Fillable Form

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Next year, why not use a fillable form for the contest? When you go to the submission page, it would have blank spaces to input data with the aura, cl, slot, price, etc already there with a blank next to it.

If the contest is about finding creative designers, make the creativity the focus and less on the formatting. Bad formatting is really distracting. Although it is good for tie breaking.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Because I don't think it is *just* about creativity. It's also about being able to follow rules and formatting. That's part of what a freelancer has to do.

I think Raging Swan's recent open call for encounters is a good example.

Many of the submissions that were rejected were because they didn't follow the template. The editors and developers don't want to have to spend their time doing so.

Having freelancers that let them concentrate on doing other things leaves them more time to do other things and put out more, better products.

Now obviously that can be taught -- which is why I think many of us use template as more of a tie-breaker -- but there's something to be said for people who can teach it to themselves. Considering Anthony's creation guidelines file, they've got all the resources they need.

[Cthulhudrew]

What Jacob said. Since this contest is really as much (if not more) about a lengthy potential job interview, it really isn't in the publisher's best interests to dumb it down as much as possible for the entrants/applicants. What they'd ideally like to see from their freelancers is work that is solid, tight, timely, and requires as little editing as possible so that they can get right to the job of turning those submissions into published and purchasable works asap.

[Feros]

Part of this contest is to see how well the contestants follow instructions. My sister got me into watching So You Think You Can Dance? some years ago and I noticed some things that the dancers would be well to understand, but continually ignore. The most important is a part of the competition where they break into groups and choreograph a routine for themselves to a selected piece of music. This is always where some who don't want to be "dragged down" by the others try and make themselves shine or use their personal style of dance over others. Worse, some dancers who don't "fit in" are often marginalized and left almost completely out even when they try to blend in.

The test is not to see how well they choreograph or dance. The judges already know that. It's to test how well they work with others and can they check their egos at the door. This is a very important part of working in a collaborative medium like dance, where musicians, choreographers, and dancers must all work together to produce art.

So part of being a freelance writer is being able to research what is needed and follow instructions as precisely as given to make the work by the publisher easier to manage. This makes the format part of the test very important for future work.

If formatting disqualified someone, I would agree with you. But it doesn't; it is a factor that is used for evaluation only. People with questionable formatting have gone on before, more will in the future. Since it doesn't stop people from proceeding to the next round and is important for the job opportunity that they are competing for, it should stay.

[Matt Banach]

I thought about a fillable form too, since the simple, avoidable formatting errors are totally tragic. It breaks my heart every time I see a cool item from a designer who had a neat idea but woefully under-researched how to present it.

But...

As stated above, a "Superstar" should be able to be both creative and mechanically/technically correct. This has been a common thread since the beginning, and the Round 1 FAQ even goes so far as to specifically tell everybody this from the get-go.

And in the end, I think that's the right way to go about things. In a contest with thousands of entrants, we need criteria by which to judge people, and their ability to follow a format and proofread their own work is essential.

[Sean McGowan]

People would still manage to screw it up.

[Lightminder]

Fromage of Fritzed Formatting [B/]
[b]Aura Feint ZZymology; CL 7th
Slot head slot; Price 120 gp; Weight 4 lbs.
Description
Remember when that badly forged sick note went missing and you later found out that it was accidentally photocopied onto the second page of your resume that you sent out to hundreds of prospective employers? This item is worse than that! this powder of Cursed Cheezies that when sprinkled on a keyboard cause the Wondrous Item designer to misconstrue and befuddle the contest rules, the design criteria and formatting outlines given to them. vote for this one because its made by me! it will go great with the writer's block stat block in book two of ForthParty Publisher's "wrighters nightmare" Adventure Path. It also gives a +6 on Saving throws involved in any house rules, and the owner never has to pay for his share of the pizza so long as the Fromage is in effect. It acts as a conjunctivitis curse when sprinkled in the eyes of any bug bladder beast of trall.
Construction
Requirements two left feats, dizzy spells, a bag of cheezies and a vigil of 52 hours without sleep otherrequirements; Cost 200 gp

[cwslyclgh]

To be fair though, I have never gotten a writing assignment that required me to format anything with BBCode... and I seriously doubt that anything that paizo asks a freelancer to write will need to be formatted thus... thus I am not sure that testing a potential freelancers ability to correctly bold crap on a message board is really a good measure of superstardom.

