Post here if you've seen your own item!

[Greg Monk]

Nice to see my item post-culling, finally. This really doesn't mean anything other than a renewed resolution to polish up my entries for further rounds, just in case. Though like everyone else voting, I've slugged through a plethora of mediocre-to-ermahgawd entries, I have seen quite a few items in here I've really liked, so (assuming any or all of those make it into the final 32), if mine does not appear as one of the top 32, I'm hoping to come away from it all this year with the "Wow, I was up against some tough competition this year - good job, everyone!" feeling, rather than a, "Wow, these items won over mine? I must suck bunny butt at game design!" *sniffles* kind of feeling.

Good luck to all! And remember: you can't have an entry, without try.

[Friend]

Response to an opportunity to see my item after weeks of expecting to: "The horror. The horror."

But yeah, I saw it.

[agirlnamedbob]

Thanks for the luck, Greg! G'luck to you, as well.

Friend wrote:

Response to an opportunity to see my item after weeks of expecting to: "The horror. The horror."

But yeah, I saw it.

We're always our own worst critics. At least now you can panic about how it's doing rather than whether it's even in there, right? (Kidding.)

I think, at this point, as long as my item is causing more people think "Okay, this is kind of neat," rather than "Uggg, not this one again," or worse "DIE IN A FIRE!"...I'll call it a win.

[Anthony Adam]

agirlnamedbob wrote:

I think, at this point, as long as my item is causing more people think "Okay, this is kind of neat," rather than "Uggg, not this one again," or worse "DIE IN A FIRE!"...I'll call it a win.

Nods. So This. Totally hope the same.

[Feros]

Well, it finally happened: I encountered my entry opposite one of the good items. I took 4 minutes studying both before voting for my own in clear conscience...but I dread this happening again with an item I like even more!

[Jacob Kellogg]

Once I hit Marathon, I actually stopped voting. It was taking time away from other things (such as Round 2!) so I had to give it up. But at least I saw my item a few times post-culling, and each time it was legitimately better than its competitor (despite my "your own worst critic"-itis).

Time to let go and focus on the future. *deep breath*

[Coridan]

Amazed at people considering voting against their own item. If you don't believe in it, why would someone else? I have seen a few good items, but I can not objectively say any are better than my own.

[Anthony Adam]

Sometimes you look at your item and another item side by side and you just know, in your heart of hearts, that the designer of the other item has indeed shown more mojo, moxy, whatever you call it. It may only be a tiny margin of better, but honesty prevails :)

And if you are that close, voting for a superior item probably means you sorted that item one slot above your own in your scheme of voting and your one honest vote is unlikely to kill your own chances dead - unless you vote 32 items better than your own.

So far, I have encountered a better item 4 times.

[Feros]

I believe in my item (warts and all, :p). But while I believe it to be good enough for top 32 I think that others (one item in particular) may be better designed. To be true to myself I may have to vote the other item better. I haven't had to do that yet though—thank goodness! :)

[agirlnamedbob]

For many of us, this is as much a learning and growing experience as it is a contest. Being able to grow and find things that maybe we could have done better, see things that someone did better than we did, or recognize a great idea that we never would have thought of is part of that process.

It doesn't mean you don't believe in your own item. It just means you're approaching things hoping to learn and grow as a designer, not just win a contest. Giving credit where credit is due and tucking away that knowledge for future use is part of good game design. That's why you see past competitors who maybe entered twice before making the top 32, or made the top 32 one year only to come back the next year and make the top 16, 8, 4, or even win the whole thing.

[Greg Monk]

Yeah, I'm with you here. While I do like my own item (wouldn't have submitted it, otherwise), I can freely admit that I might not be the Supreme Overlord of Designing Uber-Goodness; there are certainly a few items in here that have made me go, "Ooooh. Shiny. Me want!" (or, conversely, "Dammit! Why didn't I think of that? Curses, you clever little designing monkey, you…")

So far, I haven’t had to face the horror of seeing one of those paired with my own offering. If I did, I don't think voting against my own submission is a lack of faith in my own chances to advance (unless, like someone mentioned, I did that 32+ times...); rather, a simple acknowledgement that while I'm hoping to be in the top 32, I don't need to be the top of the top 32.

That’s just plain hubris.

disclaimer:

... not that grown men (and women) meeting in their basements wearing t-shirts depicting magical monsters, who think rolling a natural 20 is The. Coolest. Thing. Evar. have any issues with ego....

[Jacob Kellogg]

I've seen some items that might be better than mine, but fortunately haven't seen them paired against mine. :D And since I've stopped voting, I don't have to worry about it.

