DiMono
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As I look out over the world of the Eighth, it is a pretty expansive landscape. There are thousands of rooms in hundreds of dungeons built by dozens of skilled architects (and a few not-so-skilled ones), there are campfire stories, songs, businesses, industry, and insects of unusual size (IOUSes). More than that, there are a wide variety of monsters, characters, fauna, flora, foliage, fernage, familiage, festivage and fermentationage to be found just about everywhere.

The problem is, with so much going on at all times, the Kings and Queens of the Eighth have found that the number 8 simply doesn't do the land justice any more as the Official Number. With all that's going on, they feel that while the name of the land is fine (and remarkably descriptive), the Eighth needs a brand new Official Number. And they're currently taking nominations!

That means it's up to you (yes you) to decide what number should be the new Official Number of the Eighth, and to create a piece of marketing material to prove why your number is better than all other numbers at best representing The Eighth.


Rules of the Contest

1. You must pick a number. Any type of number is fine: 1/2 is okay, -7, 9001, pi, anything you like. You could even try to say the number 8 should still be it.
2. You must create a piece of advertising material to prove why your number is better. It could be a poster, a press release, a jingle, whatever you like. As is always the case, the more creative you are, the better.
3. All entries must be posted in the submission topic no later than Local Time:03-23-2011 at 09:00 PM.
4. You may enter up to 3 times. If you enter more than that, your most recent 3 will be the ones that enter the voting phase.
5. Voting will take place from Local Time:03-24-2011 at 02:00 PM to Local Time:03-31-2011 at 10:00 PM and will be based on how well each piece of advertising does at promoting the number it is in support of. Sometimes poorly drawn pieces do a better job of conveying a message than well drawn pieces, so don't hold back!

Prizes

First place winner gets any item of his/her choosing from the Prize Pile and 100 rank points. The second- and third-place runner-ups get 50 and 25 rank points, respectively.

Now, what did I miss...

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[Last edited by DiMono at 03-10-2011 07:02 PM]

Jatopian
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The people of Clarbag would like to say "bollocks" to all these jumped-up royals and remind them that the eighth is shaped like one-eighth of a circle, thus having the weight of both sense and tradition behind it.

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DiMono
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Jatopian wrote:
The people of Clarbag would like to say "bollocks" to all these jumped-up royals and remind them that the eighth is shaped like one-eighth of a circle, thus having the weight of both sense and tradition behind it.

...so I guess the number 8 is taken then?

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coppro
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Dibs on aleph null.

noma
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I would like to question the rule that a number can be claimed by only one person. Since the contest is judged based on the marketing material, it shouldn't matter if more than one person uses the same number.

DiMono
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noma wrote:
I would like to question the rule that a number can be claimed by only one person. Since the contest is judged based on the marketing material, it shouldn't matter if more than one person uses the same number.

I thought a long time about that rule. One problem with having two people claim the same number is that after the first of them posts their entry, anyone else with that number then has an unfair advantage over that person; they could see something in the first entry that they can add to theirs, and then claim that they just happened to have the same idea. As well, if they both did happen to have the same idea, the second one would have doubts automatically cast upon them because people might wrongfully think that they took the idea from the other user. The easiest way to avoid anything like that is to just make sure everyone has their own number.

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Schik
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And thus Submission Topics were born.

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DiMono
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Indeed. I've edited the first post to link to the submission topic and remove the "one person per number" restriction.

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gamer_extreme_101
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As soon as I read the description of this contest, the only thing I can think of is The Big Bang Theory and their stating that 73 was the best number.



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Jatopian
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DiMono wrote:
...so I guess the number 8 is taken then?

Nah. Even if they hadn't just removed that rule, I'm not really going to enter. I just wanted to say that.

I do support 8, though, so anyone who wants to use what I wrote is welcome to. I mean come on, it's a sideways infinity symbol and everything. 8 loves you, and you should love 8 back.

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NiroZ
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It is certainly easier to allow duplicate numbers, but chances are you'll have a lot of entries over the same couple of numbers. Depending on what you're aiming for, that might be an issue.

Also, file formats? The last thing you want is to have a few in strange formats which most people can't open (and I'm always surprised when people can't open .rar files). Also, anybody who is thinking/planning/possibly maybe pondering entering, what sort of media do you intend to use? Images, text, audio, video, interactive media? Might help DiMono if he's aware of what people are planning, as some things might not be feasible.

Probably should explain what submission topics do/how they work. Always confuses new people.

Finally, voting criteria. I assume it is to try and make the best argument for your number, but are people going to rate each and the highest score wins, or do people select their favourite/s. It also helps for the voters to have some instructions on what to look for, and its only sporting to have at least a rough idea of what that would be for contestants to aim for.

DiMono
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NiroZ wrote:

Before I begin responding, thank you, these are all good questions/points you've raised.

It is certainly easier to allow duplicate numbers, but chances are you'll have a lot of entries over the same couple of numbers. Depending on what you're aiming for, that might be an issue.

The number will be used again, but I think we'll be okay with the possibility of having multiple entries for the same number. I will, however, encourage people to think outside the box, because while 8 is certainly the obvious choice, that also makes it the least interesting one.