[Tokoz]

Actually I'm working on an idea for freelancers to use a form when working with RP Games. The idea is that it's easier for me to update a single submission page if we want to change something than it is to update freelancers to the change.

They put in the info and it formats it for us.

Although, our problem is NOT the freelancers. It's the artists.

As for the contest I agree with a few here.

1. It's part of the contest to format correctly.
2. Even with a form. Some mistakes can still happen. In some cases, the errors might even be BECAUSE of the form.

[Sean K Reynolds]

True, cwslyclgh, but given that the properly-coded format is provided for everyone in the R1 rules document, there's no excuse to not use it. :)

[Aaron Miller 335]

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

True, cwslyclgh, but given that the properly-coded format is provided for everyone in the R1 rules document, there's no excuse to not use it. :)

Sorry Sean but you are wrong, No good excuse not to use it!

[James Raine]

cwslyclgh wrote:

To be fair though, I have never gotten a writing assignment that required me to format anything with BBCode... and I seriously doubt that anything that paizo asks a freelancer to write will need to be formatted thus... thus I am not sure that testing a potential freelancers ability to correctly bold crap on a message board is really a good measure of superstardom.

So maybe the forum should have a rich-text editor?

It does have a very handy bbcode breakdown underneath the new post box, though.

[Kiel Howell]

Actually...if they would just go ahead and give me a dev environment to work in that would make it so much better for me :)

[Thrashling]

Personally, I think the "it is part of the context and shows how well you follow rules" argument is bunk. I have a few reasons:

1) BB code - Mentioned above, a large part of the formatting for this competition is getting the bbcode right. This is not something that an author of a module would have to worry about. Having a form that takes care of proper formatting when appropriate information is input solves this non-issue.

2) Using a form to do sanity checking to ensure items meet design requirements will increase the quality of items to be judged.

If, for example, you have a piece of code that automatically identifies possible conflicts with say CL and Aura level new designers will most likely fix the problem. Not only is this instructive, but the items that fail to make adjustments can be more easily dismissed as the problem isn't ignorance, it is disobedience. Ignorance can be cured in a good writer, disobedience is much harder to work with. That is information much more valuable to Paizo when considering to whom a contact offer is made.

3) Well formatted entries are easier to judge. This will make the voting process more effective in identifying creative ideas instead of just adherence to a template.

4) Well formatted entries will lead to more voting. Right now, voting can be somewhat of a chore because identifying the innovative idea of an item takes more time with poorly formatted entries. This leads to fewer votes being cast as it turns in to a chore instead of an enjoyable way to contribute to an activity we all enjoy.

5) Spending time to write a formatting tool for the contest can still be used by authors to create well designed and checked items for published work. This can help ensure a more consistent item design process. Thus, the money spent creating the form for the contest, if done properly, wouldn't be a pure money sink. Additionally, im sure someone on the boards could handle the programming reducing cost by them already being familiar with the needs of the contest and the requirement for item sanity checking.

Thoughts?

[Garrett Guillotte]

Thrashling wrote:

Using a form to do sanity checking to ensure items meet design requirements will increase the quality of items to be judged.

What exactly would be covered by sanity checking?

[Cthulhudrew]

Garrett Guillotte wrote:

What exactly would be covered by sanity checking?

Wisdom score x 5, then roll percentile dice when faced with unremitting horror.

... what?

[Thrashling]

Ok, so there are known guidelines for designing an item, like price is double the cost, and only certain places a wondrous item can be worn. These known facts would either have a way of limiting what can be input in those places or flag an inconsistency for the designer to review it. By doing this new designers are prevented from pitfalls that some minor tutelage would prevent and the people reading the items have a certain amount of focus removed from the formulaic aspects of the entry and can place their focus on the actual contents of the entry.

[Jeff Lee]

1. The board's code isn't that hard to figure out and implement.

2. The rules provide a template you can cut, paste, and fill in if you need to do so.

3. There's a preview button that allows you to see just how your item will look to everyone once it's submitted, allowing you to review for mistakes and correct as necessary, as many times as necessary.

