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Dominance War V Begins February 28th

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  • d1ver
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    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    greevar wrote: »
    I would be happy that my work is getting out there. As long as they give me credit as the artist, I have no problem with people sharing my work. I know that my work is an advertisement for my skills and if I do good work, I want people to see that. So I would not be offended.

    I'm really not sure I'm the one to make judgments about this but I think that this kind of attitude comes from less established artists. Because most of the kickass artists that are going to provide most of the work that will generate interest know very well what their art is worth, so they don't want to sell themselves short for the sake of "being noticed". There's absolutely nothing to them but someone making money off their art, since they know they are in demand anyway. I can easily imagine this people finding the money issue most inappropriate and I think they are completely right.

    Furthermore I find the kind "get yourself out there" attitude pretty destructive and disturbing to the point where I think it's partly responsible for thousands(?) junior artists abused all over.
    As soon as you want to be a professional - learn to keep things that way. Your art is work, work takes hours to make, hours cost money. Someone makes money off your work without compensating you appropriately - it's stealing.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    I would be happy that my work is getting out there. As long as they give me credit as the artist, I have no problem with people sharing my work. I know that my work is an advertisement for my skills and if I do good work, I want people to see that. So I would not be offended.

    Yeah, that's precisely the attitude to avoid. Every work has a price (or value, whatever you call it), except for openly volonteer work of course. And letting stuff slide that way just to get exposure "out there" is very dangerous. The less people accept abusive treatment from employers/publishers/whatevers, the less shady business will happen and the more value will be given to what is worth value. If a magazine crew thinks your art is so good that they want to show it... for free ... (and then sell more copies of their publication as a consequence) and ask you to do an illustration for them just to give you a "free plug", then you'l be sure that another magazine will be okay with giving you compensation and a real contract for the same amount of work.

    (litte vignettes insert/plugs in CG magazinres are bit different of course - I'm talking about full sized illustration/tutorials here. Depends on the kind of magazine, too)

    Working for cheap or for no compensation is just fueling the whole 'make art button' misconception, leading to expandable artists. Screw that! We're not hos.
  • Zack Fowler
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    Zack Fowler polycounter lvl 11
    Beginning and ending the very same paragraph:

    "Without Fred, there wouldn't have been a Dom War at all to bitch about."
    "Our popularizing this competition made it what it is today, not Fred."


    Huh? I mean, I agree with the second statement, but it doesn't seem like you can believe both at the same time.

    Also, I understand the mentality of "exposure is top priority", and where that's coming from. But the thing is, as artists mature they come to understand that the cream rises to the top whether they let their work be exploited by others or not. If your work is weak it doesn't matter if it's plastered on every billboard in the continental USA, nobody's going to care. If your work is great, your peers will pass it around naturally. I can't count how many times I've pulled over a couple of coworkers to look at some new awesome artwork I found. You don't need to waive your rights as an artist to ownership of your work in order to be the buzz of the game art circuit.

    In the long run, self-respect will serve you much better as an artist than desire for exposure. So long as you post up your work in places like Polycount, Game Artisans, ZBC etc the whole exposure thing will take care of itself.

    I'm probably mangling this quote, but ultimately it's something like this: "If you ain't got it, you can't show it. If you got it, you can't hide it."
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    every dom war... EVERY dom war, has had something come up that held it back.

    putting it bluntly, Fred is a victim of his own making. constant mis-management of resources, whether it's time, money, prizes etc. combined with a "grand vision" for something that is clearly beyond his grasp but he's maybe too naive to see it himself, has led him, and in turn us to the point we're at now.

    that point is that people are sick of the bullshit being fed to them. dispite the fact that he keeps trying to sugarcoat it with a different brand of sugar each time.

    i may not be a big shot artist, i may never stand a chance of winning. but i always wanted to try. but for the last couple of years, that drive is gone, and it's because of the reasons above.

    too much shit over something which should be a simple thing.
  • skankerzero
    greevar wrote: »
    I would be happy that my work is getting out there. As long as they give me credit as the artist, I have no problem with people sharing my work. I know that my work is an advertisement for my skills and if I do good work, I want people to see that. So I would not be offended.

