[UO Herald] Holiday Season Contest

[UO News]

Community News
2012 Nov 08 22:01 GMT
It’s the time of the year that everyone gets creative and decorates their homes to reflect their feelings of the holidays. UO would like to announce a Holiday House Decorating Contest. Petra from stratics has been kind enough to help out with gathering and setting up the voting page for the contest. There will be 10 winners total and you as the players will help pick the winners. The rewards will be a special hued talking Snowman and the top voted design will have their house go down in the history of UO by making it a mini house that will be available next year. This time you guys are the judges!

Rules
1 entry per account
10 winners total
Submit pictures to [email protected]
Submissions close December 5th, 2012 and Voting closes December 15th, 2012
All entries must have a character name, shard, facet and location
All pictures submitted must be in jpg format


We look forward to seeing your creative decorations!

Continue reading...

 

[Sauteed Onion]

Community News
2012 Nov 08 22:01 GMT
It’s the time of the year that everyone gets creative and decorates their homes to reflect their feelings of the holidays. UO would like to announce a Holiday House Decorating Contest. Petra from stratics has been kind enough to help out with gathering and setting up the voting page for the contest. There will be 10 winners total and you as the players will help pick the winners. The rewards will be a special hued talking Snowman and the top voted design will have their house go down in the history of UO by making it a mini house that will be available next year. This time you guys are the judges!

Rules
1 entry per account
10 winners total
Submit pictures to [email protected]
Submissions close December 5th, 2012 and Voting closes December 15th, 2012
All entries must have a character name, shard, facet and location
All pictures submitted must be in jpg format


We look forward to seeing your creative decorations!

Continue reading...

This is a fine idea, but assuming 10 winners are selected among the many who participate; I think the gifts should be flip flopped.. The top get EACH get their house to go down in history by having a mini house made in their honor; and the winner winner gets a special hued snowman. (Their choice of holiday statue/item would be ideal). Granted it's awesome that this is happening at all; but I think that'd be the more logical choice meow.

-Edited in some additional sense-

My reasoning is that there are some people who've waited a LONG time to get more mini house selections for their collections; and spitting one out for people who've been waiting 7-8 years for a broader selection is like dropping a drip of water on the tongue of a pile of ashes. I hope that makes a little sense. Then you've got to think of the repercussions of caving in and just releasing a bajillion or even 5 or 10 more mini houses in the coming months, peeing on the person who effectively won your competition. I dunno. Kitty might be on to something; or just completely working against the grain to anger you.. I think kitty is on the first case more.

 

[popps]

I seem to understand that we, the players, are going to vote for the winners ?

Are we going to vote on Stratics or where else ? How ?

Any details about how the voting will work ? Can I vote multiple times ? What if I make new accounts for Stratics' or for whatever other web site where the voting will happen ? Can I then get to have as many votes as accounts I make for the voting site, or will I just be able to cast 1 vote, period, no matter how many new accounts I can make for the voting site ?

 

[Storm]

I am sure details will be coming! Petra is off right now so be patient

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Community News
2012 Nov 08 22:01 GMT
- - setting up the voting page for the contest. This time you guys are the judges! - Continue reading...

This type of contest has always been a great deal of fun and to see what the players come up with, is always amazing.

Even though I won't be entering the contest, I am concerned about the Player Vote System. I am not sure it will be fair. Large guilds on every shard dominate. The little guy who might come up with the BEST IN SHOW doesn't get the votes. I remember running around and finding houses that were incredible but the owner didn't even know about the contest. Things like that happen.

So maybe submitting votes for houses players find that should be submitted could also require judges running around checking their shard for those fantastic creative houses that would otherwise be missed. A prize to the player who finds the winning house hidden somewhere. LOL ..ooops this could seriously get out of hand. Good luck with the contest. It will all be fun anyhow.

Could judging be done more fairly by selected boards of judges on each shard? This has worked in the past.

 

[Lady Raja]

My only inquiry on this "10 winners total" and "The rewards will be a special hued talking Snowman"...

Since there is only 10 winners total, how will the Snowman be distributed out? Will it be in code form? If so, who wants to sell me their code when they win?

