Skyrim Character Building » Discussions

Character Building Contest #1: The Results

• asgard

  
   

  July 23, 2013

  I have to say I am impressed that you guys disclosed those docs. However, reading through my build's doc left me scratching my head.

  The bits about the autoplay I found frankly insulting. When someone puts a great deal of time and effort into making a build like Nogo, the least you can do is wait a few seconds to allow it to load. Describing Nogo as "a build that is a giant picture" is extremely crass; that is like complaining that Rembrandt's paintings are too large to fit in your small dining room. Never mind that it's 2013, the pic is only slightly over 2MB, and it loads almost instantly for me when CTRL-F5ing.

  The black background criticism was also odd; the image is fashioned after the game's UI, and even uses the same fonts.

  The most puzzling though was faulting the build for being unplayable on master and legendary. It's designed to be played on Adept+, and I give my reasoning behind it. I see someone added a note at the end but the criticism stuck.

  The rest of the comments are subjective and I respect them.

  Net result is that I will continue submitting my builds in the style of Nogo (I have a new build that is in the play-through stage ATM), but I will not be entering any more contests. To those that are willing to download the entire internet and sacrifice their firstborn in order to view Nogo and any of my future efforts, I thank you and hope you have fun with them.

  Congratulations to the winners. I look forward to watching the Keeper of the Dawn movie and hope it'll draw more people to submitting builds for future contests, because if they're anything like the quality of this first bunch, everybody wins!

  I have to say I am impressed that you guys disclosed those docs. However, reading through my build's doc left me scratching my head.

  The bits about the autoplay I found frankly insulting. When someone puts a great deal of time and effort into making a build like Nogo, the least you can do is wait a few seconds to allow it to load. Describing Nogo as "a build that is a giant picture" is extremely crass; that is like complaining that Rembrandt's paintings are too large to fit in your small dining room. Never mind that it's 2013, the pic is only slightly over 2MB, and it loads almost instantly for me when CTRL-F5ing.

  The black background criticism was also odd; the image is fashioned after the game's UI, and even uses the same fonts.

  The most puzzling though was faulting the build for being unplayable on master and legendary. It's designed to be played on Adept+, and I give my reasoning behind it. I see someone added a note at the end but the criticism stuck.

  The rest of the comments are subjective and I respect them.

  Net result is that I will continue submitting my builds in the style of Nogo (I have a new build that is in the play-through stage ATM), but I will not be entering any more contests. To those that are willing to download the entire internet and sacrifice their firstborn in order to view Nogo and any of my future efforts, I thank you and hope you have fun with them.

  Congratulations to the winners. I look forward to watching the Keeper of the Dawn movie and hope it'll draw more people to submitting builds for future contests, because if they're anything like the quality of this first bunch, everybody wins!

• Ponty

  

  Member
   

  July 23, 2013

  I think the issues with the images and music were really personal issues of a single panel member who I will not disclose the name of - the rest of the panel didn't really see any issue with them. Regardless, your link to the theme wasn't very strong at all - you had a great build, but that really brought it down in terms of the contest.

  While I think it'd be great to see your submission for the next contest, it's your decision whether you enter or not. I'll be shaking up the panel (and probably changing the marking system a bit) for the next one!

  I think the issues with the images and music were really personal issues of a single panel member who I will not disclose the name of - the rest of the panel didn't really see any issue with them. Regardless, your link to the theme wasn't very strong at all - you had a great build, but that really brought it down in terms of the contest.

  While I think it'd be great to see your submission for the next contest, it's your decision whether you enter or not. I'll be shaking up the panel (and probably changing the marking system a bit) for the next one!

• Volkan

  

  Member
   

  July 23, 2013

  don't get me wrong I hate it too (I also have the same problem as Caerys) but you guys really hate it with a passion, like despise it

  don't get me wrong I hate it too (I also have the same problem as Caerys) but you guys really hate it with a passion, like despise it

• asgard

  
   

  July 23, 2013

  Well, when coupled with the "--------" judgement, the giant picture description is obviously not very flattering. If your connection is so unusually slow that you can't download 2MB in a reasonable amount of time, then that is your personal problem, and using that to influence your judgement is biased. I'm not going to hold back just because of a small subset of viewers, so I'm certainly not going to hold back for a single panelist.