    If that's your attitude, I'll gladly 'share' your artwork with the world if you do it for free, but don't come asking for money when my game sells millions. You waived that right long ago.


    oh, and this cracks me up.
    From GA:
    I donated and the site after said "The system was unable to determine whether or not your payment was processed. Please contact customer support at info@thewebmechanics.com.". Not sure if there's a problem with the donation system but it's definately gone out of paypal.
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    d1ver wrote: »
    I'm really not sure I'm the one to make judgments about this but I think that this kind of attitude comes from less established artists. Because most of the kickass artists that are going to provide most of the work that will generate interest know very well what their art is worth, so they don't want to sell themselves short for the sake of "being noticed". There's absolutely nothing to them but someone making money off their art, since they know they are in demand anyway. I can easily imagine this people finding the money issue most inappropriate and I think they are completely right.

    Furthermore I find the kind "get yourself out there" attitude pretty destructive and disturbing to the point where I think it's partly responsible for thousands(?) junior artists abused all over.
    As soon as you want to be a professional - learn to keep things that way. Your art is work, work takes hours to make, hours cost money. Someone makes money off your work without compensating you appropriately - it's stealing.

    "...know very well what their art is worth..."

    You're talking about selling copies. I'm talking about selling time and effort, as in work-for-hire. You can sell that and not give a rip where the copies go. You can't keep it from getting out of your control, so why try? I think that a lot of artists are mistaken when they assume value equates to price. I value a lot of things that I wouldn't pay one red cent for and don't have to. I value fresh air, good friends, and life in general, but I don't think that I should pay to breath, see my friends, or live. My point is that those copies are worthless to the real market in terms of price, but the skills and time spent creating the originals are not. You can find ways to make money on the latter, but the former only works through unfair laws that limit use of previous works, limiting its contribution to culture. And to think that you don't need self promotion through your works because you're "established" is a mistake too. You're only as good as your latest creation in the public's eye. If you don't keep up the quality and the quantity, they'll either lose interest or forget you altogether.

    Now don't think I'm telling you you're wrong. I'm not. That's for you to decide. I say this because in the past people have become very adversarial about the subject and I'm not looking for a flame war. I'm just offering a differing perspective, in the hopes that people will start to question the status quo, that hasn't been given much attention by those that set the standard for the art business (the publishers). Those people would rather have you do it their way, where they reap the rewards and leave you with the work.
  • Esprite
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    Esprite polycounter lvl 9
    This was not a work-for-hire kind of setup. Even if you want/think it to be that way. Yes, you can keep it from getting out of control, and you should try.

    Personally I don't care about public eye too much. I care about the target audience. Whether that's a client, a certain group of people, a friend or myself. I care about getting better and I work towards that goal. I'm not naive enough to think everyone has or should have the same goals for what motivates them or have the same reasons for entering the contest.

    "That's just like, your opinion man."
  • Hazardous
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    Hazardous polycounter lvl 17
    Firebert: Feel free to join in!!!

    greevar = FredH?
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    "This was not a work-for-hire kind of setup."

    I wasn't saying Dom War was or is. I was speaking on the subject of self-promotion through your art. Dom War is a tool to that end.

    Okay, let me bottom-line my point here. I think it would be far better to not make art-for-profit until you have someone or many people willing to pay you to make the art. It's the difference between getting paid for making something versus getting paid for what you made. You can control your willingness to create (if they won't pay you, you don't make it), you can't control what you create once it's in the hands of other people.
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    Hazardous wrote: »
    Firebert: Feel free to join in!!!

    greevar = FredH?

    Yes, you got me! I'm FredH! /sarcasm

    If you do a web search for greevar, you'll find many posts on TechDirt and Game Politics where I have made similar statements. I'm not anti-art or against artists making a living from their work. I just don't like the restricted, publisher centric climate we have to deal with. I'd like to see publishers have a much smaller role and allow artists to make art, and fans enjoy the art, without fear of being crushed by the copyright powers they bought to give them a monopoly on our culture.
  • Two Listen
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    Two Listen polycount sponsor
    greevar wrote: »
    Okay, let me bottom-line my point here. I think it would be far better to not make art-for-profit until you have someone or many people willing to pay you to make the art. It's the difference between getting paid for making something versus getting paid for what you made. You can control your willingness to create (if they won't pay you, you don't make it), you can't control what you create once it's in the hands of other people.

    ...this makes no sense. Not because I didn't understand it. I just fail to see how this applies at all to the Dominance War. Especially in a way that helps your argument.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    what exactly is being argued here??? Are people upset that there are less prizes or that Fred might make money off of this? I recall everybody climbing over each other to provide content for Valve without complaint.
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    Two Listen wrote: »
    ...this makes no sense. Not because I didn't understand it. I just fail to see how this applies at all to the Dominance War. Especially in a way that helps your argument.