I do love a good contest, but I am halfway done with my "Pixie Museum" and there is no way I am going to re-deign another house plan...

:mylittlepony: Thanks!

P.S.
Fruit Basket!

 

[kelmo]

Mythic and Stratics are breaking new ground here. Every effort is being made to ensure fair play.

 

[kelmo]

Lady Raja... I have to see your pixie house.

 

[cazador]

Cool idea! Too bad I've never collected Xmas deco lol

 

[Lord Frodo]

I am sure details will be coming! Petra is off right now so be patient

How are the players that are not using UOStratics ever going to find out about this? Are they going to make an ingame voting system when you log in?

 

[Gospel]

How are the players that are not using UOStratics ever going to find out about this? Are they going to make an ingame voting system when you log in?

Why don't you just relax and wait for further details? Have you seen housing contests in the past use in-game voting? God people are so quick to find something to scream "unfair!" about.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Why don't you just relax and wait for further details? Have you seen housing contests in the past use in-game voting? God people are so quick to find something to scream "unfair!" about.

Ask 2 simple questions and OMG, talk about somebody that needs to relax.

 

[Lady Raja]

Lady Raja... I have to see your pixie house.

Kelmo, if you want to see it, I can show you next time we are both on. I do not mind showing anyone that wants to see the place while it is still being renovated...

The only things I really have to finish is my bedroom and bathroom. I think I got everything that has to do with a Pixie, Fey, Fae, and even Fairy on Siege... Sir Morder's "Giant Pixie" Halloween Costume was one of the last things I needed to complete the "Pixie Museum". At least I hope it is the last thing...

I been talking to Famine, and a little wth Doive about maybe linking all our museums together. Of course my museum lacks the more rare and unique items that Famine and Doive has... Then again, that is not my area of focus... I am all about the Love/Hate romance with these cute, but stupid Pixies...

:mylittlepony: Thanks!

 

[Gospel]

It would be great if there was an in game voting system to be sure, but how exactly would they do that? They're going to have an in-game gump pop up with detailed pictures of every floor of every house that enters the contest? That doesn't seem like a realistic option. If someone can come up with an easy to implement system I'd be interested to hear it though.

Considering some people have quite a few accounts (didn't Storm say she has 53?) I don't know how balanced even one vote per account would be as opposed to one vote per forum member or whatever. Either way I'm sure someone will cry they've been persecuted.

 

[Eärendil]

GREAT IDEA!!!! Dont have enough deco for being competitive, but I will help judging. And again folks: Just wait for the details, be patient. I can´t stand all this whining and criticizing.We all should be happy that they are delivering new ideas to the community. So: Thank you for this great idea!

I always liked ideas like these. No scrolls, no armor as rewards - so no complaints about how "unfair" things might be... It´s just deco. Be happy and calm down!

 

[Lady Michelle]

When they say talking is that audio like the Parrots when they say hello not text over there heads?

 

[Petra Fyde]

I seem to understand that we, the players, are going to vote for the winners ?

Are we going to vote on Stratics or where else ? How ?

Any details about how the voting will work ? Can I vote multiple times ? What if I make new accounts for Stratics' or for whatever other web site where the voting will happen ? Can I then get to have as many votes as accounts I make for the voting site, or will I just be able to cast 1 vote, period, no matter how many new accounts I can make for the voting site ?

Voting will be on
UO Stratics *New* - not on the boards
You will not need to register with Stratics to vote
You will get one vote

How are the players that are not using UOStratics ever going to find out about this? Are they going to make an ingame voting system when you log in?

The main posting for this is on uo.com, I'm sure when submissions close and voting opens uo.com will also carry a link for people to cast their votes.

 

[Shamus Turlough]

This type of contest has always been a great deal of fun and to see what the players come up with, is always amazing.

Even though I won't be entering the contest, I am concerned about the Player Vote System. I am not sure it will be fair. Large guilds on every shard dominate. The little guy who might come up with the BEST IN SHOW doesn't get the votes. I remember running around and finding houses that were incredible but the owner didn't even know about the contest. Things like that happen.

