((Since tone is impossible to convey through text, Im saying this with caring and warmth))
I agree with John on several of the points he brought up and am thankful he took the time to write up a thorough explanation of what we had hoped would be somewhat common sense. Then again we should never assume anything to be common sense because everyone has a different perception of what is expected without saying and what is an open-end. However, theres the predicament: How can we state everything we hope is common knowledge until the situation already presents itself?
Sort of reminds me of the incident that occurred very recently with Paragon Studios and Issue 14, although ours is much smaller by comparison. Architect Entertainment was intended to let the players creativity to flow and allow us to create nearly unlimited game content while we patiently wait for further game development. Matt Miller never really expected AE to be exploited so rapidly and with such dire consequences; he had faith in our common sense of what was and wasnt acceptable (Whether or not, the exploiters genuinely knew what they were doing was wrong should be judged on a case by case basis, but it wasnt common sense). They became aware certain boundaries needed to be set after the fact, and punishment for exploitative behavior was indeed necessary. Unfortunately by retroactively punishing players, they poured salt in the wound rather than salve; their mistake and he apologized for his poor judgment formally to the player base later.
Comparing that to this; were we aware that there was a possibility our friends didnt know that directly taking another artists work or design was unacceptable? No. Did it happen? Yes. Should there be a rule established now after the fact? Yes. Should it be applied retroactively? Most certainly not.
((Take a breather))
Personally, I do believe Projectionist earned his victory last month, even though a few aspects were taken directly from the original piece because he referenced the original artists work and the recreation topic appeared to allow it as well (Common sense? Lets not assume). Tricky_Tackys piece was a different case, only because he didnt reference the original piece he borrowed the background from; should we club him over the head with it, no, but he learned after the fact and we discovered where the source background came from.
Using celebrity names was fleshed out later in the June Art Battle Forum later by TA:
[ QUOTE ]
Can you copy the CoH logo?
Yeah i'd say that would be fine. Though coming up with a different looking logo to go with the overall theme would be a better choice.
Can you use real actors to represent CoX characters by having their names shown in the poster and paint their likeness?
If you wanna use names or real names to represent the characters in the movies i would say to use the developers real names.(I.E Matt Miller, etc). That way it adds a bit of realism. As to the representation of real actors in the movie posters i would ask that you just stick with the NPC's original looks in the various forms that they appear throughout the game.
The hope is to challenge the artists to expand their creative efforts out to include originality in the whole piece. especially as we are in the top ten now.
[/ QUOTE ]
TA didnt say it wasnt permissible to use celebrity names, just to keep with the NPCs original look; no one breached that (Also, some NPCs, such as Ghost Widow, don't have developer names; Belladonna Vetrano is her real character name, not the person who she represents at Paragon Studios). You also note that, for this month at least, it was permissible to copy the City of Heroes logo so Juggertha is safe; even though he didnt necessarily come up with a distinctly different looking logo, it wasnt required that he did.
Granted while Juggys piece was beautiful, cute, and somewhat original; the reason I did not vote for him was because the actual Movie Poster (the focus of the piece and what we are voting for) was recognizably the City of Heroes logo and little else. The piece is truly amazing and original; it just didnt fit the bill in my opinion. If his piece was unacceptable, then it should have been called out by the event moderator; there were 10 days between Juggys submission and the due date.
The competition is down to the final ten (We are all friends here, we dont intend feelings to be hurt or bonds to be broken, we dont want anyone to be offended, we want this to be about fun); Ive seen it plenty of times where competition will cause even the most reasonable of people to devolve into a pack of savage wolves. People will call foul with more frequency and at smaller issues. While we care for each other as individuals, we also want to get a leg up on our competition. Obviously, the actual competitors are more likely to experience this, but even the spectators can be riled up into a feeding frenzy when we want certain people to win.
Remember: Were having fun; nothings personal; hugs and kisses for everyone; play nice; keep your eye on the track ahead, not beside you; this is a learning experience, everyone (artist, appreciator, moderator) will grow and adapt as the event continues to evolve; pie is good; this is a really long post.
-Gray Huntress
P.S. I was going to give another kiss to the person who comes in last this month; should Alex receive it even though he didnt submit a piece or should whoever gets the least votes get it?
I honestly wasn't expecting the another addition from paneseeker for at least a couple of days, but he worked on this piece with dedication today and I now have Jackalynn to add to the collection.
