Gin Blossom
On Wednesday, September 5th, 2007, I logged in to read the announcements and was overjoyed to see that we reached the administration with this petition: there will be a design contest. Please click THiS LiNK to read the announcement. Thank you to everyone for your support; it's been a long, hard journey, and I'm glad we've all been there for each other as a community. Now, go on, scurry off and design your items for the contest! That's what we were fighting for, isn't it? Best of luck to everyone!!
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Also, visit this petition. I support it fully. =-)
The wonderful beautiful Monochroman!c has helped me so much with this thread, a million thousand thanks go to her, so if you see her, give her your love. However, neither of us can really handle the vast amounts of signatures piling in. There are thousands upon thousands of you who love this idea, but we simply cannot keep up. So, if you like the idea, you may still sign, but signatures will no longer be updated. Thanks for you time, everyone. <3
Also, a BIG thank you goes straight out to Kodainoko, who donated to me an angelic headband. <3
Intro
So many Gaians have so many petitions for clothes and items that we all know will never become reality. However, they have poured their hearts into making examples of what these clothes would look like. So why can't Gaia make an event or contest where we can submit our ideas for new items and turn some into actual items available to everyone? It would be really interesting, and we as a community would gain new items and grow closer. So, if you think this would be a good idea, please sign.
Disclaimer
These designs are not mine: they are collections from petitions all across the forum. I, in no way, claim them as mine.
Petitions Granted For Monthly Items: courtesy of Colorless111
Index
Post 1: Intro
Post 2: Signatures
Post 3: Examples of Items Other Gaians Have Designed
Post 4: Banners
Post 5: Petitions I Support/Affiliates
Onward: The posts and signatures of this community we so lovingly call Gaia
Other Users' Ideas
MonochroMan!c
First off, if you had to come up with a design for your clothing item for every gender and pose, that alone would discourage a vast amount of people from ever entering in the first place. Thus, I doubt you'd get to many "n00bish" entries.
Secondly, if the entry fee was very high, that would also cut down on the crap that's being entered. You'd either have to be old enough to the site to know what's going on and have enough gold, or your entry would have to be good enough to encourage people to sponsor you.
In the end, I think it'd allow for a lot more user-involvment in gaia and encouragement of user creativity.
On the note of an areana setting though- One week would be way to short to judge. Perhaps it should be a monthly or bi-monthly contest?
Secondly, if the entry fee was very high, that would also cut down on the crap that's being entered. You'd either have to be old enough to the site to know what's going on and have enough gold, or your entry would have to be good enough to encourage people to sponsor you.
In the end, I think it'd allow for a lot more user-involvment in gaia and encouragement of user creativity.
On the note of an areana setting though- One week would be way to short to judge. Perhaps it should be a monthly or bi-monthly contest?
Katriana
I'll sign and provide some ideas of my own on the matter:
I say, make it open to ALL gaians- last site wide contest really didn't show any favour to the international gaians. If I recall the rules were along the lines of "you can enter but you can't win anything."
That being said- no prizes. The prize is that your item or item set gets put on Gaia, that's it. IIRC the reason there was no love for international users was because of the legal issues surrounding prizes. Possibly however much gold it would cost to buy it, or a complimentary set.
Entering sets- because paying an entry fee for every individual item in a large set seems like a waste. So like, 1k for a single entry (one item, up to 3 or 4 colours) and like 5k for a set entry (up to six items, up to 3 or 4 colours).
There should be a shop exclusively for user designed items, called something like a designer boutique or along those lines.
They shouldn't allow recolours of existing items- for one thing it's pretty much art theft, for another can you imagine the flood of silver halos, blue NM scarfs, pink sealies, etc.?
I think having it once every 3 to 6 months with like, 6 sets and 6 individual items could be reasonable to keep the shop up to date. To deal with the large volume of entries cutting off the entries a month or two before picking the winners could be a good idea. And/or do like they do when testing new features- take a random sampling of gaians: They vote on which ones they like best and have them say how much they would pay.
edit:: Also, Gaia should obviously provide the white display bases in all poses back and front so people can actually design the whole thing.
