Thats what I was thinking too brave, you only hold the icon for the month following your victory, until a new winner is announced.
Emulators should be fine, as long as everyones honest. This whole idea revolves around the idea that people are required to practice honesty in their submissions. Personally, i dont see the point in cheating, like others have mentioned. Lie and "scam" the community you want to gain "recognition" in, for what? An icon?
I just thought it would be a fun idea to incorporate into the ezine, another reason to be excited when the new issue is about to come out.
I love the discussion so far, lets make this thing happen!
Yeah, I agree that the icon should only stay for the month after you are declared the winner of the contest. So, if the contest were to run throughout October, then the last day to submit a score would be October 31st. Then, the winner would have the NES cart icon displayed under their ranking (or someplace near there) from November 1st-November 30th.
Also, I think that emulators should be fine, since it is just a friendly competition. Personally, I would rather not compete that month than play on an emulator, but to each his own. I remember the NES contest held last February did not allow emulators (only the cart and an actual NES), but they were playing for real money, which is completely different.
And the last contest, they needed to prove by pictures their scores. Personally I would be against that, as don't have a camera anymore and can't upload pictures with my shitty 56K connection. By the way, this is a great great idea and a good opportunity to try the game we never play.
The only thing with running it until the last day of the month, is it might make it hard on the guys who make the ezine, since it comes out on the 1st.
It would have to be 3 weeks: from the 1st till the 21st, every month. No late entries or exceptions. Really, this is a very long duration for any contest though, the best contests are only a week or two max. People get frustrated, lose interest, just plain forget about it, etc after a few days of trying.
Photo record really shouldn't be necessary but I would greatly encourage it. Being a visual medium, the e-Zine always benefits from great crazy pics of our community. If you've got something stellar, or even something passable and you want to make a fool of yourself, set the camera to 15-second delay and jump in front of it. We may put you in the gallery even if you're not a top finisher.
This is really a great idea! One suggestion though...
I like the idea of the cartridge icon staying with one person one month, and then going to another person the next month, but how about a sticky that records winners by month? That way your accomplishments live on forever in a thread, but we don't have elevnty billion new icons on the site. I have no problem keeping a thread like that up to date if anyone is interested, it can also have a list of the rules and requirements.
A photo should either be required or strongly encouraged. Not just for proof that the feet has been made, but as Dan said Ezine = Pictures!
I'm glad everybody seems interested in this one! It's definitely an exciting idea.
My stance: any means of playing should be allowed. The purpose is to encourage people to play games they might not otherwise play. I don't want to burden people financially when the whole purpose is FUN.
I think you guys are thinking to small? Just once a month? I think this should be an ongoing event. Like a twin galaxies on NA. Lets face it Twin Galaxies has the best players in the world. Many of us would not even try to compete. Did you guys play these games when they came out to be the best in the world? Or was it to be the best among your friends? I stated in my other thread that we should get a board devoted to it. I would be totally up for organizing and judging the game play if no one wants to. I would also be fine with organizing tournaments (maybe we could even get some prizes going) and even giving out game tips to those who ask. I do really want to be a part of this website and I really do think that this is the way I can do it. Im sure this is a good idea and everyone would benefit from it...
Its hard to get participation, sure people start out motivated, but they lose interest quick. I think the ezine contest idea will work out much better honestly.
Its hard to get participation, sure people start out motivated, but they lose interest quick. I think the ezine contest idea will work out much better honestly.
How do you come to this conclusion? In what way would people lose interest? If player A loses his Hi-score to player B do you think that Player A will just leave it? To keep interest I would be willing to organize 3-5 weekly tournaments. We are a community here at NA and I believe that this would only help us ban together.
Im not saying forget the Ezine contests...maybe they could be big ones with more benefits. All im saying is that we would benefit a lot more as a community we had a board dedicated to this. I think a lot of us are losing our ways. I mean didn't we start this hobby in the first place because of our love for the product?
As for participation i'm sure people would be willing to participate as long as its advertised correctly. I am a marketing student, so again I would be willing to organize all the advertising as well. I promise you will find it much more fun on a daily/weekly/monthly basis then just monthly.
^ Have you ever participated in a gaming competition on an internet forum? Trust us, people lose interest What we've got in this thread right here is called "bar talk" - Oh yeah dude, I'd LOVE To fly with you to Mexico tomorrow morning... count me in duder!!!! - but once it comes time to actually participate, everyone ends up singing a whole other tune.
That said, I think this'll be fun if it's tied to the ezine and stays regular.
Chris - I think the idea with more staying power would be to do this gradually and use the eZine as a vehicle for publicity like we've talked about. Keeping things narrow in scope to begin with will keep it from getting watered down or overwhelming early on.
Hmmm I must say I have not participated in an internet video game contest however...I have ran a 3 day video game contest for a final project for a business class. We produced revenues of over $1200 over the course of 3 days if that would hold any credibility to me.
The thing I did learn is gamers are very lazy and need their hand held in order to get things done...and im the one who can hold their hand.
