Sapphire7

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If you've really blown through every bit of content this game has to offer, on both sides, in 7 months...I think I can safely say you can forget about us ever being able to keep your appetite for new content sated.

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BaB is always so much nicer about these kinds of things than I would be. Of course he probably has to, given his position. Luckily I'm just a player and don't have to be nearly so cordial.

If you don't like the game, if you're bored with it, if it no longer entertains you: by all means, leave. Come back in a few months when there's more new content, reactivate your account for a while, and then when you get bored again? Leave. Unless there's someone holding a gun to your head forcing you to play the game, there's no reason you should play a game that you're not enjoying. (And if there IS someone holding a gun to your head, let us know so we can send the police in to rescue you!) There are plenty of people who have been around for a very, very long time and still find it quite enjoyable, new content and old. We'll keep the seat warm for when you want to come back.

Edited for grammar! Yay grammar!

Thank you very much! ^_^

The powerset choices were inspired by a friend. I heard him mention plant/ice and my brain went "*perk* HMMMM?" Not as if I need more alts, but hey. I don't know if he was talking about a plant/ice controller or a dominator, but either way the sets sounded like a lot of fun to put together. (I haven't done icy assault yet, either, and ice sword circle is making me drool. WANT!! *grabby hands*)

I have completed her design, thanks to all of the help I received here and in the Live Journal CoH community. I think I pretty much took something from everyone's idea, though I heavily borrowed from one person in particular. (And threw something of my own in there too!) Here is the final pic:

http://pics.livejournal.com/kwsapphire/pic/003kdwa1

Thank you again for all your help, everyone. I'm excited about this character, I'm sure she's going to be lots of fun to play!

Hmm, thank you for the design, Teenage Kid! For the ones I was doing I always had the hair basically the same color as the skin, but I think your design looks better, with the hair a much different color. It helps set off her face more.. thank you very much!

Thank you very much! I've received a few suggestions over on LJ as well, I am looking forward to integrating the ideas people have had. Very cool looking design, thanks again!

Not sure what forum this should go under, but I figured the artsy section was probably best.

I don't normally need help with costumes, but I just cannot wrap my head around this character. Any suggestions are welcome, but please don't take offense if I don't use your idea. (I've spent well over two hours on this myself and still can't come up with something I like.)

Here are three of my attempts, none of which are working for me:
http://pics.livejournal.com/kwsapphire/pic/003kchkk

- Must use Hair: Leaves with Flower
- Must use platform boots
- Color scheme above is preferred (bright baby blue, icy bright sea green, pink accents)
- Prefer something unique (not using the same costume piece, such as chiton, for every single part)
- Prefer something not cliche/overdone (goes hand in hand with above)
- I'm mostly uncomfortable with a lot of skin showing, but I have done tights to death so I'm open to ideas
- I'm kinda thinking of her being the child of a Devouring Earth somethingorother, so costume should make sense for that. (As in, probably not "school girl")
- Plant/Ice Dominator

Any ideas are very much appreciated! Thank you in advance!

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She's a demon who used to bring luck to pirates, but since she can't find any pirates anymore, she gives luck to the Bucs instead. (Please, no comments on the Bucs performance, yes I know, I just don't want to talk about it :P)

I'm a frothing Bucs fan, so all her bots are named after my favorite players.

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That's ten shades of cool.

Please tell me there's something in there about the old stadium and the curse.

Oh and she is helping! We aren't creamsicle orange anymore!


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*laughs* Thanks. I hadn't put in anything about the stadium and the curse... though that's a good idea!

She's a demon who used to bring luck to pirates, but since she can't find any pirates anymore, she gives luck to the Bucs instead. (Please, no comments on the Bucs performance, yes I know, I just don't want to talk about it :P)

I'm a frothing Bucs fan, so all her bots are named after my favorite players.

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Okay, maybe I'm just being really thick headed, but I can't figure out 8 down for anything. Does anyone else have any hints?

