has competition hurt this hobby?

[macchinainterna]

You make a lot of really good points here that I can sincerely agree on. For one, the motivation of newer editors does seem to be more driven towards entering and winning contests. Honestly, I think contests help to draw more attention to editors you may not have known about beforehand. However because of the increasing competitiveness in them, it's becoming considerably more difficult for editors who have a more personal approach toward how their videos are made to qualify, as opposed to today's “standards” of using ample effects and popular, newer sources.

Judging in contests is subjective and really depends on the people's tastes and preferences. It's not 100% reliable and there are some editors who have taken full advantage of pandering to judges' personal favorites to earn their votes to qualify for the contest, if not to ensure they win altogether.
I now you stated that this is different from complaining about pandering to judges to win, but it is a factor on the issue you are addressing. It hurts what can potentially be a friendly competition between editors and limits the chances of more ambitious creators from being noticed for stepping outside the general “norm” of amv editing. It also sends the wrong message to newer editors and convinces them to just make what's popular so that THEY can become popular as well.

There's been no shortage of threads about how the hobby is dying or how the org is dying... the only thing that seems to be dying is the idea of editing AMVs for their own sake.

This is what I agree with the most. Because of the rising desire to win contests and making only what is popular to guarantee popularity, amv editing is becoming more monotonous. And because of that the community itself is becoming less involved and more of an obligation. It's less about getting to know other creators and sharing ideas with each other and more about dropping a video in the announcement thread and looking for contests to enter.

There still are a lot of editors who make amvs for the sake of expressing their joy and appreciation for their favorite shows/movies. They haven't died out, they just became less involved with the community because they don't want to lose interest in something they love to do. And the rising desire for more competition does turn people off from the hobby. I for one can attest to that, and I struggle with that every time I start a new video.

[Gene Starwind 21122]

You make a lot of really good points here that I can sincerely agree on. For one, the motivation of newer editors does seem to be more driven towards entering and winning contests. Honestly, I think contests help to draw more attention to editors you may not have known about beforehand. However because of the increasing competitiveness in them, it's becoming considerably more difficult for editors who have a more personal approach toward how their videos are made to qualify, as opposed to today's “standards” of using ample effects and popular, newer sources.

Judging in contests is subjective and really depends on the people's tastes and preferences. It's not 100% reliable and there are some editors who have taken full advantage of pandering to judges' personal favorites to earn their votes to qualify for the contest, if not to ensure they win altogether.
I now you stated that this is different from complaining about pandering to judges to win, but it is a factor on the issue you are addressing. It hurts what can potentially be a friendly competition between editors and limits the chances of more ambitious creators from being noticed for stepping outside the general “norm” of amv editing. It also sends the wrong message to newer editors and convinces them to just make what's popular so that THEY can become popular as well.

There's been no shortage of threads about how the hobby is dying or how the org is dying... the only thing that seems to be dying is the idea of editing AMVs for their own sake.

This is what I agree with the most. Because of the rising desire to win contests and making only what is popular to guarantee popularity, amv editing is becoming more monotonous. And because of that the community itself is becoming less involved and more of an obligation. It's less about getting to know other creators and sharing ideas with each other and more about dropping a video in the announcement thread and looking for contests to enter.

There still are a lot of editors who make amvs for the sake of expressing their joy and appreciation for their favorite shows/movies. They haven't died out, they just became less involved with the community because they don't want to lose interest in something they love to do. And the rising desire for more competition does turn people off from the hobby. I for one can attest to that, and I struggle with that every time I start a new video.

This is what I was sort of going for with my other posts. Except it did not come out this way. I do agree with a lot of what is being said here.

[BasharOfTheAges]

It's also important to take a step back and try not to project. Whenever threads pop up here that tough on the topic of motivation, we all seem to get sucked into this mindset that there are only 2 or 3 motivations to be involved in this hobby and that we have this insight that allows us to instinctively group and collectively dismiss the imagined groups we don't agree with. Truth is, it's a lot more nuanced than that. Motivations are unique and personal (or at the very least not easily grouped without being a real reductionist) and assuming to understand and then proceed to judge other people on those flawed assumptions can come off as either hostile or arrogant.

[Gene Starwind 21122]

The main point of this topic is competition hurting this hobby.

My answer to that is no and yes at the same time. The reason why competition allows editors to get their name out there and show off their work. However I think it all ties back into some of the other threads I have, for people can not get there work shown even if it is good. Just not on the level of let say some of the finalist, because there is only so much time dedicated to AMV's at events. The other thing is when you get editors just submitting every contest possible it then makes the other editors do the same. Again everyone wants their work to be shown, because of the work they put into it. When it does not make the cut of course editors are going to feel disappointed, especially when it's a con your attending and the videos that are in the finals already have made multiple contests and have awards.

I don't know maybe contests should reserve x number of slots for people who pre-reg and will be in attendance. Then again AFO did this a number of years ago. I live in Maryland and actually pre-reg, because that was the only way to enter their contest. I flew from Maryland for the convention and enjoyed it.

