Competitions

The club advertises a "Sexy Camo" competition. I am looking at a set of nice camo gear. The suit costs L$75. I have L$82. Then suddenly I ask myself what is the point? I would risk my few lindens if I had an honest chance at winning.

I love the look of that gear in the shop. Maybe I will buy it one day. But right now,none of the people who cast their votes are even going to glance at my outfit.

There was this "Sexy Pirate" competition. Naive me rocks up looking like a regular period dated privateer captain. And I managed to show off these good legs too.. I get to the club. and I look at the costumes and I think, wow, the competition is tough.

Person A wins. Person A is in a regular blouse and skirt and wearing a hat. I look around and I see at least 3 other people who should rightfully have won

Then comes the "Sexy in Denim" competition. I have my slinky cropped denim jacket, very cropped denim jeans and even some cute denim boots. Person A, wins this one too. wearing plain jeans and jacket without even showing any effort at making an impression. Person A's friend is the other winner. 1st day AVI. With skin shoes, ruthed hair, jeans and some shiny fabric top.

Then comes the "Sexy Goth" competition and the floor is full of pale skinned dark and sinister looking coffin kids. Some actual heavy boots, heavy coats and lots of shiny rivets, hinges and screws in odd places. Person A arrives in a flimsy sheer white nightie. Person A wins.

What exactly is the point of these competitions? Why not just ask "everyone who likes this contestant, raise your hands" and give out the prize money. It saves time. It is a lot more honest that fooling innocent participants that they actually have a chance at winning.

So now it is a "Sexy Animal" competition. Person A is there again. I don't bother entering. Just before voting, a club dancer IMs me, "Didn't you enter?".
No. I said.
"Oh", she says,"I was going to vote for you"..

I felt so miserable. Here is someone really nice and with every quality that makes me like her, and she takes for granted that ignoring the competition theme, is quite normal.

I have decided to just let it go. I will not even feel bad anymore for not having the lindens to tip the DJ, the dancers or for any tip jar that may be around. Everyone plays a crooked game. I'll just not participate.

I would have liked a good reason to buy that camo outfit but I go to the club for the music anyway.

Sadly a lot of events are popularity contests. I have even had friends im me and ask if they could tp me in just so I will vote for them to win an event. I won't do that anymore. When I enter events like that I go all out and spend lots of L's on outfits, skins and hair to make sure I win...lol. I win a lot, but the prize winnings never cover the cost of my outfits. I do it just for fun.

I am currently running a FAIR competion on Tin Teddy island.

Anyone can enter, totally free. All you need to do is get a quiz sheet from one of the boxes on the island, and find the answers around the island. They are all there, no previous knowledge etc required.

When I open the boxes on 20th September, the earliest dated correct quiz will win L$10,000. If no one has them all, then the next highest score.

No popularity, no cheating, no unfairness.

Thanks, Elgyfu
You have just made my day. Maybe I'll even consider giving it a shot.

Well, you might want to check the latest entry in my SLProfiles blog. It may prepare you for a really harsh one.

<sighs> This story is a mirror to what I encountered when I first started out 'eventing'... My very first event was at a very well know club... 'Best In Blue'... I was covered head to toe in blue.. skin, hair, eyes, clothes etc... I IM'd the host before voting took place and said, when is everyone else in blue turnning up? On close scrutiny the only other person wearing blue, had blue eyes, and that was the Host. In those days, the Host took the votes... not sure... but I didn't win.. it went to a guy that was wearing black pants, white shirt, that kept 'twitching' all the ladies eXcite accessories.

I persevered and kept ploughing the money I was gaining at Tringo, Slingo etc into buying more and more outfits and accessories. In the 2 years I was 'eventing' I accumilated over 500,000L$, and I always gave at least 50% of my winnings to hosts, dj's and dancers at events.

That first club I went into, changed the rules.. anyone afk for more than 10 minutes, not 'in costume', or arrived in the last 20 minutes of the event, would be disqualified. They are still one of the few clubs that don't use voting boards.