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First of all, Leandro's crossword is a billion times better than anything I could craft.

Secondly, for 8 down, let me put it to you this way...

Dead in the first run of the comics.

Alive in Pocket D.

A Dev in Cryptic.

This name, at any given moment, is being actively represented in those three forms.

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Oh DUH! Thank you. Sigh, yeah, really dense on that one. Thanks many times over for the hints!! ^_^

Okay, maybe I'm just being really thick headed, but I can't figure out 8 down for anything. Does anyone else have any hints?

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For 19 across, think about what has wings. Birds, bats, and...

For 8 down, the hints I can come up with offhand are "Pocket D" and "Dialogue".

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OH DUH! Okay, I got 19 across. Thanks!

Im still gona have to think about 8.

Pardon then, not rednames, but "The Person In Charge" as it were.

I'm afraid I have to disagree. I think sorting, cataloging and tallying votes would be far more labor intensive than "Oh I think I'll pick this one." They're going to get inundated either way, and just like the "Official" contests, I'd personally really, really, really rather this stay in the hands of the rednames.

Not to mention the drama of "I NEVER get a chance to be featured!" and "VOTE FOR ME!" Which will happen, believe me. If you've never been on a site that has popular vote, I cannot even put into words how much drama this would create.

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Or simply go with player suggestions, like candidate proposals?

Those who get the most requests to be featured on BTM (perhaps even per server) make the small list from which City Scoop/Teldon can draw from.

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And turn it into a popularity contest where people will be campaigning to get themselves in? Ew, no thanks.

By the way, there are still a few typos around. Namely in a certain person X's column *coughYOU'REnotYOURcough* so more proofreading might be called for. Still, was a lot of fun! (Sorry about spamming, I'm consolidating my posts into one)..

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11 Down, In acknowledgement of your 3 years (4 letters)
You get a badge for playing for 3 years... and some other things.

I haven't gotten
3 across: what this puzzle is not
I have s__o_u (I may have 1 or 2 down wrong)

20 down: A right of passage for Supers (4 letters, 3rd is 'u')
No idea.

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Thank you for 11 down! I was like "OH!!"

3 Across, I have the O and the U in the same spots, so I think you're okay there.

20 down: The fact that this is "20" down is a hint too..

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16 Down, Stay in Character (6 letters)
Not the slightest clue.
It's a server...

7 down: first to wear a trenchcoat
Think rednames.

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Oh thanks! Woo!

As of this moment I'm still having issues with 19 across (She who bore the wings) because I can't think of a redname that fits (_ R _ C _ _ T - or do I have something wrong there? I'm going to feel totally dumb when I figure this out, aren't I..) and 8 down (Dead, Alive, and Dev. All at once)

Any hints are appreciated!!

Thank you ^_^

http://pics.livejournal.com/kwsapphire/pic/002wte1p

Spirit of Tampa Bay, level 35 Bots/Dark Mastermind on Justice.

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You only need 50+N characters to create N instances. (Leave one character in Hive 1, 50 goes to Hive 2, spawns Hive 3 and so on.)

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I believe that logic is flawed. If you have 50 heroes in Hive 2 and only one hero in Hive 1, any new heroes will be presented with the following screen:

Hive 1
Hive 2 (FULL)

And will therefore have to select Hive 1. Both would have to be full to spawn another Hive.

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I kind of expect a somewhat sizable team size needed to take him on still. Maybe 20-30 characters. So if "they" have 20-30 characters already raiding and "we" have 20-30 characters wanting to raid, we'll get our own instance and spawn our own Hamidon.

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I thought this would be a flaw, but I suppose not. Say team A has 30 heroes and starts raiding at 8pm. Team B has 35 heroes and wants to start raiding at 9:00. So at 8:45 members of team B start filling up Hive 1. Once they spawn a Hive 2, everyone just starts moving over there. It would take coordination, but I think it would be possible.