[Tommy Vaceck]

Well I had been dreading since December 14th... But alas what a feeling that was when a mere 6 days before voting is over I finally see my own item... That was a gratifying rush, now if only I could solidly decide on an Archetype that seems worth a damn...

[Bbauzh ap Aghauzh]

Finally!

[Paul Brown]

I did see mine. Right before, I saw the only two items that I've seen that I felt were similar in theme against each other. That was interesting.

Also, I seem to have lost a word between my final preview and the count for the voting.

[Curaigh]

agirlnamedbob wrote:

...

It doesn't mean you don't believe in your own item. It just means you're approaching things hoping to learn and grow as a designer, not just win a contest. Giving credit where credit is due and tucking away that knowledge for future use is part of good game design. That's why you see past competitors who maybe entered twice before making the top 32, or made the top 32 one year only to come back the next year and make the top 16, 8, 4, or even win the whole thing.

So far the two votes I gave my item were because it was a better item. If it comes against an item from my keep pile I might have a different answer. But if you have followed the contest as long as I have you will already have learned and grown as a designer. More importantly you will remember Clark saying Round One is not about picking a good item, it is about picking a good contestant and by extension a good freelancer. I will be a good contestant & I am fine letting that be the deciding factor.

Also I am in no rush to see my item against the dozen or so items in my keep pile :)

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Curaigh wrote:

I will be a good contestant & I am fine letting that be the deciding factor.

Ah, the sense of entitlement is strong in this one...

[Ozymand]

Just saw my item for the 4th time, but up against a very poor entry, whereas before it was in quite good company, I hope this is not an indication of present ranking...

[agirlnamedbob]

Ozymand wrote:

Just saw my item for the 4th time, but up against a very poor entry, whereas before it was in quite good company, I hope this is not an indication of present ranking...

There's been some speculation that pairings may indicate ranking, because people seem to be seeing more and more evenly matching pairings... but I believe the tech guys said that this was not the case. Just the human tendancy to look for patterns and try to find meaning in things.

If anything, I think the fact that you've seen your item up against items of varying quality (in your opinion, at least) just proves that pairings don't really mean anything.

[Nickolas Floyd]

agirlnamedbob wrote:

If anything, I think the fact that you've seen your item up against items of varying quality (in your opinion, at least) just proves that pairings don't really mean anything.

Since I was the one supporting the like parings theory, I have to come clean. I saw my own item one more time since my last post on the subject and it was up against an item I had seen numerous times before. It was an item, though not terrible, was not nearly as good as the two I had seen my own item paired with before. It had at least one template issue and was just not on par with my own item or the other two I had seen paired with my own. Basically, in the three times I have seen my own items, it was paired with decreasingly worse items. This means that my theory was incorrect, or my item had been steadily falling in the rankings. I'm going with my theory being incorrect.

Or... Or... Maybe the tech guys are taking a snap shot of the current scores periodically and reseting everything to zero to see if the same cream rises to the top. They could have done this in the brief time the voting was inaccessible just hours before I got the pairing. This would also keep up the illusion that each pairing is random. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket!

[Curaigh]

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

Curaigh wrote:

I will be a good contestant & I am fine letting that be the deciding factor.

Ah, the sense of entitlement is strong in this one...

LOL

Yeah, I see how that might sound that way, but I promise you I have plenty of practice at eating humble pie. I will probably continue eating said pie again this year (and every year until I can’t). Because I just enjoy this contest.
I want the contest to be the best it can, not just because I want to do well (I do) but because the contest is FUN!

[SteelDraco]

Oh, good. Finally saw my item post-cull. I'd been voting slowly but steadily for several days without seeing it. I think that's the fourth time I've seen it.

I think I'm probably done voting regularly now.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Curaigh wrote:

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

Curaigh wrote:

I will be a good contestant & I am fine letting that be the deciding factor.

Ah, the sense of entitlement is strong in this one...

LOL

Yeah, I see how that might sound that way, but I promise you I have plenty of practice at eating humble pie. I will probably continue eating said pie again this year (and every year until I can’t). Because I just enjoy this contest.
I want the contest to be the best it can, not just because I want to do well (I do) but because the contest is FUN!

I can see where you are coming from. You are having a good time and showing lots of enthusiasm which helps.

[Prismatic Codex]

I just saw mine! I feel so tired now, heh...

[Zachary Hensley]

I just now noticed that everyone has an "X Voter" tag in this forum. I still haven't seen my item, but judging by the number of items other people claim to have voted on, I am a lightweight in the voting category!

[Tivilio]

I've seen mine once, but I haven't been able to spend much time voting after the first week.