[Thrashling]

Jeff Lee wrote:

1. The board's code isn't that hard to figure out and implement.

2. The rules provide a template you can cut, paste, and fill in if you need to do so.

3. There's a preview button that allows you to see just how your item will look to everyone once it's submitted, allowing you to review for mistakes and correct as necessary, as many times as necessary.

Surely, but how many entries this year have failed to do that?

At least some of the ideas behind those entries are not horrible, and with some enforced template work could become legitimate entries. This makes it easier to identify innovative authors who can be taught to write in the template format and makes the voting experience better, faster, and more enjoyable.

[Cthulhudrew]

Thrashling wrote:

Surely, but how many entries this year have failed to do that?

Yup. So that's really on them, not on the developers at Paizo.

It's a submission requirement. It doesn't auto negate your item from consideration, but it will certainly weigh on you in the end.

Again, it's right there in front of them. Not so difficult to make use of. If you need to be spoon-fed the format any more than that, then maybe you're not ready for prime time?

[Thrashling]

Ohh, one more thought on having a form entry method - the creation of a searchable database of all entries in a year. Want to index items by CL or by price? With a form entry you can do that which could be valuable information to study for actual designers to see what trends people have in submitted items. That kind of information could be used in the creation of published content to meet formerly unseen needs/desires.

[Thrashling]

Cthulhudrew wrote:

Thrashling wrote:

Surely, but how many entries this year have failed to do that?

Yup. So that's really on them, not on the developers at Paizo.

It's a submission requirement. It doesn't auto negate your item from consideration, but it will certainly weigh on you in the end.

Again, it's right there in front of them. Not so difficult to make use of. If you need to be spoon-fed the format any more than that, then maybe you're not ready for prime time?

With that logic poorly formatted items could simply be auto-DQed and we wouldn't have to worry about. The reason that isn't the case is because the template format can be taught to someone with good ideas.

The more valuable part of this competition is finding creative talent, not adhere-to-template talent.

[Sean McGowan]

Thrashling wrote:

Jeff Lee wrote:

1. The board's code isn't that hard to figure out and implement.

2. The rules provide a template you can cut, paste, and fill in if you need to do so.

3. There's a preview button that allows you to see just how your item will look to everyone once it's submitted, allowing you to review for mistakes and correct as necessary, as many times as necessary.

Surely, but how many entries this year have failed to do that?

At least some of the ideas behind those entries are not horrible, and with some enforced template work could become legitimate entries. This makes it easier to identify innovative authors who can be taught to write in the template format and makes the voting experience better, faster, and more enjoyable.

See, there's no 'can be taught to write in the template format' for me. I don't really care how innovate an idea is; if someone can't, during the weeks they have leading up to the deadline, follow the basic instructions provided, then I don't want to vote for them. I'll upvote the perfectly formatted spell-in-a-can that once per day can be commanded to reveal its true power of shaving your face for you that's sitting right next to the innovate and incredibly sloppy item. Not because I really want to see that shaving SIAC in the top 32, but because I'm confident that there will be plenty of other well-formatted and innovative items that will win out in the end.

Every year it seems there's a call for more and more handholding on the part of Paizo for the preliminary rounds, and it bugs me. Making an entry better isn't Paizo's job; it's the job of the contestant.

[Andrew Marlowe]

I really try to make my entry follow the format provided and when I was selected as a top 32 in 2012 I was excited that the judges noticed that effort. I don't want to take that sense accomplishment away from someone else by making the entry form easier.

I do hold bad formatting against an entry but not before I have looked at its creativity and innovation. Fact is RPGS is a combination test (creativity, ability to work within deadlines, follow instructions, produce to order, etc.) not just produce a creative item or the perfectly formatted item. Each contestant should strive to produce the best item they can. The best items are the ones that conform as closely as possible to all of the criteria.

Simplifying the entry process may make it easier to read or reference but it would fail to fully test each contestant.

[Thrashling]

Sean McGowan wrote:

Thrashling wrote:

Jeff Lee wrote:

1. The board's code isn't that hard to figure out and implement.

2. The rules provide a template you can cut, paste, and fill in if you need to do so.

3. There's a preview button that allows you to see just how your item will look to everyone once it's submitted, allowing you to review for mistakes and correct as necessary, as many times as necessary.

