Splice Competition Survey and Metrics

[Lenh]

Thank you if you filled out the survey, just curious to hear everyone's on the splice contest as it's been running for a long time (nearly at 100). ^_^

(That and I think it'd be nice to have a general census on people's opinions on customing. I know it's a sensitive subject but the survey is anon, a chance to be honest about the issue and let others know what the general population thinks. If you do decide to post about it here, keep things civil and objective (don't reference any particular artists, mugs, or rounds).)

If anyone is interested in compiled results, I've tried keeping track of them here:

MS Office Doc (.docx) of splice contest rounds + results: here (2.5MB)

Mug Sheet with usage tallies: here (1.33MB)

[Princess Peachar]

An idea on the more mugs:

Throw in more mugs to the set, but still limit mug usage. (Eg. have 5 mugs in a set, but only allow 3 to be spliced from)

Adds variety to the entries.

[Mew]

Soo I mentioned this to Lenh already but I'll dump this here. Themed contests have been really popular in the past, and I think it may be fun to ask that splicers adhere to a theme sometimes. For example, make a character of a certain culture, or make a character with a certain personality.

I think this could be helpful for people in need of sprites for their games, too (though perhaps I just like giving sprites to hackers, idk?)--maybe themes could be suggested by people other than the winner of the competition. I'm not sure if this would make the splice competition too daunting though, it's easily one of the most accessible sprite comps.

On customing, while discussing accessibility, I'm guilty of going crazy with it.

heh

I think winning the competition means less and less to me, so I really don't care about whether or not something feels 'custom,' as long as I can tell where most of the pieces came from and it's not blatantly from scratch. Buuut, when I first started, every vote meant a lot to me! So I see the point of disallowing custom in favor of making a more level playing field--but on the other hand I think seeing highly creative usage of sprites inspires people to push in more interesting directions.

[Lenh]

Redfield, that's about the way I see it would go down. It seems adding more mugs is general consensus so far, and if we change the way mugs are picked we'll probably need more anyways.

(summarizing talk to Mew here)

Themes sound all right but adding any more rules would be limiting (some points in time it's daunting enough just to make a cohesive splice from a random set). I'm cool with challenges or extra requests, though.

Disallowing certain techniques won't level the playing field, just limit it for everyone. So far the best idea has been to add an 'underdog' category where you can vote for a splice you think has promise (but needs a little work) or is exceptional for the particular artist. In that way you can give feedback to both advanced and beginner spriting tiers. (Maybe the winner of the underdog can opt to get a polished version of their splice, too.)

[Sifer]

I just like looking at the nice art being created :), so continue please.

[Siuloir]

An idea on the more mugs:

Throw in more mugs to the set, but still limit mug usage. (Eg. have 5 mugs in a set, but only allow 3 to be spliced from)

Adds variety to the entries.

Seconded.

Soo I mentioned this to Lenh already but I'll dump this here. Themed contests have been really popular in the past, and I think it may be fun to ask that splicers adhere to a theme sometimes. For example, make a character of a certain culture, or make a character with a certain personality.

I think this could be helpful for people in need of sprites for their games, too (though perhaps I just like giving sprites to hackers, idk?)--maybe themes could be suggested by people other than the winner of the competition. I'm not sure if this would make the splice competition too daunting though, it's easily one of the most accessible sprite comps.

On customing, while discussing accessibility, I'm guilty of going crazy with it.

heh

I think winning the competition means less and less to me, so I really don't care about whether or not something feels 'custom,' as long as I can tell where most of the pieces came from and it's not blatantly from scratch. Buuut, when I first started, every vote meant a lot to me! So I see the point of disallowing custom in favor of making a more level playing field--but on the other hand I think seeing highly creative usage of sprites inspires people to push in more interesting directions.

I also think themed contests would be fun. Shaking up the routine's always good to do every once and awhile.

For my part, I've never put much interest toward winning. I enjoy the process, enjoy the practice, and most of all, enjoy seeing what everyone comes with.

Also, I still seriously love the Lord Emperor of Trim up there, Mew.

[Person123]

Personally, I'd participate fairly often if customizing restrictions were loosened. I rather like the idea of themes as well.

[Lenh]

Noted on the themes. We can try the winner of this round choosing a theme and a mug, and runner-ups choosing the remaining 4 mugs (once 1st chooses a theme).

Personally, I'd participate fairly often if customizing restrictions were loosened. I rather like the idea of themes as well.

