Discussion: Matrix Machinima Contest

I posted this in a separate thread, but I'm going to post it here too just to make sure (hope that's OK):

***Dear NC Soft/City of Heroes management:

Please take note that those of us who are attempting to submit contest entries for the Matrix Machinima contest via GameTrailers.com (as directed) are unable to do so at this time. The GameTrailers.com website is currently unable to accept new entries (no matter the size of the film), as they are showing problems with their compression software which makes it impossible to complete the upload process.

Please address this issue as soon as possible. I have contacted their Support staff and hope to get an answer soon, but I am sure you can get a quicker answer than I!

Please let us know when this issue is resolved. Thank you very much!

Sincerely,

Blipout Productions

Nope, this is a contest being held by GameTrailers and Toyota. NCNC/NCSoft might have paid some $'s to be the game to use for the contest but it isn't their contest.

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Well, I would guess 'elements' means any element in the game. But that gets a little fuzzy, too. Say I want to show my character blowing stuff up in Faultline (like the opening of my demo edit promo video). So I put some mayhem objects in there and drop their HP to 0, which makes them blow up. Objects blowing up are elements of the game, Faultline is an element of the game, but objects blowing up in Faultine is NOT a part of the game. So is that legal?


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I'd like to know if we can do this kinda thing to?
also can we use music from the trailers that nc soft released?

Ok, finally got a response!

My Email:
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To whom it may concern,

We (the player base of CoH that will be participating in this contest) would like to get a little clarification on some of the rules. Notably the following:

· any content which endorses or condones illegal drug use or alcohol abuse;

· any nudity, profanity or violence;

· any display of physical injury, death or property damage or conduct or activity that could cause physical injury or property damage or that is reasonably likely to do so;

All of the above highlighted items are contained within the game. Are we allowed to use the game content that contains these items?

It just seems like it would be a real boring competition if we can use all the game mechanics to "Show Your Dark Side".

Please help clarify these items for us so we can start filming.


Thanks for your time,

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Official response:

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The rules do say that "excluding the game content" those things are prohibited. You can use any of the game footage, even if it contains those things.

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So lay that Frag down on some Hellions!!!

*/demorecord Iwin*

So any sort of crushing mayhem we want. Just don't include clips from your militia videos or MTV's Jack*ss

Thanks for posting this vital info; it may reshape my direction for my clip.

Good, so between us, it appears that we've gotten clarification on the biggest problems:

Music - only if it's EITHER a) WHOLLY ORIGINAL, or b) music from the game.

Violence/profanity/etc - if it can happen in the game, fine. If you hack the code so you're recreating Grand Theft Auto, not fine.

And I will be starting this video just as soon as I finish the one I'm working on, which has to be done this week! AGH!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Sweetness.

Now I just need to trim down the first sequence I have shot without cutting something too much.

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Sweetness.

Now I just need to trim down the first sequence I have shot without cutting something too much.

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Ya, I hate that. It's like writing a 300 page novel and only being able to use 100 words......

Good job, Vorac! I still don't understand the dialog bit but I think that's really just voiced stuff. We don't have those - or at least not any with words (which would have to be translated).

We've still got the open question of how many times you can enter. Guidelines say once, rules say once per day as long as each entry is different then goes into detail about what constitutes 'different.' I'm betting the rules are right.

The GameTrailers website is still buggy, just to let you guys know--but this time it's for a different reason.

Once you upload a movie to your account, the movie is in your "User Movies" section for a short while, and then after a few hours it suddenly disappears and you can't even access it.

The only reason I can think of why it is doing this is because the movie is a contest entry, and they don't want the public voting on it. I've sent three messages to Game Trailers Support (each with a different issue) with no result, so I am not exactly sure if this is the reason.

Anyway, I wanted to let you guys know. Hopefully they will get all the kinks out of the GT website soon, because it's really annoying. (This is my first experience with the GameTrailers.com website--is anyone else having problems with it?).

Like I'm going to have time to create more than one entry...

/em sigh

And unfortunatiely since I started my new medical regime last Monday, I've been in a strange bout of depression and fatigue and thinking, "Should I even BOTHER with this contest, since it's not like I'm going to win?" But I have to try... I just can't get a clear enough head to think of what to do and how to do it...

