Costume Contest: sign of the times...

I don't generally participate in these frequent AP affairs, but I do watch now and then and have seen some questionable winners, but...

I have to do a doubletake when the winner is in a rather non-descript all black costume with a black cape and the "judge" says it's the most original costume they've seen in their 30 months of play. 30 months of playing what? Not this game apparently. Next week will he give first prize to Yet Another Catgirl for her bold never-before-seen combination of cat ears and a skirt?

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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound

Maybe they had an accessory (in black) that you didn't see.

Because you know. That'd make all the difference.

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Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed

It's called: Rigged costume contest. I've seen more than a few where a blank costume wins, or somebody that looks like they just pressed 'random' and used puke-colors for the outfit. All sorts of reasons for doing it, from being an [censored]-hat, to having an excuse to yell your SG's name in broadcast every 5 seconds for an hour straight.

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I dont ever participate because they are all FAKE.
Its always someone hookin up their friend/s.

I play on Virtue, IT IS the Best Server... but CC suck.

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I only do the reality TV version of costume contests. Run around in AP or Mercy or similar looking at costumes, and if I see one I like, I tell the person to stop moving long enough for get half a mill or whatever I feel like giving away.

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I've run a real CC one time.

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[ QUOTE ]
I dont ever participate because they are all FAKE.
Its always someone hookin up their friend/s.

I play on Virtue, IT IS the Best Server... but CC suck.

[/ QUOTE ]
i've randomly participated in and won costume contests. (On Virtue.)

On a couple occasions i've helped judge contests being held by an SG. The discussion was always about how well the entrants met the criteria, and we disqualified other SG members or their alts on principle. (Admittedly not on Virtue.)

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Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...

[ QUOTE ]
I've run a real CC one time.

[/ QUOTE ] I've done it once too, but I've run fake ones about four times.

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They're definitely not all fake, but then again I often get into the finals with my best works.

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Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed

Virtue has tons of real CC's. Silver Aged, Golden Aged, best Marvel, best DC, these happen all the time. But I usually only participate in ones given out by SG's I know that are reputable, and not griefers. Seen a few of those the past few months.

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I held a real costume contest on Bastille Day. Criteria: French themed contest. Either have French symbols like Fleur de Lis or color patterns that worked as Blue, White and Red and so on. Since I advertised that it was for Bastille Day and French-themed costumes were the only ones up for consideration, I guess you could say it was rigged, but by the standards of the holiday. I didn't know any of the players that I could tell.

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I've seen quite a few on Justice lately run by people who allow their SG mates to participate, and are generally most of the people that make it into the finals when the CC is winding down. I've even seen one person that said "looks good, and extra points for being in my SG." those CCs just shouldn't happen, they're rigged.

CC winners are really a matter of taste, I've seen some people who's costumes look worse than some crime scene photos i've seen, yet still win. I've also seen some amazing costumes that won. I'm not exactly sure which category I fall into, but I've won quite a few myself. I'm amazed when I don't make it into some finals and see what the people that DID make it look like... It's just sad sometimes.

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In every SG I've been in, if we're hosting a CC, we don't allow members in. If they alt out to some other creation, then they are considered just like everyone else.

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One method I've used is to randomly hire 3 judges and just provide the financing. Works fairly well so far. Only criteria I give them is a 1-10 scale with 10 being the highest. Then I just target each contestant with $target, write their scores down, add them up and announce the winners. If I like someone that didn't get picked I work them in as an honorable mention.

No one has accused them of being rigged and my SG members can even compete fairly.

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It's not how many times you get knocked down that count. It's how many times you get up.

I used to run costume contests but I soon realized that like clockwork, everytime you ran one someone would shout "RIGGED!" or something similar. As if they were truly convinced that the only way their polkadot neon eye sore could lose is if the contest was rigged.

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've run a real CC one time.

[/ QUOTE ] I've done it once too, but I've run fake ones about four times.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a troll? If it's really true, I'd be really curious what the point is in doing that or, for that matter, why you'd admit it in a public forum.

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[ QUOTE ]
I dont ever participate because they are all FAKE.
Its always someone hookin up their friend/s.

I play on Virtue, IT IS the Best Server... but CC suck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't agree. Our SG has hosted a few CCs and not one was rigged. We usually have 3-5 judges and use a point system (IIRC) to determine the winner. It might take a few mins longer, but we feel the results are less biased.

