'smore competition ideas...

[Risk]

Alright, here it is (please review thoroughly before responding to this thread):

The name of the game is "Adventure Game's Funniest Home-Impersonations." This is how it works: each month, an adventure game character will be presented (such as Vohaul from SQ, or Guybrush Threepwood from the MI series) Players who wish to participate attempt to do the best impersonation of that character. The players will also impersonate the role of an interviewer, which must ask a series of questions. In each competition, the winner of the previous competition (me to begin with) will have a variety of pre-selected questions and at least 5 of these questions must be used in the interview, such as "How are you today, <name>?" or "So tell me about your family...". In addition, the game character must include in his/her response a couple of pre-selected words, such as "Dirty Gym Socks", "Nasty pizza", or "Long Ugly Beard." (Yes, a little bazaar, but that's what makes it funny!) The sequence will be recorded into a WAV file, converted into an MP3, and sent to an online host provided by the player or myself (5 gigs available, so don't worry about space.) To prevent long-waiting periods, each MP3 will have a size limit of 3 MB (SO CONVERT IT TO MP3 WISELY IF IT IS LENGTYH!)Ã,  Finally, once all of the MP3s have been submitted and each player presents a link to his/her MP3 file, the audience will vote on the MP3 that they think was the funniest impersonation. The one that was the funniest will win the game. But remember, it's an impersonation, SO IT HAS TO SOUND A LITTLE LIKE THE GAME CHARACTER!Ã,  It won't be easy, but a lot of the competitions I've seen aren't!

How does that sound? No harsh comments, please! (Be a little nice in your response. If you don't agree with the idea, try to think about how it could be improved rather than why it is a flawed idea!) Thanks!

[SSH]

I think it would be improved if you wait until I am dead to start it

[Kinoko]

It sounds hideously convoluted, to be honest. Also, I just don't think it'd be funny... it would take a remarkedly funny person to be able to pull it off, I think, and they're rare.

[modgeulator]

How about a competition to come up with an idea for a competition? The person each week with the absolute worst idea wins and gets to set the overall theme for next week.

[Ashen]

Like your last idea, this is sort-of close to an existing comp - the Voice Acting one. Maybe (as Scummbuddy suggested last time) you could try entering the comp, winning it and making these your rules - if it goes well, you've strengthed the arguement for making it a regular thing, if it doesn't, it wasn't to be.

However, I agree with Kinoko - it's a hideously convoluted idea that probably wouldn't even be that funny (and certainly wouldn't be when it gets to the same 4 people entering month after month - as these things seem to become).

Suggestions for improvement:
1. it's an impersonation, SO IT HAS TO SOUND A LITTLE LIKE THE GAME CHARACTER
I'm not sure I actually know what many game characters sound like (except Gabriel Knight, and then only in the first game). That might just be my sadly neglected education, or it might be true of a lot of people. Maybe the players interpretation of the character, rather than a straight impression would be better - would make it easier on entrants, and give them more scope for 'funny' responses.
(Maybe this is what you meant anyway, but clarification on that would be nice.)

2. Dump the 'at least five of these questions must be used' limit. Who ever starts the comp provides some questions, and everyone uses as many or as few as they like/can fit in. Improvisation based on replies is allowed, but a structure would be there for those that don't want to.

3. Skip the 'must include these phrases' part (at least until the idea is more established), or make it a suggestion rather than a 'you must'.

4. Time limit makes more sense than file size, I think.

[Risk]

Like your last idea, this is sort-of close to an existing comp - the Voice Acting one. Maybe (as Scummbuddy suggested last time) you could try entering the comp, winning it and making these your rules - if it goes well, you've strengthed the arguement for making it a regular thing, if it doesn't, it wasn't to be.

Yea, but that's just a simple read-the-script game, isn't it?

owever, I agree with Kinoko - it's a hideously convoluted idea that probably wouldn't even be that funny (and certainly wouldn't be when it gets to the same 4 people entering month after month - as these things seem to become).

Isn't it that way for every competition? At any rate, I NEVER said this competition would be easy. In fact, I think I said the opposite...

[Ashen]

- Isn't it that way for every competition?
Pretty much, yes. By 'these things' I meant most/all of the competitions, it wasn't a dig at this specific idea.


-  that's just a simple read-the-script game, isn't it?
-  At any rate, I NEVER said this competition would be easy
In it's current form, yes. But I did only say they were sort-of close. They're both essentially voice-acting things, aren't they? And maybe it shouldn't be too easy, but there's a difference between 'challenging' and 'so ludicrously complex it's no fun' - one that doesn't necessarily come out in your description.
For me, the baseline rules of the comp should be as simple as possible, and leave plenty of room for the 'host' to figure out ways to make it more challenging. Stripped down to it's basics, this idea just sounds like Voice Comp - unscripted - which as I said you could just make be the rules for a turn, if you enter and win. (And, incidentially, was kind of how it was originally suggested, before being scripted by popular(?) demand.)

Sorry if I'm over-stressing the point, but you did ask for constructive comments.