Bitcoin Forum

S.MG is looking for a splash screen for its flagship game.

What you've got to work with: 2048×1536 pixels, medieval setting (so none of that outer space future tech stuff), two weeks. Details here (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/retained-cto-first-public-commission-other-statements/).

(x-posted to Project Development)

Bump. No talent at all in this community?

Of course there is talent!  :D  

I checked this out earlier. My problem is that I'm guilty of breaking my own personal rule of not participating in art/design contests in this forum already. I rationalized it because I'm just really excited about BTC and want to involve myself in the community as much as possible. But I'm closing in on not working spec anymore and even plan on writing a post in the service discussion forum about a better way to crowdsource. This is a spec competition that isn't even hosted on the forum, has very vague directions, and isn't clear about end dates. Way too risky to spend time on it even if I was totally ok with doing spec work. It could be a really awesome project to work on! I just don't have enough info about it to even consider it.

I think this community would benefit greatly by ditching the competition model and moving to a portfolio review/ split prize model.

Example: Instead of offering 2.0 for the "winning submission" offer .5 but require that people send portfolios and then choose 3 people to do the job. You pay all three for their work. Then, when you choose one you like the best, you can ask the 'winning designer' to edit their design 2-3 more times for an additional .5.

You essentially pay the same thing (2 BTC), but you have a less risky result, you've benefited more designers/artists, and you have an opportunity to work with one designer/artist in depth and have a possible future partnership. You also have worked with the creative community in good faith, and keep the other contacts in case you have a job that requires a style more suited to one of the other guys. It's less risky for the designer, so they will spend more time on their work. Results will improve, and designers can actually collaborate more easily without feeling like they are engaging in cutthroat competition.

Exactly what Molten said.

Here you go.

https://i.imgur.com/oVJsXTM.png

seems legit

Thank you. I also made a Sci-Fi version should you want to got that route after all.

https://i.imgur.com/0EmDu4A.png

What are you people, French?

When I say talent I don't mean sitting around all day talking about "how things should be". That isn't talent, importantly. Even more importantly, that isn't useful. Nor is it valuable. Nor is it in fact welcome, outside of the society of idiots and the confederacy of dunces.

Now let's go into details:


Compare and contrast with:


That happened last year (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76736.0). The very untalented, exceedingly verbose Bitcoin community of the time proved itself unable to provide three 155px by 68px bits of line art. (Coherence with today's "Bitcoin community" is extremely low, obviously. The average lifespan of a Bitcoin communitard being what, six to nine months.)

Also compare and contrast with the 10 BTC (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/rape-is-fun-or-lets-fuck-up-adria-richards/) Photoshop contest coupla months ago.

So, when I say what I say I have something I'm basing myself on. When you say what you say you're basing yourself on what, your inner feeling that you in fact are talented? You're not talented, because if you were you'd be working. Hard to digest, perhaps, but if you can take the time to type out that post of yours but won't take the time to prove your talent you are in fact an untalented if verbose hack, and you know this.


It actually is a really awesome project to work on. That you hesitate and then paint that hesitation in terms of "not enough info" could be construed to mean one of two and only two things.

Thing number A: You are more willing to write than you are willing to read, and as such you've not read:


which is a pity, as it's in the original article.

Thing number 2: You are not an artist, which means to say you're able to execute if someone else is telling you what to do, but you yourself have no inspiration, no vision and nothing actually creative to contribute. This is fine, nobody is required to be special or relevant, but it also means that there's no talent involved.


Yes, this is how the poor but numerous view the world, no different really from the celebrated "if BitBet was paying users even more then we would make more Bitcoin!!! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=147914.msg1574350#msg1574350)". It just so happens that being involved in this "wonderful community" etc gives you a direct link to the rich and successful, and here's how they view your thinking there: "could you transform this grand opportunity for the talented into a doling out to the untalented? instead of something based on achievement could we have a little nibble based on simple existence?".

The answer, in short, is no. No you cannot. It is true that the welfarist governments have turned the existence of a few special select few into this fictitious world whereby you get a little bread and a little juice just for existing, but we are currently working at dismantling all that. This is in fact what Bitcoin is for: making it so that it's impossible for a select few to get "social benefits" at the expense of the hard working, the rich and the successful.

The fact of the matter is that most people don't have enough skill, enough ability and most importantly enough inclination to work (usefully!) so as to justify their consumption. The future for these people, which prophetically self-identified as "the 99%" recently, is starvation. If you think unemployment is bad now....

On the other side of the planet, you can't insulate yourself from risks. Being part of a start-up is being part of a start-up, you can't play 9 to 5 office on one end and then cash in like an entrepreneur on the other end. You don't get the benefit of signing your name on tomorrow's megafranchise without putting a lot of your work at risk. Joanne Rowling pitched her book to almost one hundred publishers over years before being accepted, on a very tight contract. You're more than welcome to wait for someone to pay you a generous salary a year in advance and then make you famous, but if you hold your breath for it you'll die. And if you don't hold your breath for it you'll get sick of Ramen sooner or later.

