Guillotine's Edge Character Competition

[BIGGIEstyle]

Hello all,

The Order of the Guillotine Cross will be hosting it's first open to the public event:

The Guillotine's Edge Character Competition!

Inspired by the many fashion shows held by the wonderful Phashion Group, this is only partially about what clothes your character is wearing and more about the creative concepts behind them.

The Rules: Entering:
The rules of entry and competing are simple. Anyone who believes their character is unique in concept or design is free to enter, however everyone interested must register via PM, on this thread, or in-game by Wednesday March 4th. (Previously Saturday February 28th)

Once the deadline has ended no further entries will be accepted, so make sure you sign up early!

The competition takes place on Sunday March 8th

Now onto the actual competition:

The Rules: Participating:
The competition will be starting at 3pm PST in Club Commune on the Phoenix Servers (Uni 07).

The competition will be mostly participant-to-judges and will begin with characters in the order their entries were received. Any entrant not in attendance when called for will be given 5 minutes before disqualification, so make sure you get there early (or even register late 0.0).

Votes range from 0-10- including the halves- and there will be 5 areas that the panel of (5) Judges will be judging entries on:

1- Appearance
2- Concept
3-Accesories
4- Runway Style
5- Attitude

Appearance: This field is the generic "How does the character look" field. Contestants will be rated on the clothes that they wear and how well their clothes work together.

Concept: This field is the strong basis of the competition, and one the contestants should put the most emphasis on. Here each entrant will be given time to account the concept behind their character to the panel of judges. Entrants will be rated on how creative the concept is, and how well in line with the character's appearance it is.

Accessories: This field is a continuation of both the Appearance and Concept fields. Here the contestants will be taken to the Runway (Unsafe Passage) and will show off their weapons and auras. Here the contestants will be rated on how well their weapons and auras go along with their overall appearance and their character concept.

Runway Style: After showing off their accessories each contestant will be asked to strut their stuff through the runway for the panel of judges. (For time's sake this will be done on a C run of Unsafe Passage) Here the contestant will be rated on the skills used in combat, as well as how well they enhance the overall appearance and concept of the character.

Attitude: Knowing that sometimes attitude is a defining factor, the last segment of the competition is Attitude. Here the entrants will be rated on their customized shortcuts and how well they enhance the overall character effect.

In each segment the votes will be tallied and averaged out, and after all segments have been completed the votes from each segment will be totaled to give each entrant their final scores. In the event of a tie there is a secret tie breaking segment that will decide the true winners.

The Rules: Prizes:
Prizes will be handed out to the First, Second, and Third place winners, and there is the possibility of other prizes being handed out as well.

The prizes are as follows:

1st Place: 10 Million Meseta and choice of 1 of the following items: 9/9 Pushan, 42% Dark Svaltus Sword 4/10, or Blackbull 7/9
2nd Place: 5 Million Meseta and choice of 1 prize from the 2nd place prize pool.
3rd Place: 3 Million Meseta and choice of 1 prize from the 3rd place prize pool.

I can assure you that the amounts/quality of the prizes will NOT change dependent on the amount of entrants, we are just holding back the information so that those that enter are interested in the competition and not solely on what they'll win.
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If you have any questions, comments, or wish to donate or help with the event in any way I can be reached by:

-PMing me here
-PMing me on the OfficialForums (Assassin of the Cross)
-Posting on this thread
-E-mail: [email protected]
-AIM: DaemonoftheDark
- In game via BB: Taren Moric, BIGGIE, or Raul Fioren
-Or finally, our Guild Site in the public events forum Accessable Here (http://guillotinecross.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=423639&sid=db82c88453a0bff71da3f5e1b5c8e721&gid=66504)

And for those who like having the information all condensed for easy remembering:

Guillotine's Edge Character Competition
Registration: Saturday February 14th - Saturday February 28th
Event Date: Sunday March 8th
Location: Universe 07 Club Commune
Time: 3pm PST
Prizes:
1st Place: 10 Million Meseta and choice of 1 of the following items: 9/9 Pushan, 42% Dark Svaltus Sword 4/10, or 8/8 Shigga Barec
2nd Place: 5 Million Meseta and choice of 1 prize from the 2nd place prize pool.
3rd Place: 3 Million Meseta and choice of 1 prize from the 3rd place prize pool.