"No mass Customization. You may custom a bit to make your mug look good/making it work, such as reshading, but try not to go overboard."

Right now that rule is a judgement call made by the competition organizer (for me: can I tell where it originally came from: can I recognize shapes/texture/patterns, at the threshold of 3x2px chunks). It's in place to prevent anyone from manually drawing large sections.

Are you asking for permission to break that rule (which is usually at your own risk to the judge and public opinion, currently pretty lenient according to the poll), or for wording to change so you feel more comfortable pushing the creative edge?

[Person123]

Right now that rule is a judgement call made by the competition organizer (for me: can I tell where it originally came from: can I recognize shapes/texture/patterns, at the threshold of 3x2px chunks). It's in place to prevent anyone from manually drawing large sections.

Are you asking for permission to break that rule (which is usually at your own risk to the judge and public opinion, currently pretty lenient according to the poll), or for wording to change so you feel more comfortable pushing the creative edge?

It can be difficult for me to see where the "line" is between what constitutes an illegal edit and what's acceptable, so I tend to err on the side of caution and not participate in order to avoid breaking any rules. I think it would help alleviate some doubt if the wording was changed. A good thing to include would be your threshold definition of "3x2px chunks", which was something I was unaware of.

[Klokinator]

How about "No customing in a splice contest unless you provide a WIP/Progression sheet"? It's not hard to do and it shows people that splices were the original piece. Then people can be creative as they want. I don't think limiting creativity is a good thing, so just requiring a WIP sheet seems like a good move to me.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

How about "No customing in a splice contest unless you provide a WIP/Progression sheet"? It's not hard to do and it shows people that splices were the original piece. Then people can be creative as they want. I don't think limiting creativity is a good thing, so just requiring a WIP sheet seems like a good move to me.

...Are you saying I can custom if I provide the wip sheet then? :p

[Klokinator]

You're supposed to splice in a splicing contest. However having a wip sheet allows you to custom more as long as you show the progression evolved from the original three mugs spliced together first.

The competition where anything goes is the random child generator though, so that's a thing.

[Lenh]

WIPs are a nice gesture by people to make it easier to source the pieces but it's not exactly easy to maintain a WIP (and sometimes it's not any simpler than the final piece), so I'd rather keep it voluntary.

Ciraxis, I resisted defining my personal threshold/verificationMethod because even that's flexible at times. I'll think over just changing that rule to something more precise like "Don't manually draw in sections / add new shapes by hand (a.k.a. 'customing'.)".

Would there be any value in defining the type of modding/splice stuff that goes on, like a tutorial on stuff that seems controversial at first glance but has gone through rounds without a fuss?

[Person123]

I can definitely see the value of a WIP sheet, since as Klok said it could be used to justify and explain edits that would appear controversial.

Would there be any value in defining the type of modding/splice stuff that goes on, like a tutorial on stuff that seems controversial at first glance but has gone through rounds without a fuss?

Doing so would eliminate any remaining doubts, and would likely help quite a few people besides myself.

[Teapot]

We've had a series of unproductive and convoluted discussions regarding the "legality" of certain splicing techniques in the past; let's just say that our efforts were sorely misplaced.

Just... sort of use your own judgment? I mean, really, as long as you're not blatantly magicking significant new pieces out of thin air, it really shouldn't matter. It's just a friendly contest. If we start analyzing every part and piece, we'll be so hung up on technicalities that we'll only be restricting ourselves further.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

You're supposed to splice in a splicing contest. However having a wip sheet allows you to custom more as long as you show the progression evolved from the original three mugs spliced together first.

The competition where anything goes is the random child generator though, so that's a thing.

I was just making fun of your wording, as it seemed kinda confusing.

How about "No customing in a splice contest unless [...]

Which almost sounded like customing could be in under certain conditions.

[Solum]

I used to participate in some rounds and even won one with a only spliced mug(without any reshading etc.). I just don't participate much since few months because I don't have the time.

About splicing techniques like micro splicing, I'd say it's not a problem if you don't make a splice full of 2x2 pixels pieces. And even this wouldn't bother me anyway. And if this technique may win most of the rounds, entries like Vamp's would get way more votes. IIRC he wasn't micro splicing at all. So micro splicing isn't a problem since you can absolutely do better without it.

If you don't like micro splicing just don't vote for concerned entries and let it go... I mean it's a friendly game we're playing at.

Maybe a little proposition : Why not try to build next sets by asking only one portrait to the top 3 of the precedent round?