So maybe submitting votes for houses players find that should be submitted could also require judges running around checking their shard for those fantastic creative houses that would otherwise be missed. A prize to the player who finds the winning house hidden somewhere. LOL ..ooops this could seriously get out of hand. Good luck with the contest. It will all be fun anyhow.

Could judging be done more fairly by selected boards of judges on each shard? This has worked in the past.

Judging will be done by a specially designed site on uo.stratics.com. Petra has worked hard to make the judging fair for all involved.

 

[Symma]

Oooo time to get designing!!

 

[Tjalle]

A tip for those who do not have that much christmas items.
Use ingame items to create "christmas stuff". With all the items available in this world and all the dyeing options we have I´m sure it´s possible to make a christmas feeling in your house if you´re creative.

 

[Petra Fyde]

If you don't have 'Christmas stuff' or perhaps don't celebrate that holiday, you could do a different holiday theme. Thanksgiving maybe?

 

[Larisa]

Yeah I noticed it doesn't say CHRISTMAS decorating contest...HOLIDAY...and Thanksgiving is coming up....I'd love to see Thanksgiving-Themed Deco

 

[Kyronix]

If you don't have 'Christmas stuff' or perhaps don't celebrate that holiday, you could do a different holiday theme. Thanksgiving maybe?

If someone makes a Thanksgiving themed housed I'm going to eat allllllll the turkeys. All of them, and the pies too!

 

[LadyElizabeth]

As the rules don't state anything about the shard, I would assume a house built on Test Center would be acceptable? That would make sense for those who have houses they can't customize or, like in Raja's case, don't want to destroy their hard work on their prodo shard.
If that's the case, remember you can copy your decorative items over, multiple times if need be, to get that holiday theme going.

 

[Mesanna]

Remember this is a HOLIDAY Contest so pick your holiday it doesn't have to be Christmas. But I do need to make a small change, I am sorry I did not play with this longer before posting the rewards. Egor the Snowman seems to be on strike and refuses to come out till his dungeon is revamped so he has an up to date area to live through out the year.

So with that being said please look at the attached screenshot of the new rewards. For a little variety I have picked 10 hues and you will be able to pick the hue that best suits your decorations. Sorry for the confusion and I hope you like the change.

Good luck everyone!!

 

[Tazar]

As the rules don't state anything about the shard, I would assume a house built on Test Center would be acceptable? That would make sense for those who have houses they can't customize or, like in Raja's case, don't want to destroy their hard work on their prodo shard.
If that's the case, remember you can copy your decorative items over, multiple times if need be, to get that holiday theme going.

I think test is OK - but you'd run the risk of it being wiped at any point since this does happen occasionally. I'd hate to see you build it all - only to have it go *poof*.

 

[Lady Michelle]

As the rules don't state anything about the shard, I would assume a house built on Test Center would be acceptable? That would make sense for those who have houses they can't customize or, like in Raja's case, don't want to destroy their hard work on their prodo shard.
If that's the case, remember you can copy your decorative items over, multiple times if need be, to get that holiday theme going.

I'm just decorating my castle doesn't say it has to be a customized house.

 

[Storm]

My concern with TC would be if you win because it asks for character,shard etc and if you receive the prize on tc eventually it will be deleted

 

[Lady Tia]

I'm just decorating my castle doesn't say it has to be a customized house.

Any house, large or small.

 

[Viper09]

My concern with TC would be if you win because it asks for character,shard etc and if you receive the prize on tc eventually it will be deleted

A very good point. First risk is that the shard might get wiped at any point before the judging, second risk is the reward. A reward on TC would be stuck on TC (and eventually deleted). I wouldn't suggest doing it there.

 

[Zynia]

My only inquiry on this "10 winners total" and "The rewards will be a special hued talking Snowman"...

Since there is only 10 winners total, how will the Snowman be distributed out? Will it be in code form? If so, who wants to sell me their code when they win?

I do love a good contest, but I am halfway done with my "Pixie Museum" and there is no way I am going to re-deign another house plan...

Thanks!

P.S.
Fruit Basket!

Raja, that's exactly how I feel. I plopped a house down, got 3/4 decorated, and then moved. Now I'm almost finished decorating it again... Time for a twist in plans. And I'd also love to see your fairy house!