I have a very full inventory, although I don't do eventing anymore, just like to pop into some of my favourite clubs, drop some L$ to the hosts, dj's etc.. and if the event is good, add some to the prize money. It's always good to remember that someone is trying what I did.

Don't loose heart, just change the clubs you are going to... without attracting new blood... they end up asking 'why don't we grow'? I must confess, it was hard when I was at an event, and got floods of IM's from people stating that I should leave and give someone else a chance to win... or the begging IM's asking me for some of my winnings because they are broke, or saving for a new SIM...

As a club owner, I have read this thread very carefully. I don't take a direct hand in running my club anymore, but the problem you speak of is one I have notice none the less. Don't think I'm trying to advertise my club at all but I'm definately going to bring up to my manager taking entries off the contest boards before voting ends that are not in event attire.
...because you're right...that's not fair at all.

Dearly Darlings,

Also carefully read outworld/inworld events. I was livid about the "***** ** *****" movie competition. I did have words with the person running the event. I was given a free DVD as clearly they did not follow the rules they had stipulated in the contest note. If you are unclear about the rules, IM the person in charge and make a note to keep in your inventory....just tell them you plan on making a transcription for future reference. I find the clubs that have trivia games for the smart people tend to be the most honest about the costume contests. I've won a few. It's just hard to find parties that don't have the pole dancers...that just makes my virtual skin crawl.

I hope you all have a lovely Friday afternoon!

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

A few days ago I entered a "Biker" Themed contest at a very well known and popular club. I was surely the only contestant who actually wore club colors on my gear (Hells Angels colors on my jacket, T-shirt proclaiming East Coast Biker Chicks).

the prize did not even go to someone dressed in anything vaguely akin to riding leathers, but to a contestant in a mini skirt boots an crop top...

Well as part of the response to my protest, I got this from someone called "Jesse":


I think a quick and valid translation would be in the vein of , "Yes we host a costume based contest. Yes we award a winning status to the best costume in terms of the contest. Yes, we offer a prize, but you should not compete for the prize."

Or am I a bit off here. I would like to gain the insight of others.

If anyone wants access to the full exchange and all its guts and gore, Leave me an IM in-world for the URL to the blog.

Sounds like this 'Jesse' works for some off shore support company.. a lot of meaningless words... That kind of responce is just the sort of thing that SL warrants isn't it?.. NOT.

What about this alternative 'Okay so you paid hard earnt cash out, to participate in our themed event, but you didn't actually expect to win did you? I mean we have our regulars to think about.. I hope you enjoyed the experience and will become a regular to our estabishment, where you can dance all day, go afk for hours on end and go shopping in RL while still logged in, and then we pay you money for keeping our traffic up.... Oh but wait, isn't that like camping?.. Oh well that's SL for you, have a nice day'.

Clubs like that are stale.... like stagnant water... soon the algae will grow. As long as Traffic remains king.. most don't care.

There are still a lot of clubs that do actually care, when you find a good pool of clubs that are proactive, keep a list, give them your traffic.

Somthing I have noticed very recently was a Group actually made to help eachother win contest.. The charter of this group says and I am not kidding here..

.... If you recieve notice of a contest Please take the TP and vote for the person who has just TP'd you in.. we will in turn do the same when we are online and you ask for a help.. the idea is for us to all support each other and win contest. (contest first vote goes to the group leader XXXX XXXXXX after that.. next votes go to the person who called for the help.).....

I now set my contest boards to "porportionate win". That means everyone that even gets one vote gets some of the money. I have everyone entering pay $5L or $10L. All club staff and un-costumed guests that enter the contest are removed from the contest board before we open up voting. And I always vote for the new person that entered the contest. We rarely have the same people winning over and over again at our venue.

Excellent strategy... works for all.... <cries> I wanna become a noob again and come to your club... LOL.. j/k