It would make the set more random and we could get some really fun splices.

[Lenh]

That's what we're trying, Solum. I'm not sure how it'll go with multiple voting categories but we'll probably play around with it on the fly and see what options work best.

We've had a series of unproductive and convoluted discussions regarding the "legality" of certain splicing techniques in the past; let's just say that our efforts were sorely misplaced.

Just... sort of use your own judgment? I mean, really, as long as you're not blatantly magicking significant new pieces out of thin air, it really shouldn't matter. It's just a friendly contest. If we start analyzing every part and piece, we'll be so hung up on technicalities that we'll only be restricting ourselves further.

Yeeeep, this pretty much. I can mince things until the end of time but ultimately it's just whatever the participant is willing to try out. Yeah, please keep it within the realm of splicing, but no, don't worry about satisfying or forcing other people's threshold for splicing/notSplicing, just find the threshold you're comfortable with personally. There's not a ton of stuff to lose by not getting popularity votes and this contest should be friendly/fun more than anything.

I'll try to define some of the techniques I've seen used just to introduce them to people. Some of it can gateway into mod/FC territory so I want to have it written entirely separate from this contest.

For the contest itself I'll keep the ruleset general and compliance complaints on a private case-by-case.

[Mercenary Lord]

Idea for choosing new mugs: after voting closes have people put character names in the thread: first 3-? who post get those mugs in

just idea for maximum chaos

[Teapot]

^ Or you could have the top 3 who place pick one mug each.

...provided there are even 3 entries.

[Lenh]

Winner of the contest will choose the next set (and should select an interesting/spliceable combination).

Winner of the contest will choose the next theme and a mug, runners-up will choose the remaining mugs once a theme has been decided.

---

I went and changed the rules of round 99 already, we'll see how it goes and tweak things as necessary. I'll probably just fill in the blanks, ask for more mugs from entrants, or roll RNG if there aren't enough mugs.

[eCut]

Yay eCut is a week late ^_^

Though I would have preferred to have been consulted before you decided to post this (considering the last splicing shit-fest), it definitely doesn't hurt to try something new!

I am worried though, that the theme will hinder creativity and will make it more difficult for newer spriters to participate as they might not have the ability yet to make their sprite match the theme; in the past, theme contests have never been as popular, hence why they're not often done. Still, I am interested to see how it works out.

(And no, I have not read the topic yet so I don't know if any of that has been brought up).

[Lenh]

The first post is written specifically requesting to keep it objective and not reference to things like the great Conservative-Liberal War of 62. (A few people are (thankfully) unaware and probably don't need to know about the details, rather we ought to just prevent that sort of thing from happening again. ^^;)

I am worried though, that the theme will hinder creativity and will make it more difficult for newer spriters to participate as they might not have the ability yet to make their sprite match the theme; in the past, theme contests have never been as popular, hence why they're not often done. Still, I am interested to see how it works out.

The given theme would optional, since they're hit or miss most of the time. (Answer to everything is to add another voting category, in this case 'Best in Theme'.)

[Mercenary Lord]

personal opinion: theme is good because my inspiration is really lazy and likes to vacation without permission

theme helps pls

[Teapot]

Yay eCut is a week late ^_^

Though I would have preferred to have been consulted before you decided to post this (considering the last splicing shit-fest), it definitely doesn't hurt to try something new!

Uh, I don't think anyone in particular needs to have your explicit permission to discuss the revitalization of an informal community competition. There's a difference between keeping the peace and needless policing, eCut, and with all due respect, it sort of feels like you're taking this whole powerplay thing to rather uncomfortable levels. It was kind of cute at first, but it really just feels like you're shoving your modship down everyone's throats at this point. And, if I'm to be honest, it's really quite overbearing and more than a little unnecessarily threatening.

I understand you're very dedicated to your position, but I think it might help to ease up a little. Lenh's been doing a very decent job of running the splice comp, and I think it'd be a nice load off your back if you'd just leave it to her for the time being. It's not like she's actively trying to sabotage the place or anything; just try exercising a little more faith.

If you'd browsed the topic first, you'd have noticed that I'd already alluded to the aforementioned shitfest in one of my earlier posts to save us the trouble. Furthermore, having been the primary proponent of the particular incident in question, I don't think it would've been likely to devolve into it again unless I'd aggressively gone out of my way to bring the argument back. Nothing came of it then, and I honestly couldn't be fucked this time around to bother with it again.