So to sum up my message to the starving, unknown artist: You can't wait out money. Money waits you out. Money doesn't need to eat, and money doesn't give a shit. Either you have talent, in which case you slave away (literally, I do mean slave away, twenty-two hours a day for weeks and weeks) to make the most of this wondrous, splendid opportunity or else you have no talent, no purpose and aren't welcome in the world. And I do mean it, generally, the world. Even the birds shit on you, because they don't like you down there.

That's about it.


Boss sez, "well he's an idiot but at least he did something, so pay him .1337 to make the point to the other idiots that are also vocal about how lazy they are".

So, post an addy.

On IRC, MP said that S.MG will have a bottomless need for more artwork to create their games. If you approach this as a job interview rather than a competition to make a quick buck then you might see the utility of entering an example of your work.

"isn't even hosted on the forum" - I think that should count as a positive

"has very vague directions" - They seem pretty clear to me, you just have alot of leeway within the specifications.


Lol.

I have no need to prove my talent to someone who conducts themselves in this manner. Insult me all you want, the portfolio model is not dolling out money to the masses. It is not welfare. They are all doing work and you own the rights to that work once it's finished. You can even take elements of one design and incorporate them into another.  It is a better way of working in this community. And you get more for your money if you do it right. Your boss must have dealt with some pretty lame people offering lackluster creative services judging by his and your 'tude. Sorry for the bad experience. No excuse to act elitist tho.



 

Does that mean, I won? Yay.  :D Addy is in the sig.

I can make something similar in quality to Greyhawk's work if you're interested  ;D

Is it bad that I've been laughing at this whole thread? :P Seriously though, no artist worth the money is going to go out of there way to make you an extremely nice and detailed drawing for only the 'chance' to win some money what was ever wrong with asking for a portfolio and then picking someone based on that work like you do with any other art based job?

Please don't steal my peculiar art style.  :(

I said similar in quality, not style ;)

But I guess everyone knows I'm just bragging ... :(

Imma pay you 50 % of my artists wages for your interpretation of "Dragonne Slayers: The Fantastic Fantasy Game"

If you have not figured it out yet, he is asking for a portfolio of 1 sample. People who have talent will be hired for more projects down the line.

That's the funny thing. Anything "an artist" would have to do is take whatever fantasy-y thing he has in his portfolio, crop it to the requested dimension and - bingo - you've got a valid entry. Then see how things go from there.

Heck, let me do it again.

*grab photo taken on a recent hike*
*slap on a background with right dimension*
*add a title*

Done. 2 Minutes (I needed to find a fitting font). Also Imgur upload was slow.

Does it suck? Most certainly.

Is it better than anything else posted yet? Absolutely.



https://i.imgur.com/aADxWbl.jpg

Why oh why didn't I see that one coming.

Let's do it like this: now that the "there is money" point has been proven, people get busy on proving the other two points left ("there is talent" and "can follow instructions"). Trifecta!


By this reasoning "no coder worth the money is ever going to make an extremely detailed project on the hopes of winning". Except they do. That's what the better coders do, and whenever some coder wants to be hired on a salary the first point in anyone's mind is "so he doesn't think he's good enough to start-up".

Really, it's 2013, time to split the artists from the wanna-bes.


In case he hasn't figured it out yet, anyone can be a dog on the internet, complete with a portfolio of art "they" made. People who actually hire know this, people who never get hired apparently have no idea.


Does it sink in slower than obsidian in honey? Definitely.

Honorarium received. Much obliged.

Waachtword, my offer still stands.

Challenge accepted!

http://i41.tinypic.com/sg5sm1.jpg

The sad part is I actually did my best  :D.

Edit:

Generated a fresh address: 18UavuhPKLmYUcgEU5QDBehSHcYtHk8Jj7

That's... That must have been a whole lot of effort.  :o

Loving it. https://blockchain.info/de/tx/93326b5999eca95d4558f54ae6dc7c42add5abc58f555f3d6f3da30a6aed5777

Hey, is that from some old Atari game? Seems familiar.

Thanks! I'm pretty sure that's the first time someone paid me for my 'graphic' skills.  :D

Anyway, I did follow this guide to at least make it look like a dragon :P http://www.drawingnow.com/how-to-draw-a-dragon.html

I just don't see why you torture yourself doing it this way.
Find an artist you like, from here, or anywhere else (I'm sure you could find someone on DeviantArt) and offer them the money. You can then work with them to get a quality piece you are both proud of.

Doing these types of contests is frowned upon by a lot of designers and illustrators, because you are asking them to do (in this case potentially hours upon hours) of free work on the chance they might just win. These types of projects take a lot of effort to complete, not just on the technical aspect alone, but also thinking of the ideas and concepts.

If you don't have a lot of money to spend on a project, that is absolutely fine, but instead of holding a "contest" like this, I would argue you would be much better off contacting someone, paying them, and working with them directly.

