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Enter a cryptic contest, you don't even have to obey the rules!
IonCharged
Member Posts: 3
The thread title says it all really.
Cryptic just announced the winner of their recent alien identification contest and posted the winners entry on their site. It weighs in at slightly over 600 words, double the 300 word limit they imposed and which most people obeyed in good faith.
Everyone there is rightly confused. The thread which was posted along with the announcement is filled with people wanting an explanation. It was closed with the explanation that the entry was good enough to break the rules over and everyone who asked for an explanation was a poor sportsman.
Well, i suppose you'd be a poor sportsman if you knew the other team was hopped up on performance enhancing drugs and the umpires didn't do anything because "they're playing such good football."
I normally wouldn't come here to post this sort of thing but the response from cryptics community leader seemed to be completely uncalled for. I'd like to see what the wider mmo community thinks of this.
Comments
It shows a complete lack of professionalism almost all around.
First off, you don't hold a contest, impose rules and then choose not to enforce them at your leisure. It creates an atmosphere where the competition you're trying to create becomes moot. Every good submission that followed the guidelines was automatically at a huge disadvantage. 300 words is a about half a page and unless you're a nobel lauriette author creating something truly interesting with half a page is very, very difficult. I imagine that was the whole point of the word limit, but then a guy comes along and creates a full page submission, double that of others, and wins because it's 'good enough to ignore the rules.' Your analogy sums it up best.
It's absolutely no different than if this were professional sports and the refs looked the other way because a player was so good while doping. It's idiodic, unprofessional and I depending on what kind of agreement you agree to when you submit may even be illegal.
I know Cryptic bills themselves as more of a laid back developer, but come on. You NEVER and I mean NEVER create a contest and then choose a winner of that contest that didn't follow your guidelines.
Oh please quit whining. It was just a little scontest for a beta slot. Somthing for the community members to do to while away the time. It has no meaning on anything. So the story ran a little long. It was a good one, and it won. That's the end of the story.
This is an absolute non-issue. Some people need to seriously get a life.
By the way, this is in their contest "rules".
9. Modification
9.(a). Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, postpone, clarify, delay, suspend and/or terminate this Contest in whole or in part in the event that the Contest is not capable of running as planned or as intended by this Official Rules and Submission Agreement by reason of any technical, disabling, human or other causes or events that, in the sole discretion of Sponsor, impair, corrupt or interrupt the administration, fairness, security or integrity or proper conduct of the Contest, including without limitation, fire, flood, natural disaster, explosion, labor dispute or strike, act of God or public enemy, terrorist threat or activity or insurrection. In such event, Sponsor may, in its sole discretion: (a) postpone and/or reschedule and/or modify the Contest, or (b) terminate the Contest in its entirety. In the event of postponement, rescheduling or modification of the Contest, a notice to such effect will be posted online. In the event of termination, a notice to such effect will be posted online and all eligible and salvageable Entries collected prior to the termination shall be included in the Contest for purposes of awarding the prizes (or prizes of substantially similar value), provided that a sufficient number of Entries are received, and Sponsor shall have no further liability to any Participant in connection with the Contest. In no event will Sponsor be obligated to award more prizes than the number of prizes stated in this Official Rules and Submission Agreement. Sponsor reserves the right to terminate this Contest or to modify any rules as necessary for any reason or as required by applicable law.
LMAO!!!!! You expect professionalism from Jack Emmert and Cryptic.....Thats hilarious!!!!! LOL
Thankyou for corroborating the title of the thread Hagonbok. As it states: you don't even have to obey the rules.
If they state it must be in English, you may feel free to write it in any language.
If they state 300 words or less, you may feel free to write any amount you wish.
If they state it must be in by a certain date, you may feel free to to put it in anytime between that date and their decision.
If they think it's good enough they will simply change the rules for you.
Which is exactly how it should be for a little meaningless contest for fun like this was.
I believe you have mixed up this contest with the Kobayashi Maru contest which is indeed just for fun. This was for a guarunteed beta slot and a forum title.
If you haven't then I must apologise. However if I'm wrong it then tells me much about your moral values.
600 words doesn't automatically give you an advantage. In fact Steven King is proof that more isn't better, his short stories are 10X better than his novels.
Move on man, its only a beta slot.
Well this thread certainly wins the title of "Who gives a shit?" I've seen quite a few mountains made out of mole hills in my time here, but this certainly qualifies as the biggest non issue ever thread. THat's saying something when you consider that the OP beats every SWG vet who complained every time a dev from SOE sneezed. And he did it by his third post.BRAVO.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Right, absolutely meaningless contest, just as I said.
As I posted on the offical forums, the issue is just not fair play but again the attention to details. Hell even the response from Awen was "oh well I didn't even notice the 300 word limit" Are you fucking serious? Your the head of community interactions and you had "no clue" ? LOL seriously guys, if this is the sign of things to come I don't think it would matter if perpetual or these fudge pushers would do any better. They are saying "this and that are in" yada yada, but you know what does it for me. The proof of your actions.
