Contest Feedback, Suggestions and Ideas

[Kei83]

Therefore I think if it were possible to score a building in more than one category that it would give a better view of the true winning house, so we would give points in three areas, Shell, Decor and Landscaping and then out three points could be given to the builder that did the best in that area (in our opinion) then those three score categories could be combined to determine the winner of that challenge. It would also serve to give more than one winner to each competition. We have a winner the Shell, Decor and Landscaping and an overall winner. This would also pull into the World ranking in overall points.

I really like this idea for the voting it does add a little more work for the mod because they would have to tally all the numbers per house... but something like a form that all voters would have to fill out as a comment and they can only give points to no more than 3 houses in order to limit long lists of points.

Example out of 5 points max per category 15 points possible: (iron chef like)
Shell/Overall Design: 3
Decor: 4
Landscaping: 5

Total: 12 points...   

Maybe this style would be for a bi-monthly build off between the last 3-5 winners of previous challenges this will definitely lighten the work load and give for closer winner. After the winner's house get profiled on the main page.

As for other ideas I really like the start with a foundation and that is what your limited to build on with other limits restrictions as needed.  A random fun idea would be a abandoned house contest where you take a prebuilt house that was beautiful and we would have to make it look like it has been abandoned for years.

Sorry for the long post.

[CSquared2]

Another idea for a challenge: a time limit.  Like, a serious one.  Maybe one hour?  Of course, participants could plan beforehand, or you could make it really difficult and add in an element they won't be able to predict.  Perhaps you could create a list of possible houses, maybe 20, and they have to pick a number from a hat, use a random number generator or otherwise randomize their choice.  Or you could use a character generator (like a number generator) and they'd have to build a house to suit that person.  You'd have to rely on folks to obey the rules, but that's nothing new.  Folks are already on their honor for participation in challenges and it hasn't so far posed a problem with cheating.

[norenegonc]

I started thinking of a few suggestions about these building contests while working on this last contest. The first one has to do with budgets and wall curving. I won’t go into it again here as it is detailed in this thread – http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,9025.msg182109.html#msg182109

The second is about anonymous listings. When I look through the entries, I find myself thinking back to all the other buildings a certain builder created beforehand. I know we are only meant to judge the current entry but it is difficult not to think so. There are not too many regular builders on the forums and so most of us are familiar with each others’ works. Thus, I thought that anonymous entries might be interesting for voting reasons. Of course, unless the forums have some cool function to do so, I understand that this would involve a lot of extra work for the admins. I can imagine that the only way to do this would be to send the admins the description and images of the entries as well as the house itself and allow them to submit them anonymously. Again, extra work is always lame, but I figured I should suggest the idea anyway, who knows.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

I think the anonymous listings is a good idea, then the winner's name can be announced. But at the same time, people like to be credited for their work even if they don't win, as many of the non-winning builds are still absolutely fantastic. Personally, when I vote, I remain unbiased towards who it is that is building and what they have recently built, and just vote for the buildings I genuinely think was the best for that contest and that suited the description, etc.

[samoht04]

This isn't a major competition with a prize (Other than pride!) so I don't think we need to go so far as Autonomous Votes. So far nobody is really dominating the Winners Thread, besides you're voting wrongly if you are voting by the username rather than the skill. It wouldn't be much extra Work other than having to copy/paste the info over, which if someone was to do it properly laid out would be easy enough, just time consuming, which I would not really have time for.

[norenegonc]

This isn't a major competition with a prize (Other than pride!) so I don't think we need to go so far as Autonomous Votes. So far nobody is really dominating the Winners Thread, besides you're voting wrongly if you are voting by the username rather than the skill. It wouldn't be much extra Work other than having to copy/paste the info over, which if someone was to do it properly laid out would be easy enough, just time consuming, which I would not really have time for.

I know that there is no real reason for anonymous voting, I just thought it might be interesting. I try to be fair when I vote as well, but I mean at a subconscious level you see who the builder is and think back to their other builds or their work in general, or at least I seem to.

In any case, if there is anything you might need in terms of busy work, I am glad to offer my time. I am a big fan of the building forums and everything you guys do here, so whatever I can do to make things easier or better just let me know.