Contestants
1: Lady Taniko Takashi
2: Rust
3: Mimosa (Caseal ver.)
4: Sita Beta
5: Teranu
6: JOE
7: Shiden
8: Enzylon-2
9: Himeka
10: Zyroko Neko or Kiliaro
11: Helosie

[BIGGIEstyle]

Bump for first Contestant

[Mimo]

wow this sounds pretty interesting! though i might fail in the unsafe passage part, i sure would like to try it out! n_n! i usually dont go for in-game competitions since im kinda shy ._. But!!! sign me up!! ;D

-asks big sister to tag along- ;//;

[BIGGIEstyle]

^_^ Wonderful I'll be happy to put you down for it.

May I ask however, which of your characters you'll be entering?

[Mimo]

well i decided to do a siggy that was for every event that ppl needed help with in advertising xD that way i dont have to do so many siggies >.<

and of course i add at the bottom the title of the event
thnx for inspiring me to make this! n_n!

[BIGGIEstyle]

Ruby even helped with my sig LoL

[Mysterious-G]

The event concept is quite interesting. I hope you will have a good amount of competitors and that everything runs smooth.

[BIGGIEstyle]

Hehe thanks for the support! I certainly hope so as well!

[Mimo]

tehe thats nice of Ruby to help you with that sig `-`

[BIGGIEstyle]

LoL he didn't really know he was helping... he was afk LoL

Anywho bump for another entrant.

CMON PPL LETS SEE SOME PARTICIPATION!!!!:bondage:

[Zyrusticae]

Fine. I'll enter.

My character's Teranu.

[BIGGIEstyle]

Awesome, I'll put you down for it ^_^

[Skye-Fox713]

count me in

my character's name is JOE

[God_Shiden]

sounds pretty awesome....I'll join. Cuz i;m just too cool not to be seen.

[BIGGIEstyle]

Okay,

JOE is added.

Shiden: I assume you're entering Shiden, so I'll put you down for that character :P

ONLY A FEW MORE DAYS GUYS!

[BIGGIEstyle]

Bump for information update!

Registration extended to Wednesday March 4th!

Prizes being announced March 1st!

[Volcompat321]

biggs ill add Enzylon-2 :D

[BIGGIEstyle]

Okay cool Sie, I'll put ya down for it then ^_^

[BIGGIEstyle]

Bump for another contestant :P

[Volcompat321]

thanks, :D

[ZyphNeko]

Well, this is different...and I like it a whole lot. I think I'll be trying out this fun li'l event.
Time for Zyroko to finally enter some sort of big spotlight... Either her or Kiliaro, if distant descendants of characters from past Phantasy Star games can be considered creative...

Sign me up. ☝
Neko~

[BIGGIEstyle]

Welcome aboard Zyroko ^_^

[ZyphNeko]

Thank you~. I'll look forward to this.

Oi. And... you made a silly li'l typo in Kiliaro's name.

Neko~

[Volcompat321]

had to find out lol what time is the event EST?

[Helosie]

I'll Enter, Character is Helosie

[BIGGIEstyle]

Zyroko: Fixed it, sorry. It's really close to a character's name from my tabletop campaign and it was force of habit :P

Sie: 3pm PST is 6pm EST. Remember to show up early jsut in case :P

Helosie: I have you listed ^_^ Good Luck!

[Volcompat321]

alright will do.

[BIGGIEstyle]

Quiet you I like being thorough

[ZyphNeko]

Zyroko: Fixed it, sorry. It's really close to a character's name from my tabletop campaign and it was force of habit :P

Sie: 3pm PST is 6pm EST. Remember to show up early jsut in case :P

Helosie: I have you listed ^_^ Good Luck!

Really? There's a Kiliara out there? Well, should've expected someone eventually making a name like that. Bah...

Neko~

[BIGGIEstyle]

Really? There's a Kiliara out there? Well, should've expected someone eventually making a name like that. Bah...

Neko~

Yeah, it's the name of a Dark Elf assassin in one of our current game campaigns. I enjoy unique character design (Not that a dark elf assassin is unique...) so that's why I'm doing the contest ^_^

[Volcompat321]

Quiet you I like being thorough

huh??

[BIGGIEstyle]

Alright guys, registration is over. The competition takes place this Sunday at 3pm PST (6pm EST) and the contestants will be judged in the order they applied in.

You should all be working on getting your shortcuts and equipment in line with your character's concept and making any final adjustments to them before Sunday. Good luck to you all!

[BIGGIEstyle]

Just the reminder everyone that the competition is today!

Remember to have turned your clocks forward so you're not late ^_^

I'll see everyone at the start of the contest!

[Rust]

Ok, now I'm completely lost with those stupid DST we ain't having around here.
Those that mean the competition is in about 2 or 4 hours ?

[Mimo]

i think the competition starts in about 2 hours and 5mins o-o

yeah... it does `-` lol

[BIGGIEstyle]

You are correct Mimosa, the competition will be starting in 10 minutes give or take.