Surely, but how many entries this year have failed to do that?

At least some of the ideas behind those entries are not horrible, and with some enforced template work could become legitimate entries. This makes it easier to identify innovative authors who can be taught to write in the template format and makes the voting experience better, faster, and more enjoyable.

See, there's no 'can be taught to write in the template format' for me. I don't really care how innovate an idea is; if someone can't, during the weeks they have leading up to the deadline, follow the basic instructions provided, then I don't want to vote for them. I'll upvote the perfectly formatted spell-in-a-can that once per day can be commanded to reveal its true power of shaving your face for you that's sitting right next to the innovate and incredibly sloppy item. Not because I really want to see that shaving SIAC in the top 32, but because I'm confident that there will be plenty of other well-formatted and innovative items that will win out in the end.

Every year it seems there's a call for more and more handholding on the part of Paizo for the preliminary rounds, and it bugs me. Making an entry better isn't Paizo's job; it's the job of the contestant.

Let me ask a question then.

Assume you are a game developer seeking new talent and you have two applicants.

One can easily turn interesting, compelling ideas in to blocks of text that match the format of needed to be used in an RPG handbook but does not have the ability to think up interesting, compelling ideas at all.

The other can create interesting, compelling ideas with abundance which would make for good game material, but can not write a block of text in proper rules format to save his life.

Which do you think is easier to find so you can find so you can employ them? Which skill set is more important to creating game books which people will want to buy? Could you train either to do what the other can do?

[Sean McGowan]

Thrashling wrote:

Let me ask a question then.

Assume you are a game developer seeking new talent and you have two applicants.

One can easily turn interesting, compelling ideas in to blocks of text that match the format of needed to be used in an RPG handbook but does not have the ability to think up interesting, compelling ideas at all.

The other can create interesting, compelling ideas with abundance which would make for good game material, but can not write a block of text in proper rules format to save his life.

Which do you think is easier to find so you can find so you can employ them? Which skill set is more important to creating game books which people will want to buy? Could you train either to do what the other can do?

There aren't two applicants here. There's good format-but-prosaic ideas guy #1, bad format but creative guy #2, and then... there's the other 900+ options.

There are plenty of contestants who can provide both innovation and competent formatting without the benefit of special concessions. The top 32 every year are composed of these people.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Here's the thing: Game developers want both. If they have to add all the rules in, figuring out/re-doing a designer's math to see how the NPC or monster works, that's time they can't use to do something else.

Again, look at the Raging Swan call I posted above. Here's the direct quote from the developer:

Quote:

1. Not using the encounter template file. I *love* reformatting submissions.

2. Not using the stat block template. I *love* reformatting stat blocks and trying to work out the math behind it.

And there are enough good, creative writers who can handle both that developers aren't going to waste their time and energy with people who make extra work for them.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Sean McGowan wrote:

There aren't two applicants here. There's good format-but-prosaic ideas guy #1, bad format but creative guy #2, and then... there's the other 900+ options.

There are plenty of contestants who can provide both innovation and competent formatting without the benefit of special concessions. The top 32 every year are composed of these people.

This.

A hundred times this.

[Thrashling]

I'll make one last set of assertions and a conclusion in favor of having a form to aid formatting in the contest, then I will be done.

Voting in the contest is something that can, and should be, fun.
Reading and understanding that core of the item is more fun than checking formatting.
I find it, and suspect a great many other do as well, easier to judge items that are properly formatted allowing me to focus on the core idea of the item.
If too many entries are not properly formatted voting becomes a chore, boring, and makes me less likely to spend time voting.
Voting contributes to the success of the competition.
The goal of the competition is to identify someone capable of writing a publish worthy module.
Having multiple rounds identifies the best designers more effectively than having a single round.

Now for the grand conclusion:
By having a formatting tool for the first round of entries, the voting during the first round will be less tedious and more fun thereby making one of the goals of the competition, participating and voting in the competition itself be fun, more easily attainable without significantly impacting the other goal, to identify someone capable of writing a publish worthy module, of the competition.