    That's because it doesn't apply to Dom War. Not directly. I've gotten off of topic, but only because someone else brought up a related subject. Dom War aside, my points are valid and I think more people should question how things are done.

    Back on topic:

    If Fred distributed copies of people's works without asking, then I think he should have asked for their permission first. It's academically dishonest, even with the best of intentions. I don't think he deserves to be treated like a crook as this thread has been exhibiting peoples' opinions as such. He tried to do nice things for us and he screwed it up. To err is human.
  • skankerzero
    what exactly is being argued here??? Are people upset that there are less prizes or that Fred might make money off of this? I recall everybody climbing over each other to provide content for Valve without complaint.

    I think the big one is that he resigned because he can't do it alone anymore, but then rehires himself and is talking even more features that he probably can't do alone.

    All th meanwhile asking for donations because this is the sole source of income for him.

    So, why pay a man that can't get the job done?
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    I think the big one is that he resigned because he can't do it alone anymore, but then rehires himself and is talking even more features that he probably can't do alone.

    All th meanwhile asking for donations because this is the sole source of income for him.

    So, why pay a man that can't get the job done?

    That's the most reasonable point I've heard on this topic so far. If you don't think he can do the job, then he doesn't deserve your funding. Consequently, I have heard folks on the GA forums talking about volunteering their time to help Fred get it done. I'll wait to see how that pans out.
  • crazyfingers
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    crazyfingers polycounter lvl 10
    what exactly is being argued here??? Are people upset that there are less prizes or that Fred might make money off of this? I recall everybody climbing over each other to provide content for Valve without complaint.

    This is a good point. But...

    There was a lot of trust between valve and the gaming community. Like Fred, valve can't meet a deadline for shit, but there are obvious transparent reasons for that, valve always delivers in the end. Things have always been murky and hard to pinpoint with these contests in terms of prizes, delays, and many would argue judging. And as we all know by now, at the end of the day valve shelled out massive cash prizes for the winners at the end, THIS is the defining difference. In comparison, Fred appears to be working behind the scenes to secretly sell the work. Considering this who knows what he may do with the assets, and if the polycount pack challenge taught us anything is that this high quality game art competition work can be worth actual tangible money. Fred has shown he wants to be the sole benefactor. In the meantime the art community suffers.

    I am completely done with anything GA related. I gave him the benefit of the doubt over the past couple weeks, but this seals the deal. He has no remorse and delusions of grandeur. GA members are in for a long slow wake up that they've been had this whole time.
  • Zack Fowler
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    Zack Fowler polycounter lvl 11
    Valve also doesn't set itself up as a martyr figure for dealing with the contest. Their motivations are plainly transparent: more content and attention for their game. Nothing sketchy about that. I think most people prefer their contest organizers not make an argumentum ad lazarum over and over.
  • Kewop Decam
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    Kewop Decam polycounter lvl 9
    So he resigned and then un-resigned.


    HOLY FUCK FRED IS THE NEW BRETT FAVRE!!!!
    lol, lets just hope no pictures of his dick emerge from cellphones.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    meh, I guess this place is full of crybabies and trolls
  • TheMadArtist
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    TheMadArtist polycounter lvl 12
    This..
    ..set itself up as a martyr figure for dealing with the contest.

    ..and this..
    ..delusions of grandeur.

    Basically sums it up for me. Fred is coming off as someone that has good intentions but is incredibly naive and isn't facing reality in what he can and can't do. And now that all this has come out in the open people can decide whether they want to participate or not and the communities can move on.
  • prototyp3
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    prototyp3 polycounter lvl 17
    Yeah, I'm done with GameArtisans. CGchat itself was a decent place before Fred took over and ran things into the dirt. I now seek shelter with Polycount, even if that safety and stability cum with tons of c0ck jokes.

    It's clear he doesn't know how to run something of this magnitude. Sure, he initially started the competition but it's the talented artists who grew it into something grand. To eliminate sponsorship revenue and instead turn to the participants for donations... what? You can't be serious. Ride sponsorships all night long.

    I still want him to step up and explain where the prizes went. Like I said, I've personally dealt with Wacom and they are a stand up organization. So that leaves Fred. Fred? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he burned his sponsors and they want nothing to do with the contest after getting their reputation soiled. Seems easier to say "no sponsors and no prizes" than to explain the mystery landing spot of the previous prizes..
  • Stinger88
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    Stinger88 polycounter
    I have to say im a bit confused to why he decided to return because of one email. After all the fuss and nonsense!....