[jeanamariex3]

How about extending the content to also include community lots (e.g. parks, dive bars etc) every once in a while?

I was about to say that too! I think they should also have pet themed lots, like cat lounges and dog parks!

[Neashaleigh]

I would also love to see some commercial lot competitions. It's great to see a Showtime related competition, and it's only I'll be entering as soon as I've finished my Boarding School. But Dive Bars, lounges, parks... etc... would be a lot of fun as well.

[ZapKid]

I'm starting to believe that you guys are getting too specific with the contest ideas. Last year, we had a healthy 10-12 people each contest. That  seems to have declined to maybe 6-8 or less. For example, in the latest contest (5) It ends in just 1 week and only I have entered. I sort of liked last year's better, just simple things like a beach house or Asian house without going into specifics.

So I think the long contests should stay (Nice to be a little unique) but the rest of them should be more simple. Just my 2c.

[samoht04]

I'm starting to believe that you guys are getting too specific with the contest ideas. Last year, we had a healthy 10-12 people each contest. That  seems to have declined to maybe 6-8 or less. For example, in the latest contest (5) It ends in just 1 week and only I have entered. I sort of liked last year's better, just simple things like a beach house or Asian house without going into specifics.

So I think the long contests should stay (Nice to be a little unique) but the rest of them should be more simple. Just my 2c.

We can only be vague so many times though. There has to be some challenge in there but yes I do agree that so far there have been some specific contests lately. Hopefully the current contest will follow the trend of one or two and then in the last few days more people will submit their entry. Although I would argue that the Destination Homes was less specific than the Asian Home one as it allowed you a choice, of which others this year have done with allowing more choice. Thanks for voicing your concerns though Zap, I'll make sure to take them into consideration.

Of course if anyone has Contest Ideas do not hesitate to PM us or post them here. We do read them all.

[ratchie]

How about this for an idea. We all have to renovate the same house say one of the cheap and cheeful ones from Sunset Valley. It would be interesting to see what someone could achieve with say just a $20,000 budget.

Rachel

[Catarra Nightshade]

I have a few ideas for possible build contests.

1. Recreate a famous landmark building. Basically, take a building like the White House, and try to create it in the sims. We could post pictures of the real building for comparasion. For the inside, you could do realistic, or totally revamp it.

2. Build a doll house, like the open face houses that little kids sit in front of to play with their dolls.

3. Build something out of storybooks, such as Cinderella's castle, the 7 dwarves cottage, the three bears cottage, etc.

[samoht04]

I have a few ideas for possible build contests.

1. Recreate a famous landmark building. Basically, take a building like the White House, and try to create it in the sims. We could post pictures of the real building for comparasion. For the inside, you could do realistic, or totally revamp it.

2. Build a doll house, like the open face houses that little kids sit in front of to play with their dolls.

3. Build something out of storybooks, such as Cinderella's castle, the 7 dwarves cottage, the three bears cottage, etc.

Some really interesting ideas there! Thanks for sharing them, I do like the Landmark Buildings one! 

[Wai]

It can be a real challenge to build a decent first home with just the 16.5k alotted to a single sim at the beginning of a game, near impossible if you want to start on a "beautiful vista" lot.  these lots start at around 6k.  So how about seeing what people can produce with just 10k for a single newly created sim?

I would suggest parameters include: must be built on foundations, must have a seperate bedroom, and must have all essential furnishing basics with a modicum of comfort.  (ie: a bed which is good enough to not give the "bad night's sleep" moodlet, a cooker which does not give "uneven cooking" and a fidge which does not give "tastes of fridge" to leftovers would be nice additional, optional parameters)

The house could be built on any small lot so that it can be moved to the users lot of choice.

[Neashaleigh]

I'd like to see some more community lot competitions. Particularly things like lounges, dive bars, dance clubs etc

Another idea could be for someone to create a shell (or take one from the shells thread) and for people to decorate it without changing the shape etc.

What about landscaping only competitions? House is already built and decorated, but the landscaping is a mess and needs redoing.

And finally what about some competitions on a specific theme? Eg: fairies, occults, celebrities etc