We will hold off the first entrant arrives because of all this DST garbage, and since the previous one dropped, that's YOU Rust ^_^

[autumn]

This event ended up being a nightmare honestly and truly and I don't care if anyone is grumpy that I said it. Half our judges didn't show up. I'm sorry to those who has ruffled feelings but at least I managed to land some nice shots. If you see pics of your character you'd like to have please let me know and I'll get them to you.

Rust
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_184630_014.jpg

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_184331_008.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Mimosa (I'm sorry I didn't land a better runway pic T_T)
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_190224_020.jpg

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_192309_022.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Sita Beta
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_195514_035.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Teranu (I've got a few nice ones of you but this is imo the best)
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_203716_061.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Enzylon-2
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_210618_066.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Zyroko Neko (once again I'm sorry I didn't land anything more epic ._.)
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_213533_087.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Helosie
[spoiler-box]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_220410_101.jpg

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/IdaliaTShanen/Guillotines%20Edge%20Character%20Competition/psu20090308_220447_111.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Regardless of the heaping ton of fail that happened all of the participants were AMAZING. It was worth the misery to get to see you guys in action.

[ZyphNeko]

Well, besides the amount of fail, I had fun. Landed third place, woooo... It's good to be known in ways like these.

Thank you for the shiny time~. Can't wait to see more from you folks (and perhaps a little less of some of you folks). If there's another fun event like this, then it'll be time to put li'l Kiliaro in the spot light~... Huzzah.

PS: Ah, that's okay about my picture. I was too quick and furious~... ha ha ha......

Neko~

[autumn]

It was hard to get good pics with everything dying in seconds and 4 other people getting in the way all the time >_<

[BIGGIEstyle]

Like I said Neko, the time limit constraint is really what hurt, also my idiocy of having appearance come before your concept really lost some people votes -_-;;

But Hindsight is always 20/20 and you can expect us to learn from these mistakes and come back with better events in the future. It was a blast and you guys were all fantastic. I'll be posting up the results tomorrow and be contacting the winners about their prizes.

Way to go everyone ^_^

[Rust]

Even though I honestly thought it was about the concept more than the character background story, and therefore was expecting to get through that like if it was a cakewalk, I found the event really entertaining (why I stayed 'till the end), all the unavoidable 'event with prizes' drama taken aside.

I got my hopes a bit too high on my ranking, but it's mostly my own fault.
Honestly, I didn't give as much attention to preparing for this event as I should have.
I remade my macros, went to buy the Bulb and Fan, as well as the Koltova Gun and grenade launcher PA's (I usually don't use those weps, I find them terrible, but sadly PSU lacks in the accessible joke weapons department), in a hurry a bit less than one hour before the event start.
So yeah, all in all, it's just a fair thing. I was going to give out my prizes to whoever was 4th if I had ranked in the first three, anyways.

Nice pics, also. Pretty funny how messing on my SUV macro key (I actually wanted to use another one but hit the wrong shortcut on my keyboard) made it seem way more relevant than what it should have been. <.<;

Looking forward to next event.

[Zyrusticae]

I apologize in advance if this is rubbing salt in a still-fresh wound, but I have to get this off my chest.

Unfortunately, I am not the kind of individual that is wont to simply let slights slide without comment. Well, it may not even matter, as those who this post is directed to are unlikely to show up next time or even read this post.

Biggie has already mentioned the appearance issue (props to you for all the good work, by the way), but I simply have to touch on something else.

First of all, the in-game racism would have been perfectly fine had it been balanced (as in, one or two of each race, all of whom are equally biased towards their own kind) and warning had been given in advance, but otherwise it has absolutely no place in an actual contest. Viewing it from a distance would have been amusing had I not been on the receiving end. I don't think I even need to explain why I'm so totally miffed by this.

Secondly, the equipment...

Fuck's sake, people! I've been playing for LESS THAN A MONTH! I have SIX melee weapons, ALL of which are different elements, and I've been levelling both shop PAs for all six of them! That's TWELVE PAs, in the space of maybe four weeks! I refuse to believe that it is the norm for people to somehow get ALL of them to 21 within that space of time (if it is, good lord, what have I been doing all this time?), and likewise with the equipment - all of it is A-rank or higher, all of them have decent percentages (save the neutral weapon), and frankly the Crea weapons fit perfectly well considering her Newman pride! And it's equally possible that she's simply arrogant and full of herself and exaggerates her own prowess! It's not that hard to think outside the box, folks! Really, it isn't! (And I've been using far too many exclamation points in this paragraph, dammit!)