The outcome of a design is only partly based on the designer,
a good client who knows what he is looking for and is able to communicate that effectively to the designer is going to end up with an end product he is much happier with.

That isn't to say these contests don't ever work, and you are free to do whatever you want, obviously, but this is my opinion anyhow.

Whichever path you choose, I hope you end up with a final product that you are happy with, and represents your game well. :)

It's not my idea (and if you ask me it's not the best idea, either). But to quote Mr. Knowitall,



There's the sticky point of the issue. Consider this bit (part of an earlier dispute with the Something Awful crowd (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/valiant-prince-mp-explores-the-mother-of-all-echo-chambers-a-saga-of-our-times/)):


So I suppose the question before us (ie, "the community") is quite plainly "can you people do anything useful, other than writing [very very bad] code, showing off your tits and shoving things up your butts".

Tie this in with an earlier dispute (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=230072.msg2430112#msg2430112), on this very forum, about the importance of "infrastructure".


So, community of people ready to do what? Ready to sit around and opine on things [they don't understand, have never done successfully etc]? Ready to ask for scammer tags? Ready to create one of them "securities (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=206637.msg2489725#msg2489725)" based on "maff and stuff" and their "life experience (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229612.msg2477013#msg2477013)" (aged 20ish)? Ready to do something useful? Actually able to do something useful?

Indeed, it's the harder road, taking a large clean mirror and forcing this community of nobody in particular to gaze into it. The gift of washing is never appreciated by the herd of cats, and perhaps it's not a rational use of resources - especially not in an "everyone for himself" sort of environment, which obviously means "absent community". But then again you know this about MP, he's never taken the easier road when the right one was at all available, and he's never taken the "rational" road to nowhere either. As the old saying goes, "millions for defense but not a penny in bribes". Exceptionally enough he actually has the millions, too.


I trust you've read the first comment on the article, where this point is at length discussed.


I trust you've read all about the IPO which collected something like 9000 Bitcoin. That IS a lot.


That may be, but this isn't that.


The problem with your opinion isn't that it's yours, is that it's not particularly related to the subject at hand, especially if you've not actually read the stuff mentioned above.

You guys aren't even trying, there's no "e" in "dragon".

https://i.imgur.com/Bz9aUi1.png

The mad king is heavy on taxes because he's trying to secure operating funds for his kingdom. Commoners have to guard their BTC closely.

Focus obviously in the above image is those two guys trading BTC in the corner. If you want to make real money you don't sell virtual cow patties or turnips, you sell physical objects. Players open their own in-game Etsy stores and sell actual physical unicorn pendants and healing crystals and all the shit you see people hawking at renaissance fairs. In-game currency is obviously BTC. Unlike Etsy and eBay, there's no fees for listing or selling. Instead, the mad king's tax men are everywhere, and if they catch you in a transaction, you have to pay the king's tax (listing/selling fees).

It's like the home shopping channel, but you can practice your archery or do quests in the meantime. Think your girlfriend is gonna mind you playing TMK 16 hours a day if you're a level 99 middleman and can buy her a new Bench hoodie once every few weeks?

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/124/933/1304376955947.png


Ok but what are the yellow sperms in the actual center?

Wheat.

Why buy your drugs on the silk road website when you can log into TMK, head over to the back-alley district, and buy them from Ye Olde Opium Shoppe? Obviously lots more tax men and thugs around here, so you're much more likely to get jumped and get your BTC stolen. Unless you've purchased a protection spell, which will protect you, &c.

Win a few jousting tournaments and you're more likely to win fights. Run a store, keep your customers happy, and maybe someone steps in when you get held up, or your inventory catches fire.

Nobody gave a fuck when their Tamagotchi died. Think people will give a fuck if the money they earned selling jewelry just got robbed?

Online wallets provided by "banks", so you only need to carry your spending money on your avatar instead of your whole in-game roll.

You writing all this down?

Best-case end result of this is that bitcoin transforms from a vehicle of speculation to a vehicle of commerce. The classic problem with opening your own dot-com online store is visibility: who's going to buy your product if they don't know about your website? How do you break out of a local market? Where does your advertising money get spent? How do you connect with your audience? Ebay and Etsy etc somewhat solved this by providing a shopping mall type setup, where people interested in spending money are browsing products; you're much more likely to get search hits for "unicorn pendant" on ebay than you are on google. Suddenly you don't need to break through the non-commerce noise, which is overwhelming on public search engines.

And so you set up your shop in TMK and start selling the chainmail shirts you used to sell on etsy, and someone sends you bitcoins for one of them, and now instead of hoarding those bitcoins or cashing them out for USD, you spend them on something else in-game, because now YOU'RE the person in the middle of a market with a pouch full of coins in your pocket. And so on.

"Grinding" (never heard the word used in this context before) would be replaced by just purchasing skills in-game with BTC, or by hiring other players who've grinded/bought their way to the physical/financial/etc state you want them in. Why spend 3 weeks collecting magic levels when you can buy a shop protection spell, or hire a tough to hang around your door? Obviously there will still be some grinding/farming happening, but it won't be necessary and will only be for those who want to earn BTC without providing or creating anything that the public deems useful / worth buying.

