Website & Forums Bringing Back Art/Content Contests

It has been over a year since Wynncraft had its last official art/content contest (for the rest of the thread I'll just refer to this as a content contest). The last one was marked by controversies such as AI art and most winners being digital art, leading to hams saying, "On the subject of next contests, i don't think Heroes will have one, we need to allow ourselves some time to rethink the format and formalize details to make it bigger, more interesting, entertaining and also more importantly, open" (source).

I believe it is time for a content contest to return.

There might have been some other suggestions about this in the past, so I want to offer my own take on this concept. I'll be listing out ideas for how a content contest could return, and then at the end, I'll list what I think might be the most optimal combination of these ideas.

Idea #1: Make Entries Public
This one has been suggested a lot, even by Hams, but I'll repeat it just in case. Basically, every entry for the contest would have to be posted publicly, so that a larger viewer size can detect if an entry was made using AI. There's even an abandoned forum section that people could post their threads in.

Idea #2: Specific Categories
Does it seem like digital art is winning too much? Then why not have separate categories for each art medium? There could be five winners for a digital art category, and five different winners for traditional art, and music, and video-making, and writing, and so on. This has been done in past content contests.

Hams has mentioned that entries are overwhelmingly digital art, so perhaps there could be a smaller number of winners for each category, like three rather than five. A separate category could also encourage more people who create art in those mediums to enter. I strongly believe a reason why most entries were digital art, was because people in other mediums felt that they couldn't compete with that in a narrower contest.

You might think that scaling the contest up like this is too much for a Festival. But this leads me to my next point:

Idea #3: Increase the Contest's Scale by Removing Its Association with Festivals
Do contests necessarily have to be related to each of the yearly festivals? Why not broaden the scope, and have a general content contest in the summer? The theme could just be Wynncraft in general, or it could be something specific for that year, like "What you think Fruma would be like".

The event could be publicized better if it doesn't overlap with the rest of a Festival, and it could also allow for a longer contest time too.

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So, in total, here is my idea for the next Wynncraft content contest:

• Unrelated to a festival.
• Entries are posted in a special subforum.
• Separate categories to encourage entry diversity.
• More publicity and a greater scope for the contest.

Conclusion:
What inspired me to make this thread was an art piece by artist treyhara on the main Wynncraft discord. In their post, they mentioned that they were holding out hope for another contest. Sure, there have been some community-run content contests, but those feel much more niche.

I am not a part of Wynncraft's artist and creator community, but I have watched them from afar. Despite Wynncraft being so niche, I still see people go all out and make the most incredible creations for the Minecraft server they love. I believe this group deserves a massive event that can truly showcase their work and reward them for it.

As such, I believe the content contest should return. Not the smaller contests from the Festivals, but the ones from almost a decade ago where hundreds of people made a variety of creations that were seen by the entire community.

Thank you for reading.

 

I agree with most of these except 3, as I feel like having some art contests being based on festivals can help bring more enthusiasm about them (and also its nice to have an opportunity to get more festival crates). Don't get me wrong tho, it would be nice to have even more art contests based on non-festival content, but I don't feel like festival ones should just be cut altogether.

2 is also a point I agree with, although a question I'd have to ask is how many separate categories would have to be made for any possible submissions? Would there be a single category of digital art, which in that case would it encompass drawings, stuff you built in your housing island or singleplayer world, and animations? I can easily see the line for how niche a certain category can get, but at the same time it feels a bit arbitrary how fine the lines can get.

However, I do overall agree with your suggestion, and the art contests do help bring a revitalization to Wynncraft as a whole when some people are starved for things to do.

 

Maybe they could give a gift card as a prize? That way, a winner could wait until a festival arrives to buy something.

For categories, yeah that is hard to define, although I don't really remember it being an issue in long-past contests. I personally think Digital Art, Traditional Art, Videos, Music, and Other Creations could work as five distinct enough categories.

 

bumping this

 

wont let this thread die

 

still wont let this thread die

 

I honestly forgot about this thread for a bit, thanks for the notification Elytry!

anyway looking at what 2.1 offers, I think there's definitely potential for some sort of art contest based around it.

 

maybe something music related, like having a contest for reworking a song into the new instruments

 

Just seeing this post, I'm glad me sharing my stuff in the discord was enough to inspire discussion. I definitely agree with your first two points but for your third maybe instead of getting rid of the festival theme contests could be quarterly instead? They could still overlap with festivals but the theme would be more broad, maybe like a general theme or prompt instead? So the summer theme could be based around the 2.1 update like you suggested for example. I do hope the contests make a comeback in some way or another as entering the Bonfire 2022 one shortly after starting to play was my first time on the forums/interacting with the community and without that I probably wouldn't have gotten as invested as I am now.

 

almost forgot about my monthly thread revival

 

I’d love to see an occasional music contest to remake a song with the new instruments. Might be fun engagement from the community and also a way to speed up the process of updating them all a bit.

 

almost forgot to bump this

anyway, now that rekindled world is out... this could be the perfect time for a contest...

 

September bump

 

October bump

However I actually have some news. Even if there aren't official art contests, Someone is taking up the mantle with a big art contest of her own! You can view it here: Community Event - Festival of the Spirits - Community Art Contest | Wynncraft Forums. Maybe this will show that there's still a market for these events after all.