costume contests

[Ulysses Dare]

As others have pointed out, winning a CC comes down to how closely your costume matches the judges' tastes—something you often have no way of knowing. For me, the primary draw of a CC is to check out all the other costumes and bios. If I also happen to win some INF, great. If not, no loss.

[MHertz]

I don’t even pay attention to them any more. I’ve tried entering with a number of my favorite character designs, but I don’t win, so I figure my tastes aren’t the same.

 

Instead, I run character bio contests. Because everyone has a costume.

[WumpusRat]

6 hours ago, SaintD said:

 Please just use the 90% matched pieces costume. Please.

That's funny, because almost none of my characters use most of a matched set. It's all various parts pulled together to try and create a cohesive whole. 🙂

Mostly because a lot of times, I might like the shoulders to something, but hate the chest/legs. Or like the chest, but hate the gloves, etc.

[Clave Dark 5]

19 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

In my experience, if the CC isn't just being held as a way to hand off a bunch of influence/prizes to their friends

That seems like a awfully complex way to just give money to your friends, it'd be fast er to just do it.  I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor in most situations  😃

 

Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

 

[Snarky]

3 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

That seems like a awfully complex way to just give money to your friends, it'd be fast er to just do it.  I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor in most situations  😃

 

Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

 

I never knew it was called that but I think of this daily as I drive through big city traffic

[Mjolnerd]

25 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

That seems like a awfully complex way to just give money to your friends, it'd be fast er to just do it.  I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor in most situations  😃

 

Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

I don't disagree, I can't imagine more than a handful of these contests are being rigged like that, because, yeah -- why bother?

 

But I'm not sure that I'd call it malice or stupidity in most cases. More than anything, I think there's a performative aspect to it: people want to be the star of the server for a few minutes: hey everybody, look at me, I'm giving away all this money, aren't I nice? It's not necessarily a bad thing, performing in front of a crowd can be fun. And having someone perform for you can also be fun.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Mjolnerd

[ForeverLaxx]

3 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

That seems like a awfully complex way to just give money to your friends, it'd be fast er to just do it.  I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor in most situations  😃

 

Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

 

You'd think so, but I know 100% for a fact that it happens because I've been sent messages I wasn't supposed to receive by contest holders and "potential" winners.

 

I didn't say it made much sense. I said it happens.

[Eoghnved]

I got a prize in a costume contest before, not the top prize, but one of the smaller ones.  With this expertly designed costume.

[High_Beam]

Most people's costumes are wretched so the correlation to bad or bland costume contest winners is logical.  I have won a few and I know they weren't the best.  Some in fact would probably fall under the category of bland.  But I stopped participating in and then even going to view costume contests because of the ire they began to draw from me due to the good not winning.  To me they have become like watching Antiques Roadshow and seeing something that should have great value being appraised low while something pathetic is valued high.

 

"This beautiful, unblemished oak desk built by one the most desirable furniture craftsmen in the history of the United States was the desk Abraham Lincoln sat at when he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation and even has a draft in the drawer authenticated the Most reliable authenticators in the world.  I'd value it at $1,000 due to the market being on the rise."

 

"This beat up baseball was signed by a tier three baseball player who signed every piece of memorabilia ever shoved in front of him.  $10,000, maybe more if you find the right buyer becuase . . . Baseball?" (or swap that out with Civil War stuff but only if its Confederate for some horrible reason)

 

It's freaking maddening

[Ironblade]

Sometimes you can clean up without even being an official contestant.  I was helping out at a costume contest with the theme being rainbows and I believe the top prize was 500 million inf.  I was helping my girlfriend run it so I obviously couldn't win - despite having the best costume.  So they announced all the winners and gave them their prizes . . .  and then the person bankrolling the contest came over to me and quietly gave me as much as the first place winner got.  🙂

 

Here's Chromatic Cat with her original costume, made years before the costume contest.  Her bio explains that she was involved in a teleporter accident with a cat and a box of crayons.

[ForeverLaxx]

3 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

Here's Chromatic Cat with her original costume

Was ChromatiCat taken?

[Ironblade]

2 minutes ago, ForeverLaxx said:

Was ChromatiCat taken?

Didn't try it.  Chromatic Cat was my first choice.  I like the alliteration of the two words.

[biostem]

Honestly, my only gripes with certain costume contests is when they don't keep us apprised of what's actually going on; "OK, we're starting now", "OK, we're just tabulating the votes", etc, or when those holding the costume contest don't respect the players' time - if you spend all this time announcing it, especially if done way ahead of time, then please start on time and don't take over an hour to come to your decisions...

Edited December 19, 2022 by biostem

[Clave Dark 5]

On 12/18/2022 at 9:30 PM, ForeverLaxx said:

You'd think so, but I know 100% for a fact that it happens because I've been sent messages I wasn't supposed to receive by contest holders and "potential" winners.

 

I didn't say it made much sense. I said it happens.

Wow... that must have been something to see.

[Snarky]

On 12/18/2022 at 9:01 PM, Eoghnved said:

I got a prize in a costume contest before, not the top prize, but one of the smaller ones.  With this expertly designed costume.

is this the personification of Hanlon's Razor?

[starro]

On 12/19/2022 at 12:01 AM, Eoghnved said:

I got a prize in a costume contest before, not the top prize, but one of the smaller ones.  With this expertly designed costume.

This is what the randomize but should create in the costume creator.  This is a beautiful train wreck.

[TheZag]

I never win costume contests and i dont know why.

 

 

 

[Rishidian]

I think I've seen a few costume contests...never participated,  I never thought my costume was good enough.  But reading all these posts I think I've compiled a list of ideas:

 

1 - Show up naked.  With beer.

2 - Make sure your costume matches the Judge's idea of a good costume

3 - Make sure your video settings match those of the Judge(s)

4 - Research how the Judge(s) has chosen before

--I'm sure someone has kept a database of all the Costume Contests ever ran

5 - Sacrifice a goat

6 - Buy a lottery ticket

7 - And most importantly - Show up and enter the contest.  Winning is random, but you can't win if you don't enter.

 

There are no trophies for 2nd place 

Nor is there one for 1st.