Summer Deco Contest

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+Nyx
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Summer Deco Contest

Post by +Nyx »

I am hosting a summer deco contest beginning today. All players are welcome to participate, within the stated rules below.

The theme for this deco contest is:
Forgotten Ruins

Houses should be decorated to a theme of the player's choice within the overall stated theme of the event.
For example, you might choose to select a theme of an "ancient roman temple" and then build and decorate your plots accordingly. Your theme should be obvious to the judges simply by viewing the space, however it is allowed for a participant to add further information into a book that is locked down in plain sight at the entrance. You may opt to decorate any way you desire, but your deco should have some directed theme beyond just "visually pleasing". Clever and elegant decoration will be rated much more highly than a house that has simply slapped down some addons or put deco willy-nilly around their plots.

You will be able to choose which judging bracket to participate in. The brackets will be judged separately and have different rules & expectations. Choose wisely! You cannot change your bracket selection after you've placed a rune - even if it was an accident. Pay close attention to which box you've chosen before dropping your rune!


Bracket 1
This bracket is meant for players of modest to moderate means, newer players, or those with less time to dedicate to decorating.
Bracket 1 Rules:
- Participants may decorate a maximum of 2 house plots to be considered for the contest.
- Participants who are of the wealth & time investment for Bracket 2 who submit to Bracket 1 will have 20 points deducted from their score.

Bracket 2
This bracket is meant for players of wealth, older players, and/or those with lots of time to dedicate to the contest.
Bracket 2 Rules:
- Participants may decorate a maximum of 4 house plots to be considered for the contest.
- Participants who opted for this bracket but were not of the proper means will still be judged against the bracket 2 participants.

Overall Rules:
These rules are subject to change at any time.
- If your rune is marked further than 10 tiles from the entrance of the entered plots, you will be disqualified. If your entry plots are combined with more than the allowed entry plots for your bracket, you must put up walls to delineate which plots are not part of the contest entry. Failure to properly define the space entered for the contest (when that space is directly connected to other plots not entered) will result in disqualification.
- If submitting more than one plot, they must be combined plots. You cannot submit 2 castles or a home in one area and another placed elsewhere. You also cannot submit a plot on the west side of a 10-house compound, and the other plot on the east side. They must be connected directly to each other.
- The submitted property must be owned by the person who signed up by dropping the rune.
- One entry per account. Any attempt to circumvent this rule will result in disqualification.
- Deco must be shard-appropriate, and to a clear theme. Be creative!
- Pre-made addons may be used, but may detract from the overall score if used in lieu of actual decorating skill.
- The administrators (+Veritas, +Colibri, and myself) will judge the plots. If available during the judging period, +Mocha, +Requiem and +Jade will also be invited to vote.
- House location will not be taken into account when scoring the properties. This is decoration only, so those with plots in the stars or other 'special' places will not receive any special consideration for environmental perks they did not design, just as houses in less attractive locations will not be marked down due to their placement.
- Any infractions resulting in jail during the course of the contest will disqualify that player. NOTE: This means infractions above 'warning' and/or jail tasks above 10. If you have any such infraction(s) in the last 60 days, you may not participate without my permission.
- Houses must be "open to the public" from August 21st - August 25th, as all participating houses will be displayed for everyone to visit during the judging period.
- If you enter the contest you must actually participate - if you submit a rune and then all you have is a couple of misc deco items on an otherwise not-to-theme house, you will be disqualified. The same goes for if you submit a rune but your plot(s) are their usual everyday deco.
- If you are disqualified for any reason you will not receive a participation reward.


To enter the contest:
- Mark a rune close to the house you will be decorating for the contest. You may submit the rune at any time, even before your decoration is completed. The houses will not be judged until the end of the contest.
- Drop the rune into the Sign-up chest in TC for the bracket you have chosen. Be careful, you cannot change the bracket choice after you've dropped your rune! NOTE: The drop box will be available on or before March 6th.
- Decorate your house, complete it and make it open to the public before August 21st.

At Contest's End:
On August 21st, the rune box will be removed and gates to the houses will be made available for the public to visit the participants' submissions. The staff will visit the submitted houses and score them according to the criteria outlined in the rules. The winners will be announced on or before August 25th.

Special terms for this contest:
- Any player whose decorating skills strike me as outstanding will be considered for building their own structure in Elysium. I am keeping a running list of these players, and when I'm ready to begin this part of the project I will contact these players directly. Structures built by invitees will become part of the permanent landscape in Elysium and the player(s) will be credited on the buildings themselves.

Prizes:
- First, Second, and Third in each bracket will receive a prize.
- Prizes will include (but are not necessarily limited to) ED & a banner for each winner.
- Exact prizes to be announced at a later date (closer to the end of the contest).


Happy decorating!