  As I said, I respect the subjective criticism. I'll admit that I did a bit of a square-peg-in-a-round-hole job with this build and, while I think I did a reasonably good job of it, it couldn't compete with builds fully committed to the Mythic Dawn theme.

  Well, when coupled with the "--------" judgement, the giant picture description is obviously not very flattering. If your connection is so unusually slow that you can't download 2MB in a reasonable amount of time, then that is your personal problem, and using that to influence your judgement is biased. I'm not going to hold back just because of a small subset of viewers, so I'm certainly not going to hold back for a single panelist.

  As I said, I respect the subjective criticism. I'll admit that I did a bit of a square-peg-in-a-round-hole job with this build and, while I think I did a reasonably good job of it, it couldn't compete with builds fully committed to the Mythic Dawn theme.

• No snakes aLive

  
   

  July 23, 2013

  I think "arbitrary at best" is how I'd describe most of what I just read. The judges had a difficult task at hand, for sure, but the disclosure of their thought process did way more harm than good.

  I think "arbitrary at best" is how I'd describe most of what I just read. The judges had a difficult task at hand, for sure, but the disclosure of their thought process did way more harm than good.
• No snakes aLive

  
   

  July 23, 2013

  I have to agree with your criticisms of the judgment whole-heartedly, asgard. I think your link to the theme was the most original to be found among the entire group even if it wasn't the most blatant (and a big "so what?" to that) and probably makes for the most satisfying roleplaying moments of all the submissions. Also, tailoring your build to the perfect fit of a specific difficulty should never be faulted; if people still have a hard time on the higher difficulties this far into the game's lifespan they should just lower the slider, ESPECIALLY when that lower difficulty is the one recommended by the build-maker with plenty of reasoning provided for it lol. I just hope to see far more structure out of future contests to avoid this kind of seeming randomness with the judging. Oh and I had no trouble reading your build in its current format on my phone of all things. Just saying.

  I have to agree with your criticisms of the judgment whole-heartedly, asgard. I think your link to the theme was the most original to be found among the entire group even if it wasn't the most blatant (and a big "so what?" to that) and probably makes for the most satisfying roleplaying moments of all the submissions. Also, tailoring your build to the perfect fit of a specific difficulty should never be faulted; if people still have a hard time on the higher difficulties this far into the game's lifespan they should just lower the slider, ESPECIALLY when that lower difficulty is the one recommended by the build-maker with plenty of reasoning provided for it lol. I just hope to see far more structure out of future contests to avoid this kind of seeming randomness with the judging. Oh and I had no trouble reading your build in its current format on my phone of all things. Just saying.
• Ponty

  

  Member
   

  July 23, 2013

  The stuff on those documents are just the panel's thoughts on each of the builds - I completely disregarded much of the minor stuff (Ben's issues with music/loading images and the difficulty thing for example) when I was actually determining the overall results. They were more thoughts to keep in mind- not the sole source of what we were judging on.

  The stuff on those documents are just the panel's thoughts on each of the builds - I completely disregarded much of the minor stuff (Ben's issues with music/loading images and the difficulty thing for example) when I was actually determining the overall results. They were more thoughts to keep in mind- not the sole source of what we were judging on.

• Ehjookayted

  

  Member
   

  July 23, 2013

  Hi, I'm new here and just wanted to say that this contest was really exciting in terms of trying to pick apart each build myself to try and peg my top 3, as well as guess how the judges would pick compared to the members, etc. 

  While the honesty of releasing the panel's thoughts is something I can appreciate, I think that there are some things in there that are better left for just among the panel. Maybe next time, short write-ups on each build could achieve the same end while being a bit more tactful. Specifically, the "I don't like x" claims- they are valid, but to me, they feel like things tossed around between the panel members for the sake of brevity and clarity, not statements that were meant for public viewing.