If you say one thing and do another what does that make you? If you say one thing and do another multiple times what does that make you? You see the trend? I sure do and if you don't , well then it won't matter what the game is like because you will "LOVE" it anyways. Burning a bridge once can be looked over, buring a bridge constantly does not and if you think this is one person out of many your are mistaken. Customer realtions aka your community representive is suppose to be in the know on all things related to their job would you not agree? What is so pressing that they are clueless? OH thats right, a new super hero game is coming out so all eyes and attention are there atm, well there you go to that detail, one company doing multiple projects, pulling resources from one to finish another, confusing their people and their developers on what they are on etc.
How do I know all of this ? call a really good guess and as a programmer (Ya we seem all to be one huh?) I know switching from one coding job to another is not like taking out the garbage one day and the recycle the next. All my code is on notes and in my head, when you ask me to go from one project back to another then back yet again to the first you bet I get confused and at times miss things. It is the way of things.
But alas, there are no issues here, the devs can crap dimonds from their asses and all is good with the world. LOL wake up and smell the bs. Sure, I went off way deep on a tagent here but like many that go "eh its just a contest big deal" .. you know what I will say when you scream imbalance? I was just say "it's just a game or its just balance live with it or leave" isn't that the new norm to deal with people not happy with a sisutation? Instead of calling someone on something or pointing out they are dead wrong it is.. "eh don't like it leave". Eh , just a new twist on the old Bill Clinton total denial statement, in the end it was dead wrong but to this day he will say "I didn't do it" How about O.J. , keep thinking like them and you might convince yourself the world is a perfect place and war's will never happen because no one hates you for your race, religion and or the company you keep.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
Anyone who has ever dealt with Atari ( Infogrames ) should not be surprised by this at all. This is the same shit they pull on their community all the time, why change now?
And for those who don't see the relevance in my statement because they may not know:
Atari bought and controls Cryptic. Atari is Cryptic, Cryptic is Atari.
LMAO!!!!! You expect professionalism from Jack Emmert and Cryptic.....Thats hilarious!!!!! LOL
in the past i thought people where being mean ,when stuff like that was said.
because i didn't know jack at the time....after looking at their boards for over a year and seeing how cryptic works...that statement is all too true
i think every one is aware of your standing on this issue.
i have a question, did you enter the contest ?
if not then you veiw has no weight ,because it doesnt involve you .
the way i see it....people are upset over what 2 maybe 3 beta slots that were handed out so far....now you cant really have a beta with only 2-3 people so really what people are upset about is they didn't win one of the first spots. since the beta will probably involve around a 1000 maybe more people, there will be plenty of spots available in the future thus the point is mute for those complaining that others who didn't participate shouldn't talk about it
I bet Batman would have some kind of awesome Bat-taunt that could let him hold aggro. - Atamasama
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
No, most people are not upset at losing the contest, it's the fact of how it was lost. By the company choosing to change the rules in order to pick the winner they wanted. And if the company is willing to do this for a contest, what makes you think they won't do similar shit in the game? Or in billing? Or in anything else? THAT is the issue.
If was that good, give the beta slot to the guy as an honorable mention and pick the runner up who read the offical rules of the contest.
It could be worse. Its hard to tell this story. I get mad just thinking of it.
Why yes, it does involve SOE.
Before Everquest 2 released, SOE sponsored conference in New Orleans. Players who attended got a free beta slot. They also had a story contest. They were going to announce the winner at the con.
I wrote a story. I went to New Orleans. In the orientation presentation, they mentioned the story contest. They said "everone who entered a story come up". Several of us did so. They pointed to a corner. We went and stood in the corner. Quite some time later, they said thanks. Then..nothing. The presentation petered out and people went to their rooms.
That was it. They never published any of the stories. Never declared a winner. Never said anyone's name. All they did was basically publicly shame people who entered the contest. It was humiliating.
Fucking sociopaths.
I write grant proposals and research papers all the time. They are given stirct rules on word/page limits. If you go over the examiner has every right to throw the whole proposal away or stop reading at the word/page limit.
Sometimes I go past this though if it is necessary to make the project make sense. I am willing to take the risk of it getting thrown out if I know there is no way the examiner will accept the underdeveloped proposal. If I do this, it is my job to make the examiner forget the rules and read on.
That's what happened in this competition! I'm telling you, it happens all the time in the real world. This was a totally acceptable decision. There is precident on things that matter so much more than beta key competitons.
As an asside: they ended up giving the beta key to the runner up as well.
Sometimes small things speak volumes - if you can READ them. Cryptic is a bunch of fools, and their moderators are even worse. What a waste of time. Woe for the Trek franchise that it was given to them. I liked the idea of Perpetual way more.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I think someone may just be worried that STO will be a better game than his precious SW:TOR. Honestly, both games will have their own merrits. STO will have a lot of group dynamics and SW:TOR will have an in depth somewhat dynamic solo story line in line with the KOTOR series. In the end it is about game polish. I have pretty solid confidence in both Cryptic and Bioware. I don't see the point of misrepresenting Cryptic though.
The moderrator who made the decision is simply a community moderrator. Even if this did somehow indicate something, which I still don't believe it did (read my previous post on the previous page), it only indicates something about a member who will have no say in STO's actual game play.