    I think both communities (and Fred himself) came to the conclusion that Fred either needed help or needed to pass Dom war on to someone else that could handle it. Its possible no one offered to take it off him, but I expect he had offers of help at the very least. So why isnt he accepting any help... He needs it. I think as it stand we can expect long delays again...Oh wait...28th Feb. The long delays began already.

    Anyway. I'm off to do some Art. See you in P&P.
  • samgriffiths
    wasn't there talk of a polycount alternative to dom war?
  • The Boss
    I started typing out concerns, thoughts, rebuttals and questions. Then I realized I don't care anymore.

    What a long and strange road it has been, that is all I have to say.
  • Spark
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    Spark polycounter lvl 18
    All I want to say is that Fred, you need to get over yourself, and seriously drop the damn 3rd person reference. It's annoying, unprofessional, and conceited. Another suggestion which I am sure you will ignore, is that you drop the martyrdom as if there was true transparency to where and what you all received, it would be as transparent as a rock. Turn back to the start of what you first had Dominance War to be, remember that it is more than just you ( many people helped you with it ) and let's do some good art that everyone can enjoy.

    Spark
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    This anger is confusing as fuck.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Tyler wrote: »
    I have a feeling that now would be a good time to create an alternate competition or replacement competition. I really fail to see how hard it can be to run one of these. Apart from making sure you have some talented judges, maybe one sponsor for the 1st place prize, and the hosting isn't a big deal, nor is a submission system.

    Heres a thought. A high percentage of PC members work in studios, why dont a few send some swag they have floating around the office to Adam for runner up prizes? Could be an idea. I would love to see valve be the main sponsor though, they have a lot of sexy stuff in their online shop!
  • Autocon
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    Autocon polycounter lvl 15
    Andreas wrote: »
    Heres a thought. A high percentage of PC members work in studios, why dont a few send some swag they have floating around the office to Adam for runner up prizes? Could be an idea. I would love to see valve be the main sponsor though, they have a lot of sexy stuff in their online shop!


    As the question has been posed so many times before why do people need "prizes" to create personal art for themselves? This is one of the big flaws/knocks at Dom War.


    Prizes shouldn't be what entices people to join competitions and create awesome art. It should be for the fun, the challenge and the reward of having a new badass piece of art to put in your portfolio.

    I for one hope that any future Polycount competitions do not offer prizes of any kinda. If you want prizes do Dom War.


    If you need some silly prizes to justify you doing something you supposedly love you might want to rethink your life.
  • Marine
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    Marine polycounter lvl 19
    what exactly is being argued here??? Are people upset that there are less prizes or that Fred might make money off of this? I recall everybody climbing over each other to provide content for Valve without complaint.

    upset with the way fred presents it
    1. Dominance War V Main Challenge will begin February 28th 2011.
    it won't, it's fred
    2. To reduce workload and epic costs, all cash prizes will be eliminated. Only top 1st-3rd artists will receive prizes, but there will still be a top 25 and top 75 listing.
    easier to lie about prizes not arriving when you're handing fewer out

    3. To reduce workload and correspondence requirements, paid corporate sponsorships will also be eliminated.
    they're not being eliminated, they know fred is full of shit
    4. Dominance War, a non-business entity that is run primarily by a single insane artist, will be Donation based. Donations, if sufficient, will help add additional features like a public voting system for main challenge, student listings, Animation Category, Cinematic Category (DW6?), etc, and also help keep the organizer afloat during the functions of this massive event.
    as i said before, fuck fred if he expects donations to pay for him not working
    5. Future corporate participation will simply be as inspirational support only - like Dominance War I in 2006 (t-shirts and memorandum).
    should have stayed that way, he got in way over his head and decided the only way out was with a shovel
  • MattQ86
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    MattQ86 polycounter lvl 15
    Digital download codes don't need to be shipped out. Just saying.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Autocon wrote: »
    As the question has been posed so many times before why do people need "prizes" to create personal art for themselves? This is one of the big flaws/knocks at Dom War.


    Prizes shouldn't be what entices people to join competitions and create awesome art. It should be for the fun, the challenge and the reward of having a new badass piece of art to put in your portfolio.

    I for one hope that any future Polycount competitions do not offer prizes of any kinda. If you want prizes do Dom War.


    If you need some silly prizes to justify you doing something you supposedly love you might want to rethink your life.

