Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest 2009

It should, but remember that Anet is -7 UTC which actually means its only *calculating* about 15:45 where they live, if I got summer time/winter time correctly.

Still plenty of time till the end of the day, and they could also do it in 23:59 If they'd like. Or to delay it.

My vote is going for the delay.



EDIT: I did get the time wrong. it was 14:45 there and now its around 15:00. I hate timezones.

It takes more than an afternoon to go through all of the submissions for the art contests. Last year, it took several hours just to make a first pass through the submissions and discussing each one. We had to stay late at work, and that was even with the three (at the time) members of the Guild Wars European Community Team visiting us here in Bellevue. With only two people on the Community Team now, I expect it will take a bit longer than last year. We also give everyone at the company the opportunity to choose what pieces of art they like the most. Organizing and coordinating a contest is logistically challenging (and sometimes complicated), but definitely more than an afternoon's work.

Holloween art contest = Holloween COSTUME contest make costume or you won't come in first for sure.

I didn't mean to imply anything untoward, I was just trying to illustrate how (at least I thought) it is less intensive to go through contest submissions and thus not the kind of thing that would be upheld by busyness in other areas. I apologize if I came across rudely. It's interesting to hear what the process actually involves though!

I wonder if we'll see more plagiarism in the contest winners this year.

Or, winners that aren't Halloween themed at all.

Yeah, no offense to the cosplayers (those ARE neat costumes, I must admit) but it'd be nice if they'd actually let another medium win for a change.

And yeah, considering that there've been successful plagiarism attempts in both of last year's contests I won't be surprised to see more.

It's art, you can't have rigid rules, but last year's Gwen cosplay was amazing.

And I bet this year they'll be a tad more careful with the entries in the final round.

I'm not saying they ought to make rules against it or judge them unfairly. Really, we're left with a conundrum: costumes take quite a bit of time and effort to create, but if we judge them on that and on their faithfulness to the original, they're guaranteed to win. My one real beef with those costumes is that they take plenty of skill, but no real creativity. Creative thinking, yes - it's quite difficult to create a pattern based on screens from anything, I'm sure - but not creativity. They're simply replicating an existing design. It would be nice to see someone win based on originality rather than simply the amount of effort and the "wow, I'm impressed they were able to do that" factor.

And actually, I felt the Gwen costume wasn't up to par with many of the other ones. While I do admire the use of accurate materials - that can't have been easy - I think the construction was a bit clumsy. The fabric parts stick out stiffly and almost unnaturally, while the whole costume seems fairly ill-fitting. Moreover, it's one of the more basic outfits in Guild Wars, without much detail work except on the gloves and boots. I wasn't nearly as impressed by it as I was by the family from the previous year, or even by the FoW ranger from the same year. My apologies to the creator, but I just found it "passable".

As a cosplayer who does a variety of different types of art - costume-making is easily one of the most time- and money-intensive hobbies there is. Not to mention how nitpicky you must be in order to get details even close to correct. There's also the conundrum of taking something like game artwork (which isn't bound to the laws of physics) and figuring out how to make it work in reality. It's certainly possible to cut corners (I am an expert at getting a costume done in a small amount of time for a minimal amount of money, and it still look good), but at the end of the day, you're still shelling out a ton of time, money, and effort to create it.

This isn't to say that costumes should automatically win (some of the ones I've seen in the past winners definitely were outshined by other entries that did not place as high), but it's understandable why they would place high.

Me, I need a Halloween costume anyway (and haven't been able to do any cosplay for a while), so this is perfect Now I just need to decide on one to make. It's a pity school and work are sapping too much of my time so I can't go all out like I'd want to.

Couple questions regarding this contest I hope someone can answer:

If you carve a pumpkin can you submit the picture and template for your carving as ONE submission? - I just can't imagine actually somehow carving something well and not putting a template to it.

If you make a costume, do you have to be the one modelling it? - I might want to make one of the skimpy fem ele armors and I'm pretty sure anet doesnt want to see me in that...

Thanks!

And as far as the mini mad king guards... I feel that this won't be the only way to obtain them. Linsey has stated she wanted to get some new content into the Halloween event, and I'm thinking it will be somewhat like the polar for wintersday with some sort of miniquest. Just a hunch.

Like I said earlier, I'm disappointed there are less prize and honorable mention spots than the last two years. I really liked seeing all the different entries. No idea why they would cut down the places to even less than the hench bar contest, they HAVE to know lots of people have been working hard for their chance to show off and shine. I've won twice when doing costumes and my friends know my personal opinion when it comes to last year. If someone steals part of my entry from last year and it wins I might die laughing.

@shoyon456 I would say you could have one side of the entry picture as the final image and the other as the template if you want to share. There is a thread in Nolani going on for people entering to show off what they have so far and get tips for improving. I think closer to the due date more might post to get suggestions for final picture compositions to make their submissions more aesthetically pleasing.
You can have others model the costume you make. Easier to get good pictures that way too.

Nah They have a "A" Pile Dropbox and a "B" Pile Dropbox
They rifle through them pretty fast.

Unfortunately I have neither the time, nor the resources and knowledge to make costumes (I don't think I could hand sew a necro outfit in the time allowed for the contest).
Otherwise, I'd make a costume just because of the sheer number of costume pictures winning the past years.
However, since I have no chance at the costumes or pumpkin carvings, I gotta come up with something else. :S

Off to brainstorm! ^_^

Put a pumpkin on your head and take a picture.

LOL thanks, but I rather not :P

i finally finished my submission

positive critisicm is appreciated im kinda new to this so


thanks anet for doing art contest again!

you reary think so? dang i was hoping it was gud

Gah.. I wish I'm more capable doing something on my Mac.. But I'll think of something :P

though the prizes are nice this time around, I did my try already and seeing as what usually wins ......I wont WASTE my time doing it this time around (and yes I can make costumes, just have no reason to make a guildwars one for a tiny chance at a minipet ....and my nieces [ages 2 and 4] are already booked for this month).