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Opposition to FunOrb inspired contests?
Topic Started: Apr 24 2010, 01:40 PM (47 Views)
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I personally am opposed to FunOrb-themed contests on the RSB. There so far have only been on of such contests, the Armies of Gielinor contest, but there has been confirmation that the next contest will also be FunOrb themed. I dislike this because I am an RSB user first and foremost, and not only have I never played Armies of Gielinor or Steel Sentinals, I have no desire to do so.

I believe that FunOrb related contests should be confined to their forums, and not ours. Jagex fears that FunOrb will never be as prominent as Runescape, so they leech off of Runescape's popularity and transplant it back in the game site. I did not participate in the Armies of Gielinor contest, and I will not participate in the Steel Sentinals contest.

That's all I've got to say.
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Phantom Menace
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At least AoG was based on RuneScape, so it was marginally acceptable. What's Street Sentinels, though?

At any rate, I agree with you, though I'm not sure what we can do about it.
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Yrolg

As I said before, I think that you're being a bit defensive with a tinge of territorialism. There is a clear and present need for story contests in the RSB because these bring hundreds of new users to our neck of the woods, leaving, with every contest, a decent few who stick around and participate -- even if only for a month. I think it is an undeniable fact that these contests help to increase the activity within the forum, which, in itself, is enough to supplement the community that has, in the eyes of some, been otherwise degrading over the past five years. Indubitably, these contests have contributed to the relative success our forum is now enjoying.

The reason that these contests can introduce such activity is that they bring together a wide range of users from different backgrounds in order to unite them for a common cause: the creation of literature. By bringing these users together in such a way, we are able to strengthen the feelings of community ties that each new user experiences as well as develop an environment where new users do not necessarily feel as if they must prove themselves or ease their way into activity. By uniting every user in the forum in a common purpose -- one in which seniority plays only a nominal role -- we are able to produce an even tighter community.

The more central this common purpose is, the greater the success it produces, and this is why the idea of a theme was first introduced into the story contests. It helps to provide an illusion of a challenge whilst still focusing every participant into an even narrower purpose: creating literature about a similar topic. In the past, we've had such topics as "betrayal", "valour", and holiday-inspired themes. These, however, were disliked by some who viewed them as restrictive of content and too much an inconvenience on the creative process. Mod Craddock introduced, however, a new idea to the theme: a minigame.

By using minigames, the administrators are able to permit diversity in the entries. The minigames are massive at times, and offer infinite possibilities for stories. To bridge the gap between the two existing foruming communities -- and to unite both of them in a common purpose -- a game was chosen which may relate to both of their interests: Armies of Gielinor, which is a RuneScape-based game (appealing to the Runescape community) on the FunOrb site (appealing to the Funorb community).

This provided the benefits of the theme without the negative aspects some prefer to view. The massive content of the minigames allow for a much broader range of ideas, thus counterbalancing the restrictive process that other themes introduced and permitting much more originality in the creative process. They still, however, were able to unite the communities into a single purpose, which is the purpose of these contests.

These contests do not exist to reward talented players. They exist to build bridges between communities and to strengthen the relationship between Jagex and the players. It's a PR Issue, and that's something that many have trouble seeing.

I think that you dislike this form of contest because you feel it is encroaching upon the autonomy of the Stories Forum. It is a natural human reaction to feel hesitant about change, especially that which introduces new "competition" into the environment (some of which may not be quality). You are justifying this irrational fear through a series of assumptions that lead, in essence, to no logical evidence and support. This is called rationalization. You are hiding your true motives -- whether you realize it or not -- behind a wall of xenophobic principles.

And, lastly, in addition to the statements above, you must realize that Jagex is a company, and, as such, is responsible to market their products to every reasonable demographic. It would be a waste of their staff members' time -- and would therefore be frowned upon -- if a contest existed wherein there was potential for advertising, but it was not being utilized.
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Phantom Menace
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Yrolg
Apr 25 2010, 01:19 PM
As I said before, I think that you're being a bit defensive with a tinge of territorialism. There is a clear and present need for story contests in the RSB because these bring hundreds of new users to our neck of the woods, leaving, with every contest, a decent few who stick around and participate -- even if only for a month. I think it is an undeniable fact that these contests help to increase the activity within the forum, which, in itself, is enough to supplement the community that has, in the eyes of some, been otherwise degrading over the past five years. Indubitably, these contests have contributed to the relative success our forum is now enjoying.

The reason that these contests can introduce such activity is that they bring together a wide range of users from different backgrounds in order to unite them for a common cause: the creation of literature. By bringing these users together in such a way, we are able to strengthen the feelings of community ties that each new user experiences as well as develop an environment where new users do not necessarily feel as if they must prove themselves or ease their way into activity. By uniting every user in the forum in a common purpose -- one in which seniority plays only a nominal role -- we are able to produce an even tighter community.

The more central this common purpose is, the greater the success it produces, and this is why the idea of a theme was first introduced into the story contests. It helps to provide an illusion of a challenge whilst still focusing every participant into an even narrower purpose: creating literature about a similar topic. In the past, we've had such topics as "betrayal", "valour", and holiday-inspired themes. These, however, were disliked by some who viewed them as restrictive of content and too much an inconvenience on the creative process. Mod Craddock introduced, however, a new idea to the theme: a minigame.

By using minigames, the administrators are able to permit diversity in the entries. The minigames are massive at times, and offer infinite possibilities for stories. To bridge the gap between the two existing foruming communities -- and to unite both of them in a common purpose -- a game was chosen which may relate to both of their interests: Armies of Gielinor, which is a RuneScape-based game (appealing to the Runescape community) on the FunOrb site (appealing to the Funorb community).

This provided the benefits of the theme without the negative aspects some prefer to view. The massive content of the minigames allow for a much broader range of ideas, thus counterbalancing the restrictive process that other themes introduced and permitting much more originality in the creative process. They still, however, were able to unite the communities into a single purpose, which is the purpose of these contests.

These contests do not exist to reward talented players. They exist to build bridges between communities and to strengthen the relationship between Jagex and the players. It's a PR Issue, and that's something that many have trouble seeing.

I think that you dislike this form of contest because you feel it is encroaching upon the autonomy of the Stories Forum. It is a natural human reaction to feel hesitant about change, especially that which introduces new "competition" into the environment (some of which may not be quality). You are justifying this irrational fear through a series of assumptions that lead, in essence, to no logical evidence and support. This is called rationalization. You are hiding your true motives -- whether you realize it or not -- behind a wall of xenophobic principles.

And, lastly, in addition to the statements above, you must realize that Jagex is a company, and, as such, is responsible to market their products to every reasonable demographic. It would be a waste of their staff members' time -- and would therefore be frowned upon -- if a contest existed wherein there was potential for advertising, but it was not being utilized.
I absolutely hate everything about this post.

Especially the fact it's true. X_X
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Yrolg

I agree. :D
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