Okay, I have some further thoughts, but they are a little less rigorous in my thinking. I'm tired.

I think the best thing to do would be to have the first round, the open call, have a formatting tool to make the judging process more fun and less tedious. It would increase participation in the voting process thereby increasing the efficacy of the competition. Generating a database from the submitted items is only a benefit to Paizo as the statistical analyses that can be done with such a database are astonishing.

I might consider cutting to the top 64 during the first round and having a new round in the competition cutting to the top 32 with no formatting tool (or an entirely different "design a XXX") to give the people who can both come up with creative ideas and follow proper formatting an easier chance to shine after facing an initial round cut of over 90% (given at least 1000 entries). I think a Design an NPC round would be perfectly fitting as a way to test a potential designers skills in designing a module.

Round 1 - open call - Design a wondrous item - Use a form to submit entry
Round 2 - top 64 - Design an NPC
Round 3 - top 32 - Design a Bestiary entry
Round 4 - top 16 - Design an encouter
Round 5 - top 4 - Module pitch

[Curaigh]

Sean McGowan wrote:

There aren't two applicants here. There's good format-but-prosaic ideas guy #1, bad format but creative guy #2, and then... there's the other 900+ options.

There are plenty of contestants who can provide both innovation and competent formatting without the benefit of special concessions. The top 32 every year are composed of these people.

There used to be a FAQ with a similar answer to this as well. "We do not see the two as mutually exclusive."

By the two-applicants logic a very creative writer who submits 310-word items should be allowed in (never mind the publication has hard page limit).
By this logic a very creative writer who submits today should be allowed in (never mind the publisher has a deadline).
By this logic a very creative writer could make stories with frost giants in the desert issue.

That being said, we are given the opportunity to vote. If formatting is not your highest criteria then it doesn't have to be. It's not my* top priority and I figure it is not the priority of half the voters out there. (Obviously the folks who submitted with formatting errors aren't worried about it).

The other half of voters do rank it high.
When the Keep file, or the top 89, or the more up-votes than down-votes pile is all finished. It will be who you voted for and who they voted for.

Poor formatting is not a disqualification, Paizo is willing to let this through to some degree because it can be taught.

EDIT: removed stuff addressed in the ninja'ed post

*& this from the guy who practices formatting for 9 months each year. :)

[Andrew Marlowe]

It might be more fun to judge...might. That isn't the point though. This is meant to be a rigorous test of ALL of your design skills. If you can't follow the most basic instructions...and follow a provided template that's not Superstar. If a designer fails in that simple task some judges will mark that as a strike against the designer and rightly so. If someone has made that mistake their item will need to be very creative to compensate.

A form filling ballot only rewards the creative people who can't be bothered to follow instructions and/or copy/paste the provided template. It may also reward the crowd sourced judges...except you have just removed a criteria from which all the judges which may make their decisions more difficult. My guess is that quite a few of us wouldn't appreciate that either.

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm not sure "voting should be fun" is really all that solid a criteria upon which to base the fillable form suggestion, but regardless, bear in mind that it isn't solely up to the fanbase voters to select the top 32- that final say goes to the Paizo judges, who make that selection based on the overall rankings.

In short, if you find that it is too tedious to be concerned with formatting as a voter, and you just want to focus on the "core idea"- then do so. Make that your voting criteria. Don't worry about word count, or formatting, or pricing, or any of the rest of it. Just concentrate on voting for the items that you think are best, based on your own criteria of what you think makes Superstar. Other voters will do the same, and in the end, the judges will weigh all of that together via the rankings, and make their own decisions based on the criteria of what they, as judges (and Paizo publishing) are looking for in the contest.

[Cthulhudrew]

Curaigh wrote:

By this logic a very creative writer could make stories with frost giants in the desert issue.

This one I might actually be fine with. If they could realistically (well, fantasy-realistically) pull it off, that would be pretty awesome. :)

(I'm finding myself thinking about how to do it now.)

[Garrett Guillotte]

Thrashling wrote:

By having a formatting tool for the first round of entries, the voting during the first round will be less tedious and more fun thereby making one of the goals of the competition, participating and voting in the competition itself be fun.