Remember this is a HOLIDAY Contest so pick your holiday it doesn't have to be Christmas. But I do need to make a small change, I am sorry I did not play with this longer before posting the rewards. Egor the Snowman seems to be on strike and refuses to come out till his dungeon is revamped so he has an up to date area to live through out the year.



So with that being said please look at the attached screenshot of the new rewards. For a little variety I have picked 10 hues and you will be able to pick the hue that best suits your decorations. Sorry for the confusion and I hope you like the change.



Good luck everyone!!

As much as those colors deem to be popular these days, maybe you could throw in two older colors? Like the "Good" and "Evil" hues from the old hero system.. Something we haven't really seen in a while over the same-ish hues we just collected for harpiscords? I'm probably the only people in game sick of ugly neon colors, but I'm such a sucker for the classics.

 

[Queen Mum]

Couple of questions ...

For the mini house design, will the inside of home be considered or just the architectural design? *not sure how they would consider the inside deco for mini house design deed ...

Is the whole house considered or can it be just a floor or two designed in Holiday Season theme?

TY
*cookie hugs*

 

[Larisa]

If someone makes a Thanksgiving themed housed I'm going to eat allllllll the turkeys. All of them, and the pies too!

DARN IT! *goes off to think of another idea and stores her pet turkey back in the stables*

You're just no FUN! :gun:

 

[MalagAste]

My guess would be that since the "winner" will be made into a mini house what you design ought to consider that. Since no one can see the inside of a Mini-house. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Tamergirl]

Wondering if possibly there could be a collaboration with the shard EM's to lock down the runes to the houses entered in the contest at perhaps the EM Hall, Awards Hall or even somewhere in Luna? That way we can go have a look at the houses on our home shards and others to enjoy the "real" thing before casting our votes. Maybe stick them in a rune book and lock the rune book down to reduce the amount of runes locked down.

 

[Ludes]

I always enjoy looking at Holiday decorations.. even IRL.
I thought Mr. and Mrs. Claues's house was cool last year.

 

[Zynia]

Will we all have to wait until voting starts to see the entries?

 

[MissEcho]

Community News
2012 Nov 08 22:01 GMT
It’s the time of the year that everyone gets creative and decorates their homes to reflect their feelings of the holidays. UO would like to announce a Holiday House Decorating Contest. Petra from stratics has been kind enough to help out with gathering and setting up the voting page for the contest. There will be 10 winners total and you as the players will help pick the winners. The rewards will be a special hued talking Snowman and the top voted design will have their house go down in the history of UO by making it a mini house that will be available next year. This time you guys are the judges!

Rules
1 entry per account
10 winners total
Submit pictures to [email protected]
Submissions close December 5th, 2012 and Voting closes December 15th, 2012
All entries must have a character name, shard, facet and location
All pictures submitted must be in jpg format


We look forward to seeing your creative decorations!

Continue reading...

So basically if you don't own a custom house there is no point in entering the competition as your classic house, being castle, keep or whatever won't be able to be made into a 'mini' house?

So am I correct? It is really not a competition for 'everyone' nor is it a 'deco' competition, but a custom house building design competition?

If the above is incorrect, could someone explain the prize if I deco my castle?

Really disappointed in this competition if those of us with classic houses are automatically out of the running. Or will they make a mini house out of my deco'd castle ???? Seriously would like my questions answered as I have already spent hours just on my ground floor, before it dawned on me that I could be totally wasting my time

Any comment or clarification from the powers that be?

 

[DevilsOwn]

how the entries will be judged I haven't a clue.. whether the entire design will be considered or whether people will just be looking with an eye towards how it will appear as a miniature is up to each alone (this is a voting thing, yes? all entries judged by us, the players?)

as far as the castle goes, I would imagine that any decorations on the exterior surfaces would also be visible in a miniature

and I'm not a 'power', Miss Echo, but please go ahead and finish your design and enter it!

 

[Adol]

Someone told me the prizes are awarded on the shard that the house exists on? If that's the case then castle owners will struggle yes... but if it's on your home shard, you can always make a custom house on Test Centre instead?