In-game tech support requests get sent to the Hall of Wisdom, where you can read the ancient scrolls of FAQ, or hire an expert to help you organize the items in your shop, hone your farming skills, etc.

Want an off-limits area of the map opened up? Approach the Council of Elders, who will decide amongst themselves whether or not to enable it. Can they be bribed? Who knows.

Make (or lose) some quick money by stumbling into a gambling house, and trying your luck at some dice.

Based on how much money a character is spending in-game, more or fewer money-making opportunities will present themselves. Little kid who's farming wheat for 1mBTC a day? He might get lucky and find a 25mBTC coin in the soil every once in a while. Shop owner who pushes BTC10 of revenue a month out the door? Maybe the mayor gives him a prime location for his new shop, or the keys to the city.

Fact of the matter is that the splash page is a red herring; nobody gives a fuck about the splash page. Any dummy with a Wacom tablet can pull one together in a couple of hours. The meat and potatoes of this "create a splash page and we'll make a game around it" contest is that you're fishing for game ideas without saying as much. So I'm going to keep sketching out details of the game that's gonna put S.MG on the map (we've only scratched the surface), and you and MP are going to either take the freebies I've given you so far and run with them, or you'll realize that this project is enormous, too big for yourselves and one 20-hour-a-week programmer, and start, y'know, paying the people who are creating your game for you. Or I'll get tired of handing out freebies and you'll miss out on all the ideas I haven't come up with yet.

Assembling a round table of people who aren't idiots is a good start; more ideas will obviously follow when the council of non-idiots realizes that their ideas aren't just being pissed into the wind.

You know wheat doesn't look like that.


Nope, actually not at all. See


None of this crap is a contribution, or useful, or welcome. We don't need ideas, we don't want ideas. We have plenty of ideas, and I can assure you nobody over at S.MG even reads or ever will read any of this crap, outside of me, and my orders are to just discard it whole.

The job is to draw not to run the mouth. Stick to it.

And YOU know how to hide your curiosity, almost.

Damn, you got skills....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/Mechaman/MPOESMAGICALAVENTUR_zpsf039b514.png

You guys may as well give up, I got this contest in the bag.

So why not use Elance ?

So many ideas that you're looking for art direction from a forum full of 14 year olds and currency speculators.


Job? I thought this was a big giveaway where people got paid pennies for scribbling in MSPaint?

"Job" would be where you try to find people who aren't idiots, and pay them money. The important part is that they're not idiots; everything else can be learned.

Did you crop my bosom?


Did you read the stuff you quoted? I ask because the answer to your question is contained therein.

Spermy wheat in the pic was obviously a reference to resource trade/production, in the spirit of Settlers of Catan, whereby you have people growing trees, mining ore, making bricks, etc etc. These resources can be exchanged with other players, who could then use them to build a shop, or build a bridge to cross a wide river, etc. The player who made the shop can put wares in it, or sell it on the open market (better pay the king's real estate listing fees). The player who built the bridge now has a better trade route, or can set up a toll booth, etc.

The key here is the link between virtual and physical goods, without which the whole thing is another masturbatory reality-escape game. With that link in place, however, you don't need to go dicking around with 3d avatars and polygons and fancy graphics; people would explore a world with these rules if it was drawn by a three-year-old. Look at the free ride Minecraft got on graphics, just because you could build shit.

Obv this has already all been thought of, so it's time for breakfast!

Oh, yeah; I couldn't fit the game's glorious title on it with your chest in the way so I had to push it off screen :P  Sorry.

Problem number A, subproblem A1: The forum full of 14 year olds and currency speculators pompously refers to itself as "the community".

Problem number A, subproblem A2: The forum full of 14 year olds and currency speculators (aged 16 and a half) pompously discusses its important contributions to "infrastructure" in terms of, "we are doing a lot of retarded posting and getting more retards to do the same, therefore we matter".

Let's reflect together on the fact that the aggregate contribution of the entire "devteam" over the course of years and including what, up to one hundred idiots has yet to count as a visible fraction of a percent of Satoshi's original creation, which took him a week. Nevertheless these worthless idiots presume to speak as if they're not only vaguely related to but actually representative of Bitcoin. This is scandalous.


Problem number 2, subproblem 2a. You have no fucking idea what the words mean. This is because you yourself are one of those 14 year olds you talk down to. The word job denotes generally "a piece of work, especially a specific task". Your printer has a job queue, for instance. That you'd take some particular meaning and run with it on the strength of your inner conviction - context be damned - simply belies deficient literacy in your case.

Problem number 2, subproblem 2b. You have no fucking idea what's going on around you. The thread is what the thread is, not what the idiots interacting with it do. Similarly, a bank loan is what the fine print says, not what the idiots running third mortgages on their houses do. While the tendency of 14 year olds to just follow the crowd is strong with you, that still doesn't change much.