Also, giving me a 3 on concept for "bland and boring story" when story was never a part of it in the first place? Yes, I think you're totally full of shit. Gawdamnit.

I can only hope the next judges do not repeat these mistakes. I can only hope that my anger isn't simply blinding me and that my complaints are actually perfectly reasonable (hey, it's hard to tell through all the red).

Otherwise, it was fun. I enjoyed myself up to that point, and it was joyous to see all the effort people put into their characters. Just... not so much the judging. This isn't American Idol, after all, and like Idalia said, none of the participants were terrible enough to warrant that kind of treatment.

[BIGGIEstyle]

I apologize in advance if this is rubbing salt in a still-fresh wound, but I have to get this off my chest.

Unfortunately, I am not the kind of individual that is wont to simply let slights slide without comment. Well, it may not even matter, as those who this post is directed to are unlikely to show up next time or even read this post.

Biggie has already mentioned the appearance issue (props to you for all the good work, by the way), but I simply have to touch on something else.

First of all, the in-game racism would have been perfectly fine had it been balanced (as in, one or two of each race, all of whom are equally biased towards their own kind) and warning had been given in advance, but otherwise it has absolutely no place in an actual contest. Viewing it from a distance would have been amusing had I not been on the receiving end. I don't think I even need to explain why I'm so totally miffed by this.

Secondly, the equipment...

Fuck's sake, people! I've been playing for LESS THAN A MONTH! I have SIX melee weapons, ALL of which are different elements, and I've been levelling both shop PAs for all six of them! That's TWELVE PAs, in the space of maybe four weeks! I refuse to believe that it is the norm for people to somehow get ALL of them to 21 within that space of time (if it is, good lord, what have I been doing all this time?), and likewise with the equipment - all of it is A-rank or higher, all of them have decent percentages (save the neutral weapon), and frankly the Crea weapons fit perfectly well considering her Newman pride! And it's equally possible that she's simply arrogant and full of herself and exaggerates her own prowess! It's not that hard to think outside the box, folks! Really, it isn't! (And I've been using far too many exclamation points in this paragraph, dammit!)

Also, giving me a 3 on concept for "bland and boring story" when story was never a part of it in the first place? Yes, I think you're totally full of shit. Gawdamnit.

I can only hope the next judges do not repeat these mistakes. I can only hope that my anger isn't simply blinding me and that my complaints are actually perfectly reasonable (hey, it's hard to tell through all the red).

Otherwise, it was fun. I enjoyed myself up to that point, and it was joyous to see all the effort people put into their characters. Just... not so much the judging. This isn't American Idol, after all, and like Idalia said, none of the participants were terrible enough to warrant that kind of treatment.

1: There's a line between racism and things not working for a judge. If the judge was racist he would not party with the two female newman fighmasters in the judges panel. He just didn't like the way you presented yourself.

2: While this contest is not about who has the best gear and who has the best PAs, some character concepts would make them be more influential. Take Mimosa for example:

A CAST Masterforce. A lackluster combination of type and race. Her concept states that she trained with the divine maiden. Someone who had frequent training sessions with the Divine maiden would have one of two things: Very nice gear, or very nice technique levels. Mimo had both. She also stated that Mimosa never finished her training, something she showed by having many PAs that were lower levelled and some equipment that could be upgraded in the future. She fit very well with her concept.

Your Newman is a badass as you put it. She fights because she likes fighting and is tough and skilled, etc...

There are two ways to show that your character can dish out as much as they can talk: Decent weapons (not even S ranks, good A ranks are easy to come by) or high PA levels. Since you made the point that fighting isn't about your weapons but about your strength, that only left your PAs, which while a bulk of them were good (level 21 is a VERY GOOD place to be at in less than a month of gameplay) you did have a few that we're low levelled that could either have been levelled or taken off to make the rest look better. After all, would your character put up with inadequacy in her fighting technique or would she better herself?

Also, you made the point that she might just be a big talker, or full of herself. We all got the full of herself, however you gave no indication that you were bluffing at all, your character more than gave the air of superiority you went for and we had no reason to disbelieve her. If you wanted to come off as a full-of-yourself blowhard, your character missed the mark.

While some of your low marks were because of a certain unfair judge, most were based off of what you presented to us. I agree that some things should have been taken into consideration (like the fact you are new to the game) but we cannot take them into consideration unless they're brought up. Honestly, I didn't know you were new until you said so. I don't play with my ID numbers up, nor was it something that I was using in the judging because it would be unfair to those with high IDs to be graded low for "Not doing as much with their character as they could"

3: The concept argument. I hate this arguement so here's my response, taken from the original post:

Concept: This field is the strong basis of the competition, and one the contestants should put the most emphasis on. Here each entrant will be given time to account the concept behind their character to the panel of judges. Entrants will be rated on how creative the concept is, and how well in line with the character's appearance it is.