Thrashling wrote:

Generating a database from the submitted items is only a benefit to Paizo as the statistical analyses that can be done with such a database are astonishing.

There'd be so much noise in a database of all items that it'd be tough to justify the substantial expense of designing and implementing a database and a form submission system that anticipates every variation without excluding valid exceptions, scrubs the data, etc.

Paizo already gets the Top 100-ish items picked by the community for free -- and as is evident so far, an astonishing amount of statistical and critical analysis from fans, also for free.

Thrashling wrote:

I might consider cutting to the top 64 during the first round and having a new round in the competition

Paizo already cut the voting time and an entire round out of the contest from last year because the process dragged on too long, and the voting provided diminishing returns quite a while before the voting deadline.

Thrashling wrote:

I think a Design an NPC round would be perfectly fitting as a way to test a potential designers skills in designing a module.

RPGSS has had NPC rounds in the past (villains in 2008, 2009, 2011, and to a lesser extent the organization round in 2012), usually bouncing around with a monster or archetype round. This year, it's a monster round.

(I'm not trying to crap negativity on these ideas, mind -- just noting that the Paizoans running RPGSS for the last seven years have thought about or done these things in the past, and this year they either decided not to do them or went in the opposite direction.)

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

Cthulhudrew wrote:

Curaigh wrote:

By this logic a very creative writer could make stories with frost giants in the desert issue.

This one I might actually be fine with. If they could realistically (well, fantasy-realistically) pull it off, that would be pretty awesome. :)

(I'm finding myself thinking about how to do it now.)

They've been trapped in stasis from a long ago ice age but now when they wake up, they're surrounded by a desert. :p

[Garrett Guillotte]

Kalervo Oikarinen wrote:

Cthulhudrew wrote:

Curaigh wrote:

By this logic a very creative writer could make stories with frost giants in the desert issue.

This one I might actually be fine with. If they could realistically (well, fantasy-realistically) pull it off, that would be pretty awesome. :)

(I'm finding myself thinking about how to do it now.)

They've been trapped in stasis from a long ago ice age but now when they wake up, they're surrounded by a desert. :p

Frost giants can't go on vacations? Load up the frost giant minivan, shove the frost giant kids in the back, drive off to Absalomuquerque, Golarizona?

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

Garrett Guillotte wrote:

Kalervo Oikarinen wrote:

Cthulhudrew wrote:

Curaigh wrote:

By this logic a very creative writer could make stories with frost giants in the desert issue.

This one I might actually be fine with. If they could realistically (well, fantasy-realistically) pull it off, that would be pretty awesome. :)

(I'm finding myself thinking about how to do it now.)

They've been trapped in stasis from a long ago ice age but now when they wake up, they're surrounded by a desert. :p

Frost giants can't go on vacations? Load up the frost giant minivan, shove the frost giant kids in the back, drive off to Absalomuquerque, Golarizona?

"Barry, Barry! Where the hell did you teleport us to, and what's with the big cat with a weird head?"

[Cthulhudrew]

(Getting OT now, but I just remembered the Ice Cave I visited at Sunset Crater in AZ as a kid, and there are also similar strange geological features like the Ice Cave at Bandera volcano in New Mexico that could be homes for "desert" Frost Giants.)

[Prizrak]

Locals who have braved the ancient ruins tell tales of booming footfalls, and trails of a strange white sand that melts into water. And who but giants could have built tombs so large?

In truth, the monumental architecture was built by the men of long-fallen empires, and the few frost giants hidden within are the descendants of refugees, hunting in the chill of the desert night and terrified into secrecy by legends of the Steel Church and its bloody purges.

[mad_mac_hl]

I think if I had to vote to the letter of the rules, then I'd have had to reject at least 3/4 of all entries I've seen this year. Minor mistakes I can understand as they do happen (though the motto here is check and recheck your submission before entering!) but far too many ignore the format as given. Is it really that hard to read the contest rules before entering?

[cwslyclgh]

note that if Paizo was truly worried about these issues they could simply auto-reject any item that didn't include the correct BBCode tags... I think that the general voters perceive a lack of bolding certain words as a much more serious problem with an entry than it really is.

[Anthony Adam]

Using the bb code is part of the competition in that it forms a test that you can hand in work in the format specified. Look at it this way.