  On the other side, this kind of feedback is good and is going to help future builds from any of the build creators, but I feel like the pure, raw thoughts of the panel should only be sent to the build creators, not aired out for everyone to see. Maybe it's just me, but I can't help but feel pain for those couple builds who received almost no pluses, and in one case, a build that received no pluses. While the minuses and the pure honesty of the panel are good criticisms, I just feel like that those things are meant just for the build creator's eyes. 

  This may just be my opinion, but I did feel a bit uncomfortable reading your criticisms of others' builds because I didn't feel like I should have access to that kind of straightforward, no holds barred critique.

  I just wanted to let you know some of my thoughts, but honestly, this contest was great and gave me lots to read and think about! 

  Hi, I'm new here and just wanted to say that this contest was really exciting in terms of trying to pick apart each build myself to try and peg my top 3, as well as guess how the judges would pick compared to the members, etc. 

  While the honesty of releasing the panel's thoughts is something I can appreciate, I think that there are some things in there that are better left for just among the panel. Maybe next time, short write-ups on each build could achieve the same end while being a bit more tactful. Specifically, the "I don't like x" claims- they are valid, but to me, they feel like things tossed around between the panel members for the sake of brevity and clarity, not statements that were meant for public viewing.

  On the other side, this kind of feedback is good and is going to help future builds from any of the build creators, but I feel like the pure, raw thoughts of the panel should only be sent to the build creators, not aired out for everyone to see. Maybe it's just me, but I can't help but feel pain for those couple builds who received almost no pluses, and in one case, a build that received no pluses. While the minuses and the pure honesty of the panel are good criticisms, I just feel like that those things are meant just for the build creator's eyes. 

  This may just be my opinion, but I did feel a bit uncomfortable reading your criticisms of others' builds because I didn't feel like I should have access to that kind of straightforward, no holds barred critique.

  I just wanted to let you know some of my thoughts, but honestly, this contest was great and gave me lots to read and think about! 

• Alastor

  

  Member
   

  July 23, 2013

  The auto play comment was a little much but I too had a difficult time loading your build's page, Asgard. It can be discouraging to return to or while cycling through the comment pages. All that aside, I also felt the build lacked a connection to the theme. Your build had a small paragraph on Dagon and adopted the name Camoran. That could have been tacked on to any build IMO. I support the decisions made by the judges.

  The auto play comment was a little much but I too had a difficult time loading your build's page, Asgard. It can be discouraging to return to or while cycling through the comment pages. All that aside, I also felt the build lacked a connection to the theme. Your build had a small paragraph on Dagon and adopted the name Camoran. That could have been tacked on to any build IMO. I support the decisions made by the judges.
• asgard

  
   

  July 23, 2013

  The story and theme-compliance is wholly subjective -- some will love it, and others not so much -- so I had no problems with their perspective. The difficulty thing however was a big WTF moment. The little damage Nogo took from the archer in the beginning of the movie was due to the simple fact that it was a lowly bandit; playing on master would have yielded the same results: the archer would do a little more damage, but you wouldn't have 100 HP at level 30+ so it wouldn't even scratch you. Obviously whoever wrote that didn't even watch half the video, as Nogo is taken to near death twice from a single archer. I suspect that they didn't read my reasoning behind playing on Adept either.

  Anyway, the point has been made. I think the powers that be will make sure the next contest won't have these issues.

  The story and theme-compliance is wholly subjective -- some will love it, and others not so much -- so I had no problems with their perspective. The difficulty thing however was a big WTF moment. The little damage Nogo took from the archer in the beginning of the movie was due to the simple fact that it was a lowly bandit; playing on master would have yielded the same results: the archer would do a little more damage, but you wouldn't have 100 HP at level 30+ so it wouldn't even scratch you. Obviously whoever wrote that didn't even watch half the video, as Nogo is taken to near death twice from a single archer. I suspect that they didn't read my reasoning behind playing on Adept either.

  Anyway, the point has been made. I think the powers that be will make sure the next contest won't have these issues.