Now pack your great ideas and go. They're not ideas and most importantly they're not yours. It's just shit you've overheard, probably from S.MG people themselves, and misunderstood, because your brain doesn't work properly.


This is true. This also is how we know you're an idiot: instead of learning it you're talking about how it could be learned, preferably by someone else. Not useful. Go learn it, come back next year or w/e.


So it's a case of cut the tit to fit the title, we could say.

Rofl, exactly, I don't understand how people can't get this

If you are gonna make a contest, at least offer a decent amount of money for the winner so its worth the risk of spending all that time for potentially no pay
$150 is pennies for something like this. Im poor as fuck and could use the money, but Id rather flip burgers for guaranteed pay.

In contrast, on reddit some guy was doing a contest like this for video submissions, and he got some decent submissions because he offered 5BTC + smaller prizes for 2nd and 3rd place
I entered and won 1st and 2nd -( it was a recurring contest) - so don't accuse me of being afraid to do a little spec work, but the payout at least has to be enticing.

also, im curious, why 2048×1536? thats overkill resolution.

Read the thread. All your misstated concerns are already addressed therein.

For bonus brownie points, also read the article referenced in the OP, including the respective comments.

Then maybe you have something to say. Currently you do not.

And, like my printer, people capable of performing this task are sitting around on idle, waiting to be told what to do? I see!


This is as close as I'll get to an acknowledgement, so you're welcome. Now run with it!


The mistaken assumption is that I'm interested in this project beyond feeding you the crumbs that will eventually become your game. The other mistaken assumption is that you learn how to make this game before you make it, and then 'come back' and make it, which is so convoluted that I fear you may have missed the point.

I read the entire thread and the article, and the comments.
Perhaps you didn't read my post at all? I clearly quoted from your conversation with ThickandTheives. I could go back through all your conversations and posts and pick out the points that you make that I believe are flawed, but then we amusingly have the same situation all over again: a ton of work for potentially no payout, as I doubt you will even stop a second to consider the points I am making, as I did you. How about you address the points made in my previous post instead of writing it off as clueless ranting, and maybe we could have an interesting discussion? humour me.

What ton of work? The ton of work of grabbing whatever medievaly thing you've already done and posting it? That ton of work?

Here. Let me do another. That ton of work took a minute. I had to first remember where exactly I put that photograph.

https://i.imgur.com/Gw3lt0G.jpg

Is this available for iOS yet?

We're still discussing making art. There is no discussion of making "the game", nor can there be. So, you wish to contribute anything here, go learn how to draw.

Tho' honestly I'd personally prefer you continue with the posturing; on one hand I've grown to like pissing all over forum retards and on the other since the tortilla goon is gone there's almost a shortage of game.


That's good then, in spite of it somehow having what seems like little effect. Consider what you missed out on (as an example):




Also, to make it perfectly clear: once we're done with the forum dickery and are actually submitting stuff which actually meets the spec we're expected to actually meet the spec. That includes posting a link THERE (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/retained-cto-first-public-commission-other-statements/) and including a Bitcoin address. Specifically and underliningly if you post your art here and somebody else takes it and posts it there MP will likely just shrug and pay them rather than you.

No, Apple doesn't accept my Bitcoin IAP. But I'll be releasing this one in 2 weeks BFL-time.

http://i44.tinypic.com/2ppd26h.jpg

Well, after a fashion.


It's a busy day, but I'll try to keep up.


Well, I'm nobody's fool. Done and done!

Yes I saw this. My counter point is that this opportunity may not be worth as much as you think it is. You know how many game startups pop up all the time? All asking for spec work, with a promise of additional work? Every single one of these claim that they are an amazing opportunity, and that the artist should be thankful for getting the opportunity to work for them. This is not a new idea or concept, its been treaded down hundreds of times before. What makes your project different from all the other failures? Why should I spend the time doing artwork for you, and not all the startups on every game development forum there is? Time is a limited resource, after all, and the cash payout here isnt that good.

Well, the fact that you have 9k bitcoins allocated for it actually makes it different. Thats Good. You have the chance of actually funding it. So in that case, it looks like this might actually be a good opportunity.

however, already it looks like you are terrible at funding it. You are only allocating about 1BTC to find an artist that is supposedly going to do alot of work on the art of your game. It may have a huge influence on the artstyle as you are planning to use it as a slash screen. Is the art of your game only worth 1BTC to find a good artist? You are only shortchanging yourself. Offer a pot of 3-7btc, get actual quality submissions. That is the only point I am making in my post.





I prefer to make things tailored specifically to the project at hand., that way they can license it for whatever they want fully

Somewhat unrelated:

I know of very few artists of the type this contest is asking for who accept Bitcoin.  Makes me wonder if this'll convert a reputable artist into using Bitcoin, or if the few artists here will actually get chosen.  I think zinodaur might be a good pick, but he, xquisit and beefsock are more designers than anything...  Ls is more of a sci-fi artist.  I think there's one more who I haven't seen in a month that drew anime, and a few others who are still very early into art creation.  I bring this up, tho, because it might be easier to see if an established artist will take BTC, than try to lead one into a contest.  Besides the artists I listed, the only one left I'm aware of who is suited to take on a job like this is myself, but if that's going to be the case, I'd feel better being contacted personally.  I dunno, I guess I'll wait and see who enters.