I think competition can give off the wrong impression sometiems. I go to about 10-12 conventions a year. I go to a lot of AMV Contests and run a couple myslef. However you do see a lot of the main stream animes with the current popular music. It's now different than the masquerades and using "gangnam style" for a lot of the dance skits when it was popular. Seems like people jump on the bandwagon of a lot of things. Personally that's why I haven't watched Attack on Titan, and was hesitant when Naruto came out to watch it. It would be nice to see more of a variety of things in the contests. Now we can't say for sure if these AMV's are fan based and the person really loves the show. Or is playing towards what the audience knows. However I think it is a lot harder to use an older anime from the mid 90's or early 2000's, than what has come out in the past year or 2. Heck even Fairy Tail has died off a lot and its still continuing but the hype is not there anymore. It's about Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Log Horizion, and the other new stuff that is out now.

At least that's what I'm noticing.

[JaddziaDax]

Competition has always been there as far as I can tell. Everyone wanting to out-popular everyone else. However, I don't feel as though it's contests pushing this competitiveness in the community. It's has and probably always will be an overall popularity contest. The more subs you have, the more opinions, the more star ratings, the more popular you are, the more people get a false sense of "people like me". When it's actually your videos they like.

I believe that contests, especially ones where the competition is put up to popular vote, just expose the current trends in editing.

This is just the trend of a long line of trends... You know way back in the day Caldwell made a video of Asuka lipsyncing, then everyone had to make a lipsyncing video. Or when Koopiskeva came out with Euphoria, there were kooptangles everywhere. As someone mentioned Nostromo, there were random openers to techno. I recall a recent trend of using TEXT all over your video. This new trend of using anime as a source and make some effects heavy "original story"/artsy video is just the "new thing". It's not even a new trend, it's one that has been building for years.

As for the whole "don't tell another person how to have fun" comment, that's fine. They can keep making all the "artsy" videos they want, but that doesn't mean I have to like their videos. Just as I can't tell them how to have fun editing, others can't tell me what I am supposed to like/dislike. (And they can hate my fan videos all they want too!)

As for my own experience:
AMVs meant a lot to me when I first started out. I had a lot of time on my hands to dedicate to the hobby. Now most of those motivations have gone, I don't have time, and editing feels like a chore. Especially, all the hoops you have to jump through to make your video look perfect (which for some reason, I still can't do).

Honestly, though for me even the current trend of videos isn't what's killing the hobby for me. I think it's my own personal life. Trend or no, I'd still be making fan videos if I had the motivation and time.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I recall a recent trend of using TEXT all over your video.

It's infected the MLP video scene to the point where everyone assumes you need to have kinetic typography to have a PMV. It makes finding a variety of good videos for blocks at cons kinda difficult. As prevalent as some trends get here, we at least have the luxury of having a deep talent pool to draw from. Over there, not so much.

As for the whole "don't tell another person how to have fun" comment, that's fine. They can keep making all the "artsy" videos they want, but that doesn't mean I have to like their videos. Just as I can't tell them how to have fun editing, others can't tell me what I am supposed to like/dislike. (And they can hate my fan videos all they want too!)

Well, it's not really about telling people if they can or can't have fun, or deciding what you can or can't like. It's about not starting a conversation with the a priori assumption that a given viewpoint is bad or detrimental to the hobby because you don't agree with it. I hear they call that being civil, but these are only rumors.

[UnluckyArtist]

If anything, competition has helped.. there's a natural need to share your interest with others and knowing that you could share and maybe even get rewarded for what you already enjoy can get people more willing to participate on a wider scale.

You could be living under a rock with 30 years of video edits on a stack of vhs tapes in the corner of your room that no one has seen but you and you might be thinking about quitting because yeah you enjoy doing it but something's missing.. Your techno savvy brother tells you that you can showcase your work to people and maybe win a prize. You're intrigued enough to send some videos in through the mail so you buy some boxes and tape; hopefully that magnum sharpie you got 3 years ago still has some juice.

Well months go by and you're sitting by the fireplace with a full grown beard reading about gardening when your brother comes up with a package from that contest you submitted to. You open it to find a plastic gold medal and a certificate that says "good job, you wins" with a vhs converted tape of an audience reaction. A tear rolls down your cheek.

After composing yourself you tape that medal to the wall and decide to keep competing because apparently it makes people laugh, or cry and that's all you've ever really wanted to do...

That's just one example of how competitions could help.. but then of course you have some competitors who are like beeeh all I wanna do is get a million views on my Naruto rock videoooo. Whatever the intentions are I'm sure competitions get more people involved, interested and more videos generated, so no.

[Sephirothskr]

I would say this is in some serious relevance to the thread I posted yesterday about what's really important.

[TritioAFB]

I will like to use the word 'Improve' rather than competition

the more I try to improve, the more I like the hobby. Dont take me wrong when I start competing in several contests, it's just that also I find interesting the reaction of the public, in this 'experimental' style. My questions are what kind of stuff do the audience prefer and what they not

[CrackTheSky]

I will like to use the word 'Improve' rather than competition

"Has improve hurt this hobby?" THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TRITIO