Also, file formats? The last thing you want is to have a few in strange formats which most people can't open (and I'm always surprised when people can't open .rar files). Also, anybody who is thinking/planning/possibly maybe pondering entering, what sort of media do you intend to use? Images, text, audio, video, interactive media? Might help DiMono if he's aware of what people are planning, as some things might not be feasible.

Since this is open to any creative format, I'm not going to limit the media type unless it comes in in a really obscure one, like .tiff or something. If I think it's going to be an issue, I'll contact the entrant directly and request that they change the file format to something that's more ubiquitous.

Probably should explain what submission topics do/how they work. Always confuses new people.

Certainly: the submission topic is where you'll be posting your entries. The only people who can see them are myself, as the topic starter, and the site admins. This helps keep your entry secret and safe from other potentially prying eyes, so they can't bogart your ideas. When the time comes to vote, I'll post each entry in the voting thread so that people can see them.

Finally, voting criteria. I assume it is to try and make the best argument for your number, but are people going to rate each and the highest score wins, or do people select their favourite/s. It also helps for the voters to have some instructions on what to look for, and its only sporting to have at least a rough idea of what that would be for contestants to aim for.

Voting will be each entry out of 10 on how good a job the entry does of promoting the number that it's meant to promote. While the number is a key aspect of this contest, the focus is how well each person does at convincing us that their number is the right number. If you can show it to random people and have them say "you know, that makes a lot of sense" then you're definitely on the right track.

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Tahnan
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I think I'll go with "nitrous oxide". (Some of you will get it.)

NiroZ
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DiMono wrote:Since this is open to any creative format, I'm not going to limit the media type unless it comes in in a really obscure one, like .tiff or something. If I think it's going to be an issue, I'll contact the entrant directly and request that they change the file format to something that's more ubiquitous.

True, although I'd strongly encourage people to stick to stuff that would play on a normal windows xp installation. It'd be unlikely that someone would submit something in a format that doesn't convert nicely, but if you were in that position you wouldn't be happy.

Dischorran
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Wait, .tiffs are obscure?

Also, are we running under one entry per person or three entries per person rules?

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Penwielder
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I'll probably use a png if I get around to this. There should be no problems with that for any system at all.

I've seen .tiffs once or twice, but I really know nothing about them. In my mind they qualify as obscure. Then again, I would say you never need more than jpegs and pngs for anything.

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[Last edited by Penwielder at 03-10-2011 05:24 PM]

Elfstone
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I'm not going to limit the media type unless it comes in in a really obscure one, like .tiff or something.

I know about .tiffs

I think

so they can't be obscure (I wouldn't know about obscure computer things), but if I do this I won't use them so as not to be a pest.

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DiMono
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Dischorran wrote:
... are we running under one entry per person or three entries per person rules?

Hmm... Well, I absolutely want a lot of entries in this contest, so let's go with three.

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Rat Man
Level: Master Delver
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DiMono wrote:
Since this is open to any creative format, I'm not going to limit the media type unless it comes in in a really obscure one, like .tiff or something. If I think it's going to be an issue, I'll contact the entrant directly and request that they change the file format to something that's more ubiquitous.

Do holds count as obscure? I want to use an AE hold -- not because I don't have JTRH but for nostalgia's sake

...but now that I think about it, I think I'll just post an image of all the rooms of the hold pasted together. I have lots of time on my hands.

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[Last edited by Rat Man at 03-14-2011 09:28 PM]

Rat Man
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On second thought, I think I'll do something else instead. It'll be a sneaky little surprise!

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DiMono
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Just four more days to get your entries in, folks!

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Rat Man
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DiMono wrote:
Just four more days to get your entries in, folks!

CRAP!!! I just now found out that the software I used for my entry (a spoof trailer for TSS) can only save files to a format that only it can read! I'll have to scrape something together fast but I can always just modify something I've been working on for a while to fit the contest...

Wish me luck!

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Penwielder
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Mine's in. I look forward to the look(s) on your face.

There's a little over one day left to get your entries in, as of the time of this post.

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Dischorran
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Penwielder wrote:
Mine's in. I look forward to the look(s) on your face.

But there's no :bored: smiley...

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Rat Man
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I am laughing so hard right now!!!

But, alas, it won't bore me at all since my entry (I'm about to put it in) is pretty much crap given the terms of the contest.

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techant
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I got 2 in but only 1 is serious the other 1 is just to be funny, but likely you will see why I do not work for an ad agency.

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Rat Man
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There's probably lots of reasons why you don't work for an ad agency!

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[Last edited by Rat Man at 03-23-2011 08:33 PM]

Tahnan
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techant wrote:
...the other 1 is just to be funny

When you see my second entry, you can thank Techant for inspiring me to post it.

Bombadil
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I finally got mine in! Just in time!

I have been working on something for a while and I thought I might use it for the contest...

I have not posted on the boards for a while, but I find (once again) dragged to the Eighth because of this small project of mine and the possibility of seeing The Next Big Thing soon...

DiMono
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Alright, time is up! Voting will begin at the appointed time, assuming I'm awake. Otherwise it will begin shortly thereafter, for the obvious reason.

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