Quote from: nubbins on Today at 03:19:55 PM
Quote from: greyhawk on Today at 03:19:05 PM

Dude the fuck's wrong with the nubbin. Fiddy seconds, seriously?

Ritalin. Urgently. Lots of it.


Does that thing look particularly phallic or is it me?


S.MG is sitting on 8`799.0657479 BTCi (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/smg-ipo-succeeded-other-statements/) after its succesfull IPO last week.

For that matter, the "community", such as it is, consists principally of people who would love nothing more and spend their time doing nothing else than upmanshipping MP. If indeed you contribute usable artwork and nothing comes of it because the project goes to shit you'll be the only guy in this position in the history of Bitcoin. This is what Taaki, Maxwell, the entire host of "finance" wanna-bes and literally everyone else has been trying to do, since forever. This is why CoinSetter is currently buying tweets, this is what CoinLab was trying to achieve paying off some of the press, that's what Pietila was trying with his rushed conference, that's what the London folk were trying with their second "First Bitcoin Conference", that's the long and the short of it: everyone hopes, strives and dreams of the situation where they could say "Ha, I'm bigger than MP". That blessed situation where you did your end and MP came short, to go with the billion times the opposite occured.

So, your dilemma is this: either you get paid and the game works or else you'd have succeeded at the one thing everyone really seeks, and that'd make you a sort of Satoshi-2. It'd be worth more than your wallet, you can probably support yourself consulting for the rest of your life.


S.MG is sitting on 8`799.0657479 BTCi (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/smg-ipo-succeeded-other-statements/) after its succesfull IPO last week.


By all means, go do that then.


Understand, I don't care what you are. Ideally you care what you are, but if you don't that's also fine, don't expect me to parent you. I'm not your mommy, and you can't blackmail me with "I'll fuck up my future because this pays $150 now".


Chance? No chance. Why chance?


Yeah, I've been sayin'....


No. The "artist's" airs are worth nothing at all, so MP is offering something symbolic, a token if you wish. To be perfectly clear, in case any doubt lingers: until and unless you've submitted art you are not an artist. Irrespective of what you might have heard, from parents/girlfriend/that guy you're paying for the purpose, you are not an artist until and unless you deliver.



Apparently your reading is VERY selective. That's not how reading works. And since I'm doing this retarded "let me pick up the bits you've neglected because they don't serve the idiocy you wish to proceed from",



You're not that cool yet. In order for you to be that cool you have to first be an artist. You're not an artist, not yet. Are you gonna be one or are you gonna just go the way of that other failure (ie, moltenmich)?

Pick one already.


Once we've established the artist part, I'm sure payment can be arranged in a satisfactory manner. That an artist who doesn't normally take BTC will receive a 1.337 token on top of that to keep in his wallet seems to have little bearing.


That's fine and dandy, but if both you and management feel better being contacted personally and simply wait for the other party to do so nothing's gonna happen.

When we're done discussing the time, can we move onto more pressing topics, like the weather?


That's... not correct.


That's correct in a general sense. You've removed the distinction that one has to deliver on this project (sorry, job!) in order to be an artist. A professional one, at least. I'd go so far as to say that if you haven't sold anything you've created to a stranger, you're not an artist of any sort of merit.

It's worth mentioning at this point that greyhawk now passes this criteria.

I also won a price for a pencil picture I drew when I was 6, so I passed that criteria long ago.

I believe the point being made is, one does not count as an artist in the context of the competition until one submits a piece of artwork; otherwise they're just an onlooker, so to speak.

Hey, congrats! If you want any prints made of it, let me know. I'll give you the "friend" price ;)

If we're all going to stop deliberately misunderstanding each other, we might as well just request the thread be locked.

But we're having so much fun :P

I'm fairly entertained.

You'd want to start out with only enough in-game infrastructure to get money into the game and to get people creating. Everything else can be built by players.

I feel like there should be a way to use a blockchain to store game state, which would probably win over all the altcoin fans, but I'm not quite sure it'd make sense.

Sorry, I don't know much about the bitcoin community or any of those names, including yours (as you can tell by my measly post count).
Is your argument that this is an amazing opportunity because you have a history of successful business endeavors and you haven't failed before?
I don't think that necessarily guarantees success in the game development business. I'm not seeing much on your site about what concepts or ideas you have with the game you want to make but I hit an apparent "5 article limit" (rofl) and i cant even view the details page anymore.


Well, yea. Are you trying to attract talent to your game or not?
You can't complain that you don't get any good entries and that its because people are entitled and don't want to work hard
ill gladly work hard, but make the payout worthwhile.