 

[DevilsOwn]

Adol, as far as I know, there has been only guesswork regarding where the prize is awarded, and since the contest is 'by account' it would seem only fair that the account could claim it on the shard of their choice. I do not recall any official confirmation of prizes being award to the account only on the shard that the design sits on. It was pointed out, however, that test center would be risky since it may get wiped before judging is completed.

Some official clarification on this point would be appreciated, I'm sure.

 

[Hunters' Moon]

I think that if people want to use TC for their contest enteries,screen shots of each floor should be accepted. The reward should be in code form that can be used on any shard.

 

[Larisa]

Yeah I'm also curious about that. I know they have mini castle deeds but to incorporate the deco in with that...just curious how that would work.

Take my example..not the best mind you...from 2007? I think it was....how would you put this into a mini house deed?

Mind you this is just the exterior....I had the inside decorated to.

 

[Viper09]

So basically if you don't own a custom house there is no point in entering the competition as your classic house, being castle, keep or whatever won't be able to be made into a 'mini' house?

So am I correct? It is really not a competition for 'everyone' nor is it a 'deco' competition, but a custom house building design competition?

If the above is incorrect, could someone explain the prize if I deco my castle?

Really disappointed in this competition if those of us with classic houses are automatically out of the running. Or will they make a mini house out of my deco'd castle ???? Seriously would like my questions answered as I have already spent hours just on my ground floor, before it dawned on me that I could be totally wasting my time

Any comment or clarification from the powers that be?

I don't see any reason why those who own classic houses should be excluded from the contest. They shouldn't exclude people just because its a classic design and I can't imagine them doing so. So don't worry yourself with speculation over the min-house deed reward, you're not the only one with a classic house to decorate, just take a look at Larisa's picture. So decorate, have fun!

 

[startle]

How are the players that are not using UOStratics ever going to find out about this?

^^^ This has been the issue forever now... ^^^^

My suggestion:

 

[startle]

Oh, btw...

Only 10 days left now!

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

- -etc. .. is like dropping a drip of water on the tongue of a pile of ashes.

Eloquently and brillantly described! Sauteed Onion, did you make that up or is that from something you heard somewhere?

There are many pros and cons about contests, but take them for what they are worth and enjoy decorating your house the way you want without expecting perfectly controlled/advertised/judged events. It's all about enjoying what you do anyhow and who ever gets their house duplicated as a "mini house" at least gets that much to enjoy no matter how many mini-houses come before or after theirs.

I love hunting around for houses on the various shards to see the work and creativity put into making them a holiday celebration! Laurisa's Christmas Castle is beautiful !

T'is the season and thus, starting Dec.1st, decorating Arctic Gardens for Christmas would be fun. Not for any contest though.

 

[Sauteed Onion]

Eloquently and brillantly described! Sauteed Onion, did you make that up or is that from something you heard somewhere?

There are many pros and cons about contests, but take them for what they are worth and enjoy decorating your house the way you want without expecting perfectly controlled/advertised/judged events. It's all about enjoying what you do anyhow and who ever gets the8r house duplicated as a "mini house" at least gets that much to enjoy no matter how many mini-houses come before or after theirs.

I love hunting around for houses on the various shards to see the work and creativity put into making them a holiday celebration! Laurisa's Christmas Castle is beautiful !

T'is the season and thus, starting Dec.1st, decorating Arctic Gardens for Christmas would be fun. Not for any contest though.

I just made it up, but was truly inspired by what this came across to me as in a metaphorical sense.. meow. Also, I wish they'd put cinnamon rolls in game.

 

[startle]

I think that it would be most fair, if they published the Shard/Coords of ALL the entry's here... At least we could all go see for ourselves what was entered...

Just sayin........

 

[Petra Fyde]

When entries close (5th Dec) the voting page will go live. There might be a slight delay. Voting closes midnight 5th Dec, which is 5am for me. If there are a lot of late entries it may take me a short while to get them all listed on the poll. That page has pictures and locations for all the entries - though I had to get a bit creative to fit it all in to the allowed 'answer' space for the adapted poll plug in.

Everyone who has entered so far should have had an email back from me acknowledging receipt. If anyone hasn't, please re-send.