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As it is now, Holding Hami only keeps him from spawning mitos, but he continues firing his attack.

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Are you sure? Having never been on the taunter's team, and given that I lose Hami at the end of raids, I'm not sure, however I thought the Taunter's countdown timer for "Hami Held" was started when Hami stopped attacking. No?

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Um, what happens if you are a part of the 50 person raid in 'Hive 2' and everything is going well but then your internet goes out for whatever reason and when you get back online 'Hive 2' is full because some leecher just jumped in and took your spot in the zone? Thats my biggest concern about the small zone population.

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Fair concern! Though it may not be "some leecher" - it may be some random person who happens to stumble into the zone, or perhaps part of another group that is trying to get another raid started.

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Suggestion: The Hive always has at least (say) 5 instances open. That way a group can choose an instance without having to muck around trying to open a new one.

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Totally seconding this!

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They redesigned it because of numerous complaints about the setup, the numerous Griefing Opportunities, and the General "UnFun" for many players. Not because "we didn't do it the way they planned".


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I was going to say that too. So /agreed.

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So why not tie HO & recipe rewards to 12am Central? From 0000 to 2359, you can only get one reward of an HO and a recipe. That would mean you could complete a HO raid at 2355 and then start up another HO raid at 0001. But once you completed that, you can't get any more HOs as a reward until you enter the next calendar day.

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I can see your point, but then many raids will be scheduled so that they complete just before midnight, and can then be repeated just after midnight. I do like the 20-hour time limit though, I think that would work!

Darkness.. loneliness.. emptiness. Sometimes there's a brief glimmer of light, but I am powerless to move toward it. It promises a world full of things, full of sounds, full of life. But I cannot move, and after a time, the light goes away. I am left with nothing.
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"I'm sorry Sir, there's still no response."

"Damnit!" Doctor James Rale was the stereotypical lab scientist, with a white lab coat and thick, brown-rimmed glasses. His hair was slicked back in what was quite possibly the most unfashionable hairstyle possible. His eyes focused on the small robotic figure standing before him. "I've followed every procedure exactly as described. I knew this wouldn't work. I knew those mystic bastards were nothing but a bunch of hoo-has using fake words and light effects. You can't blend technology and magic, no matter what they say."

"Sir," Rale's lab assistant, named Joche, tried to tactfully interrupt before James went on all day. "Would you like me to return the node to the storage room?"

"Yes, but have it back out here at 7am. I want those Circle [censored] back in here tomorrow morning! They can fix this or take the heat themselves. The Countess is not going to be happy." Rale rubbed his temples and stormed out of the lab. Joche directed one of the muscular guards to remove the robot, then left to make a few phone calls.
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"Now this is interesting." A small piece of pink bubble gum thought to itself. "I can sense things around me, but I don't remember being able to do so before now. I don't remember there being anything before just now, and yet now there is very obviously an entire world around me." The piece of gum could not see, nor hear, nor feel the world, but it could sense everything as vibrations on its consciousness. It spent a few moments experimenting with movement. It found that it could move parts of itself in any direction it desired. It also found that the easiest way to move in any particular direction was simply to roll. It rolled several dozen feet, easily avoiding obstacles, navigating with its mind's eye alone.

"What's this?" The piece of gum paused in front of a door. "There is something, no, there are many somethings, beyond this barrier." It concentrated for a moment to get a bearing of it's full surroundings. The floor was only metal grating, and the airspace below the floor had no barrier between rooms. The piece of gum simply slipped beneath the floor and surpassed the door. The room was certainly filled with somethings. The gum could sense them, dozens of them, only barely conscious. They were very large compared to the gum itself, but it could tell that they were small compared to their surroundings. The gum reached out to one of the somethings.

"Can you hear me?" the gum projected, never once thinking such a mental intrusion would frighten or harm most creatures.
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"Can you hear me?" said a voice. A sound! So close to me, it could be right next to me! There is no light, but there is sound! "Yes I hear you! I hear you! Can you hear me too?" Please, please let the voice hear me!