Starting up on your own is different from doing spec work for someone else's startup.
And understand, that's not my line of reasoning at all. My reasoning is "no coder worth the money is ever going to make an extremely detailed project on the hopes of winning a meager amount of money and maybe the chance to do more extremely detailed projects for probably a similar amount of money"
Sure, offer spec work, but make the payout at least worth spending alot of time on it so you can get some decent results


Blackmail? what? I'm just offering suggestions on why you aren't finding any talent, not blackmail.


Sorry, i meant seeing the project to conclusion.

what huh? what does my status as an artist have to do with the point? I never said I was that good of an artist. Ive made some money doing commissions here and there to various people and companies (none of them friends or family), but I don't consider myself a professional artist. None of that has anything to with the point. My point is that artstyle is a major important part of game development and (at least to me) its a bad sign that you seem to be throwing it to spec work with a tiny payout when you have such a big budget? Usually a spec contest with this type of payout would be made from basement developers with a measly budget, and the quality that they get is what they pay for.

Where did you advertise the rape photoshop contest? Here or on your blog? Yes there were a small amount of entries there, some of them were ok but nothing that amazing, ill admit. I suspect thats because not many people saw the contest, but i may be wrong. Then again, theres not much you can do with photoshopping pictures of porn. Honestly you should have offered a much smaller payout for that, and a higher payout for this contest. This one takes more work.



What? no ones asking for a generous salary, or payout. I never said it doesn't take risk. Just something worth the risk.
$150 is not enough to take the risk of spec work of a 2048×1536 res fantasy game splash scene where we are not even sure what we are drawing is in line with whatever game idea you have in your head.



Thats unfair. Like I said, Ive done a few tiny freelance projects for companies before.

You can request whatever to your heart's content. Makes about the same difference.


It's not my blog, it's MPs blog. I mean okay, I get it, you're new, as far as you're concerned all the names on the screen are equal and the same, names on the screen, composing a really flat reality. This however is not a fact, just an artifact reflecting your candor.


You're not required to guess what's in my head (I don't even have any magic powers in this project) or anyone else's for that matter. You are required to come up with something, from your own head. I mean okay, I get it, it's rare for this to happen irl, but that rare doesn't mean never. It's happening right now.


Sooo I say payout has no relation, and bring as proof an actual instance where less work with generous payout (March BTC ~= 2.5 June BTC) failed to go anywhere. Your answer to this is that...wait. Did you even logically consider what's going on here? Not really, huh.

Stop focusing on management details, such as what the payout is and how MP structures things. It's obviously not your strong point. You say you're an artist, do that then, do it well, complain if you're mistreated and after you're mistreated rather than before on the grounds that you might be.

Now that I call fair.


I feel like all the clueless/idiotic people gravitating around Bitcoin are really the same one person somehow amplified by mirrorwork, and it just keeps repeating the same stupid nonsense (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/why-i-nixed-p2p-colored-coins-and-all-that-jazz/). Suddenly the Hercules and Hydra parable becomes very very meaningful to me.

Are you sure?

https://i.imgur.com/iJuSDeV.jpg

For the record I was not trying to imply anything negative specifically about this assignment.  For the right illustrator/artist this could be a perfect project to work on despite that it's a contest. I'm not one of those people saying no one should ever do spec.  I openly mentioned I'm participating in a couple contests as I type this. The reason I brought up the other option is that I've found it works better and I read the original article and noticed MP was already having that discussion.

Sorry I came off as a pretentious entitled douche. When I said that there is talent, I was actually thinking about how there are a bunch of amazing illustrators in the services section. Didn't mean me.

I don't think anyone should slave away for 22 hours. I believe there is balance, and that if it's something you love, you're not slaving away at all. I do believe in hard work however. I do not just sit on my ass. And I believe discussing my profession is important and worth spending time on.

BUT I should not have hijacked your thread to do so.

At this rate greyhawk will end up an NPC in the game.

Oooh, can I break the 4th wall?

Because if so I'd like to have the following text, while Lonely Island plays in the background:

I'm in a game, I'm in a game
Everybody look at me
'Cause I'm featured in a game
I'm in a game, I'm in a game
Take a good hard look
At the motherfucking game

I'm in a game motherfucker, take a look at me
Straight flowing moves, plus five agility,
Busting bad guys, HUD spelling out my name,
You can't stop me motherfucker, 'cause I'm in a game

You didnt answer my question. I asked if you advertised the contest here or your blog. My point was that I doubt many artists frequent your blog, because it looks like more of a financial business thing. Obviously where you advertise your contest makes a big difference, and that's probably a factor in why you got barely any entries. Anybody I know would jump at a contest for 10btc for photoshopping someone into a picture. You should have posted it here, you would have had so many entries you wouldn't know what to do with them.

Then again, I looked at the 3 small drawings contest and I was surprised at the small amount of entries there too. I would have entered the shit out of it if I had saw it, the same with the rape contest. I guess there's not that many bitcoin artists in general. I wonder why you thought this splash screen contest would get more entries, though, with much less payout and a much more difficult project?