While it says nowhere that you should have a story, it does say "This field is the strong basis of the competition, and one the contestants should put the most emphasis on." You should have no problems in being able to build a small conceptual story about your character if your concept is well planned. If you had been up first I would understand, but after you saw the first competitor do it you had ample time to think of something.

And on the note of your concept, I'll let you know something. Taking a concept that goes against the normal concepts everyone else has you will either be loved or hated. Don't be surprised if you try something different and people don't like it.

In the end, if you are being rated there are going to be hurt feelings. Judges make decisions based around personal opinions, and despite what people think the judges I have were picked because they all have different views on most subjects and they would be the most likely to disagree on things. If a lot of them agreed on a point it means that it's something to have improved upon.

One thing I noticed with all entrants who did less well than they'd like is this:

Lack of effort put into the competition. Just because it's a player event doesn't mean there shouldn't be a challenge. Hell, it doesn't even mean you shouldn't put WORK into it. The prizes I'm giving away are FAR MORE valuable than ANYTHING a GM sponsored event has given away, so why should they go to people who didn't read and interpret the rules and focus on making their character as good as they could possibly be?

If I made an exception for you based on the fact that you were a new player it would be unfair to the others who put the time and effort into making their characters shine in the event. Not everyone who participated is rich, nor were all of them very long-time players. I know one of the contestants commented that your character was higher level than ALL of theirs.

And please stop complaining about the votes of the judge in question. As you well know that judge's votes were removed from ALL competitors scores, evening the playing field. With those votes removed you were not treated any less fairly then anyone else. If you did not understand a rule you had more than enough time to contact me and ask before the event started.

If you would like to continue the discussion after you have calmed down, please PM me, as I'd rather not clutter the thread with arguments.

[Mimo]

Concept: This field is the strong basis of the competition, and one the contestants should put the most emphasis on. Here each entrant will be given time to account the concept behind their character to the panel of judges. Entrants will be rated on how creative the concept is, and how well in line with the character's appearance it is.



Seeing as how this is the most strongest field, shouldnt you have started the judging by this, instead of looking at the appearance first? Some of the judges gave me a bad rating on appearance before they even knew why i was dressed the way i was. I was going for earthly colors, and yes someone did say that my outfit looked like "it was soaked in urine" >> Like someone told me. "Anyone who associates the color yellow with PlSS, is obviously a five year old giving off vulgar comments instead of constructive criticism." Im sorry guys, but one or two of the judges passed their time at the club to just troll. You have to realize that some people who work hard in their concept is going to get offended. (not me, i KNOW my concept needs work ;P)

Anyways, the event was okay, knowing I was gonna lose, I stayed to the end to hear the BG stories of other contestants. Was the most interesting aspect of the event. n-n!

-cant believe that rust lost D: finally getting to read it, that was the best story i ever heard

-tears- xD (tears of laughter that is) :3

[BIGGIEstyle]

The judges in question have been spoke to and will never be put up as judges again. It was not widely known but none of my originally planned judges showed up other than Idalia and I had to build an ENTIRE panel of judges on the spot.

Nobody deserved the rude things that were said and I'm deeply sorry if some of my idiot members offended you.

Also, I thought your concept was pretty cool Mimo, the only thing I would have done differently is instead of the yellow coloring for your outfit I would have gone with the tan color (Body color 1 I believe) as that's more "earthy" to me. I'm sorry but I'm still not a fan of yellow, although I think your look was good looking aside from my own personal dislike of the color.

Anyhow, I was asked by a few of the contestants to post up the final results of the contest since the votes changed due to a loss of a judge, so the votes tallied up as follows:

(Overall scores are listed, for each segment's score, feel free to PM me ^_^)

9.1 : Sita Beta
8.6 : Helosie
8.1 : Zyroko Neko
7.5 : Rust
7.3 : Enzylon-2
7.1 : Tied Vote: Teranu and Mimosa

Rust, I know you were curious as to your personal scores so I'll be PMing those to you as well. Anyone else wanting to know their segment scores feel free to drop me a line.

[Rust]

Even though I truly think my character got one of the most original background around there, it doesn't really surprise me I haven't even made it to 3rd place ; like I said, I really overlooked preparing that event.

