Community Feedback/Suggestions Part II

[chacusha]

COMMUNITY FEEDBACK PART II
(moogle_workshop, ultima_arena, & ff_minigames)
This is part 2/2 of the feedback polls, focusing on the big point-giving activity comms, moogle_workshop, ultima_arena, and ff_minigames. The other part (with explanation) is over here.

Comments

[lightofeilia]

Something I wanted to comment on... the competition system at UA...

I've only played a few of the FF games, so I feel really bad when it comes to long fics that focus on a game I don't know about. In the end I end up voting for the fics that focus on games I know, because I have a better feel on things/characters/places/etc. It's hard to read and like a fic that focuses on characters I don't know... And it really does affect my voting. Sometimes I don't vote at all because none of the entries are things I know about :X

So maybe we could make some challenges game-specific?

[arivess]

I'm not sure if that's a good idea... The games people know are all over the place, and we already have semi-low participation. Limiting something to one game will cut it even more. :\

The games most people know are 7-13 (minus 11, and vaguely minus 9), but the only one I know out of those is 9, so I'd be sitting out for just about all of them.

And then if you make challenges for the obscure games, you're going to get like... maybe 4 participants and 5 votes or something.

I haven't had any trouble voting on things I don't know, personally. Most of what I've liked, I liked because they looked/sounded nice, even if I barely knew a thing about the game itself.

[zerrat]

Yeah, I agree with your last point there Ari. I'm not hugely familiar with FFT, its characters or its story. Most of what I know has resulted from fandom osmosis on GFAQs, here, and from what I've learned from what Liv says. So I'm not on very sure ground with Tactics-related fics. Or IX, or VI, or XI.

Ari, you are like my polar opposite here

But hell, Yin's fight scene fic was a damn fine fic. Even without being hugely familiar with the canon, I could still appreciate the brilliance and intensity of that fight between Agrias and Delita.

[lightofeilia]

I guess it isn't a good idea to make it game-specific, but all the same, a lot of what makes a story so rich and stuff is context. It's not that I'm tempted to vote for things focusing on games that I know of only, it's that I don't trust myself to vote confidently...

I mean, it's not that only fics that I know of are well-written; I think Z's SWHN is really well written, but I can't keep reading it because I don't get it. I don't go in to the FF6 Fandom and try to read stuff even though it's really well written, because I won't get it. The same goes for challenges here; I read them because it's only fair that I should, but I don't get some of it either, and if I'm not going to understand the context in which "You spoony bard!" was made, or another scene similar to that where it really requires prior knowledge to understand, I'm most likely not going to vote for it

[chacusha]

Actually I agree with you. Putting restrictions on the subject matter indeed does have the effect of evening out the playing field a bit.

And even if we do game-specific challenges, that doesn't necessarily mean they only have to be popular games, right? We could do a challenge with popular games (probably only VII and X) and then one with medium-popular games (IV, VI, VIII, IX, XII, XIII) and then one with obscure games (I, II, III, V, XI, XIV, non-mainline games). Not sure where Dissidia fits, but maybe I can do a quick poll and figure out which ones are the most popular.

I agree, fic *is* hard because knowing and loving the characters definitely does influence enjoyment of the fic, and enjoyment of a fic does influence perceptions of quality.

Sorry for all the edits! I keep forgetting numbered FF games and then feel bad.

[zerrat]

Don't feel bad about it, Eilia, because I do agree. Fics are damn hard to relate to, especially when you have no idea of the canon/fanon forces behind it.

Thanks for the support, but no-one's obligated to read the fic I spam the comms with. I'll do some VIII stuff soon, which will be fun! :3

[sunflower_mynah]

It's not so much that you're the only one who has this problem, I think? Because I totally get where you're coming from, and I think it's inevitable that you're going to gravitate towards the fandoms you're most familiar with. I think it's just because I'm more of a "Well, I don't know the context, but I thought this was well-written and I liked the style better, so hey why not vote it up?" kind of voter that I don't feel the same way about these things.

[arivess]

But, like Mysti said, I don't go for context, I go for style. If something's written in a prettier style, I like it, and that's what "enjoyable" is to me.

What worries me more about limiting the games is basically, as I mentioned above, it'd cut participation even more, and we already don't have that much of it to begin with. If this were a bigger group, maybe, but with, what, only 5-10 people submitting each challenge, if you limit games, it's going to start to get closer to 4-5, even for the popular games, and then maybe just 2-3 for the less popular ones.

[sai_salamander]

I just wanted to interject that you're certainly not the only one with this problem! I find myself not voting for anything longer than a poem/drabble if it's not for one of the games I've played. I dunno, context is everything? Then again, I'm also writing-biased too, since I don't write outside FFX and the occasional FFVII anyway... and even my big damn FFX fic is an obscure crossover, lawl.

MAYBE I JUST SUCK.

While I'd love for there to be a FFX-specific context thinger, it would definitely limit how many people wanna enter, which would suck balls.

[lightofeilia]

Agreeing hard about the context thing. And glad I'm not the only one haha

[the_404_error]

I agree with Ari here. While it is difficult to put aside personal game bias, I usually try to, and I know I've voted for entries from games I don't know or even games I don't particularly like before just because they were well written/the graphics looked nice/etc. The only time this gets confusing is when there are terms that don't mean anything to me, like l'cie, in which case I try to figure out what I can from ff.wikia. (Though I use that as an example since I'm only more confused than ever the more I learn. Turning into crystals? What? I don't...)

If they were game specific, it would likely be for the more well known games, and then my old-school-FF heart would die a little. ;-;

[zerrat]

The fact that pre-VII stuff is written about and appreciated is something that warms me immensely. Without that extra love for FFI-VI (or even to V) I think this landcom wouldn't be quite the same.

Just saying that I respect you for being so open and powerful with the love for those games, and I wish there was more.

[the_404_error]

B'aw, I think this is true with the love all games get here. XD Just look at the wide variety on that letter contest-- V, VII, XI, XII: RW... I think it's great to see all aspects of the FF fandom coming together and appreciating each other, instead of constantly arguing like they do elsewhere.

[sunflower_mynah]

If they were game specific, it would likely be for the more well known games, and then my old-school-FF heart would die a little. ;-;

Words right out of my mouth here - why do we keep stealing each other's answers, or is it just me?

But yeah I think certain games are definitely going to get more love than others, and I would be very sad if this ended up excluding the more obscure games.

[the_404_error]

We've become thieves! DX Word_stealers? Brain_pilfers? Okay, that last one sounds more like we're harvesting brains... ignore me, I need sleep.

To be completely honest, if I joined and only saw competitions for VII - X, I would be far less enthusiastic about participating, and would end up being quite bored fairly quickly.

[sunflower_mynah]

Word_stealers ... but but that's like the entire English language.