That thread is another good reason why spec work is usually bad though... there were a few decent unicorn entries and you didn't like any of them. Whats good is subjective, so its up to your whim.



And you don't complain that artists are lazy and entitled if people dont want to enter your contest. I'm done here, I just think we will have to disagree. How long is this contest open for?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. However, if you don't like sir Reginald Greyhawk you can propose a first name of your choice.

Unless, of course, you're about to propose Iminagameiminagameeverybodylookatme.


Sokay, it's the Internet you know? People get ambushed all the time and somehow magically nobody dies of it.

I like that, it's a fitting name for a bridge troll with a monocle and tophat.

Well for fuck's sake, I tell you it's not my blog you just repeat it verbatim? Why did your mommy make you so fucking stupid?

Take this for instance: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160858.msg1704190#msg1704190 and you can probably find it on twitter and on reddit and anywhere else retards (like you) gather. What difference does it make anyway? The idea isn't that there's some sort of agglomeration of competence on bitcointalk that's somehow magically insulated from the (much more widely read) rest of the Internet. At least I would hope you grok as much.

You do not seem to understand what is at stake between the two "contests". The first one had a payout of 10 btc. The second one has a payout of 1.3 btc to the winner, and further amounts and work for anybody deemed to have talent.

btw

You are the most unconventional PR rep I've ever encountered. lol

Actually to be precise it had a total payout of 15.1337 BTC. From the blogpost in question:


Anyway, for the sake of theory I've put in the work in to dig up the respective twitter announcements. The April contest: 0 retweets, 0 favorites, 1 reply (https://twitter.com/Mircea_Popescu/status/315239468351238144). This contest: 146 retweets, 1 favorite, 0 replies (https://twitter.com/Mircea_Popescu/status/345857902499741696). The difference might be explained by this one including a "please RT" call to action, maybe. I ain't doing the reddit digging tho.


Yes, it's one of those things Bitcoin is famous for. Sorta like Naples has the leaning tower and Pizza has the pepperoni and cheese. Or whatever.

Ah. Dem insults. your blog, MPs blog, whatever, I got it the first time. Concept is still the same.


yea yea i got that


10/10 pr rep id rather have that then political correctness all day

Wtf fuck is wrong with the world these days. Aren't you supposed to provoke me into an Internetduel now that I've soiled your Internethonor?! Psscccchhht.

I Humbly submit Greyhawk as an NPC. Also an SVU person. And a crayon Artist.

https://i.imgur.com/2pFSxvW.jpg

Society for Vascular Ultrasound?

I was thinking Special Vasectomy Ultimate.

Obv you submit a draft instead of a final product. Have you even looked at our entries?!

So someone is making one game, about dragons, at least try to beat this:

https://i.imgur.com/2szjMkZ.gif

!!!!!!

This forum is called "Bored at school" for a reason you know.

Hey now, some of us are bored at home.

http://i3.minus.com/jbx9F5rjN48uM7.png

Where's the monocle and tophat?  ???

You have to draw them with you own crayon.

Inspired by that monumental scammer (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=236794.msg2522821#msg2522821) by the name of Josh Zerlan (http://josh-zerlan.com/?ref=1E8MkRHhBNr9X29QUN2YkMxezesrEyGhSZ), I expect everyone to apologize nao.

Knew I shouldn't have given you my pre-order money.

Question: if an in-game merchant scams customers, will their negative feedback turn into cool evil powers that they can use in combat?

Apparently I forgot to point out that we don't particularly care about nudity.

BRB, taking naked pictures of myself.

Yes, it will be called "Naked Horror"

This guy knows too much. KILL HIM.

Just make him watch the movie, whatta piece of shit.

You just don't get art.

 :-\

Here is my sketch! Hope you like it :)

http://i41.tinypic.com/33b3i3p.jpg

Certainly the best so far.

By a large margin.

Thanks :D

Here's a bump as this is about halfway through.

Congrats to likehiro, the contest winner, who may well be a promising talent and who was the only serious participant. The rest of you can take this time to reflect upon your failure to achieve anything in the face of gracious opportunity. The whole story's over @Trilema (http://polimedia.us/trilema/2013/statements-regarding-the-mmorpg-under-development-i-v/).

Congrats, likehiro! Well done.

We've been working on some heraldry for an unrelated project, I'll see if any of the actual artists here at the studio can scare anything up.

Actually, further to that:


I've seen supports on actual historical heraldry that depict dragons or other imaginary creatures. Given that fact, would heraldry that includes real animals like boars or lions be permissible?

Yep. Mirror-world principle: you can use Earth creatures for in-game fantastic depictions of mythological beasts. On top of which, there's nothing that prevents you from using actual beasts in heraldry (by which of course in context we mean actual in-game beasts).

Thanks a lot for the payment :) If you need something more just PM me and I'll be glad to work for you.

That's nice. See the blog comment, go from there.

That's why you went through all this, after all: so you won't have to go on the forum being all vague and unrelated, but instead you can go and directly talk to the work source, right?