Standardized trophies?

[Andail]

Ok, I've been thinking lately about the trophies for our various competitions. The situation now is that members have all sorts of various - often strange-looking, often non-showing - trophies in their signature, most of which are completely unrecognizable.

I know some people think it's a fun part of running a comp to also design the trophies, but not all do, and not all bother to even create trophies, and again some create trophies that look really... funny.

So, my suggestion is that we implement a set of standard trophies. I present the following reasons:
* It will become immediately clear how many times a member has won a certain competition (people won't have to guess)
* The trophies will - generally - be better made
* It'll save time for competition hosts who really don't want/have the time to design new trophies
* The trophies will be safely hosted so that they don't risk disappearing

If we decide to do this, we'll obviously have to design a set of trophies for each of the most recurrent competitions, and vote which versions we want.

I'll leave this thread open for a couple of days. If a majority of members don't think it's worth trying out, we'll simply keep doing it the old way. If there's enough support for my idea, I'll open a competition thread for creating the new sets of trophies (a competition that will also be given trophies? OMG meta-trophies, J/K).

Now, most people don't think this is a big deal, nor do I, really, but summer is the time for spending time on trying out new things.

[dactylopus]

I support this initiative.  Good idea, Andail!

[CaptainD]

often strange-looking ... trophies

some create trophies that look really... funny.

You're talking about the trophies I made, aren't you?   

Anyway, joking aside I think this is an excellent idea.

[Gilbert]

To be honest I am totally against this.
Trophies are just for fun. It is only when a host likes to make some unique ones will he makes some for that particular round. If the host has no intention to give trophies I don't see why trophies have to be issued, standard design or not.
For the broken link part it's all up to the winners themselves to decide whether they would put these images in their signatures (and just using the originally upload link or reload it to safer hosts). When the images are broken they can just remove them.

[Atelier]

At the moment we have a fun variety, and on the whole I don't think the quality is too bad - it's at the winner's discretion if they really want to put a crap trophy in their signature anyway. Also the vast majority of sprites reflect the theme of the competition in a unique way, and we may lose that. Andail, are you proposing the two systems (default standardised and host-made, if they want) to work together?

[Miez]

I see your points Andail, and they do make a lot of sense...
But I'm still not a big fan - it all seems a little too organized, a little too streamlined perhaps?

Just my 2 cents.

[Adeel]

I agree with Iceboty V7000a. He has made some valid points.

@Andail:

The trophies are a sign of love, appreciation and / or respect towards the winner. It doesn't matter what style is used for this purpose. So, standardizing trophies and restricting the administrator of the contests to draw them will take away the "home-made" look in the trophies.

As for the hosting / backup. Winners maybe urged by the contest administrator to download and keep them as a record. Second, we may ask Peder to host the trophies for us. I can provide limited web-backup too, if anyone wants.

However, I second your opinion that some sort of counter may be devised that would keep track of the winners of different competitions. Contest Administrator may select the winner and the counter number may increase. This number may be then displayed above the avatar or below it, as deemed fit by the moderators and administrator of this forum.

[Baron]

Why not some sort of hybrid system?  People are going to always put whatever they want in their signatures, and you can't really stop people from spriting, but you can take away the need by having (more) standardized icons under the person's avatar.  Then again, I would think that would take a lot of effort from [somebody] to keep the system up to date....  So I guess I have mixed feelings either way.  Does that count as a vote? 

[dactylopus]

I like how the idea aims to keep things organized.  I would think that would be a benefit.

The concept of putting a standardized icon under the avatar is wonderful.  Custom trophies can still be fun, and we can put them in signatures if we want.

[kconan]

  I agree with Icebot/Gilbot and Atelier.  Trophies are for fun, and part of the enjoyment is all the misshapen, poorly drawn trophies out there.  Sometimes they are too big, too small, look great, look horrible, etc...Some folks go full "Ponch Trophy Wall of Glorious Victories" in the signature, some folks put one or two, and other folks don't bother.  I like ramshackle trophies, and the diversity of ways in which competition winners treat their victories.

  Yes its annoying that trophies sometimes disappear and I can understand caring about official tallies of wins, but I feel regimenting the competitions will take away some of the fun.

[Ponch]

Some folks go full "Ponch Trophy Wall of Glorious Victories" in the signature, some folks put one or two, and other folks don't bother.

But it's so lovably tacky!


Personally, I prefer the homemade trophies. Some are really neat, most are presentable, and several are adorably shoddy. But each one was made with love! Heck, a few people are still using the candy corn and pimphat trophies I handed out a while back. Maybe the trophies aren't always "regulation size" or even "competently made" but there's no reason they don't deserve a home here in the AGS forums. Heck, we're a community that loves to make games in a style that went out of fashion twenty years ago. We're practically "The Island Of Misfit Toys"! Why should our trophies be hip and cool when we're not?

I vote we keep the silly, hand crafted trophies. They're as much a reflection of the wonderful people here as Icey Snake Ghost. And everybody loves Ghost!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of trophies to add to my trophy pack.

[dactylopus]

I guess my opinion stems from being new here, and somewhat of an outsider.

I can see why veterans appreciate the quirky charm of these trophies.

[AGA]

Tacky trophies are tacky!  Non tacky ones would be nice!

I could easily set it up so the winners of each competition could have a neat little AGS Awards style icon under the avatar, and make it so the administrator of each competition had the ability to add said awards to users' accounts (making the effort required from any one person keeping stuff up to date minimal).

[Adeel]

@AGA:

That will be great! Please proceed to do it a.s.a.p.

The icon's idea is a nice concept. It will be more better if the description / number of all the respective competitions won by a person is displayed whenever mouse pointer is hovered to it (icon).

[AGA]

I can't do it without someone drawing the icons!  I don't do art!

This would ideally be one person willing to do all the icons, so there's a consistent art style.  First I suppose we'd need a list of all the competitions that should be represented?

[Miez]

Again - I really think this is against individual creativity. Let me propose an alternative solution:

- we come up with a standard size for award icons (say 50 x 50 pixels).
- we (that is: AGA ) build a system that hosts these icons and allows competition starters to upload these standard size icons.

This way there is some consistency (icons are always the same size, and they will always show as they are hosted from a central repository) but there's still room for individual creativity (as quirky, bad, good, funky as that may be).

Sounds workable?

[cat]

+1

It also would be nice to link the trophies back to the competition thread.

[Miez]

It also would be nice to link the trophies back to the competition thread.

Good suggestion!

[Sinitrena]

I love our non standardized trophies. I love their tackiness, the different sizes, evrything that makes them special. Our competitions all represent different kinds of art, and the trophies reflect that in their own strange way. That they are not always perfect, often not even good creates their charm. And, as it is now, everybody can decide for themselves if they want them in their signature, thus increasing the individuallity.

On the other hand, having a small icon under the avatar would be great. Especially considering that there are the small icons for "I can help with..." too and a lot of competitions correspond to these icons. Think about it: Someone has "I can help with backgrounds" and right under this "I won the background blitz 7 times" That would probably be helpfull for people who look for contributors for their games too.


I think my suggestions would basically be to leave the trophies as is, maybe provide a hosting space so they don't get lost, and add icons for the winners under the avatars.

[miguel]

I would like Soviet type icons all over the site, please.