    Eh actually I am a massive advocate of the 'no prizes' idea and have posted in regards to it many a time on here. It was just an idea that I thought I'd put out there. Positive community spirit and all that.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    honestly, I've never paid attention to what the prizes were for Dom War
  • Dn2
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    Dn2 polycounter lvl 11
    er...i only read the 1st few pages of this thread...but sometimes sponsorship isnt just prizes for ads. sponsors may want some control or some sort of compromise. and obtaining sponsorship probably takes a lot of effect and red tape to go though...hence the workload statement.

    sooo...like i need a mentor to train me before this thing starts >_>...i have e-cookies
  • Pandeaver
    I don't care about the prizes, who runs it, or whatever other controversy is behind this. I just want it to start. Sooooo long of a wait.
  • Neox
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    Neox godlike master sticky
    its just a simple thing really, can you afford prizes or already have them? go for it, if you don't - then don't pretend to, thats called fraud and hurts this community most than ts helps, i guess thankfully most people don't care too much.
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
  • gibson543
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    gibson543 polycounter lvl 13
    still some pretty poor choosing IMO, still think Crazyfool and Grush belong in the the top ten, and still no hazardous, wtf, but then again, thats off topic
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    Good luck guys. May the best artist win. :)
  • yeman
    Autocon wrote: »
    As the question has been posed so many times before why do people need "prizes" to create personal art for themselves? This is one of the big flaws/knocks at Dom War.


    Prizes shouldn't be what entices people to join competitions and create awesome art. It should be for the fun, the challenge and the reward of having a new badass piece of art to put in your portfolio.

    I for one hope that any future Polycount competitions do not offer prizes of any kinda. If you want prizes do Dom War.


    If you need some silly prizes to justify you doing something you supposedly love you might want to rethink your life.

    Say, your buddy lent you a helping hand and you bought him a drink afterwards, and then you go and tell people your buddy helped you just so he could get free drinks?
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
  • XenoKratios
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    XenoKratios polycounter lvl 12
    Tyler wrote: »
    Well, i can provide hosting and some website design help if anyone wants to make use of it. Valve have worked with Polycount before and that worked out well for both parties. Don't see how shooting an email to a few companies that sell game swag and 3d prints could hurt. Winner wins a 3d print of their entry, and the runner ups get the swag? Thats all the prizes needed, surely.

    As for the competition, the setup of Dominance War, and writing a little backstory would be cool. Maybe even going a little deeper into that backstory to give artists more to play with. I dunno, just throwing words around.

    Hey Tyler you seem very keen about doing this, and I believe what you're saying man ..

    Is it really that hard? really?

    No it isn't... expect my PM soon
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    It reminds me when Vanguard: Saga of Heroes made a contest and people from the different gaming sites would make fanart and the winner would get their piece in the game. All the gaming sites had their own little voting and then the winner of that went into the Vanguard voting, reducing lot of peoples work into a selected few for the official voting. I think that makes more sense, and would "reduce the workload" and server load that some seem to be worried about.
  • Firebert
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    Firebert polycounter lvl 15
    Hazardous wrote: »
    Firebert: Feel free to join in!!!

    oh alright
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Just noticed this in the little past events recap thingie :
    Dominance War V main challenge has been delayed due to a misunderstanding between Polycount.com and GameArtisans.org.

    We're the bad guys! (No words on the concerns expressed by CHhub and others, obviously hehe)

    Oh well
  • crazyfool
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    crazyfool polycounter lvl 13
    haha no way :) couldnt care less anymore though, gonna make some art and get a jerb lol :D
  • Gav
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    Gav quad damage
    Huh..I never noticed that before. If by "misunderstanding" he means - "letting people know that I was going to sell their work without their permission." Sure. Just annoys me that with that wording it seems any valid concerns had been ignored in favour of the low hanging fruit. (Who made Dominance War? Where do the prizes come from? etc.) Like an unapology - "Sure, I made a huge mistake but maybe we can just call it a misunderstanding." Way to take responsibility for your actions.
  • PixelGoat
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    PixelGoat polycounter lvl 12
    pior wrote: »
    Dominance War V main challenge has been delayed due to a misunderstanding between Polycount.com and GameArtisans.org.

    Not sure what to say.. except lol
  • Rapante
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    Rapante polygon
    time for a new PC shirt ;)

    "Official Polycount Contest Saboteur"
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    Tyler wrote: »
    I await your PM :D


    you two remind me of the people who say 'making games can't be that hard' without any real understanding of all the bullshit it takes.


    but i wish you the best of luck.
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    misunderstanding... so the next DW is a donation contest? Did I get everything right? :p
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