Michelle
aka
Samurai_ko

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"Should I even BOTHER with this contest, since it's not like I'm going to win?"

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First off, because you do have a good shot at winning. Second off, because even third place will net you something like thirty VERY fancy pizzas. Third off, because you do good stuff and we want to see it, even if it doesn't win.

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"Should I even BOTHER with this contest, since it's not like I'm going to win?"

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First off, because you do have a good shot at winning. Second off, because even third place will net you something like thirty VERY fancy pizzas. Third off, because you do good stuff and we want to see it, even if it doesn't win.

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*sniffles and then gives Zloth a hug*

Thank you. I very much needed to hear that.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

No prob, now back to work with ya! And no sneaky playing that silly computer game - what was it's name? City of Warcraft?

Ha, the only times I've been on the game this weekend and these last two days is to finish up filming... my "oh please God let this come out right" video is just about finished (we're finishing the voice acting recordings tonight), and then with luck, Thursday it goes live!

THEN I can start on the CoX Machinima contest thingy.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

From the looks of it, my chances are a long shot. The only thing that could remotely be considered in my favor is that I know how to do some video effects.

Hey, maybe I missed it, but other than the 2 - 4 minute time limit and the 200M file size limit, what are the other specs of the final video?

Tell me they're not looking for HD.

Anyone hear anything about this?

Thanks,
Todd

Has anyone grokked what Toyota is really looking for out of all this? I mean, I'm guessing that it would somehow tie in with a marketing campaign for the Matrix. If that's so, it might help to know so we can tailor our submissions to what they really want...

And is there a place to view the submissions? All I've seen so far is that one posted by GrandConjurer over on the GameTrailers.com site.

I've wondered that myself, and not yet been able to come up with an answer. Although God knows if I win, I'll be giving them all the free publicity I can manage because I'll be posting pictures of me with that car, holding up a sign that says in BIG letters:

"BITE ME, WoW, PLAYING CoX WON ME A CAR!"

And should I win, there's gonna be a Phoenix Meet n Greet so all the forum folks can pose around the DR-mobile.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Well, we have shooting a guy in the chest in the game... But we don't have blood.... So, for example, it would be against the rules if we were to edit in-game footage to show blood splatter effects as part of shooting someone in the game?

That question is pretty straitforward, but here's a more complicated one:

Hypothetically; What if I were to take in-game footage of my character throwing a torch on a building, then show ingame footage of a burning building, and then superimpose on this footage the audio of people screaming from inside the building?
Would THAT be against the rules because it implies the character is killing via arson of a building - which cannot be done in game - even though all the physical actions being performed are taken directly from in-game footage? Even though killing via fire attacks itself IS in game?

That's where these rules get tricky to judge, because what you can do in game can be made to look like things you actually can't do; even though technically there's no moral difference between burning someone down in a building or lighting them on fire with a big fireblast.

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Even though killing via fire attacks itself IS in game?



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Technically, no one actually dies. They just get beaten unconscious and teleported to the hospital or to jail to recover.

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Even though killing via fire attacks itself IS in game?



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Technically, no one actually dies. They just get beaten unconscious and teleported to the hospital or to jail to recover.

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So then we just assume that the people screaming in the building don't die?

Seems dicey to me with rules like these. For trying to protray the darker side of a character, these rules seem pretty dicey to me, a very tough balancing act.

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Has anyone grokked what Toyota is really looking for out of all this? I mean, I'm guessing that it would somehow tie in with a marketing campaign for the Matrix.

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Sounds right to me. I already ran into some advertisements for the contest over in Stardock Studio's forums.

Lordy, I think y'all are just WAY over-thinking those rules.

LOL

Ok, so if I wanted to nuke Atlas Park, but since we don't actually ever NUKE Atlas Park in CoX. But wait, if you've ever failed the Terra Volta Task Force and the reactor explodes wouldn't that produce the same results?!...so it's assumed that the city is destroyed even though it's not, like some kind of parallel universe....yeah...and....

I agree with Star

Todd