Board 8 > Contest feedback discussion

(+) Yeah! (+)

@SBAllen

Important information coming your way.

I'd really like to see Board 8 design the next bracket. I think we could set up some amazing matches.
---

This was the first contest I cared much about in a very, very long time. Probably since 2003 or so. I acknowledge that I'm starting this discussion on what is likely an uncommon note. But for whatever reason, I enjoyed this one, and that's rare of me.
---

How did SBAllen do? Like as a host? At least a solid 8, maybe even a 9.

But the contest itself was like a 2 or 3. I just wasn't invested at all. I even got sick of Stupid Whiners.
---

Sorry Allen, but I have to give your worst contest ever a 1 out of 10. Hardly any promotion of the contest led to all-time low vote totals. Years were somewhat interesting of an idea, but as seen by the votals it was nothing to get truly excited about, plus we all knew 98 was gonna win anyway. Not a single close match. The match pic controversy was horrible. At least Rivalry Rumble gave us one really good match in the Trainers vs. Cloud/Seph, even if it was just a bonus match.

Please, give us another character battle! 1v1, 12-hour matches, 128 characters, 24 hour matches from the division finals onward. That's the best format for these contests, and as long as the bracket design isn't totally messed up, it's bound to give us some good matches and not be totally predictable. Yes, there's always a chance some meme will get rallied, but that's still more exciting and gives more exposure to the site than Link destroying everything in his path en route to another win.
---

I applaud him for the interesting idea, but as mentioned, this was the least he has ever promoted a contest. He also disappeared and barely communicated with us from about a week before the contest until the last few matches. He just seemed unenthusiastic about the whole thing.

Overall...

https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder925/500x/50046925.jpg
---

4. Trying to put aside the idea that the contest choice was terrible, it was still mediocre hosting. No gross blunders but the pic format, choices, and hype generation were lacking. The notable releases thing in the bracket form was misleading too.
---

Eh now that I think about it those blubs that we wrote up never got used, and a pretty big deal was made about that. Gotta knock off a point or two for that, so like, so like, really a 6 or 7.
---

Contest Idea - 2/10
Admining - 6/10
Bracket Performance - 10/10

I'll give him a 6, why not.
---

AdmiralZephyr posted...

Eh now that I think about it those blubs that we wrote up never got used, and a pretty big deal was made about that. Gotta knock off a point or two for that, so like, so like, really a 6 or 7.

Yeah, his decision to not use any write-ups after people put the time and effort into writing them was disappointing.

More input
---

RPGlord95 posted...

I'd really like to see Board 8 design the next bracket. I think we could set up some amazing matches.

If anyone from Board 8 were to be involved with the design of the bracket, they would have to forfeit their right to be eligible for prizes since they'd have an advantage by knowing the final bracket ahead of time.
---

I would gladly only have a for fun entry to be able to help design the bracket.
---

the only reason i'm not giving him a 1 is because user submitted pics were allowed at some point

early on, even that happening looked like a shot in the dark
---

whatisurnameplz posted...

Please, give us another character battle! 1v1, 12-hour matches, 128 characters, 24 hour matches from the division finals onward. That's the best format for these contests, and as long as the bracket design isn't totally messed up, it's bound to give us some good matches and not be totally predictable. Yes, there's always a chance some meme will get rallied, but that's still more exciting and gives more exposure to the site than Link destroying everything in his path en route to another win.

Our vote totals so bad at this point that running 12 hour matches would be reducing our already terrible vote totals even more. I think the future of contests is running multiple matches at the same time.
---

Luster isn't allowed on the council
---

Every round had a different style of match pic controversy. It was actually outstanding how many different ways there were for the pictures to be messed up.
---

I liked the contest. It was a breath of fresh air after two years of halt. Not too long (*cough*GameoftheDecade*cough*), but not so short either. I liked the idea as of trying something new, and I think it worked for the most part. No any big tragedy like Draven or Undertale happened, which I'm very pleased with. I also think it had a great balance of predictability/unpredictability.

