Makeover the Freedom Phalanx and win influence! 2.1 billion in prizes!
oO Awesome job everyone!!! 
I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the submissions.
And thnx to the hosts of the contest - grats to the winners
Issue 24 PPM Calculator // The Great Makeover: The Vindicators
Grats to everyone!
Great concept and execution. Congrats to everyone who was involved!
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
Congrats to everyone who won, and to those who didnt: you guys are awesome too! I'll definitely be "borrowing" a lot of great costume ideas from this thread.
Grats to the winners!
Was very fun and me being a costume freak was actually up nights thinking of different ways to do this. Was very fun! Thanks to those who held the contest, great idea indeed!
Sooo, please excuse my ignorance and lack of proper time to check....
Honorable mentions are just getting a pat on the back, right?
No influence to gain?
I know you judges had an impossible job, but I'm just curious what made the synapse winner stand out compared to several earlier entries that have very similar looks. Aside from the action shot, I don't see what this winner has over any of those other Synapses. And if I saw a picture of the original synapse and that one, I'm not sure I would really make a connection between the two.
I'm not trying to hate on Hydro. His fantasy edition was awesome and definitely deserved one of the top spots. I just don't see much originality compared to other entries or homages to the original in his 2010 synapse.
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Contests like these really boil down to subjective opinion no matter how much we attempt to add objectivity to them. We had an extremely difficult time with some of the entries because they looked so close. A better example than Synapse were the Numina entries, just about all of them had the magic bolero cloak for example and were primarily done in white/purple, including the winner. Manticore was similarly problematic and it's the one individual category where the judges deadlocked and a run off had to be used. Even then the best we were able to come up with was a tie.|
Originally Posted by Prime_Nighthawk
I know you judges had an impossible job, but I'm just curious what made the synapse winner stand out compared to several earlier entries that have very similar looks. Aside from the action shot, I don't see what this winner has over any of those other Synapses. And if I saw a picture of the original synapse and that one, I'm not sure I would really make a connection between the two. I'm not trying to hate on Hydro. His fantasy edition was awesome and definitely deserved one of the top spots. I just don't see much originality compared to other entries or homages to the original in his 2010 synapse. |
As for this particular Synapse, it came down to color choice, the expression of the character, the seemlessness of the costume instead of discrete boots, etc. Those are all subjective criteria. So it boils down to whether or not it grabbed the attention of the judge (i.e., did we like it).
I will let you know that some of the winners won on the basis of a majority vote versus consensus. If we had to go for a consensus on every single choice, the contest would be literally impossible for us to decide. Many times we had several favorites, or several close entries and the winner was decided by "if you can't have your favorite and had to vote for what one of the other judges picked, what would you pick" style of decision making.
Hopefully, this gives you at least a partial view on what we tried to do.
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Yes. Unfortunately, just a pat on the back. I listed them just so the participants would know that the entry was highly considered. It's also an indication that the entry scored very well with at least one of the judges, maybe more than one. I've actually had other PMs about this issue so don't feel bad about asking it. It's better that I'm clear about it.|
Originally Posted by Bru_Tal
Honorable mentions are just getting a pat on the back, right? No influence to gain? |
You have no idea how many times I wanted to go socialist on you all and just split the entire 2.1B into 50 small prizes and declare everyone a winner. However, that's a cop out so we forced ourselves to make the decision that we publicized.
The quality of the entries was beyond anything any of us expected and, as you can imagine, made judging extremely difficult.
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Fair enough, but personally I would have not picked that one based on the color choice. Whether you find it appealing or not, the silver look is a complete departure from the original costume which already lacked a lot of obvious defining characteristics. There's just not much in it that makes me think, "oh yea, this is Synapse". But I'm a sucker for homages and value finding a balance between updating and staying true to the original. |
Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
Contests like these really boil down to subjective opinion no matter how much we attempt to add objectivity to them. We had an extremely difficult time with some of the entries because they looked so close. A better example than Synapse were the Numina entries, just about all of them had the magic bolero cloak for example and were primarily done in white/purple, including the winner. Manticore was similarly problematic and it's the one individual category where the judges deadlocked and a run off had to be used. Even then the best we were able to come up with was a tie.
As for this particular Synapse, it came down to color choice, the expression of the character, the seemlessness of the costume instead of discrete boots, etc. Those are all subjective criteria. So it boils down to whether or not it grabbed the attention of the judge (i.e., did we like it). I will let you know that some of the winners won on the basis of a majority vote versus consensus. If we had to go for a consensus on every single choice, the contest would be literally impossible for us to decide. Many times we had several favorites, or several close entries and the winner was decided by "if you can't have your favorite and had to vote for what one of the other judges picked, what would you pick" style of decision making. Hopefully, this gives you at least a partial view on what we tried to do. |
Still, there were some more original versions out there that I think would have been better choices than nitpicking over small details of the obvious spandex with lightning pattern that was done by so many.
Great job to the winners . Man that must have been hard to choose , so props to the judges as well .
I don't agree with the choice of winner but I congratulate him.
Excellent idea for a costume contest.
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Heh. This sounds exactly like us when we were arguing about some of the choices. |
Originally Posted by Prime_Nighthawk
Fair enough, but personally I would have not picked that one based on the color choice. Whether you find it appealing or not, the silver look is a complete departure from the original costume which already lacked a lot of obvious defining characteristics. There's just not much in it that makes me think, "oh yea, this is Synapse". But I'm a sucker for homages and value finding a balance between updating and staying true to the original.
