Discussion: Matrix Machinima Contest

Hey Folks,

Just wanted you to know that I posted a thread over at gamtrailers.com pointing people over to our submissions page:

http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=509614

*goes to GameTrailers to see how her video is doing and winces openly at the last comment*

Ouch! Did this guy rate me as a zero to knock down my score THAT much?!

"Technically good, but this lacks any real story or characterization. Where is the STORYTELLING? This feels more like a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation of how a toon can be an assassin."

So now it's down to 8baller and StoneFalcon... I think I just got knocked out of the running.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

At least you were in the running. :-P

The Judges have the final say.

From the rules:

[ QUOTE ]
Preferences indicated by voting in the Contest are not binding on Judges, but Judges will consider and take the online voting into account in their deliberations. The Judges will determine the Grand Prize Winner, First and second Place Winners on the basis of the Judging Criteria as determined by Sponsor, the merits of the Eligible Entries of the Finalists, and any other requested relevant information submitted during the entry and participation process by the Finalists which assists the judges in properly evaluating the Finalists.

[/ QUOTE ]

DR,

These votes have absolutely NOTHING to do with the contest. The Powers That Be at Gametrailers.com will select 5 of THEIR favorites. THEN they will have users vote on those. However, if you read the rules carefully you will see that even those votes won't mean much as Gamtrailers.com is gonna decide who wins the grand-prize and use the "votes" more as a suggestion box. Low voting abuse is rampant in these contests and I think GT is quite aware of that.

*sniffle*

Sorry. I know that as of next week, it all comes down to what the judges think, anyway, and I'm holding on for that.

I freely admit to being the personality type whose preferred method of 'reward' is 'validation or compliment.' (In other words, if I do a good job at work, while a bonus or a raise is always appreciated, I get far more out of a sincere "Well done, you really made this happen for us.") Kid you not - the cheerfully confident bluster most folks see from me masks a very deep insecurity complex.

So having my work called a PowerPoint presentation (and that's low, btw) is painful.

*looks embarrassed and stares down at the ground*

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[ QUOTE ]
So now it's down to 8baller and StoneFalcon... I think I just got knocked out of the running.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I'm not so sure...I think the user ratings are just that, user ratings, not an official ranking of who's moving on. From the main page,

[ QUOTE ]
Best of all, we'll let YOUR voices be heard before we ultimately decide who will win the most super prize of all! Check back right here on August 18th to find out which submissions will be declared finalists and cast your vote!

[/ QUOTE ]
All that says to me is "We'll let you look at them all before we decide which ones are finalists, which, at that time, you vote". The user ratings are on all videos on the site, so I don't think they're using them for voting purposes, yet.

I may be wrong, and this may actually make you feel worse when you realize that the governing council will pick what they feel is the best 5 based on what ever criteria they feel important.

And with as many unique, creative, and distinct interpretations of the theme, who knows what they are looking for? (Personally, I'm hoping they're looking for doctors who mentally screw with villain's heads, but that's just me...)

Well, time will tell.

Oh - to try and make sure the videos get some notice, I asked a friend of mine on the European CoX forums to post a link to the Matrix Machinima contest entries page, and posted a link myself in the city_of_heroes LiveJournal community. (I think someone might have already done it for the cityofvillains community, I don't know.) I'll probably end up doing the same thing on GameAmp later on today when I get home from work.

Spread the word!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[ QUOTE ]
I may be wrong, and this may actually make you feel worse when you realize that the governing council will pick what they feel is the best 5 based on what ever criteria they feel important.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oooo, you're right. Leandro, you might want to arrange for a box of donuts to be sent over right about when they are judging.

The CoH playerbase has already gotten a big win, though. That's a lot of videos for just one month plus we got some more folks interested in the art. This should lead to some better free-form videos.

It's a pitty Verticle Studios couldn't get in on this. I mean, "getting in touch with your dark side"? That's their thing! I would have loved to have seen Hype 3, too. And maybe the suprise return of the Abyss family. And the Operatives. And.... and I better stop now. I'm watching a lot of videos all of the sudden and my web session is gonna time out if I don't get moving.

Yeah, Aralcox (Vertical Studios) was rather disappointed that he couldn't compete (he and I were chatting when the contest was first announced). I think he'd have swept this one, personally. However, I'm sure there'll be a contest over on their side of the pond that WE can't participate in, so it's all good in the end.

Would love to do a collaboration video with him, though...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

It really is a shame for Aral, the theme of the contest really was right up their alley. But I think the person who made the operatives video is still around, or around again, where were they eh? Maybe they live outside of the US too...

Hehe, I'll be better prepped for next time. I think I'm starting to get the hang of demo editing

I was just glad to get something out of the door, with how July was so busy.

Wow, I step away from the boards for bit and you guys really get to talking.

