Dr. Aeon's Third Architect Challenge!

Wow, it took exactly two posts for this to turn into another whiney **** thread.

So much for fun ideas.

I can't believe this ****.

You guys (you know who you are) whine and complain about being ignored for months on end and then when you have a chance to get noticed, and most of all to have the MA get noticed by the rest of the players, you still don't like it.

I'm gonna enter this sucker and I'm gonna win because all my competition will be complaining and whining.

Love you guys but cheer up.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing this one but it did get me thinking about the playerbase niches and how competitions/contests, like this one, could go a long way in keeping the players interested in CoX; overall.

We have:

The Base Builders (that kind of got slighted with the slowdown/stop of the Community Digest) - CoX would do good to follow the direction of a few of the social app games and have a monthly/quarterly Base Design contest.

PvPers - More regularly scheduled Dev sponsored events (in addition to player events) once the mechanics get to where they need to be.

TF/STFers - More regularly scheduled Dev sponsored events (in addition to player events); Fastest Time Completion, Most Kills, Least Deaths, etc (tracked like Flashback Trials are)

MA Authoring - A more regular schedule for Dr. Aeon's theme-based MA authoring events as well as events to cover CoX's major holiday cycles (Xmas, Spring Fling, Halloween, New Years plus any they themselves aren't covering) ***but beyond that, MA Author/Illustrators should be able to get recognition not only for their stories but for their Custom Enemy Groups as well (design, back-story, power selection, dialogue, etc)

Fan Artists/Writers/Videographers - Periodic contests tied into a CoX backed Fan Page; listing all the top entries from these contests.

Action Screenshot/Screen Capture of the ________

Dev backed costume contests (in-game)


Bringing back the forum games (Spot the Shot, Captions, Save the World) and expanding it to FB and Twitter (at the very least through a link back to the forum article)

***The Dev/Marketing Team did well in pushing GR through these channels but they need to be consistent in pushing all PR info through these channels***

I know for a fact that at least one of the people complaining about this challenge did not, in fact, at any point, call for a Doc Aeon challenge.

It's only hipocrisy if the same people spout the two different ideas.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

If the MA is ignored, it's ignored, but if it gets any attention it's suddenly bread and circuses.

Of course we want them to fix all the issues we're having.

Of course /they/ want to do something about it.

Can they do everything at once? No they can't.

Do they have priorities that don't include the now mostly working as intended MA? Almost certainly. (Working as intended meaning it's not riddled with exploits and causing all kinds of trouble.)

Will another Aeon Contest solve the problems we're having? Probably not, but if enough people participate and it gets advertised even a little bit on the other parts of the forums it might make some people that don't play in the MA now to check it out. And when the MA gets enough people playing in it the devs will have more reason to do something about the other problems.

The solution is never to quit using whatever it is that is causing problems. Look at pvp. Many PvPers stopped using it because they didn't like the new rules. There is now even less reason for the devs to ever do anything about it ever again.

The real solution is to get as many people as possible to use the MA so that their voices are added to our own when it comes to stuff that we want fixed. For a positive example, check out Nakayama's art threads. Everyone has an opinion about the art in the game, and especially the costume pieces, so when he asks for input from the players he gets 100s of pages of replies. If everyone had an opinon on the MA and a thread from Aeon asking what needed to be fixed first got 100s of pages of replies (that weren't all from the same five people)... well, it would be a miracle to begin with, but then the devs would have a reason to do something about it.

They can never make everyone happy but they want to make most of the people happy. Don't give up on it, make more people use it (somehow) and it will get attention. The devs could help with more rumor control ("yes, you do get rewards in the MA") and better advertisement and actually poking a stick at some of the most player-unfriendly problems we have right now - the things that are actively making players turn away from the MA buildings. It's still very much up to us. Don't let the MA go the way of PvP.

The only whining I see here is from the people failing to address the legitimate complaints brought up by long time MA users. I agree with Lazarus first post 10,000%. If the devs really want to help out MA, any of the things that Peregrin Falcon listed in their post would be far more effective than running this contest. At the very least, they could offer people the opportunity to buy more MA slots so that those players who haven’t had the luck of getting a DC will be able to participate without having to kill off an existing well-established arc.

Personally, I am just glad to see Dr. Aeon initiate something positive for the Mission Architect community.

I sympathize with the people who are annoyed that the issues they want looked at, aren't addressed by this contest. However, I think pouring scorn on this effort is likely to send the wrong message; even if you think it is a pathetic milksop, it is far better than no dev involvement at all. It's like paddling a puppy for bringing your slippers instead of the newspaper. It probably won't get you the newspaper, and will end up making the puppy sad. Granted, an EVIIIIL GENIIIIUS puppy. But still! Don't make the puppy sad!

That said, I hope that this is only the start of more Mission Architect activity from Dr. Aeon and the staff of CoH, and I do hope that more will be forthcoming.

I'm also going to try to participate in this contest (time willing). I also am fully loaded on arc slots, but I don't plan to let that stop me.

I'm a paying customer. Courteously offering a list of complaints that I have about a service that I'm paying for is not whining.

For those of you that are tired of reading forum posts complaining about the MA I can only say: I'm not going to apologize if you're annoyed by people who don't agree with you that everything is Happy Happy Joy Joy with the MA.

I'd love to participate, in fact my only published arc might fit the bill but not really interested in all the legalese.

I'd much rather if the Devs did what they had said in the past and search/note one Dev's Choice or more per month, preferably with internal help of those not engaged on live server play.

Happy for the contest, best of luck to those that participate.

*raises hand*

I have a suggestion. Add a link to the contest within the game's updater. It was something done for PvPEC's big League tournament this year that was a pleasant surprise that surely helped them gain a little attention that they wouldn't have gotten just through the forums. Furthermore, the GMOTD should be used for spreading news and events to people in-game.

Sometimes, it's all in the approach. Had Dr. A said something like...

"Dr. Aeon here! Remember me? Sorry for seeming to be AWOL, folks, but Pratetoria has had us all doing other things. We've been keeping up wither everyone's concerns and are looking in to all sorts of things that'll spice up life here in AE, and make a lot of people happy, but while we're doing that, I thought a contest would be a great way to get people back through the doors. So... I’m here today to issue my Third ARCHITECT CHALLENGE! It’s been a long time coming, so I hope you’re all ready for this one..."

I think another contest is hunky dory. I wish I had time to participate. The fact that it's just tossed out there after months of nothing (with not a comment about anything else people have been dicussing in all those other threads someone suggested we should start), tends to be irritating, however. It's presentation makes it look as if they're just trotting out another shiny while ignoring everything else.