CC losers will always claimed it's rigged since butthurtitude takes over after the winners are announced.

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I dont ever participate because they are all FAKE.
Its always someone hookin up their friend/s.

I play on Virtue, IT IS the Best Server... but CC suck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't agree. Our SG has hosted a few CCs and not one was rigged. We usually have 3-5 judges and use a point system (IIRC) to determine the winner. It might take a few mins longer, but we feel the results are less biased.

CC losers will always claimed it's rigged since butthurtitude takes over after the winners are announced.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, I am rarely in Atlas park. I have joined maybe 4 CC in my whooooole time playing. 3 on Virtue, and they were all rigged...

and one on >.> some server I don't actually play on but was testing a character... and I wrote her a story cuz she looked cool >.>

BAM I won that one. 10 MILLION and a Freakin set of wings when wings were actually worth something.

(So my I dont ever... Is a "Now" thing... Like for the past - ever since wings were worth something -)

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Now, what's the point of holding a rigged CC? If you want to give some Inf to a friend, just give it to them. Is it because people think the Dev's are monitoring every Inf exchange between players and if you don't have some sort of obvious reason you'll be flagged as an RMT mule or something and be banned?

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[ QUOTE ]
Now, what's the point of holding a rigged CC? If you want to give some Inf to a friend, just give it to them. Is it because people think the Dev's are monitoring every Inf exchange between players and if you don't have some sort of obvious reason you'll be flagged as an RMT mule or something and be banned?

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I always thought people held rigged CC - because people suck.

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I've won several CC's so I know they can't all be rigged. But I've also been to ones where all the winners were pretty lackluster costumes with the same SG tag as the sponsor. Not that *I* didn't win but there were much better costumes in general.

Can't say I sweat it much. I pretty much just attend CC's as a social affair, to see some potentially interesting outfits and make small talk while we're all standing around. If I walk away with a couple million influence, it's just a bonus.

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I watched a CC about a year ago... where this one dude was dressed like a duracel battery. HIS COSTUME AND STORY was AWESOME.

he didn't win.

he lost - he didnt even get a mention...

1st place was a naked chick with all the sliders all the way to the right >.>
2nd place was a naked dude >.>
3rd was a catboy...

and 2 of them had the SG of the guy doing the thing

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I join a CC with whatever character I hapen to be on if one starts up in AP. I have never rushed from PI to AP just to show off my costume.

Sometimes I'll win, but I don't really care if I do. I don't really care too much what other people think about my costume, I obviously like it or I wouldn't be wearing it, that's enough for me.

Sometimes I get bored in the proceedings and wander off. One memorable time I had the person hosting the CC chase me down across the zone because they picked me as the winner, but I left before they announced it.

Every great once in a while I'll host one. There's never any criteria other than how much I like their costume.

They get bonus points for having a backstory that explains where some odd costume piece choices come from. Simple is good, I tend to prefer well laid out costumes with a nice color scheme over elaborate costumes with everything possible slapped onto it. You don't need EVERY location on your body covered with something.

My CC's are about as fair as you can get, as long as you don't have a problem with them being based on my personal taste.

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The reason of rigged costume contest is it makes the supergroup/player holding the CC look generous without them actually being generous. It makes them look good saying they are holding a 100 mill contest when really the winners are just friends or supergroup members in disguise. At least it makes them look good until people start to find out it is rigged.

I hate rigged CCs and there are too many of them now-a-days, so I don't participate in CCs any more, I like my costumes I don't need another person telling me they look good.

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[ QUOTE ]
...they are all FAKE.

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely 100% incorrect. Sorry you've been involved in some shady, or downright rigged CCs, and are bitter because of it, but I've won, placed, or shown in a few in the past couple of months, all on different characters, and I have no connection to any of the people running them. And most of them were on Virtue because Guardian, my other home server doesn't seem to have them that often.

I've also entered Virtue ccs where I knew had no hope of winning because the other entries were that good. If I've ever been in a fixed cc, the person who won probably would've won a legit cc anyway.

Lastly, have you ever run a cc? If not, try it sometime - you'll find out it's not that easy. Just because you're honestly picking the costumes you think are best doesn't mean everyone in the contest is going to agree with you, and not accuse you of running a rigged contest or just picking FotM costumes.

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(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon