative intent of the maker either in regards to a fan fic or an icon. I know that a lot of people like icons with Photoshop filters and the like...but I have been JUST as impressed (if not more) by some of the more simple icons that weren't made in fancy programs and just have a neat crop or an interesting color scheme (Breyzy uses FastStone and Gimp for her icons, and considering how I have hardly any graphics-skills...I'm always surprised by how well her icons can turn out despite the fact that she's using "simpler" programs). I think judging an entry in respect to the prompt that it is being created for is the best way to handle voting for any challenge be it a writing or graphics one: it shouldn't matter the game or character.

If I could write a lovely Valentine's story with characters no one knew about, I would hope they'd vote on the way I'd written it, rather than skipping over it because it's got people like Sherlotta or Delita in it.
~I would hope so too! ♥ And there have been a few occasions here at ff_land where I have been pleasantly surprised in that regard. It really just depends on how people interpret an entry. :)

[the-404-error.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I don't know many people who use photoshop filters on icons? I know I usually just deal with the color alterations (levels, curves, etc), and the only filters I use are blur and sharpen, which many other programs have as well. I'm always impressed by icons in really simple programs, but I believe most programs (aside from MS Paint, and if anyone can do anything with that, they're amazing by default) now have levels and the like, so I'm not sure if the program is too much of a factor in voting.

Although now that it has been mentioned, I was thinking back... and I don't remember seeing many obscure characters winning icon challenges. It may just be coincidence, but I'd be less opposed to having a game restriction on icon challenges than on fanfiction. I'm still not necessarily for the idea, but it wouldn't bother me when it comes to graphics as no prior knowledge is necessary in most cases.

(I do always like Breyzy's cropping and coloring, by the way~ In that Amano art one, I remember voting for one of hers from FFI (?) that I loved the cropping on, but it didn't place... which could be used as an example of the above.)

[chacusha]

Heh, well there's selective coloring. That's one thing GIMP lacks, and it's used in like 98% of tutorials, so I can see GIMP users being at a disadvantage as far as learning new coloring techniques goes. (But that said, I'm a proud GIMP user myself and I wouldn't say it limits me too much.)

And yeah I think people are generally okay with game restrictions on graphics contests (any provided image icontest is going to be like that, anyway). For fic, I see that the situation is different because people aren't able to write fic for games they don't have a good handle on or that just don't inspire them.

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

I use GIMP myself and love it. XD You're right, it doesn't have the selective coloring thing...but there are free basic graphic programs like FastStone that do so I try to combine different programs together (and I am now realizing why it takes me forever to make even simple icons, lolz)! ..I admit to even sometimes attempting things in Paint on occasion, although I feel like I use GIMP and FastStone more. The only thing about using GIMP is that I can't use photoshop filters and the like, but I don't really feel like that's too much of a hindrance overall. I really like GIMP, haha (I think it is great as far as free graphic programs go!)! ♥

~I can definitely see where having a game restriction on a fic contest is different from a graphics one. I wouldn't have much of an issue with game restrictions on graphics (provided image icontests are awesome!), but I can definitely see how it would be more of an issue for fic writers. In order to write about a game, you'd really have to know about it...you don't really need to know much about the character or image you're making an icon of.

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

A few of the free programs don't always have color alterations (GIMP doesn't, which is why Breyzy tends to use it in conjunction with FastStone since that does have some color alteration programming in it). I'm not sure that programming does have too much of a sway in voting and I'm sorry if that seemed like that was what I was saying initially. To some people who like icons, I do know there is a preference for "flashy equals better"...but I still believe that a simple icon that is done creatively can still place or get votes. :D

As I said above, I just think it is kind of natural in regards to either graphics or fic writing that people will sometimes gravitate towards the more well-known titles in general (even in just normal icon posts someone does for a community, if they're doing characters from an earlier FF game alongside characters from one of the newer/more popular titles...I notice that the more popular game icons will generally get more comments on them even in comparison if someone singles icons out). Personally, I tend to be of the mindset that with graphics it doesn't really matter if a character is well-known or not--so long as the icon looks good, I'll be voting for it (and considering how indecisive I am with voting in general, I tend to like a lot of things! XD). So I can understand arivess's and lightofeilia's viewpoints on being able to vote on graphics without perhaps knowing as much about a game. Coincidentally, I'm more of that leaning with others who were talking about context in fic writing too: I can vote stories from games I haven't played or haven't for awhile even if they focus on characters or pairings I'm not as fond of from the standpoint that I enjoy how the story was written. :D But at the same time, I think it is harder for some people to separate favoritism and what they're familiar with from even just graphics too...it's very tricky and some people are able to do it more easily than others.

I probably wouldn't be as opposed to it with graphic challenges like I actually do those though, lolz! XD...just from the standpoint that the provided image contests tended to have a lot of participation and featured quite a few characters that people weren't overly familiar with. And the icons were great in it.

...I think the problem with doing that with perhaps a fic writing challenge is that people are much more likely to be comfortable writing what they want to write, and they are definitely not going to write for a game that they don't know--it would be almost impossible for that to happen. Whereas if an image is provided, I don't see it being as much of a challenge for a graphics maker (especially if it is still in conjunction with overall graphics challenges too).

~I hope I don't sound too mean or argumentative here! I honestly agree with what you said, I just have a tendency to be wordy when I'm typing up comments. XD

[the-404-error.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure that programming does have too much of a sway in voting and I'm sorry if that seemed like that was what I was saying initially."

Lol, no, it's alright. I just wanted to elaborate on how photoshop =/= magic button machine that makes everything shiny through filters. XD The filters usually do things like make an image appear like charcoal or distort it beyond belief, so yes, not good for icons. It can still take a massive amount of time to erase backgrounds, find the right coloring, and everything, so I just didn't want anyone to think that photoshop is a silly cheating machine or something. ;X

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

(I do always like Breyzy's cropping and coloring, by the way~ In that Amano art one, I remember voting for one of hers from FFI (?) that I loved the cropping on, but it didn't place... which could be used as an example of the above.)
~Thank you! ♥ I was really not confident with the Amano icons (since I tend not to icon his art well), so that made me happy! XD