We pumped out the ads like no tommorow. Most of the money came from food and beverage. I managed to rent some aracade machines from a local arcade for very cheap because it was for a school. I then lined the machines down the hall to the room the tournaments were taking place. I had a guy run up and down the school each day of the tournament yelling things like "WE FOUND PRINCESS PEACH COME WITH ME!"
Lots of little things like that alloud us to get the highest mark for the project and produce the most profit.
I'm not positive that translates into being able to motivate people to actively pursue an NAge high score table over the long term, though.
I can see people being excited about a regular competition if promoted/managed correctly. But from what I've seen here and at AtariAge, the longer term contests/leaderboards lose their following pretty quickly.
Haha. Well, that's what we're going to try with the monthly stuff in the eZine. When that gains some traction, then maybe something bigger is needed.
I would rather get something started with a decent likelihood of success in the long term, than go "whole-hog" and burn out after a brief period of excitement.
Compared to any previous efforts, this would be pioneering enough, I think.
And we'd be happy to have the help! Welcome aboard! Hopefully I haven't crushed your spirit with my reality check
I guess right now we need to make a decision on the 1st game to use for the competition. Then we can get the first set of results posted in December issue.
Personally, I think we should offer a challenge from 3 separate games each time. This will provide a little more variety, and may let more people be involved in the process. The challenge doesn't necessarily have to be a high score.
For instance: (1) Swordless Zelda -- snap a pic of Link fighting Ganon with no sword in his inventory. (person who does it with the least number of heart cases wins!)
(2) Mario 3 - time attack on specific levels (make people play levels from the less-played worlds of the game)
I also think to fill the thing out to at least half a page we should post the top 5 contestants (with top 20 or so posted in the forums following the release of the issue).
Only the winner would get the winner's icon, though.
Expanding on the 3 separate games idea...what if we have 3 categories of challenge:
(1) High Score - just like it sounds
(2) Time Attack - should be from a game with a timer so that it's easy to judge or record
(3) Challenge - something specific and difficult like the swordless zelda
Coming up with good games/challenges that meet the three categories will be a little bit of work each month, but I think it will be neat and set this apart from a simple high score competition.
Also, each category will have a color-coded winner's icon, so you'll know who pulled off what feat each month.
And we'd be happy to have the help! Welcome aboard! Hopefully I haven't crushed your spirit with my reality check
I guess right now we need to make a decision on the 1st game to use for the competition. Then we can get the first set of results posted in December issue.
Personally, I think we should offer a challenge from 3 separate games each time. This will provide a little more variety, and may let more people be involved in the process. The challenge doesn't necessarily have to be a high score.
For instance: (1) Swordless Zelda -- snap a pic of Link fighting Ganon with no sword in his inventory. (person who does it with the least number of heart cases wins!)
(2) Mario 3 - time attack on specific levels (make people play levels from the less-played worlds of the game)
I also think to fill the thing out to at least half a page we should post the top 5 contestants (with top 20 or so posted in the forums following the release of the issue).
Only the winner would get the winner's icon, though.
Expanding on the 3 separate games idea...what if we have 3 categories of challenge:
(1) High Score - just like it sounds
(2) Time Attack - should be from a game with a timer so that it's easy to judge or record
(3) Challenge - something specific and difficult like the swordless zelda
Coming up with good games/challenges that meet the three categories will be a little bit of work each month, but I think it will be neat and set this apart from a simple high score competition.
Also, each category will have a color-coded winner's icon, so you'll know who pulled off what feat each month.
Thats good...Off the top of my head for challenges: Burgertime with out using peper SMB with out using power ups How far can you get in SMB3 if you hit every level in order and use no Mushroom houses or out of game powerups
Comments
Emulators should be fine, as long as everyones honest. This whole idea revolves around the idea that people are required to practice honesty in their submissions. Personally, i dont see the point in cheating, like others have mentioned. Lie and "scam" the community you want to gain "recognition" in, for what? An icon?
I just thought it would be a fun idea to incorporate into the ezine, another reason to be excited when the new issue is about to come out.
I love the discussion so far, lets make this thing happen!
Also, I think that emulators should be fine, since it is just a friendly competition. Personally, I would rather not compete that month than play on an emulator, but to each his own. I remember the NES contest held last February did not allow emulators (only the cart and an actual NES), but they were playing for real money, which is completely different.
Photo record really shouldn't be necessary but I would greatly encourage it. Being a visual medium, the e-Zine always benefits from great crazy pics of our community. If you've got something stellar, or even something passable and you want to make a fool of yourself, set the camera to 15-second delay and jump in front of it. We may put you in the gallery even if you're not a top finisher.
I like the idea of the cartridge icon staying with one person one month, and then going to another person the next month, but how about a sticky that records winners by month? That way your accomplishments live on forever in a thread, but we don't have elevnty billion new icons on the site. I have no problem keeping a thread like that up to date if anyone is interested, it can also have a list of the rules and requirements.
A photo should either be required or strongly encouraged. Not just for proof that the feet has been made, but as Dan said Ezine = Pictures!
My stance: any means of playing should be allowed. The purpose is to encourage people to play games they might not otherwise play. I don't want to burden people financially when the whole purpose is FUN.
My stance: any means of playing should be allowed.