About the judging/user votes I wouldn't worry about it at all right now. Hopefully they'll 0 everything out when the final 5 get decided. But I'd really like to see the go to a voting system instead of a rating system to prevent the submarining that's going on right now. There's a number of people that seem to be running around awarding 1's. It showed up much more at the beginning but you can still tell it's happening.

A vote system (one user/one vote) would seem to prevent that, at least a little. But hey, fingers are still crossed on the final 5, one step at a time right.

i don't think ratings OR voting will matter... except for maybe shaping perception a little bit. again, gametrailers will ultimately choose who they want.

After reading the comments on mine, I'm starting to wonder why people assume I have to show a transition from good to bad. My video is about someone who is already in touch with her dark side and is not afraid to bring it into the 'good zone' that is Paragon City.

And "submarining" is a good way to describe that, 8baller... my rating has dropped significantly AGAIN. People are commenting that on a technical level, my video is fantastic, but concept-wise it sucks. HUH?! (The private messages are even more scathing.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[ QUOTE ]
(The private messages are even more scathing.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]


I guess what's kinda funny, the PM's that I got off of mine were some friend invites and someone saying "Nice Vid, how did you make it?"

....btw, thx for your advise, DR!! that was my first real machinima style vid and I appreciate your help.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(The private messages are even more scathing.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]


I guess what's kinda funny, the PM's that I got off of mine were some friend invites and someone saying "Nice Vid, how did you make it?"

....btw, thx for your advise, DR!! that was my first real machinima style vid and I appreciate your help.

[/ QUOTE ]

First off, you're welcome. When I leave comments, unless a video is out-and-out BAD, I will always point out at least one good thing about it (and whatever I think could be viably improved that would make a really big difference).

Second, I've gotten one or two PMs of "Thanks for the comment/suggestion/whatever", and about six or seven now of "your supposed to be so great but yur video sux" kind of stuff. Swear to God. I then just deleted them to avoid potential contamination of stupidity.

(Besides, I wasn't aware I was "supposed to be so great". If I am, I apologize for letting down the side!)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I haven't even been checking the comments; the first batch was so bad that I just stopped reading them. Didn't know gametrailers had a PM system; what's with every other site out there wanting to become your new email these days?

I've been trying to wipe my mind clean from anything video-related this week. It's out there, I can't improve, I can't change anything, best to do a few TFs (just finished Faathim on a PUG; that went surprisingly well, under 3 hours) and wait for the top 5 to be announced.

So, I had went through a bunch of the real bad commenters again, and noticed that not one of em had a video up of their own. Methinks that someone (somepeople) drive a Porche (or at least need to, to compensate..........)


And, btw, DR, your production alone puts that whole site to shame! *nod, nod*

The viewer ratings right now aren't going to matter at all. The judges will choose their favorite 5. Then the real voting begins Monday. Don't worry about any scoring right now.

Yeah, I'm so toasted from all the work done that I'm glad I finally got it up for viewing. Best of luck everyone!

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/u...es/252150.html

Remember what I said earlier: (page 45?)

... they can't be bothered to learn how to do this kind of thing ...
... cut other people down to make themselves feel better ...
... poop-flinging monkeys ...
... naughty children scrawling bad words on a wall ...

Don't base your self-worth on how badly behaved the neighbor's unsupervised children are. Ignore them.

Oddly enough, I posted a little note on mine about how the critics have never done this kind of thing... "Those that can, do...", and I haven't seen a single bad comment since then. Weird.

[ QUOTE ]
And "submarining" is a good way to describe that, 8baller... my rating has dropped significantly AGAIN.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mine too, although mine doesn't have as far to fall They only appear to be content messing with my rating and not the comments so far.

[ QUOTE ]
Remember what I said earlier: (page 45?)

... they can't be bothered to learn how to do this kind of thing ...
... cut other people down to make themselves feel better ...
... poop-flinging monkeys ...
... naughty children scrawling bad words on a wall ...

Don't base your self-worth on how badly behaved the neighbor's unsupervised children are. Ignore them.

Oddly enough, I posted a little note on mine about how the critics have never done this kind of thing... "Those that can, do...", and I haven't seen a single bad comment since then. Weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm, maybe I should do that.

And thanks for the defense of my vid in my comments, SD.

THIS is what I mean about why this particular group in the forum is just so damned cool. Over on GameTrailers, it's everyone out for him/herself, and screw the rest. Even though all of us are 'competing,' we still actually try and help one another out.

Of course, the fact that you guys are willing to put up with the manic depressive creative geek that is moi is just awesome too.

All right, time to hunt down dinner.

Oh, btw, how many of the videographers (besides me) are going to the HeroCon thing? I wanna meet some of you guys in person!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I'll be there again this year, had a blast last year!! (even though I can't remember anything after around 9:30........