Here are the Lava Competition results.


1st.
earthwarrior :
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=85240&pl=1150122


He was the only one who participated.

It sucks that I was the only one to participate. Can I have a $20 steam card for winning please. And if we can find a way to, a one month subscription to someone on twitch? ($5) There was a $25 reward, but I think you forgot to say that in your post.

I think this is a sign we need to slow down competitions.

When only one person participates, despite many people having the game, and having been on the server, there's something wrong.

Call it competition fatigue, I guess.

In my 100% honest opinion: No one likes to make things out of lava or water because of their properties as liquids. And the underground competition - There's no point to having it underground. 1. Soil is ugly. 2. If they decide to replace the visible soil with something else so it looks like you're inside, what's the point? Might as well build it on the surface above ground.

Something I would really have liked to see in the {blank} competitions:

Underground
Water (maybe? couldnt come up with anything)
Lava

legacyme3 : I think we're losing participation because of lack of interest on the community's part. I remember Laian and zanderlex saying they would make something, but they didn't. Although Laian did have plot issues.

TheFadedWarrior : I agree with your thoughts on the underground world, but if you set foot in the lava world you'd know your build doesnt have to be made out of lava. There was only lava on the first few layers and you could easily build above it.
Also, in the past few competitions David said "The structure can basically be anything" meaning it doesnt have to be made of dirt, lava, or water If you wanted you could make the build themed.

If you're thinking of making things like those then we'd need creative mode, world edit, and decent sized plots because not many people will spend a lot of time or Viz on them. I'm thinking of making a big build for the dreamcast competition, but I'm going to have to spend at least 20,000 Viz for it.

Davideo7 : I was actually building something for this! T^T

Of course I never realized I had to sign up, and I didn't even finish the first part of the stupid thing... but I definitely did stuff motivated on it!

Mecha Leo : You needed to post screenshots or a video in the thread.

legacyme3 : It's also possible that the competitions aren't as appealing as they were in the past, I don't know. It might be a good idea to take a break from the competitions if this month's competition doesn't do very well.

TheFadedWarrior : A lot of users requested these various types of cities so I created them and thought the best way to promote them was to make competitions based on them. I probably wont be doing very many more competitions based on the new cities, if any more at all.

Mecha Leo : If you want, you can still submit screenshots and/or a video of it once you're done to this thread. It wouldn't count since it's too late but it'd be cool to still show off what you were working on.

Davideo7 : I see. It would be interesting and cool to have these different types of cities, but I just see no appeal to actually building things in them versus building things in the surface/normal city. I guess the lava thing could've been cool, but not enough people entered. If I had Minecraft 1.whateverversionitisrightnow then I would have totally made some cool hell palace or something in the lava world.

TheFadedWarrior : The underwater city competition had the most potential of all of these competitions I think. A user technically could have built an underwater city if they had purchased enough lots.

Davideo7 :

Speaking personally, it's not that the competitions aren't interesting enough. I have ideas, but I'm completely burned out, mostly thanks to the winter competitions (Competition burnout is a real problem).

I'm not saying things should change solely for me (the opposite, I don't think I should factor into competitions at all, since I'm notably bullish on them) but I do think my mindset is one shared by a good amount of users.

By sticking the timeline further away, putting more time between comps, and having the competitions be open a month longer (I'll show an example below), I think there's a chance you'll get better turnout.

Example

January - Competition
February - Competition continues
March - Month off Minecraft competitions
April - Month off Minecraft competitions
May - Competition 2
June - Competition 2 continues
July - Month off Minecraft competitions
August - Month off Minecraft competitions
September - Competition 3
October - Competition 3 continues
November - Month off Minecraft competitions
December - Month off Minecraft competitions

I think that by putting them on a four month cycle (you can change which months exactly) not only will you get a higher turnout, but you will save some money (as these monthly comps drain money that no one enters for), OR be able to give away more per individual competition (it's more tempting to compete for 50 bucks than it is for 25, something that is more possible if you space out the competitions and make them two month ordeals).

I don't know how popular it would be with the masses, that's something to ask them with a potential poll, but I do think there are both too many competitions and not enough time between them. By making these competitions limited attractions, people may have more time to think up what they'd like to do (for example, a month in advance, you can announce what the next build challenge will be!)

legacyme3 : You persuaded me when you said "it's more tempting to compete for 50 bucks than it is for 25". I think a big payout is more attention grabbing. I might take your idea and modify it a little. Instead of 3 competitions a year, I'd do 4 and base them on seasons. So when a season begins, a new minecraft competition begins and lasts 1 or 2 months.

I'm not sure if I like the build up idea. If I announce that a certain competition will begin in a month, most users will probably begin working on their submission for that competition right away so I might as well launch that competition instead of announcing it ahead of time.

Davideo7 :

Fair enough, I think that amending the system as it is, is a good idea.

If nothing else, at least we're trying to pump effort into the competitions.

Worst case, nothing changes, but there are less competitions with a higher payout for the dedicated members who do want to participate.

Best case, the competitions get much much more activity, and the community grows.