Hello to Our Fan Art Community and Open Discussion
By
Altoholic_Monkey,
Posted on: 2006-11-04 13:15 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
I'd like to see more fan fiction/art in the comic books. Perhaps release a quarterly or bi-annual graphic novel that collects some noteworthy works and available for purchase online. It'd be great to see more actual sequential art that featured the characters of the community's members rather than just the CoH/V signature ones.
No love for the fan videos.
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As many have said : Officially sponsored contests would be great.
An official Gallery of art would be also something I would like to see . It use to exist up to a point but to my knowledge outside of the cuppa jo thing it has not been updated in a long time.
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I would just take a nice gallery with one or two new pieces a week ... that would be a great start.
Char Site | My DeviantArt
Global=@Thornster
Expand the gallery! Get more fan art in there and organize it. There are a LOT of different types getting expressed. Pencil drawings, full colored comics, Poser work, screenshots, stories, videos, demos, and even one guy who did a great voice act for The Radio's missions.
I would really rather *NOT* see contests, never mind contests with prizes. A contest has to be fair, which means you've got to put a bunch of rules in. (Like 'no edits at all' for the contests to get your screenshots in the villain write-ups.) When you do that, you'll almost certainly push out the folks who have the best tools in order to make the contest accessible.
I'm also no fan of weekly/monthly/quarterly.... if something good gets posted then get it up there. I don't want to see poor stuff put up because it happened to be the only thing posted that week. I really don't want to see great stuff skipped because another great thing happened to be posted the same week.
You're also going to run into the same problem NCSoft ran into before - time. "Here's 5000 screenshots - pick out your favorite for me before you go to lunch so I can make it the screenshot of the week, please." Ugh. After the staff cuts I don't think you folks have the time to go through all the content you'll have thrown at you.
Can anyone think of a way the fan base itself can decide what stays and what goes? Obviously, even if we provide the critical eye, NCSoft lawyers will need to apply more practical eyes before it goes up. Or would this run too much risk of hard feelings between forum goers?
P.S. Griping topic started in forgotten forum, Lighthouse gets us talking about solutions within a day! I'm impressed!
forgotten forum? I dont think so...just under-utilized forum by the masses.~
...the sword is truth...
~whiteperegrine~
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I would really rather *NOT* see contests, never mind contests with prizes. A contest has to be fair, which means you've got to put a bunch of rules in. (Like 'no edits at all' for the contests to get your screenshots in the villain write-ups.) When you do that, you'll almost certainly push out the folks who have the best tools in order to make the contest accessible.
I'm also no fan of weekly/monthly/quarterly.... if something good gets posted then get it up there. I don't want to see poor stuff put up because it happened to be the only thing posted that week. I really don't want to see great stuff skipped because another great thing happened to be posted the same week.
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I don't think anyone is suggesting that having your art added to the main site would be dependent on a contest - I think we'd like to see more art on the main site, AND contests. Two separate things. If you aren't replying to that idea, I apologize for misreading. 
WRT contests, though.. they wouldn't really be contests if they were super accessable, would they? I have no business entering a contest focused on 3D models because I don't work in 3D, and I'm cool with that. I also have no business in a contest focused on drawing a background, because I stink at 'em. A contest will encourage me to work on getting better at them, mind, but fan art contests by their very nature already disqualify a portion of the subscriber base - those who don't draw.
I must say that the fan art section has changed a great deal in the last year and a half. When I first logged in it was pretty barren. Now its a thriving artist community and I think thats a wonderful thing. I know that people are inspired by some of the great artists here like Graver, Dark Jedi, Brandon, Celtic Bolt, Sayterra, Veikira, the list goes on and on. And if I can speak on behalf of some of the artists, Id like to say that there is nothing better than having someone tell you that your art has inspired them to draw, or to write, or to take a few classes. The sad part though is that I feel like this entire movement of artistic growth is being stymied by NCSoft. I can only speak from my perspective of course, as I have only been met with cold shoulders and threatening correspondences. I have also been informed that my submissions to the fan art aspect of the site/comic book are futile at this point as my work wont be published anyway. I have pretty thick skin so all of these things I can deal with. But what has bothered me is what happened after the CuppaJo thing went down. My good friend TA started a thread expressing his feelings and the community chimed in, only to have the thread mod smacked and at that point there was no recourse or open discussion. Public forums are meant for expression, and its just not right that NCSoft so often tramples on that with no explanation. However the optimist in me hopes that threads like this can help bring positive change and growth to this section of the forum. I applaud all of the fantastic ideas shared so far. Im really fond of the in game art gallery idea
HOT!
To NCSoft: I can promise you that commission art will become a staple part of the MMO genre as it already is a staple part of the comic genre. I do hope you dont continue to overlook the huge resource that commission art can be for you. Based on the just the offers we have received in the last 6 months, many of the other large game publishers already realize ways to employ our skills. If you have any gumption to talk about this in further detail please feel free to contact me. Im not a hard man to get a hold of as you already know.
To Lighthouse: I realize that your hands are more than likely just as tied as every other dev/admin at Cryptic. I do hope that you at least have a chance to somehow bring about some of the necessary changes mentioned in this thread.
To the Community: As I said above I am happy that this section has grown and that all of us as artists and art aficionados have grown also. I must say though guys, as a parent, the NSFW threads are getting a bit outta hand. Theres a time and a place and I dont think its on an official gaming forum visited by as many minors as there are adults. If I need to I can put up a forum for us adults to share and discuss that kind of work though. Just let me know via PM or email if thats something any of you would be interested in.