Fine, then maybe I'll use my Famicom
Zzap - if you have time and inclination to do that accurately, I wouldn't dare stand in your way
Let me know what you guys think.
Its hard to get participation, sure people start out motivated, but they lose interest quick. I think the ezine contest idea will work out much better honestly.
How do you come to this conclusion? In what way would people lose interest? If player A loses his Hi-score to player B do you think that Player A will just leave it? To keep interest I would be willing to organize 3-5 weekly tournaments. We are a community here at NA and I believe that this would only help us ban together.
Im not saying forget the Ezine contests...maybe they could be big ones with more benefits. All im saying is that we would benefit a lot more as a community we had a board dedicated to this. I think a lot of us are losing our ways. I mean didn't we start this hobby in the first place because of our love for the product?
As for participation i'm sure people would be willing to participate as long as its advertised correctly. I am a marketing student, so again I would be willing to organize all the advertising as well. I promise you will find it much more fun on a daily/weekly/monthly basis then just monthly.
Thanks
~Chris
That said, I think this'll be fun if it's tied to the ezine and stays regular.
Chris - I think the idea with more staying power would be to do this gradually and use the eZine as a vehicle for publicity like we've talked about. Keeping things narrow in scope to begin with will keep it from getting watered down or overwhelming early on.
Hmmm I must say I have not participated in an internet video game contest however...I have ran a 3 day video game contest for a final project for a business class. We produced revenues of over $1200 over the course of 3 days if that would hold any credibility to me.
The thing I did learn is gamers are very lazy and need their hand held in order to get things done...and im the one who can hold their hand.
Lots of little things like that alloud us to get the highest mark for the project and produce the most profit.
I'm not positive that translates into being able to motivate people to actively pursue an NAge high score table over the long term, though.
I can see people being excited about a regular competition if promoted/managed correctly. But from what I've seen here and at AtariAge, the longer term contests/leaderboards lose their following pretty quickly.
I would rather get something started with a decent likelihood of success in the long term, than go "whole-hog" and burn out after a brief period of excitement.
Compared to any previous efforts, this would be pioneering enough, I think.
I guess right now we need to make a decision on the 1st game to use for the competition. Then we can get the first set of results posted in December issue.
Personally, I think we should offer a challenge from 3 separate games each time. This will provide a little more variety, and may let more people be involved in the process. The challenge doesn't necessarily have to be a high score.
For instance: (1) Swordless Zelda -- snap a pic of Link fighting Ganon with no sword in his inventory. (person who does it with the least number of heart cases wins!)
(2) Mario 3 - time attack on specific levels (make people play levels from the less-played worlds of the game)
I also think to fill the thing out to at least half a page we should post the top 5 contestants (with top 20 or so posted in the forums following the release of the issue).
Only the winner would get the winner's icon, though.
Expanding on the 3 separate games idea...what if we have 3 categories of challenge:
(1) High Score - just like it sounds
(2) Time Attack - should be from a game with a timer so that it's easy to judge or record
(3) Challenge - something specific and difficult like the swordless zelda
Coming up with good games/challenges that meet the three categories will be a little bit of work each month, but I think it will be neat and set this apart from a simple high score competition.
Also, each category will have a color-coded winner's icon, so you'll know who pulled off what feat each month.
Only kidding, I think this is a really cool idea.
For the challenges I was kind of inspired by the old Super Power Club cards...but those challenges are for wimps.
Expanding on the 3 separate games idea...what if we have 3 categories of challenge:
(1) High Score - just like it sounds
(2) Time Attack - should be from a game with a timer so that it's easy to judge or record
(3) Challenge - something specific and difficult like the swordless zelda
I like this idea quite a bit.
And we'd be happy to have the help! Welcome aboard! Hopefully I haven't crushed your spirit with my reality check
I guess right now we need to make a decision on the 1st game to use for the competition. Then we can get the first set of results posted in December issue.
Personally, I think we should offer a challenge from 3 separate games each time. This will provide a little more variety, and may let more people be involved in the process. The challenge doesn't necessarily have to be a high score.
For instance: (1) Swordless Zelda -- snap a pic of Link fighting Ganon with no sword in his inventory. (person who does it with the least number of heart cases wins!)
(2) Mario 3 - time attack on specific levels (make people play levels from the less-played worlds of the game)
I also think to fill the thing out to at least half a page we should post the top 5 contestants (with top 20 or so posted in the forums following the release of the issue).
Only the winner would get the winner's icon, though.
Expanding on the 3 separate games idea...what if we have 3 categories of challenge:
(1) High Score - just like it sounds
(2) Time Attack - should be from a game with a timer so that it's easy to judge or record
(3) Challenge - something specific and difficult like the swordless zelda
Coming up with good games/challenges that meet the three categories will be a little bit of work each month, but I think it will be neat and set this apart from a simple high score competition.
Also, each category will have a color-coded winner's icon, so you'll know who pulled off what feat each month.
Thats good...Off the top of my head for challenges:
Burgertime with out using peper
SMB with out using power ups
How far can you get in SMB3 if you hit every level in order and use no Mushroom houses or out of game powerups