As for the cons... Man, pic factor really mattered here, and it was mostly on big and crutial matches. 2000 > 1996 and 2001 > 1997 were the biggest ones. As far as formating, I'm sure it could've been improved, I'm just not sure how; maybe by putting the strongest exponentials of each year and bringing the lesser strong on board with each passing round would've been the best I can think of, instead of replacing them with other games that could very well be considered fodder in comparison. Not sure what to say about the pic slides though. I heard it was intended to be write-ups up there, but I never saw those at any point and that's just sad.

My biggest complaint was the board attitude. Seriously, nothing seems to please the board in terms of contests anymore. There's no annoying outsiders now like with Draven/Undertale, but the community was hard to stand (with a few exceptions, like Luster and TRE which were awesome at tacking the Oracle Challenge without having the site at hand; Ngamer hosting Guru as always; etc).

Can't say anything about the low vote totals. It's sad that there can't be a good balance of outsiders and locals without contest-ruining rallies, but I see those numbers and it seems like just that - numbers. The games' popularity hasn't changed because of less people coming along. After all, this continues to be GameFAQs, and its essence hasn't changed.

Overall:

Idea/Originality: 9/10
Admining: 6/10
Fun factor: 8/10
Board attitude 2/10

Final word: 7/10
---

It was pretty boring tbh.
---

I think the level of feedback of this contest can be summed up in one little exchange.

Board 8: Please please please have 1997 vs. 2001 with their eight strongest games in order of strongest to weakest, as it will make for a objectively better contest.

SB: I want Age of Empires pics.

Shame, because I think the bracket is probably one of the best executed ever, with major matches happening exactly when they should be happening, with the strongest contenders opposite 98 so the year with the best shot of taking down 98 meets it in the final, while keeping 98's side of the bracket compelling. But then Allen tosses that all away by tainting the semi-final with bad picture selections on the favorite to win.
---

I'll give him a 7 overall for this season.

- not the most exciting idea for a Contest but it was original, we didn't know what kind of results to expect (aside from 1997 to 2001 obviously being very strong), and running this as a way to have a small old fashioned GameFAQs-decided bracket that wouldn't cause him a headache like 2015 and 2013 did was a smart plan on his part

- he gets points for a strong start; really generous prize pool, a personal topic to let B8 get their brackets in early, good job listing notable games/consoles for all the years. obviously some were missing but that was okay because he gave us a topic to post suggestions which he promised to check and get back to us on, and also started collecting Yearly Bios which would have been great

- but then he loses points for saying nothing for the next month, never adding notable games to the bracket or responding in the topic, scrapping the Bios instead of finding a place for them outside of the front page

- gains a few points back for a strong final week where he posted on the board, responded to Contest tickets, gave us a bonus poll, joked about Undertale and Draven, and unleashed the picsmiths for the user-created pics (despite making a couple questionable choices on which to use)

Which comes to a 7/10 as I said above. If he would like further feedback, I wrote up the few things I would have done differently here:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/75382450/879752138


---

Advokaiser posted...

My biggest complaint was the board attitude. Seriously, nothing seems to please the board in terms of contests anymore. There's no annoying outsiders now like with Draven/Undertale, but the community was hard to stand (with a few exceptions, like Luster and TRE which were awesome at tacking the Oracle Challenge without having the site at hand; Ngamer hosting Guru as always; etc).

I agree. But I can at least understand why they would have the attitude.

After 2010 was such a great year of contests (no more L-Block, back to 1v1s over 4ways) people just had really high expectations of contests. To be honest it would be really hard to top this year for modern contests.

SBAllen's just trying to spice things up and space things apart so people don't get contest fatigue. Obviously this board wouldn't but outside that you probably know that others always complains about Link/Ocarina/FF7 always winning so..

He IS mixing contest ideas that are new like Rivals and Years and honestly they're not bad in terms of concept. The way they were set up or presented in the match pics/bracket werent always the best but it was a nice change of pace from just seeing characters/games contests all the time.

