Guild of Writers

As RAD3 is now over, now is another time for anyone to post feedback, on what we did right or wrong, and/or suggestions to improve on to try and make subsequent RAD contests fun, and bug free.

I'll give a rundown first on what was done wrong, and should be a culmination from feedback already posted
1) Grogyan is an idiot - right got that off my chest
2) Trying to add a secret something to add to the Age after sign ups were made
3) Remove limitations of texture, model and animation re-use
4) Check with Chogon or other Cyan member where we do actually stand with using their assets from CC and other games
5) Perhaps removing Story as a judging element
6) When Judging starts, the first 24 hours into which Grogyan should have clarified to the panel that their immediate task should be to see if all the submitted Ages work on
their computer and report back to any member of the RAD committee and/or to the Age writer that its concerns
7) At the last 48 hours, Grogyan should have sent a followup email, detailing what aspects are to be judged on and how eg, the Overall score is subjective where as the rest is objective
8) When the scores started to pour in, Grogyan should have scrutinized the scores submitted to make sure that all there is appropriate scoring, eg An Age with no obvious or broken scripting that doesn't crash a judges computer should be scored low, 1 or 0
9) If the rules aren't followed, by a contestant, the committee should have exercised the pertaining rule
10) Grogyan is an idiot

What we did right from the last contest
1) Made sure that there was a guaranteed way for a contestant to upload their Age
2) Removed the requirement for an Age or Shell owner to attach their Blend file
3) Using Zip files or other archive to submit an Age with
4) Got help from others in different timezones to better communicate to all those involved or interested in the contest

Some factors to discuss for the next contest
1) Add a score tier for a list of dids and did nots with a point for each that was done, eg
Does the Age load up fine?
Did the contestant meet the deadline?
Did the contestant register their sequence number on the ULM?
Etc, this will be basically a score of effort, called Effort Score?
2) Change the requirement from 1 hour to 24 hours after judging starts to confirm every Age is stable on every judges computer

Grogyan wrote:5) Perhaps removing Story as a judging element

From an explorer's point of view...

I am no writer, so you don't have to count my opinion, but I think it would be shame if Story isn't judged any more... Isn't story important to Uru? Uru was all about story, and I would like to see that in fan-made Ages as well. I cannot speak for other explorers, but story truly changes my opinion about Ages. I don't think I would have liked Whilyam's Bimevi that much if the story wasn't there. It made the Age seem a part of the D'niverse and made it more realistic. Story doesn't have to be complex - I can imagine that people don't want to spend too much time on story for a RAD - story can be quite simple. Lontahv's Age had a little story as well, the paper on the wall. It wasn't a complex storyline, but at least it explained the purpose of the Age.
I think story shouldn't be underestimated.

What about changing the category to something like "explanation". This would mean that as long as you give a reason for the age's existence you're fine. Of course this would still mean that people will huge documents about the history of the age would do better.

Somehow I don't see a RAD age having a gripping plot like some of the Myst and Uru ages--especially Riven.

I was just about to start a topic just like this one, but luckily I discovered this in time. Thanks, Grogyan!

I agree with all your "done wrong" points, save 1 and 10 and #5. Like Erik, I believe that ages shouldn't all be about the visuals. There were many complaints with MOUL's new ages that there needed to be more context with the ages. With only three weeks to compose an age, you can argue that much story cannot be created in that time. However, the author of the age must have had something in mind which was turned into a concrete world to explore - it would be great if those ideas could be turned into a mini-narrative. And this does not necessarily need to be explicitly written down somewhere; it can be conveyed through items found in the scene, for example.

One question about the proposed "effort score": I would argue that those items are requirements, not optional. This could be turned into a checklist, which could have the additional item of each judge verifying that they can load and explore the age. The formal judging process wouldn't begin until all items are checked.

One more point that comes to my mind: somehow it should be assured that the judes explore the complete age and do not miss parts of it as it had happened last time.

Corvus wrote:One more point that comes to my mind: somehow it should be assured that the judes explore the complete age and do not miss parts of it as it had happened last time.

Even I missed the elevator in that room, it wasn't till I explored it with flymode that I discovered the lift, which I personally found too slow, so something like that which isn't obvious through normal movement through the Age/Shell/area, should have a low score when marking on "dynamics"

I agree Robert, to a point, story is important or elements that portray a story, but as a judging element, maybe not.

Like to hear more about what everyone thinks?