State of Play Design Competition Entries

The rules asked for screenshots and/or short movie. So movie was not required.

Still, one picture and a word doc? Compared to the other entries? It doesn't make logical sense, but PR moves rarely do I suppose.

Well the word doc had more screenshots embedded in it. And it's pretty hard to argue against curing Cancer

Interesting. And not far from what I expected (having done some research on the judges).

Someone asked about the Quake 3 entry. I recall them starting up Workspace Unlimited some years ago and asking about how they could use the engine to create a virtual space for interaction. What they were after wasn't a "game level".

Upon visiting their site again a few months back, it definitely looked as if they were branching out from purely virtual spaces and into augmented spaces (though I might be mistaken). Now that the engine is open source, I'd intended to get caught up; their site wasn't all that informative last I visited. Now I have a reason to check their work out as they'll likely have more information on their entry.

Congrats to everyone who entered.

Relay for Life rocked... Congrats to all those involved...

Count me as extremely unimpressed by these winners also.

2nd 3rd and 4th especially just seem like pretty pictures and some post modern baffle-gab.
I dont get it.

Alas, the SOP folks published the version of my submission that included all my RL details. I have taken down those pages.

A copy of my submission that doesn't include anything personal can be found at:
Nota Bene: A Virtual Notary

Word of warning to other entrants: In some cases your RL name, address and telephone numbers are accessible from the SOP pages.

I tried to open the word doc 3 times and it would not open, so I gave up. I'll try again later.

Congratulations to Relay for Life!

With so many wonderful entries by citizens of Second Life, one has to wonder if the judges had constrained themselves to only picking one build from any one world. It's pretty easy to see how SL could have sweeped this competition easily.

I am so glad a SL build got first place though, and none is more deseriving than Relay for Life

Here is their entry saved as a PDF:

Relay For Life entry SOP05

I think exactly the same. I even suggested earlier that this was the reason for the delay.

Congrats Relay for Life.
And congrats to the whole of SL, we are one step further on the way to becoming "the" metaverse.

Thank you for the PDF. The images and descriptions were a very good represenation of the build. Congradulations.

While there is of course disappointment in it for many, it may well have been that they were trying to spread the riches. In any case, an SL entry DID get first place, and how can anybody do better than that? That is a terrific reflection on SL.

coco

While I'm thrilled SL managed to win a prize, I'm frankly quite surprised by the winners. None of them were even in my top ten. I can only assume that the judges' interpretation of the contest guidelines differed substantially from mine. Nonetheless, to all the winners, please accept my half-hearted congratulations.

~Ulrika~

Having researched the backgrounds of some of the judges beforehand, the results are very much what I expected. Based on what I dug up, very little of what most people build in SL would be very exciting to them imo. Builds in SL are probably a bit too RW; which is why I suspect the more esoteric pieces placed so well. And one advantage I suspect the Relay had was it's impermanence; it came and went. There's something interesting in the process of how that project happened. Something which I suspect appealed to this group.

Just my guess.

This ties into what's said here.

The following of what I am going to say is meant playfully, so I indicate this with a in advance.

I might not be too long before a fake, totally pretentious, wordy, bloated entry gets submitted to a competition like this and bags the crown—with the hoax to be revealed afterwards in a manner even a digitally renanimated PT Barnum could appreciate.

I once had this experience, submitting a rather complex composition to a classical music contest full of snobs. O, how I rambled on about the psychological dissonance of the augmented 4th and the neo-Rachmaninoffian tenets of clustered chords founded on the supertonic! Notice how the inverted triad juxtaposted against the syncopated ostinatos generates anxiety, a subtle homage to the grandiose, pomp virtuosity of Liszt! Thrill in how the modulated arpeggios are neither too allegro nor rubato, yet retain their Debussyesque legato glissandos while changing key signature moving into the recapitulation of the exposition!

MEH! What all that really amounted to was me, going up to the grand piano, banging keys randomly, bowing stiffly, and collecting my prize.

I think this was the same contest that I lost with my composition that was based on the Hugh Simon theory.

What is the Hugh Simon theory you ask?

It is the theory that the 16th and 17th century composers developed a uniform scale platform based upon the intervals utilised in the mountaineer yodel.

(Contrary to belief, this theory was not developed in Neualtenburg first!)

I'm extremely pleased Relay for Life won, because it's such a groundbreaking happening and a real true example of a public space for a "MMORPG PUBLIC SPACE DESIGN COMPETITION".

If you want the rest of the world and probably even the judges to hear your views on this contest, post a comment to this Terranova article.

The judges made it clear how unimpressed they were with us...

Thanks satchmo, I crossposted my disappointment

That was a great reply, Maxx.

The only thing worse to me than having them judge the contest on their own criteria instead of the published criteria, was their disdainful comments.

~Ulrika~

Yea the disdain was killing me.

*Note to academic game researchers*

Next time you stand up and rant at GDC about why game companies won't work with academics... watch this video.

I threw in my post on Terra Nova.

The stroking beards there probably won't deign to read them over (as we have no "real" experience talking about VWs), but it's good to vent on a public space.

Hah, maybe they should have entered terranova as an entrant? Public space, shifting paradigms, and all that.

Virtual, too!

LF