Back to expectations, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 all had trends that wildly differed from the norm of 2002-2010 contests. A big problem would be vote totals being a lot lower than they used to be as well as diluted night/day trends. This makes 'comeback' matches (which are usually pretty exciting) pretty rare since if we just stuck to GameFAQs matches they just don't happen. Some upsets do happen still but not as often since B8 has seen so many contests we just know what's generally popular. Upsets are always fun to watch but it's hard to get them without completely new entrants or some weird outside influence.

The lower vote totals also makes crazy rallies a lot easier to make matches not even close. Honestly as much as b8 doesn't want to admit a whole bunch of people DO get unnecessarily salty when rallies come and "ruins" matches. If they didn't make a fuss, the 'trolls' likely wouldn't have done the Draven thing as much (Undertale lesser extent since many rallied fans actually like the game).

So SBallen tried to appease B8 by having a format that's REALLY hard to rally and they just didnt happen this contest. It was a cool idea but b8 just got bored due to the circumstances of the contests (as well as the match pics which were an unfortunate flaw that SBAllen likely could have done better).

My main point is I think Board 8 is secretly hoping for the mix of everything we had back in 2010. High vote totals, 1v1, rallies not making a 70-30%, and potential of unpredictability and close matches. However, vote totals is a BIG part of it and at this point running 2 contests a year isn't going to make people come back to GameFAQs. It'll just get non-b8ers sick of contests and eventually characters battles and game battles will actually become super predictable.
---

Oh good point greatone, I forgot to mention his very strong overall bracket placement in my "good start" section, but that's definitely worth a +1 by itself on the ol' Ng Scale. Obviously there are a couple entrants that got a raw deal (like say 2004), but otherwise we couldn't complain.
---

The pictures gave and the pictures took away. I would have preferred a neutral list of the top 15 games for each year without any pics, but it is what it is.

As for the contest itself, it was exciting as it was going to be. I'd rather have a legitimate boring contest than an illegitimate one usurped by outside forces.
---

Allen gets a 5 for an interesting idea and for letting B8 do their brackets early.

The contest is a 1. Terrible, boring. Please give us a character battle and let Board 8 have a say in the bracket. If you don't let us design it, at least ask us for feedback.
---

LusterSoldier posted...

I think the future of contests is running multiple matches at the same time.

The future of contests should be to have the poll visible throughout the site, not just the main page.

Also, we need a 1v1 character battle, it's been too long.
---

RPGlord95 posted...

I would gladly only have a for fun entry to be able to help design the bracket.

Same!



I voted 7/10 (5 being average). No contest to date has been below a 6/10 for me -- GameFAQs is a far better site to me when we have contests available, and I also get great joy from contest-like polls here even when no prizes are on the line (like "What is your favorite Legend of Zelda game?"). This contest was better than the Rivalry Rumble and Series Contest, at least, and I did enjoy the year-idea!

My biggest issue was not putting a better focus on the whole year for each match. I understand why only so many match-pics can be included at a time, and -- though I wanted the strongest games to be reoresented in each pic -- I get that pics will have their ups and downs every contest. With the text-section for each category though, man, we needed a lot of games listed each year. I would have liked seeing the top ten or twenty best-selling games listed under the question marks, then have the pictures represent the strongest games. As is, it felt more like a tag-team contest with games than truly focusing on the years.

Also, pretty confused why consoles weren't included in pictures.
---

Up!
---

NowItsAngeTime posted...

My main point is I think Board 8 is secretly hoping for the mix of everything we had back in 2010.

is this really a "secret"

I think most long-time vets want contests to be like they were before the last 5 years

NowItsAngeTime posted...

eventually characters battles and game battles will actually become super predictable.

Eh, people say this but we had annual Character Battles for 7 straight years and 8 out of 9 years, and only once did anyone come close to a perfect bracket, and that was because of all the SFF in SC2K4.

Even with annual contests, it's still very possible to make an unpredictable bracket. Bracket placement is a lot more important than spreading them out.
---

Also, I've gotta rate this one pretty low. It felt like SBAllen cared about this contest as much as we did, which is to say, barely at all.
---

So much
---

There was a contest? I must've forgotten all about it while I was on vacation...
---

BlueCrystalTear posted...

There was a contest? I must've forgotten all about it while I was on vacation...

Consider yourself lucky.
---