Not only my concept exposure was a bit short, but I just typed what was going through my mind without having planned it beforehand. Didn't really took me much effort to even think about it, as I was just ripping it from the background I had already made for him and all my other characters since ages.
Maybe I really would have been more disappointed if I had taken like a whole day to prepare stuff and all, but the reality is the PAs I worked on Rust weren't the lightning and dark ones I thought would fit the best to him, so I bought lvl 1 ones on the spot.
Same goes for the equipment ; most of the "toy weapons" belong to category of weapons I never use. I don't like grenade launchers (not to add I usually play as a GT), so I transfered the Song for Death from my human PT, bought the Koltova Gun for 900k in a shop (not a loss nonetheless, I wanted to try out one eventually, and it made me giggle). And since I like to have a different weapon type in each slot of my weapon palette, the saber "spot" both the Bulb and the Fan would take was already taken by the Frying Pan I usually use.

But I don't regret having entered Rust anyways.
I would have bombed in the equipment/PAs department on the other three characters I have ; primarily because I don't enjoy grinding or hunting items just for the heck of it, so my PAs are leveling as I play, and I find my equipment the same way. I'm therefore ill-equipped on my lvl 110ish WT, and my two others characters are under lvl 30. Not really matching their character profile, I'm afraid.
I find the BG I made for 'em pretty bland anyways ; at least, the one I made for PSU. This game never managed to make me want RP on it, so I never felt like building an interesting and developed background story for any of them. Compared to D&D (or any other tabletop RPG), from which all four of my PSU characters are taken from, I feel too limited on a MMO or a message board to do proper RP. I bothered making a full-developed background story for each of those chars in my campaign, because both me and my players are interested enough in it to make it worth putting in its world enough effort and work so it would seem as lively as possible.

Long post is long.
I was at first just going to point out how Rust was my best and most distressful bet, and why I thought I wouldn't have deserved to win in that competition if I happened to have.
Sorry for the digression.

[autumn]

Rust we were glad to have you there, listening to your history was well worth all the nonsense that went on ^_^

We'll be having another go at this style of event in the future. You don't get through life without making mistakes and I learned a ton about running events from this one.

[Zyrusticae]

You have to realize that some people who work hard in their concept is going to get offended. (not me, i KNOW my concept needs work ;P)
This. A thousand times, this.

Am I really that bad? Really?

You know, it just doesn't feel right when, for all the effort I put into this, I end up tied for last with someone who outright admits a lack of effort on her part. Every bit of gear, her PAs, her clothing was done with what I originally had in mind, and never once did I stray from this.

Yeah, sure, I fully expect to run into a difference of opinion somewhere. But...

I am at a loss for words.

It hurt.

I will freely admit I made some mistakes. I react poorly under pressure. If someone gets on my wrong side I will quickly reciprocate. But that, one would hope, never entered into the competition, so am I really that bad? I mean, that's what it felt like to me, and why I spent the latter half slowly and quietly venting my outrage. It made me want to quit. Hell, I was going to quit right around the accessory judgement. (In retrospect, I should have. That was naff.)

The fact is, I'm still feeling it. I get the feeling I'd do infinitely better on a second try, but my pride simply can't take a second blow. I tried. I got burned as badly as someone who didn't try. What does that say about me?

Edit: I don't need any more apologies, you've done enough of that. I just... I need to vent.

[Mimo]

Uhm, LOL you can have sixth place, my intention out of this contest wasn't to win, it was just to hear what the judges had to say on my BG story, since I am really bad at writing and brainstorming ideas. I didn't find the critique I was looking for, but I did get to hear some inspiring stories from the other contestants. Also I may not have tried my best on the concept but as for high lvld pa's/weaps, I broke fingers and spent countless hours to get them. And yellow was my original color since I began playing PSU so huzzah! n_n;

Anyways, when I think about it... I kinda entered this competition by mistake lol. I'm not really into roleplaying, but I wanted to try and share my lame side story xP
-which I summarized badly ;-;

Congrats to the winners! :3

[Zyrusticae]

While I won't deny the time and, to some extent, effort required to get such weaponry and level all those PAs, you have a natural advantage, what with starting nearly a year before I did.

Also, while I have continually emphasized the great irony in the poor newbie being jinxed out of any sort of prize (seriously, if you're not the victim it's horribly amusing - does the underdog ever get the gold?), I'm really just a whore for approval/awe/envy/what-have-you. I wanted to impress people, entertain them, put my name out there. Give people a glimpse of something different.

Instead I get a crash course in the harsh realities of the entertainment industry (as in, there's a reason why old characters and stories get rehashed over, and over, and over, and over again). Well, the original judges and the audience definitely got a kick out of it. I guess I'll just try to pretend those impromptu-judges didn't exist, and then my mission is accomplished.

