Official Firaxis Civilization IV Modding Contest

[OTAKUjbski]

But seriously, the "commitment" (for want of a better word) of US companies to their own country is very "discriminating" (for want of another better word) against the rest of the world.

The "better word" you were searching for is referred to as "taxes" here.

[/offtopic]

 

[cephalo]

But seriously, the "commitment" (for want of a better word) of US companies to their own country is very "discriminating" (for want of another better word) against the rest of the world.

Contests with prizes are notoriously subject to many legal issues. Just imagine if you wanted to throw a contest and suddenly needed to research the laws of a hundred or so different states, provinces and countries!

That said, the Civ mod community is an extremely global one. This will obviously disqualify much of the best material.

 

[Mesix]

That link gives me a 404. Is that because I'm unamerican?

The link works fine for me. It must be really smart ant sniffing out Americans if that is the case as I live in Germany.

 

[Thorn]

America could have 95% of the player base, but it still would only make 5% of the talent.

And that's exactly why this is for US players only! We lazy Americans are lagging far behind the rest of the world in creating cool mods for Civ4. Firaxis is merely trying to motivate us to catch up with the rest of you! Now if you will excuse me, I must get back to my Big Mac and think about whether to enter this contest or watch more of that horrible version of American 'football'.

 

[dutchking]

^

Ermm...good job of pointing out all generalizations about us!

 

[mindlar]

But seriously, the "commitment" (for want of a better word) of US companies to their own country is very "discriminating" (for want of another better word) against the rest of the world.

As others have said the reasons that these types of contests are limited to a single country or very rarely multiple countries are due to legal issues. The cost of lawyers to figure out the rules for other countries would end up costing more than the prize in most cases.

Even Blizzard, with their huge mountains of cash, for their various contests limits them to either the US or US/Canada (Quebec excluded). The foreign language sites (i.e. Blizzard Korea, or the various Blizzard Europe) do contests of their own that are not open to the US.

 

[C.Roland]

As others have said the reasons that these types of contests are limited to a single country or very rarely multiple countries are due to legal issues. The cost of lawyers to figure out the rules for other countries would end up costing more than the prize in most cases.

Even Blizzard, with their huge mountains of cash, for their various contests limits them to either the US or US/Canada (Quebec excluded). The foreign language sites (i.e. Blizzard Korea, or the various Blizzard Europe) do contests of their own that are not open to the US.

If I understand, you can't win a contest if you live in Quebec, because you aren't europeen, but you aren't americain too because you speak french

Honestly, we only complain about the context because we would have like to participate, but we can understand why it is USA only. But if someone in the USA subscribe for me, will this work ?

 

[tempacc]

If you're planning on entering, just watch out for this in the small print:

Participation in Contest and acceptance of prize constitutes each winner’s permission for Sponsor to use his/her name, address (city and state), likeness, photograph, picture, portrait, voice, biographical information, Mod Submission and/or any statements made by each winner regarding the Contest or Sponsor for advertising and promotional purposes without notice or additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.

 

[cephalo]

If you're planning on entering, just watch out for this in the small print:

This seems like a given...

We have a winner! But we can't tell you who it is or what they did to win... Thanks to all who participated!

So if you are a wanted criminal, you better not submit your mod. There was an episode of 'Sigmund and the Sea Monsters' where a very similar mistake was made! Sigmund won the singing contest via cassette tape, but could not accept the prize due to his being a sea monster.

 

[Belizan]

I suspect that the goal of this competition was to inspire *new* modding activity, not to reward existing mods and modders, and therein the categories were selected accordingly. Even so, I personally don't feel a great deal of motivation to enter against some of the more established bodies of work. For instance, while I've had an idea for a mapscript for a while, I would have used Smartmap as a base. Without such a base, I would not expect any mapscript made in the next 8 weeks to approach the level of work and testing already exhibited by something like Smartmap.

The other interesting point, particularly with existing content, is that every script and scripter I know uses and builds on the scripts and work of those who came before them. I suppose this being a US contest, there are already existing US laws about derivitive works and what ever, but I don't know them 8).