- +N
Maze Scarlethart
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Maze Scarlethart »

The only house I have available to redesign is a smallish beehouse, I would lose alot of customization on my other one that I would like to keep. I also dont want to lose my beehives, if I decorated around them will I lose points for them being there?
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+Nyx
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by +Nyx »

If you work them into the design or use clever decoration to hide them, it shouldn't affect your overall score :)
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Tredin
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Tredin »

+Nyx wrote:I If submitting more than one plot, they must be combined plots. You cannot submit 2 castles or a home in one area and another placed elsewhere. You also cannot submit a plot on the west side of a 10-house compound, and the other plot on the east side. They must be connected directly to each other.
Just curious but a would you be willing to bend this rule slightly? I have three connected plots with the fourth plot about seven or eight tiles to the south that have a couple of trees/crystals between them. The separated house would be the starting point of a clearly defined linear progression through my forgotten ruin of choice, linked to the connected plots with a house to house gate.

The open space wont be used for anything related to the contest and the starting area would be sealed in via yard wand items to prevent confusion.

Go ahead and tell me no but I figured I would ask anyway :lol:
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AcidBern
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by AcidBern »

Always gotta try to bend the rules a little dont ya? Lol... Just messin brother. Its all good since I know you will be in the 2nd bracket while I am in the 1st bracket. The one for poor people like me! lol
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+Nyx
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by +Nyx »

The results are in!

Scoring
This time, all the active staff voted (+C, +M, +R, +V and myself).
Each staff member listed their first, second, and third choices in each bracket.
Points were assigned to each ranking - a vote for first place received 15 points, a vote for second place received 10 points, and a vote for third place received 5 points. Winner were determined based on the total number of points they received.

The winners are:

Bracket 1
First Place: Keth'la
Second Place: Deacon
Third Place: Ebony

Honorable Mention: Cattie-brie

Bracket 2
First Place: Ishamael
Second Place: Baby Spendy
Third Place: Michiko

Prizes are being sent out now, they'll show up in your bank box as a white parcel in the top left. I've included a little something extra in the rewards this time since there were fewer participants and those that did participate mostly were super creative and detailed which made me really happy :)

Hope everyone had fun! I'm already thinking of themes for the October contest :dance

- +N
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Ishamael
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Ishamael »

:dance Woot!! :dance Thank you very much for having the deco contest. I had a blast with it! Everyone did a great job with their ideas.
Annachie
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Annachie »

Wow, colour me amazed.

Thankyou :D
Kethlaa
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Kethlaa »

Thank you so much for holding this event. I really enjoyed looking around fantastic houses of entrants.
Working on house-deco is my most fevorite time here. Thanks to all of you who visited my house.

I'm very very happy. :D
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patrix
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by patrix »

Thanks for the event and ty to the judges for my award. I liked the ruin idea as a theme. Congrats to everyone who entered and to the prize winners, it was great to see what everyone had done. :D
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Alex
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Alex »

Hey!

if anyone is willing to sell/trade their participation reward (plague and pillar) I would very much appreciate it. To my surprise after several ppl said they liked it, I found out that I was disqualified from the event and am really bummed out. Please pm me ([pm Alejandro) if you are willing. Thanks a lot in advance.

Best,
Alex
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+Nyx
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by +Nyx »

Alex, you were disqualified because you entered a plot you didn't build or customize for the event.
Event Rules wrote:- If you enter the contest you must actually participate - if you submit a rune and then all you have is a couple of misc deco items on an otherwise not-to-theme house, you will be disqualified. The same goes for if you submit a rune but your plot(s) are their usual everyday deco.
Several of the staff members recognized the plot as the same as it's been since before you bought it from its previous owner, so it was disqualified. I'll be holding another deco contest for October, hope to see you participate in that one :)
Alex
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Re: Summer Deco Contest

Post by Alex »

Thanks for the reply. Although I think this is a bit of a grey zone and subjective, since:

1) If I (not me specifically) by chance have a house decorated to match the appropriate theme, I shouldn't be limited from submitting it and excluded from the competition, especially since some entries utilized their every day main houses as part of the competition and not fresh plots, which include their "usual everyday deco" in addition to the new section.
or
2) although I may have submitted this plot for the spring 2014 event (I believe), I definitely 100% changed the deco for this one compared to the other time. I agree the deco is pretty lame, maybe had I simply changed the wall style it would have been sufficient. Maybe it should be added that a previously used house for a deco competition can not be used, since nowhere does it say that.

It's a judgement call on your end and I respect it, just excluding it for using it during a previous entry I think is a bit outside of the grey zone since that is not explicitly stated in the quoted rule. I understand you cant state all 1000+ possible scenarios, which would be ridiculous.

Will make sure to be more creative during the Halloween event.
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