...Well, no. The hurt's still there...

[BIGGIEstyle]

While I won't deny the time and, to some extent, effort required to get such weaponry and level all those PAs, you have a natural advantage, what with starting nearly a year before I did.

Also, while I have continually emphasized the great irony in the poor newbie being jinxed out of any sort of prize (seriously, if you're not the victim it's horribly amusing - does the underdog ever get the gold?), I'm really just a whore for approval/awe/envy/what-have-you. I wanted to impress people, entertain them, put my name out there. Give people a glimpse of something different.

Instead I get a crash course in the harsh realities of the entertainment industry (as in, there's a reason why old characters and stories get rehashed over, and over, and over, and over again). Well, the original judges and the audience definitely got a kick out of it. I guess I'll just try to pretend those impromptu-judges didn't exist, and then my mission is accomplished.

...Well, no. The hurt's still there...

You were not jinxed out of anything. You had a very grand concept that was a little too grand for your playtime. That's what the flaw was.

Many of the judges liked your concept, even the impromptu ones. The reason the votes were low was because if your character was really the badass that you portrayed her as- and you did a great job at convincing the judges- she would have looked better as a character, If you couldn't make her look any better, then you should've brought the concept down a bit to match the character, something like "I'm a badass. Instead of focusing on skill with one type of weapon or a single skill, I try to embrace all forms of combat." or "I'm a badass, while my skill may be a bit rusty, I make up for it with intelligence and quick thinking, a skill I have over the beast fighters due to my newman heritage."

Your scores didn't lack because of not having rares or lack of play time. It was lack of preparation and a minor lack of being able to adapt your concept to your character's ability.

You said that you wanted to impress people, entertain them, put your name out there. I thought that your monologue was amazingly well done. You included many lobby actions to accentuate your emotions and you used cut-ins very effectively in your presentation. I was very impressed with it. And between this competition and you recently being picked as one of the models for the Top Newman, I think you did a great job of getting your name out there as well.

If you're hurt I'm really sorry, but the people who scored higher than you did so because their overall presentation was better, not because of bias.

Rust's equipment was not rare, expensive, or hard to get. Rust also didn't put very much time into getting ready for the event. But what he presented was humorous and worked very well together.

Enzylon had some nice gear, which did well to compliment his concept as a TOP-MODEL Gunner. He also had some FANTASTIC shortcuts that really did wonders for his score.

Zyroko lacked in both gear AND PA levels. His concept was a lazy cat. Simple, but a lazy cat wouldn't have very good gear or PAs. It fit well. His Macros were amazingly in sync with that concept and he very much acted like a cat in every aspect. That's why he scored high.

Helosie had one of the most generic stories around. However, it was presented well, and while his gear was made up of easy to come by items (all neutral as well btw), each one fit well into his character's desire to protect others. Not to mention in his run I purposely ran into swarms of enemies only to have him take hits for me and kill enemies before they hit me. Talk about dedication to their concept.

Sita Beta. I can't say anything really. I watched everyone participating say that they lost after hearing Sita's concept. Sita put some serious work into their character and it showed.

Mimosa, I was very pleased to have you here, and again, sorry for the immaturity. The reason you scored low is from a bunch of reasons... for some judges it was because they didn't like Cast techers. For others it was because they didn't like your look. For others- well I could go on forever about others, but here's why I gave you low marks: It wasn't that you were yellow. It was that your parts were yellow, which clashed with your pea green hair, which in turn also clashed with the pink ribbon you wore. I waited while you went through your concept hoping you'd have an anecdote about the ribbon, but you didnt T_T. Also I was hoping for a reason why Mimosa was picked to train with the Divine Maiden instead of some other Caseal.

Teranu, I absolutely love seeing things different than other people. I REALLY wanted it to work for you, but as you said, you did the best you could with the time you've been playing. I think the main problem was that your character was a little "too big for her britches". You did a wonderful job drawing us into your concept, but when we came out of it there was nothing to back it up :P

The only advice I can really give everyone is to not take things too personally. It's a game, not your life. I know it's hard to have people tear into a character you put time, effort, and feelings into, but in the end, you can just walk away from it. It's nothing to obsess over. If you didn't score as high as you hoped to it doesn't make your character any less special to YOU, so who cares what a bunch of judges think?

[Volcompat321]

i had fun, even tho 4 hours was a long time....i wasnt doing anything better, and i got bored of hunting serafi, which i did after and FOUND another one :D so i didnt win in the competition, but i won after ! thanks guys, and i look forward to some more!