You get asked to provide some work in docx format with relevant items in bold, and italics. The font used must be Arial, 14 pt. the docx proofing language must be set to US English and the page size should be A4.

This is the bb code of a word document.

The only reason we have bb code is because of the submission medium, but it is no different using the bbcode to set something bold than using a word processor or html editor. The correct formatting is a valid testthat you can follow precisely the instructions you are given.

That all said, I try to vote on the core of the item, ignoring formatting, but if two equally strong items get paired, the one correctly formatted will win every time.

[Lightminder]

By voting folks out in the first round at the hands of the community at large you absolve the negative association with and do not withdraw as deeply from the emotional bank account entrants have with Paizo. It also engages a ton of folks (entrants included) in the voting process helping them feel that they are one of the in crowd.

This shows wise gentleness of the part of Paizo and creates a peek into the windows of the mysterious of willy wonkas marvelous candy shop for all us imaginative chocolate chewers.

The question for the judges is "does it help to make a beautiful organic judging process, or does it add to the clutter in the factory?" hoping for the first.

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Anthony Adam wrote:

The only reason we have bb code is because of the submission medium, but it is no different using the bbcode to set something bold than using a word processor or html editor. The correct formatting is a valid testthat you can follow precisely the instructions you are given.

Ironically, I'd gotten so used to submitting on the website (my Superstar run and then practice items) that the first time I turned in an actual professional submission, I almost didn't realize beforehand that I did NOT need BB code and had to actually make sure the proper things were bold and italicized. That'd have been really embarrassing. : )

[Maurice de Mare]

This contest eliminates contenders, this is the structure of the game.

Every round is a test, the test is not easy, otherwise everyone would have a RPG Superstar tag.

Want to compete, follow the rules.

Can't follow the rules, you are eliminated.

Al Pacino voice:Everything is a test

[Monica Marlowe]

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

Next year, why not use a fillable form for the contest? When you go to the submission page, it would have blank spaces to input data with the aura, cl, slot, price, etc already there with a blank next to it.

If the contest is about finding creative designers, make the creativity the focus and less on the formatting. Bad formatting is really distracting. Although it is good for tie breaking.

Thomas LeBlanc, have you lost your gorram mind?! It's part of the test, if you make it easier, there will still be people who fail to get it right, I would rather see if they can read directions, understand said directions and then execute them successfully. Even if it gives me a migraine. I will suffer for this cause!

[Tokoz]

We're still talking about this? It's soooo last week. =P

[Monica Marlowe]

Tokoz wrote:

We're still talking about this? It's soooo last week. =P

To be fair, I couldn't respond to it the other day and still vote. I had to choose wisely.

[Tokoz]

I wouldn't mind a form. Paizo (or at least Sean) says "no."

As one that's worked in publishing a little bit, (not enough to claim I know more than Paizo does) I understand that submission guidelines are a HUGE part of the elimination process. I do not want to work with an author that ignores what I've requested. And since I do decide who I'll work with in those cases...

I could be wrong, since I'm kind of in and out around the community, but I think Sean isn't easily persuadable. =P

[Eric Hindley]

Anthony Adam wrote:

Using the bb code is part of the competition in that it forms a test that you can hand in work in the format specified. Look at it this way.

You get asked to provide some work in docx format with relevant items in bold, and italics. The font used must be Arial, 14 pt. the docx proofing language must be set to US English and the page size should be A4.

This is the bb code of a word document.

The only reason we have bb code is because of the submission medium, but it is no different using the bbcode to set something bold than using a word processor or html editor. The correct formatting is a valid testthat you can follow precisely the instructions you are given.

That all said, I try to vote on the core of the item, ignoring formatting, but if two equally strong items get paired, the one correctly formatted will win every time.

It's this exactly. They gave you the BBCode in the contest rules. All you had to do was copy/paste it into your word processor of choice and plug in your work.

If a company wants you to use a format, they will send it to you. They may expect you to use Title and Body text, footnotes, put tables in a specific format or anything else. If you send them a badly formatted blob of information, someone has to clean that up.

Personally, if I had to copy each separate piece of text into an individual field, I'd be more likely to mess it up simply because I'd have less time to review it.