Contests or Sessions?

So the topic says it all, I want to pose the following discussion question:

• Should we eliminate large, overwrought, and localized contests entirely and focus more on a weekly session method with no rewards at all?

Before you say "No! We need more hero contests!" consider that this question does not apply to them. Such large contests as hero contests or anything else we come up with in the future will still exist, particularly because I think making them epic and superhyped is awesome and I wouldn't give that up for the world.

This more would apply to such things as texturing and spellmaking. Rather than the old-fashioned style contests where we give you a theme, a deadline, and a bunch of stuff, we just have a weekly theme that someone may make a texture/spell in accordance with and people can 'ooh' or 'aah' over on their own time. No rewards except the rep given by other users.

What do you think about that? I think it would be a step in the right direction, but would really only be able to be figured out for sure based on potential activity. I'm not extremely worried about the spell side, since there are a lot of spellmakers around, but I am more concerned with it being applied to textures and artistic endeavors. Also, if we do go for this way, I think biweekly would be a good way to go since it's a lot more work to make a decent spell/texture than it is to make a decent terrain. (Don't kill me here, terrainers, I know it's still a lot of work what you do!)

Thoughts?

i reckon that there should be both. Small sessions so people can casually spellmake, texture, whatever and then occasionally large competitons so that people can get rewards, because people like rewards

I was going to point-blank say contests are always better, but then I realised that the weekly terraining sessions seem to work really well.

I find it hard to get motivated to do anything that's not linked to my current project(s), so I personally prefer contests; a bit of deadline and a few constraints sometimes make it easier to actually do something.

I suppose a mixture of both, depending on what areas. Like you say, spells and shit take a lot longer than terrains -- while on one hand you spend an afternoon or two arranging a pretty picture, on the other you have to spend a lot of time debugging and testing before you can release. So while the "session" idea works for terrain, it probably wouldn't for spellmaking. Not that I know a thing about spellmaking, that is; this is all based on rumours and conjecture.

I think contests are simply the way to go.

Hero contests shouldn't be to frequent, perhaps a spell/texture contest inbetween each one.

I'm all for the idea of a Weekly Texturing session, or even a 2-week event. Frankly, i reckon it'd get more activity.

I'd go for it. Sometimes I can make and finalize model in a day, so I guess it is also doable in two weeks. One week would be a tad cruel though, because people have school/work and so on, so they would miss the session. I think you should experiment with sessions, see how they turn out, if first few sessions fail (outrageously small number of submissons, or none) then just stick back to contests. Also, if there was to be a mapmaking contest, I think it would be ridiculos to make it last two weeks or a week. So mapmaking and hero contests should be left as contests. Modeling, texturing, concept art, can last two weeks without anyone getting angry, I think.

There are definitely aspects of both that are good, but they cater to very different people.

I might do the odd bi-weekly spell session if the theme inspired me and I had some free time, but I wouldn’t have the time or motivation to do it regularly. On the other hand, there are probably plenty of people who would enjoy making a quick spell once a fortnight.
One of the big attractions of spell sessions is seeing some very high quality work, which in its very nature takes a lot of time. While some decent spells would still be made in bi-weekly sessions, I don’t think the same level as a spell session could be regularly reached. Without that impressiveness people may quickly become disinterested.

Personally I would go for increasing the frequency of the current spell sessions to maybe once every 2-3 months, but otherwise leaving them as they are. Maybe open a theme-suggestion/discussion thread, as lack of interesting themes seems to have been an issue in the past.

Edit: Wildly Off-topic:
Shouldn't the Mapping Contest be in the Contest Backlog?

I like both, personally. Huge, overhyped outrageous contests with lots of asskicking are awesome, and casual bi-weekly contests in various areas allow people to "ooh" and "ahh", while also giving people ideas and sharpening others' skills for the upcoming contests.

So, I think what we could do is have a major contest planned, then a bunch of mini contests to sharpen skills. Kind of like in school, where there's a major test for a class but you get minor tests and quizzes throughout the year to hone the skills of said class. Plus, all the contests would exponentially increase quality resources in the database.

I know that with summer right around the corner I'd definitely try to participate more. And I would love to learn how to do some hotshot spell making.

So, here's an example:

20 weeks from now: Major Hero contest. Spells and Skinners
Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. Spell Contest
Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. Skin Contest

Or something to that effect. You get the idea, I'm sure.

EDIT: 10 contests is a lot. I would actually make it once a month or so. 3-4 weeks between contests would probably be good.

contest 4 times in year (every season 1 contest) so from the middle of the season to the ~end.

and the rest time do what you want xD (i mean maybe some sessions etc.)

// 3 months between is a realistic good time.

This really isn't a topic to discuss the rarity of contests, since I'm pretty realistic in that regard. I'm more interested in what you all think about contests against sessions.
Just added it, I must've forgotten about it when generating that topic.
I knew you'd be interested, which was in particular why I extended this to texturing and not just spells. :p
Of course, I even mentioned in the first post that large, site-wide contests would not be affected by this at all.
The truth, though, is that they last mostly the same amount of time. The last spellmaking session was a 2-week contest and resulted in some dozen plus entries, which is pretty awesome. If we did it biweekly, which I think would be the best for things like textures/spells, they would last the same amount of time. The advantage to this, though, is that we can cycle through themes pretty frequently, thus people can participate in whichever ones they want. This also avoids eventual problems with people having too many award icons and so forth.

This really is also my attempt to try to hijack the art side of the site to have more things to do. Before the last hero contest, God knows there wasn't anything for artists to do site-sponsored for like half a year. I'd like to fix that and try to get some things going.

Thanks for all of the feedback so far everyone.

It's quite a ridiculous question.

So it seems a lot of people much prefer actual contests to the weekly idea. Now the question is, if I started other contests, would people actually enter? For instance, if I forced Erwt to start a texturing or some kind of art competition, how many entrants could we expect?

I'll make it happen if enough people convince me they'll take part in it. Hell, I'll make the reward icons myself, I've been doing it for all of the recent contests anyways.

i just dont see why there cant be both?

That's a possibility too, though I'd likely run out of themes or something stupid like that. I guess that should have probably been an option in the poll or something, woops.

I actually like both; newcomers can perhaps work on sessions and work their way up to the higher level and more rewarding contests.