Hey guys, JR here and I've got a few quick questions for you concerning my posts on the blog. Firstly, the weekly Character Design Contests seem to be dropping in popularity. Over the last couple of months we only seem to be averaging less than 20 individual participants each contest. Sure some of those participants may enter multiple times (Cliff and Outcast are notable for this, certainly recently), but last year we'd get at least 25-30 each week on average, and that's before we even get to the polls, which used to get no less than 180 votes each week last year and frequently broke the 200 vote mark (last weeks vote was the highest we've had in a month and it got 130 votes). And I'd be interested to know why this is. I don't want to stop doing the CDC's and will try to do everything in my power to keep them going, but I don't want it to get to a point where we're just having the same old people in the polls, not because they were the best entries, but because no-one else entered. And while we're on the subject of the CDC's, if anyone has any suggestions for themes, please leave them below. It would help a lot for those times when I've been busy and haven't had time to come up with a theme for the week (which almost happened this week, I actually put together this weeks contest an hour before it went up, which is late for me as I'd usually have it all sorted the night before).
And on that note, there is obviously a lot less blog content of late, due to both Kaldath and my own IRL job commitments. I know Kaldath asked about volunteers for new blog authors a while back, but that has gone quiet. I'm not in a position to give anyone authorship permission and I've not exactly got a vast expanse of free time at the moment, so what do? Well, it was suggested to me yesterday that I bring the Power User Profiles back. Great, I literally have to do nothing except receive an email and post it to the blog for that one, so it would be viable. Only problem is, we could only come up with one new person to profile. So that's where you guys come in. If you can think of anyone you'd like to see profiled, leave them in the comments and if I see at least 5 I like, then I'll make it happen.
So yeah, comment please. It'd really help out a lot.
And with that, JR out.
What about Funkmachine? I don’t think you did them yet.
As for new contest themes, how about these:
The Four Elements (each as their separate contest)
Angels and Demons
Rebels
Everyday People
That call for volunteers still stands just email me! I have have some tutorial from Suleman to put up on the Blog just haven’t had the time to pull them from his Deviantart page and post them here, do to a new Job and dealing with an injury from my old job. I will ge to that as soon as I can but yeah I’d like to see more people writing for us but I understand if people don’t feel up to it as I know how easy it is to get burned out having to come up with new content every week!
@ JR:
I’ve already said Ubiquitous Pixel… but I’ll say it again.
Also Lef, Melmo44, Guy Genesis, Wolf Master, Suleman, Maverik1313, Viper… I don’t think these guys are on the list yet.
—————–
Djubs last pop quiz was pretty fun, and all he wanted was a little tiny submarine. so…
Spaceships?
Vehicles?
Pets?
Still life?
People seem to enjoy a background CDC.
Also turnout dropped horribly when prizes stopped coming out of the item dispenser. 😉
(Nice to see its working again, though :D)
@ Kaldath: I have an idea I would like to run past you. How can I find your email?
@Kaldath Never Mind, bro… You seem to have all that information conveniently located right there in your author’s notes. 😉
The more you know!
I’m with you, JR and Kaldath,…my job has pretty much taken over my life. I actually tried to get a character done for last weeks contest but didn’t have time to finish. If I had more time, I might be willing to help with the blog. We’ll see what the future holds…
I can volunteer for the blog when your busy if you want just send me a email 🙂
Ghosts
I don’t know for sure why the low turnout now a days
Some is there isn’t much chatter on the boards, back in 2010 there was more post complimenting and commenting on posts as well as entries, That created a nice homey feel, of course with that some people sometimes get their feelings hurt or down right pissed, so it’s a tightrope sometimes.
Also I do think that it had to do with Prizes being given for the winner since CDC has the most entries when there was a prize.
Also I don’t remember how many people we lost, or picked up, when we left UGO.
I know I tell lots of people about HM although I’m not sure how many actually join.
I just recently told my 14 yr old grand-nephew Joseph about it and he did a decent picture. Wether he keeps up at it at home, I don’t know.
I would love to come up with something for HM, but I can’t think of anything AND I am getting booted offline like everyother day for some reason, some times the internet comes right back on, sometimes it’s off for a few days. So I’m not very reliable right now.
Theme suggestions
For September
(desn’t have to be ON the date just close to it)
Talk Like a Pirate Day September 19th
Do an Autumn themed scene or character.
Vernal Equinox/Fall First September 21
For October
Holloween Costume,
Urban Legend,
Favorite Candy Themed Costume/character,
For a Fire related work.
National Fire Prevention Week falls during the week of October 9 each year. It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and bonfires were and are often lit during Oct 31.
For November:
Do a Historical or Fictional Polititian.
Elections are held in the United States on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Do a warrior/military person for Veterns Day
Do a Native American for American Indian Heritage Month
For a Feast Table for Thanksgiving,
For December
Create a Channaka/Yule/Christmas/Holiday card with Hero Machine you would be proud to send to you family and friends.
Need to start now to have ready to print, stuff, address and mail … unless ya take the easy way out and post to your Twitter/Facebook etc. 🙂
Create a character from A Christmas Carol
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol published in Dec 19, 843
Do a Winter themed scene/character
Make a Holly King, Father Christmas, St Nicholas, Santa Claus
Make a 2016 New Years Party scene/character
Im thinking that the popularity drop lately is probably because of the summer or work just starting and stuff… Something like that… Also I always try to participate but either my brain just doesnt come up with something or I try to make something and I throw a tantrum because I cant get it to look the way I do, well if school allows me I will try my best to help.. For the blog I saw something on the forums… The coloring thingy.. That could make an interesting contest in my opinion.
Power User Profiles are to me something very nice as I get to know my peeps more and would love to be in one but I have no idea what I have to do so uhm
*faint scream for help*. I also will not bother to wirte my suggestions because they are basically the same as Nugs so yeah.. *Flies away*
I had considered bringing back the choose your own adventure series ( lonewolf etc ) at one point but just didn’t have the time. Funny thing is my job right now would allow me plenty if time to work on the blog if I had a good laptop which I don’t have. I work graveyard shift doing security for a 55 and older gated community. I spend most of the night bored out of my mind. This could change if I get moved to a different shift or different site of course. Hoping for a new laptop fir christmas lol.
Most of you guys know that I’m younger than the majority of people around here. Hence, I just started my freshman year of college a few weeks ago and my life is CRAZY. I’m thinking that it might be the same for other people around this time of year as well, leading to less activity in the contests.
As for ideas… I haven’t been around here long enough to really know what you guys have done before. You could do a mentor+sidekick week. There’s always the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, but I’m sure you guys have done that one before. What if you took inspiration from Inside Out and did different emotions represented through a character?
You could throw people out of their comfort zone and request a certain style. (i.e. “no shading”, or “abstract art”.) One fun idea would be to do a costume evolution event, where everyone designs a superhero the way they would have looked in the “golden age”, and then does a gritty, dark costume for the hypothetical TV show based off of this character. (You may have done this already.) Mythology is always fun… you could find a more obscure mythology besides the typical Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse that seems to dominate Western culture and have everyone do a character from there.
What are the rules regarding making real people in Hero Machine? You could have everyone make a historical hero (Rosa Parks, Abraham Lincoln, etc.) and put them in what they believe is their defining moment.
I don’t know; I don’t really have many ideas.