[Rust]

If you didn't score as high as you hoped to it doesn't make your character any less special to YOU, so who cares what a bunch of judges think?

Completely agreed with this.
I obviously would have went all drama and stuff for not having been picked twice for the Phashion polls, but the reality is that no matter what the results are, I still find my characters better than most other players' ; after all, they're all made after my personal tastes, so not like other people's opinion would change it much.

I can also say that I understand how difficult it is for judges to be as unpartial as possible ; I'm terribly biased myself just so you know. If I had been a judge in either that or a character appearance contest, any male CAST with a fleshy face or female character wearing a Voloyal/CAS-oyal Set would have got insanely low votes from me, for the very simple reason I always found both those kinds of character looking terrible. :lol:

[Cell132]

Completely agreed with this.
I obviously would have went all drama and stuff for not having been picked twice for the Phashion polls, but the reality is that no matter what the results are, I still find my characters better than most other players' ; after all, they're all made after my personal tastes, so not like other people's opinion would change it much.

I can also say that I understand how difficult it is for judges to be as unpartial as possible ; I'm terribly biased myself just so you know. If I had been a judge in either that or a character appearance contest, any male CAST with a fleshy face or female character wearing a Voloyal/CAS-oyal Set would have got insanely low votes from me, for the very simple reason I always found both those kinds of character looking terrible. :lol:

I agree as well. It's just like any other critique. There are very mean people out there who just give you bad critiques for fun. You just have to filter out the bad ones from the good. And even then, SOMETIMES (rarely) there's a good point the bad critique addressed to be improved upon. But still, dwelling on the bad gets you nowhere, and stunts your growth which is the worse part.

Like they said, if you like it, it doesn't matter much what they say. Keep building on it, and one day you might get to a point where they have to eat their words. (I love seeing someone who hated me, or disliked my way of doing something eat their words)

[Mimo]

Also I was hoping for a reason why Mimosa was picked to train with the Divine Maiden instead of some other Caseal.



Im a FOCAseal! Training with the Divine Maiden helps me explain how I became a Techer instead of a gunner or fighter. But who knows, I might change this while I continue to develope my characters story ^^

Not like anyone cares, but I was practically the only player with mint hair/yellow outfit when I started playing PSU. I will always have mint hair. I picked yellow because its a happy color and it just suits me the best. ;s

Anyways, CG's all around to both competitors and judges for trying :3

*
PS. Teranu, sorry you feel sour about losing but dont feel discouraged to enter future events! I'm sure you'll do good in that modeling poll. Good luck! ^^

[Seority]

Ya'll know that Taniko would of won hands down.
Ya'll were just battlin' for 2nd place yo.



EDIT: To make a valid point though;

This whole event seems unfair to begin with.
I mean, the actual judges didn't even show up, and you just grabbed some quick ones on the spot? Awful! If anything, I think you should re-do this event, but planned more thoroughly and with the right staff this time lol.
I know this would of been unfair to me, because I see some of your judges and know that they are against me (for reasons that have no reasoning to begin with lol), making them biased to judge me low even if my char is made of solid awesome.

So, if you're up to it and wish to do it again, I'd say that be much more satisfying to everyone.

[autumn]

Guaranteed we'll be doing another one of these, seeing the competitors themselves was a lot of fun and some of the concepts were amazing. Its going to be a little while before this happens but we'll have it all over the place once we decide when. We're looking over this and trying to work out some of the kinks, and trying to figure out how to keep it going at a reasonable speed.

I also have a few of our members in mind to judge who I think are excellent fits (and who won't warrant a dressing down after the event for either being an idiot or no-showing on their friends).

[Volcompat321]

need any donations for prizes? i havea few 5/10 GM weps i could throw in :D maybe a granahodorac or 2 also

[Zyrusticae]

Alright, I'm over it.

Anyways, I just had an idea. I think it'd be good to have the judges ask the contestants questions before making their judgements. Y'know, "why do you have this?" types of questions that can help narrow down the player's intentions, as well as guiding the player in vague topics such as the "Concept" category. It could definitely help prevent cases where certain elements are completely absent due to no fault of the player's own (as it can be hard to remember to cover everything within a limited timeframe).

Just a thought.

[BIGGIEstyle]

That's a good point Zyrusticae I'll keep that in mind for the future.

You're right, as I'm certain that it's hard to include EVERYTHING when you're nervously typing out your characters info in a short time period.

Thanks to all the input I think a second event like this will turn out MUCH better.

[Hosaka]

(and who won't warrant a dressing down after the event for either being an idiot or no-showing on their friends).

I did apologize, but... T_T