I'd definitely say that a main gallery or, heaven forbid, a regularly updated fan art gallery would be quite nice! I would also have to totally second what Gill said- I would love just a touch of support from Big Brother... or maybe to not have to fear them so much for what we do.
Beyond all of that, another small suggestion which I know is in your realm and would make several of us quite happy... can threads with art of characters of events from a specific server not always get moved from that servers forum over to here just because it's fan art? A lot of people don't check these forums and if we're doing art for the community of that server, well, hell, they need to see it.
Oh, and I would love to have a new van, that would be sweet... and world piece and pot in every car and chicken in every garage... or... um... something like that.
Ah Graver, that is how this all got started. I honestly thought it was ok to post art in a server forum. It's been done before, and my guess is, it'l be done again. It's not cross posting if it's there to show the people of that server one of their own.
Oh and I just thought of a quick idea: To let people know about these forums, you could have a link off of the Fan Art from the main page (that is presuming the Fan Art section starts up again).
<QR>
I just want to point out, when I brought up contests, the ones on the EU site, the prize is your art is featured on the main fan art page for a month or so. Nothing really big, just something that says, "Yeah, we saw this and we like it." So, not like a major contest, just a little shout out and props to a different artist every month.
We need a stickied thred in this sub-forum wherein we can post links to off-site tutorials and how-to's.
Perhaps this will seem ...I dunno, maybe redundant, but - since one of the best things people can do about a "problem" is to sit down and discuss it (and I know we're doing part of that now) - how about if we got to actually hear from the other site ("Them" if you will) - from the "powers that be" about what their concerns of this forum are? I mean, we can read the EULA and "interpret" it and all that, but wouldn't it be nicer, clearer if someone actually came in and said: "Look, guys, we hear you - but here's our side of the issue ..." ???
...but I suppose there's risks in doing that. (the vast majority f the people in this section of the forum are pretty great - but there's all ways someone out there, even here)
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To the Community: As I said above I am happy that this section has grown and that all of us as artists and art aficionados have grown also. I must say though guys, as a parent, the NSFW threads are getting a bit outta hand. Theres a time and a place and I dont think its on an official gaming forum visited by as many minors as there are adults. If I need to I can put up a forum for us adults to share and discuss that kind of work though. Just let me know via PM or email if thats something any of you would be interested in.
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Bolding here is mine, for focus - I just wanted to say I agree with this. If one of our favored artists is saying this - we should listen. It would be best if we the forum users "policed ourselves" on such issues ("Not Safe For Work"/nudity, etc.) before a mod has to come in and do it.
My previous suggestions:
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To be displayed on main page:
[*]Screenshot of the week (with caption)
[*]FanArt of the Month DONE!
[*]FanStrip of the Month
[*]FanMovie of the Month
[*]Monthly Create-a-caption Contest
[*]Monthly Costume Contest
no prizes for any of these other than having it hosted on the main page for recognition.
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woot! 1 down, 5 to go!!
*throws confetti on the revived FanArt page*
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
I know lighthouse posted a link to that recently but I'm pretty sure that is a really really old piece that's been on the page for awhile.
yep, it's an old one.
Goodbye, I guess.
@Lord_Nightblade in Champions/Star Trek Online
nightblade7295@gmail.com if you want to stay in touch
Aye, I see nothing new on that page. why not an announcement saying "we're accepting fan art again"?
Then people might actually bother to send stuff in.
Well at least hes pointing people towards it, hopefully some new art isnt far away, and we can expand this small part of the overall community.
I suggest copy the fan arts shown in the comic book into the fanart section. At least that'll keep it updated bi-monthly.
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yep, it's an old one.
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I took Lighthouse's post as a sign it was coming back. Guess I jumped the gun, sorry.
*sweeps up confetti* 
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
So, anything going to happen with these comments Lighthouse?
I'd hate to see this just fade away.
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I'd hate to see this just fade away.
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QFT
Scarf_Girl�s Official Kid Brother!
agreed. I would also be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter versus us all babbling along. ~
...the sword is truth...
~whiteperegrine~
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I'd hate to see this just fade away.
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QFT
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Seeems like it did
Proud Member Of the Paragons of Justice
Kidraid, Golden Guard, War Emblem, Eridani, Greymist, BabyTank and more many more.
My Gallery (There I am KidRaid since Greymist was already taken)
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I'd come here and ask for your thoughts about things you would like to see happen.
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I'd like to see some loosening of the rules as it pertains to CoX fan art. I understand that legal eagles need to feel like they have the power to trump anything, but it seems to me that CoX enthusiasts who are generating content CoX would never have imagined (many of whom are also quite willing to share), those enthusiasts should be given some respect too when they want to build on their CoX concepts beyond just the game's domain.
I'd like to see CoX be more lenient when it comes to such things as making or commissioning a t-shirt featuring a pic of a player-created character. I'd also like to see CoX become more graceful, adaptable, and forgiving in dealing with situations like Gill's portrait of CuppaJo.
Is it possible perhaps to create an accessible and inexpensive licensing scheme that players find is easy and convenient to purchase so that they can expect more of an agreed-upon 'right' to expand their personal play experiences more into other domains?
CoX has been cool with artists in many cases. But there's still more that can be done. The state of affairs can be better.