[Jeff Lee]

For those who are worrying about not seeing your item, I just thought I'd share this. I just came up with a pairing that had an item I haven't seen before. I thought I'd gone through them all as a marathon voter, with recognizable items coming up again and again, and others I remembered but had only seen once or twice coming up rarely. However, this one is new to me.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Shadowborn wrote:

For those who are worrying about not seeing your item, I just thought I'd share this. I just came up with a pairing that had an item I haven't seen before. I thought I'd gone through them all as a marathon voter, with recognizable items coming up again and again, and others I remembered but had only seen once or twice coming up rarely. However, this one is new to me.

I don't have nearly the number of votes that Shadowborn has but I saw a new item tonight too.

[Tels]

I wonder if CHEERS (Champion voter) still sees new items?

[Monica Marlowe]

I am nearing Marathon (I'm nearly certain) and I *still* have not seen the one item I came here to vote on. I'm a little disappointed.

[CHEERS]

Tels wrote:

I wonder if CHEERS (Champion voter) still sees new items?

Last one was a few days ago but my voting has been tapering off.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

CHEERS wrote:

Tels wrote:

I wonder if CHEERS (Champion voter) still sees new items?

Last one was a few days ago but my voting has been tapering off.

Lucky you, the last time I saw a new item was last month.

[Feros]

I saw one about a week ago, but that was it.

[Cheapy]

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

CHEERS wrote:

Tels wrote:

I wonder if CHEERS (Champion voter) still sees new items?

Last one was a few days ago but my voting has been tapering off.

Lucky you, the last time I saw a new item was last month.

You haven't seen a new item since last year?!

[Woodengolem]

Now I don't think I did anything to be auto DQed but I've voted at least two thousand times and still haven't seen mine.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Woodengolem wrote:

Now I don't think I did anything to be auto DQed but I've voted at least two thousand times and still haven't seen mine.

Maybe I accidently your item?

[agirlnamedbob]

I haven't seen mine yet...I had been hoping to hit Marathon before the end of it, but I've been near comatos with the flu since Friday night, so I'm thinking seeing my item just isn't going to happen. Glad to know I'm not alone, though.

[Feros]

Woodengolem wrote:

Now I don't think I did anything to be auto DQed but I've voted at least two thousand times and still haven't seen mine.

I saw new items right up to the 3000+ vote zone, so don't abandon all hope yet!

[Woodengolem]

And I have been seeing new items from time to time. They're pretty rare now, but there's still some hope.

Thanks for the confidence Ferros!

[Monica Marlowe]

agirlnamedbob wrote:

I haven't seen mine yet...I had been hoping to hit Marathon before the end of it, but I've been near comatos with the flu since Friday night, so I'm thinking seeing my item just isn't going to happen. Glad to know I'm not alone, though.

That's okay Bob, I saw it and voted for it.

Disclaimer:

I have no idea what agirlnamedbob actually entered, I'm just being supportive. This is not the DQ you're looking for, move along.

[Woodengolem]

So for those betting, I neither reached Champion nor saw my item. So I guess everybody wins?

[Gideon Black]

Never did see my item. But after the first week I didn't get back to vote as much as figured I would. Not sure what to think now.

[Winterwalker]

My final count for seeing my own item was 4, my wife's 1. Both before and after the culling. I was nervous my wife's was cut but I did see it after that. Cool!

[agirlnamedbob]

mamaursula wrote:

That's okay Bob, I saw it and voted for it.

** spoiler omitted **

Aww, thanks. ;)

I probably could have knuckled down and voted hardcore these last two days being home from work and found the little bugger, but I started to have feverish delusions/nightmares about being forced to keep voting so I just had to stop.

[Cat-thulhu]

Never saw my item once. HAve to assume it wasn't wondrous enough to make the grade. Should never have rushed it in, the rewrite is far more wondrous.

[Khaladon]

Just wanted to express my gratitude to the OP for this thread and all those posting in it. If folks with 1000's of votes never saw their item I certainly feel much better now about not having seen mine with my paltry 100-499 votes.

So Thanks!

[Khaladon]

As well, definitely agree with the sentiments on how even being in the contest can greatly aid in one's creation skills. I can now easily see all the areas I could have improved my item and the re-write is a significant improvement. So thanks again to All involved in this contest.

[Cat-thulhu]

Towards the end I seemed to be voting on really weak items (in my mind). Initially there was a mix, but after the 25% cull and toward the end all I seemed to vote for was the lesser of two bah-humbugs.

[Aliga]

I never got to see my own item; I feel like I voted a lot, but I think it wasn't really that much, compared to some others here.

Now I get to sit in nervous anticipation, as I never even got to see what my own item was paired up against :/

[Lady Firedove]

I never got the chance to vote on my own item either, but I hold out hope nonetheless! I suppose I just have to trust all you dedicated marathon champion voters out there to have sent it to the top, if that's where it deserved to be. :)