And finally, of course, again personally speaking, I just bought a new computer. Not sure what I'd do with a random dell if I couldn't have it shipped to a friend. I'm not even sure if contest entries need to be for "vanilla" BTS civ or what have you. It's a neat idea, but sadly I think for me, at least, it's mostly just a curiousity to see who wins.



P.S. The US Only restrictions I'm sure are directly related to the hassles of international law, both for the contest itself, and for the exchance going on between Firaxis and Dell.

 

[Abaddon]

I bet there are plenty of American folk who would submit the mod for you and claim the prize in your stead.

Hell, if you agree to pay the shipping plus an extra $100 for my trouble, I'll submit the mod and ship the prize to you if you win!

EDIT: Obviously, this is against the official Firaxis rules, so something of this nature would have to be done purely by email or telephone.

Makes sense.. I am sure there are enough Americans looking to make $100 off good modders

 

[whb]

EDIT: Obviously, this is against the official Firaxis rules, so something of this nature would have to be done purely by email or telephone.

When I was reading the beginning of this sentence I thought you were going to say "obviously this is against Firaxis's rules, so people shouldn't do it". Poor naive me...

 

[Gaius Octavius]

I must say, this topic caught my attention. After reading it, what particularly caught my attention was how limited and funny the contest is.

Best In-Game Asset (art, including units, buildings and/or wonders)
Okay, I suppose this makes sense. You reward people for making good art. I know of several people I'd nominate off the bat.

Best World-Builder Scenario (just a single .wbs file)
I just had a "say what?" moment. I know of no really decent scenario that works purely off of a single .wbs file. In fact, without trying to be disparaging here, I'd say that anyone who created a new scenario without modifying the core rules (XML, Python, SDK) would probably be laughed out of the modding forums. All the great scenarios out there, including the BtS greats - Rhye's, FFH2, Road to War - use custom assets. The days of making WWII Europe using the standard rules of Civ 2 are long gone.

Best Map Script (just a single .py file)
This I can see working, and I know of several I'd nominate immediately, but to be honest, when compared to the many possibilities they could have chosen for a category, this is slightly underwhelming. Why not a modcomp category? Python implementation category? SDK innovation?

Best Educational Mod
Does this mean that educational mods can be more than just the .wbs files, or are they also limited? Because, quite frankly, Civilization 4 in its stock form is not the greatest educational tool, at least when it comes to history (which is what I presume this is aimed at). However, if educational mods are allowed to use custom assets, then why not non-educational scenarios?

I think the contest has stacked the deck against some of the greatest works made for Civ 4. And I understand why: custom scenarios use custom art, custom maps, and custom rules. They would therefore be using some of the work being entered in the other categories. Now, I must admit that I don't fully understand this, because one could argue that due to there being different categories, there wouldn't really be a conflict - you wouldn't have a user's own creation competing against him. But then you get into all the ownership issues and the whole thing becomes a mess.

Anyway, I don't particularly need a new computer (though the cash from selling it would be nice), so the whole thing is purely academic for me.

 

[l3illyl3ob]

I think it's meant to level the playing field. As someone else said, Kael could just enter in FFH2 and win hands down. By restricting the actual mods to students and the like, they make it so someone has to actually create something to win. This isn't like Make Something Unreal where Epic started before any big mods were released and there were huge prizes involved. The main point of this contest is to get people to create new content, not submit already created stuff.

 

[Chuggi]

I think it's just supposed to make everyone hate the US

 

[asioasioasio]

I think it's just supposed to make everyone hate the US

lol

This is supposed to also make new civil war, because 4 states are excluded

 

[Chuggi]

(excluding residents of Arizona, Maryland, North Dakota, and Vermont)

Another American Revolution

 

[asioasioasio]

Another American Revolution

I know who would start Revolution
GarretSidzaka is from Arizona

 

[Chuggi]

Oh. I feel sorry for him, he's so close to being able to compete. It's not so bad for me because I have no chance living in aussie

Garret's an Anarchist as well

 

[seZereth]

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