Still, there were some more original versions out there that I think would have been better choices than nitpicking over small details of the obvious spandex with lightning pattern that was done by so many. |
I'd be interested to know which one you would pick if you couldn't pick your own.
As I related in the other post, a number of the final choices came down to the choice that is the next best if you couldn't have your favorite. I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, but if you eliminate a clear favorite or sometimes the top 2 choices, the decision making can get a lot tougher.
Ultimately, "best" is often subjective. You realize that whether you think that the criteria should be best balance of an update and a homage, or the costume that best goes against type but still is recognizable, it's a set of decision making blinders that you put on yourself...those blinders will be different for just about anybody.
Woot! I placed!
*gobbles up da monies*
Congrats to the winners, and thanks to the judges, and extra Super Galacto-Thanks to Fury Flechette for coming up with such a cool idea. This really stirred up some serious creativity, and the whole thread is really fun to look through.
@Galactoman
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I would have liked to see the best of Synapse, best of Positron, etc... as opposed to the best entry. Since I saw some excellent concepts of individual costumes and some really bad concepts of others come from individuals.|
Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
Heh. This sounds exactly like us when we were arguing about some of the choices.
I'd be interested to know which one you would pick if you couldn't pick your own. As I related in the other post, a number of the final choices came down to the choice that is the next best if you couldn't have your favorite. I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, but if you eliminate a clear favorite or sometimes the top 2 choices, the decision making can get a lot tougher. Ultimately, "best" is often subjective. You realize that whether you think that the criteria should be best balance of an update and a homage, or the costume that best goes against type but still is recognizable, it's a set of decision making blinders that you put on yourself...those blinders will be different for just about anybody. |
The other problem I see with this type of contest is that not everyones Graphics cards offer crisper graphical representations of the character and design.
But i'm nitpicking. Can't wait to see the Villain costume contest.
I'm in game at the moment, so if any of the winners see this, I'll happily give you your winnings. I'll be online for the next couple of hours or so.
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Hey no problem. I just wasnt sure.|
Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
Yes. Unfortunately, just a pat on the back. I listed them just so the participants would know that the entry was highly considered. It's also an indication that the entry scored very well with at least one of the judges, maybe more than one. I've actually had other PMs about this issue so don't feel bad about asking it. It's better that I'm clear about it.
|
Regardless of who won or lost, I just really appreciated the "doing" of it. Being in an art related field myself, you could have had a rubric, a score sheet, all of the above, and when it just comes down to it, its still very subjective. I mean, sure, some may not have done X,Y,Z, but it still rocks my socks! THAT has to speak for something!
Its always hardest to quantify that.
Good news is, you dont have to! Its your game and your ball and we have to play the way you want! Just the way it should be! I hope you wont get any more people lighting the flames of "Ho-Hum" anymore. The point was to have fun and possibly get a reward for doing it.
That was cool enough for myself anyway.
Thank you thank you thank you again for doing this!!!
Mucho fun!
Thanks guys! Congratulations to everyone who placed.
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This. It was a ton of fun and I'm stealing lots of ideas from everyone to feed the altitis monkey. |
Originally Posted by Bru_Tal
I hope you wont get any more people lighting the flames of "Ho-Hum" anymore. The point was to have fun and possibly get a reward for doing it.
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Thanks judges and congrats to everyone.
Siberian Spring-50 (Cold/Rad, Rad/Ice, Ice/Rad, Sh/Ice) - KGB SS8
Chernozem-50 (Ice/MM, Emp/Ice, MA/Regen) - KGB SS8
Wila-50 (Dark/Arch) - KGB SS8
Also: Krassivy Mechtayu-50 (Ill/Rad) - KGB SS8; Ms. Hypatia-50 (Dark/Regen)
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I would have, though. Also, being original was not the top priority here, given that the character has an established personality, power set, history, and existing costume. I imagine that being both original and "good" would get you somewhere, but "good" should have priority given the contest at hand.|
Originally Posted by Prime_Nighthawk
Fair enough, but personally I would have not picked that one based on the color choice.... Still, there were some more original versions out there that I think would have been better choices than nitpicking over small details of the obvious spandex with lightning pattern that was done by so many.
|
So, like they said, it's all subjective.
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I liked these three|
Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
I'd be interested to know which one you would pick if you couldn't pick your own.
|
I really dig this costume, especially the pin-stripes, the boots, and the symbol. Only thing is that head is too out there. It looks like he has blue skin and hair, and that threw me off.
Probably would have went with this one by a small margin over Matt's, even though I don't like the metal boots.
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Originally Posted by Prime_Nighthawk
I liked these three
I really dig this costume, especially the pin-stripes, the boots, and the symbol. Only thing is that head is too out there. It looks like he has blue skin and hair, and that threw me off. Probably would have went with this one by a small margin over Matt's, even though I don't like the metal boots. |
Two of those were on our short list of choices. So maybe we're not as insane as you may think we are.
Even though we didn't end up with the choice you wanted.And I agree all three of the costumes you picked were very strong costumes.
Great stuff, everyone. It was an awesome thing to be a part of.
Congratulations to all of the winners and the judges for putting this together. This was a really fun contest.
Globals: @Nurse Midnight, @Red Kabuto, @Zeronos
Twitter: @NurseMidnight
Golden Age Heroes
Awesome, thanks! Congrats again guys.
Black Starbeam - The Reciprocators
Making money, not earning it.