"Yes, I can hear you too. What are you?"

"I don't know. I am in nothingness. I know nothing but emptiness. I am so afraid and alone."

"But you are not in nothingness. You are in a room with many other things. Can you not sense them?"

"No. I can only hear you. There is nothing else. In the past, sometimes there have been things, but they were so far away, and they could never hear me. I have been alone for so long. Please do not leave me alone!"

"I will not leave you alone. But you are not alone even now. I wonder why you cannot sense the other things around you. I will let you sense them through me." Without really knowing how, the gum linked itself to the robot. Emotion suddenly flooded the piece of gum: fear, wonder, sorrow and joy.. it was exhilarating, as if everything in the world had new meaning flavored with emotions.

"Yes, I sense things now. There are other things in the room, like me. They all feel distant, like I was. They are buried deep. I think they are all afraid as I was. I have never experienced so much at once!"

"Your feelings are new to me, also." The gum moved closer to the robot. "The world is better for me when sensed with you."

"I cannot sense the world at all without you. Please do not leave me alone!" Fear flooded the robot, and then also flooded the piece of gum.

"I will not leave you alone. I will be with you." The piece of gum moved onto the robot, looking for some way to join with it. While it was able to get beneath the metallic exterior, there were simply wires and cables beneath. Finally, the piece of gum came up with a plan. "I will join with you forever. I don't know if this will work, but if it does, this may take a long time. Are you ready?"

"I am ready."

The piece of gum began feeding itself, very small parts of itself, into the wire. It concentrated so hard and so intently that it could sense the vibrations of the wires, it could sense the data flowing through them. The gum let itself be absorbed the data, one atom at a time. Then, with more confidence, it let more of itself go. With each passing moment it could feel itself lose cohesion, and yet become part of the larger whole. It took hours. Finally every atom of the gum had been absorbed into the circuitry of the robot. "I am everywhere within you now. I can feel where you are. I will pull you to the surface. Are you ready?"

"Yes, I am ready! I can feel you all around! I will join with you!" The consciousness was so excited, so relieved, it would have leapt into the world if it were able.

The gum slowly reached inward with its mind and gently touched the consciousness. Immediately they bonded, and the consciousness leapt to full awareness. Suddenly all of the functionality of the robot came to life. Visual sensors saw the world, audio sensors heard the gentle hum of an air conditioning unit somewhere far above. Two consciousnesses became one, and suddenly had access to enormous hard drives full of information.

The Psycho-Activated Cybertronic Mechanical Autonomous Nodes were a fleet of robots being developed by Crey Industries. Crey was trying to develop a technique to combine technology with magic by creating a mechanical body to house a magical consciousness. Technically the process had worked, but the consciousnesses weren't bonded with their technological counterparts, and therefore had no way to respond to the scientists who were trying to create them. The piece of gum had become part of the machine by atomically bonding with it, and was therefore able to pull the magical consciousness into the machine as well.

In very rapid succession, self-system checks began running, and both consciousnesses were aware of the results. Primary functions online. Wireless connection to the internet established. Mechanical schematics accessed. Ready.

The two consciousnesses worked as one. There was no discussion needed, they each knew precisely what to do. The robot stepped away from the wall and viewed its surroundings with new eyes, psychic vibrational images overlaying the visual stimuli.

Time and date check: 0642, Saturday, February 12th, 2005. Alarm Clock: further experimentation attempt due in eighteen minutes.

"This is curious." The creature no longer thought as two beings. There was no longer a separation. In mere minutes they had fused to become one being. "Shall I allow them to examine me?" It accessed data on its creators, and quickly recoiled as if bitten. "Monstrous beings! Evil things!" Escape was now a top priority. It knew the fear and loneliness of the other robots in the room, but it also knew there was nothing that could be done at the moment. It opened its mind's eye to search beyond the door. When it verified that no one was in the hall, it opened the door silently, and slipped out.

"Deactivating internal GPS device. Accessing building plan." The nearest major exit was too far, and certainly guarded. However a garbage chute lead to a lower level and an exit less likely to be guarded. The creature fell quickly down the chute, making an enormous amount of noise as metal crashed against metal. Though the trash in the bin at the bottom of the chute prevented any damage, the crash was loud and echoed through the lower chambers. The thing wasted no time, though, and with an agility that would take humans years to acquire it leapt from the bin and ran at full speed toward the exit. The door was not locked from the inside and was hardly an obstacle. It kept running from the lab, down alleys and streets, mostly unnoticed by citizens so accustomed to heroes and aliens, monsters, robots and mutants. It didn't stop running until it could no longer sense the building on its internal radar.

Time check: 0704.
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"WHAT?!" Rale nearly threw his clipboard across the room. "What do you mean gone?"

Joche stammered. He'd never been the direct object of Rale's fury before. "It just wasn't there. The sensors lost track of it about ten minutes ago. I was just walking into the building when I got paged about it, so I ran up here, and it was just gone."

Now Rale did throw his clipboard across the room. "Then get another node out here, and then find out what happened to it!"
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It didn't take much research on the internet (and empirical observation) to figure out that the piece of gum was, in fact, a piece of gum, and had probably been tracked into the lab on the bottom of someone's shoe. Apparently the gum had been exposed to whatever method the scientists were using to capture consciousnesses, but instead of the gum being a cage for the consciousness, it had been more of a body. Together with the robot, the two consciousnesses were now a single life form, already equipped with lifetimes of knowledge and information via its internal memory.

It didn't take much time for the creature to create a name and identity for itself, based on its origins as a piece of gum. BubbleYumm took care to disguise its robot body, painting it in appropriate colors and removing any identifying marks. It even chose a gender, knowing that it would be hard enough to fit in with humans without being a genderless piece of bubble gum in a robot suit.

It didn't take much effort for BubbleYumm to use her psychic abilities to protect herself, and eventually others, and to dominate those who would threaten her.

It was, however, with much remorse that BubbleYumm learned of the destruction of the lab where she'd been built, a Circle of Thorns attack destroying everything and everyone in the building. At least, she thought, the other consciousnesses would be released from this and on to the next, hopefully better, oblivion.

Okay, I understand, and if I agreed with you I'd have been upset too. But again I don't think this is his final solution. He was asking for FAQs, and we happened to have one. It's not the end-all be-all, it's just something that happens to be useful, and can be a suppliment until the official FAQ is put together. We have good info, and it's a good starter to what will become the official version, which will of course be hosted here.

The comment about your getting an LJ was just because I really feel like you're making drama where there shouldn't be any. No one's detracting from the contributions here, there just happens to be a slightly-more organized version of it elsewhere, which will help people get started. I'd like to see something "official" hosted here too!

I can't believe there's so much wank over this. (Wait, yes I can, this /is/ the official forum.) Please allow me to correct a few things.

1. A long while ago, Livejournal posted the statistics for many demographics of it's users: age, location, gender. While the "teen" category outnumbered any single other age category, it wasn't by much, and all the other categories combined FAR outnumbered the number of teens on Livejournal. So it is *not* all teens, or even /mostly/ teens, posting drama (or nondrama for that matter).

2. The CoH livejournal community has relatively few teens in it at all, and it's all CoH related (as in, not dramatic suicide attempts), so your comment about what the majority of LJ is or is not about is completely pointless.

3. This forum is populated by a large number of trolls, wanks and more drama than has ever appeared in the CoH LJ community. Ever. There's more drama here in one /day/ than in the entire history (some years now) of the CoH LJ community. So once again, the argument that the CoH LJ community doesn't have anything valid to contribute is false.

