AMV Contests - This whole trolling issue

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:32 am

I make videos. I make videos for myself. I make videos for myself to work out frustrations, anger, to make myself, and occasionally my little brother laugh, I do it to try to convey to others how I was feeling when I made the video, especially if it brightens someone's day. I make videos for collective self therapy, not to boost my ego. I guess I am just overly modest/scared in how I present these videos to the world, that's why I have only submitted to Ushicon, which has no contest, and thats also why submitting to AWA pro is such a twilight-zone-style step for me. Mind you, this is only me, and not you. I honestly don't care what you do, how you do it, or who or what cosplayer you did it with to get to your fourth award this month. I make vids for the Love of the Game. I wish others would do the same, but I am not the one to force decisions or ideas on others.

BlueJellybean · Post by **BlueJellybean** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 9:53 am

Dannywilson wrote:I make videos. I make videos for myself. I make videos for myself to work out frustrations, anger, to make myself, and occasionally my little brother laugh, I do it to try to convey to others how I was feeling when I made the video, especially if it brightens someone's day. I make videos for collective self therapy, not to boost my ego. I guess I am just overly modest/scared in how I present these videos to the world, that's why I have only submitted to Ushicon, which has no contest, and thats also why submitting to AWA pro is such a twilight-zone-style step for me. Mind you, this is only me, and not you. I honestly don't care what you do, how you do it, or who or what cosplayer you did it with to get to your fourth award this month. I make vids for the Love of the Game. I wish others would do the same, but I am not the one to force decisions or ideas on others.

*stands up and claps*

Well put!

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 1:11 pm

BlueJellybean wrote:
Dannywilson wrote:I make videos. I make videos for myself. I make videos for myself to work out frustrations, anger, to make myself, and occasionally my little brother laugh, I do it to try to convey to others how I was feeling when I made the video, especially if it brightens someone's day. I make videos for collective self therapy, not to boost my ego. I guess I am just overly modest/scared in how I present these videos to the world, that's why I have only submitted to Ushicon, which has no contest, and thats also why submitting to AWA pro is such a twilight-zone-style step for me. Mind you, this is only me, and not you. I honestly don't care what you do, how you do it, or who or what cosplayer you did it with to get to your fourth award this month. I make vids for the Love of the Game. I wish others would do the same, but I am not the one to force decisions or ideas on others.

*stands up and claps*

Well put!

agreed...

Vlad

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:04 pm

Dannywilson wrote:I wish others would do the same, but I am not the one to force decisions or ideas on others.

Exactly.

Thanks for such a clear and well-thought post Danny! I'm gonna buy you a beer come AWA...wait are you 21 yet?

.

Hitori · Post by **Hitori** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:53 pm

Good stuff!!

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:53 pm

Yup, and I've managed to get my drinking habits from getting out of hand recently, so I'll buy you one too. I wont take a beer for just stating my stance, it needs to be a fair trade, as I did nothing.

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:58 pm

Dannywilson wrote:Yup, and I've managed to get my drinking habits from getting out of hand recently, so I'll buy you one too. I wont take a beer for just stating my stance, it needs to be a fair trade, as I did nothing.

Good thing on the drinking habits thing...

As for stating your stance, it may not be anything special, but it resonates with how I feel and thus the feeling to give you something (I don't think you want the sloppy kiss

)

Cybermat · Post by **Cybermat** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 4:46 pm

Something that was brought up earlier in all of this hullabaloo over 'trolling for prizes' at convention contests is whether competition is the important thing about making AMVs. It isn't.

It's not about climbing to the top of a heap of conquered enemies (other AMVs or AMV makers, depending on how gung-ho you get) just to say that you did it (ego) or of having the biggest pile of swag (greed). Making AMVs is all about creativity and cleverness and self-expression and sharing your unique view of the world with somebody else who might also appreciate it.

One of the most onerous things about handling AMVs for a convention is the extra work, planning, and time that must go into overseeing the competition aspect of it. Running a competition makes the essentially straightforward task of compiling and then showing AMVs at the convention into a big pain in the butt.

Why? Because there's no right way to do it, no way that will please everyone involved. Sure, there are technical errors (lots of them) which one can avoid making so the quality of the presentation can be preserved but aside from that, everything else about the process is arbitrary and, as such, subject to argument, compromise, or reversal on a wide variety of grounds -- a lot of which may have only secondary relevance to watching AMVs (at best).

There have been a couple of occasions when I've been seriously contemplating just dissolving the competitive aspect of AMV showings at the convention because of the people who seem to care mostly about winning and the maneuvering for advantage that is the path towards it.

It's the same old situation you always hear about... 90% of the people get along fine and deal with things reasonably but the 10% who don't seem to make up 90% of the problems.

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:32 pm

Geez...

Trolling a vid? What if a creator just wants it shown and just "happens" to get multiple awards?

Blah, just enter them into a contest so people see them... ^_^ But don't enter it into the same contest twice [usually that's like 2 years in a row :p]

This is ironic coming from someone who USED to be competition driven...

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:06 am

Cybermat wrote:Something that was brought up earlier in all of this hullabaloo over 'trolling for prizes' at convention contests is whether competition is the important thing about making AMVs. It isn't.

It's not about climbing to the top of a heap of conquered enemies (other AMVs or AMV makers, depending on how gung-ho you get) just to say that you did it (ego) or of having the biggest pile of swag (greed). Making AMVs is all about creativity and cleverness and self-expression and sharing your unique view of the world with somebody else who might also appreciate it.

One of the most onerous things about handling AMVs for a convention is the extra work, planning, and time that must go into overseeing the competition aspect of it. Running a competition makes the essentially straightforward task of compiling and then showing AMVs at the convention into a big pain in the butt.

Why? Because there's no right way to do it, no way that will please everyone involved. Sure, there are technical errors (lots of them) which one can avoid making so the quality of the presentation can be preserved but aside from that, everything else about the process is arbitrary and, as such, subject to argument, compromise, or reversal on a wide variety of grounds -- a lot of which may have only secondary relevance to watching AMVs (at best).

There have been a couple of occasions when I've been seriously contemplating just dissolving the competitive aspect of AMV showings at the convention because of the people who seem to care mostly about winning and the maneuvering for advantage that is the path towards it.

It's the same old situation you always hear about... 90% of the people get along fine and deal with things reasonably but the 10% who don't seem to make up 90% of the problems.

Well put Matt! I know how you feel...

Vlad