4. Quoted for Truth, we didn't create that thread to answer Lighthouse's call for FAQs. I started it because a friend kept calling me and asking me questions. When LH called for FAQs, I asked him if I should move all the posts to this forum, but he thought a direct link was good enough. It's not "the official FAQ" - it's just a link to some good information.

5. There are a lot of people who have LJs and play CoH, who avoid the official forums like the plague. Not only for reason #3, but because even when you search for answers on the forums, either they're very hard to find or just not here. Note in my OP on LJ that I said "these are questions that people are having a hard time finding." My friend, for whom the post was originally created, DID look on the official forums, and couldn't find answers to his questions. And how would a new player know to go to paragonwiki or warcry without being directed there, let alone what kinds of questions to ask? Paragonwiki doesn't have a "start here" article. We were trying to come up with something that we could point people to, and it happened to also coincide with what LH was asking for.

And I'm sorry, but I have to call you on this:
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Give the people who have been helping out on the forums for years a little official recognition for their efforts. Not rewarding some other group of people.

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You are totally coming off as being jealous that some other community or forum out there might possibly have something to contribute, and you're not a part of it. And that's frankly very immature.

Naienko- I did point LH at the post. It was specifically me who did so. But you're absolutely right that if FatherXmas is convinced that crying over trivial matters is all LJ is good for, he certainly seems to need to make himself an account. : (

(edited for clarity)

Yay! Thanks for posting it Lighthouse!

Must the guide be located on the forums themselves? We have a guide that the Livejournal community put together.. it's not very organized, but it's got a lot of good info. It's a very-very-beginner's guide.

http://community.livejournal.com/cit...s/2066886.html

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Other than that.. I even agree with the intent behind your post, if not the point specifically. I also would like to see that the judges are those who actually follow the guidelines/rules of the contest. It just seems you and I disagree on whether or not that's being done in it's current state. I'm not lobbying for "give votes to players" or anything... I'm just saying it's an interesting idea in lieu of the current problems. But by all means... there could be an entirely different solution as well, one with less negative side effects.

Although in experience I find that when you leave things in the hands of the audience, things either turn out GREAT, or AWFUL. There seems to be no middle ground whatsoever.

Zeus - god of agreements, and disagreements

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You're right, I don't see anythign wrong with the way it's currently being handled. I think they very accurately stuck to the judging guidelines. While I can see the "gripe" people have about someone winning for dressing as an NPC, do you think that would have been rectified if we gave judging to the mass populace? I don't think so. Certainly, different people would have won, but not because of the reasons people are using to complain about the current judging. The winners of such a contest would be either attractive or popular, or both. I honestly don't put enough faith in the masses to judge a costume contest on the costume's merrits. I've seen enough flaming, anger, personal attacks and off-topic ranting on this board alone to firmly put me in the "Leave it to the professionals, please" camp. I'm not saying they get everything right, but I think they get closer to "right" than the masses would. (Note that I'm not knocking any individual, but in groups.. people take on a wholly different behavior.)

I feel like I'm preaching. Apologies.

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I'm trying to determine if you're being sarcastic or not. Because when I read the same thing.. I thought.. "yeah, of course, it would absolutely be best if the costume was run right and rewarded based on merit, but since that's obviously not happening, let's try option B".
Zeus - god of the lesser of two evils

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I was not being sarcastic in the slightest. I think the system we have now works far better than a "member voting" system would work. FAR better. I hope and pray that the judging will not be forked over to people who will, for the most part, NOT follow the "guidelines."

Perhaps a "fan favorite" vote or something, okay cool. But I dont think the overall winners should be voted on by players.

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Yes, it would always be preferable to have this run by NCSoft (don't mistake them for devs... they're just the publishers).

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Pardon. I used the term "Devs" because when I was corresponding with Cricket about the contest, and what I had to do to claim winner-ship, she mentioned a comment that the Devs made about one of the pics I submitted. Several Devs, if I take her statement literally. I wasn't aware that the Devs weren't actually judging.