I say, make it open to ALL gaians- last site wide contest really didn't show any favour to the international gaians. If I recall the rules were along the lines of "you can enter but you can't win anything."
That being said- no prizes. The prize is that your item or item set gets put on Gaia, that's it. IIRC the reason there was no love for international users was because of the legal issues surrounding prizes. Possibly however much gold it would cost to buy it, or a complimentary set.
Entering sets- because paying an entry fee for every individual item in a large set seems like a waste. So like, 1k for a single entry (one item, up to 3 or 4 colours) and like 5k for a set entry (up to six items, up to 3 or 4 colours).
There should be a shop exclusively for user designed items, called something like a designer boutique or along those lines.
They shouldn't allow recolours of existing items- for one thing it's pretty much art theft, for another can you imagine the flood of silver halos, blue NM scarfs, pink sealies, etc.?
I think having it once every 3 to 6 months with like, 6 sets and 6 individual items could be reasonable to keep the shop up to date. To deal with the large volume of entries cutting off the entries a month or two before picking the winners could be a good idea. And/or do like they do when testing new features- take a random sampling of gaians: They vote on which ones they like best and have them say how much they would pay.
edit:: Also, Gaia should obviously provide the white display bases in all poses back and front so people can actually design the whole thing.
Rekai Okami
I think maybe a system like the one IMVU has would work pretty well:
There would be a separate marketplace where people would put their own designs up for purchase. Customers could use a keyword, designer, and/or category search to find what they want, and then all the matching player-designed items would pop up on a list, where you could select which one you wanted, get a preview image, and then buy it using Gaia gold. And the best part is: deisgners would actually get gold each time their item is purchased.
There would be a separate marketplace where people would put their own designs up for purchase. Customers could use a keyword, designer, and/or category search to find what they want, and then all the matching player-designed items would pop up on a list, where you could select which one you wanted, get a preview image, and then buy it using Gaia gold. And the best part is: deisgners would actually get gold each time their item is purchased.
Riptide_demon
What they should do is maybe have the admins pick a few out that look promising, then have us, the players, vote on them. Just like how we can vote for who's avatar looks the coolest, we should have another category that allows us to vote on clothes and new items.
Bioinformagics
Lyricality
While I think this an interesting idea, and worth a certain amount of consideration, I can see a number of challenges as well.
1. Aesthetics, or rather style design, if you prefer. Gaian clothes definitely have a certain stylistic similarity in shape, shadowing, highlighting, and basic form. A great many of the clothing edits I've seen in petitions simply do not meet Gaia's stylistic standards--including some of the examples you've included on the first page, unfortunately. Some are far too simplistic, lacking shading entirely. The integration of items that do not work within this established standard would create either very odd and mismatched avatars, or necessitate a lot of administrative editing.
2. Speaking as a computer gaming artist, I can see a number of difficulties involving the proper creation of clothing files by amateurs. Gaia would basically have to make their entire system of graphic editing available to the population of a site as a whole--including tutorials on how to create layered clothing correctly, with proper file formats and transparency. Since the administration never seems to have willingly given up their exact layering system, they seem unlikely to do so now, and they may in fact consider it a "trade secret."
3. Copyrights. You've addressed this mildly on the first page, but the system of rights in America is a minefield, and an international system simply does not exist. I can't see the administration risking the company itself over a legal battle that might take place years in the future, and might involve them on a global scale. sweatdrop
These three issues seem to be the major points the supporters of this petition will need to seriously and thoroughly address, before the Gaia administration will give this idea any serious consideration. Until that time, I simply can't sign it.
I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that a compromise can be reached.
1. Aesthetics, or rather style design, if you prefer. Gaian clothes definitely have a certain stylistic similarity in shape, shadowing, highlighting, and basic form. A great many of the clothing edits I've seen in petitions simply do not meet Gaia's stylistic standards--including some of the examples you've included on the first page, unfortunately. Some are far too simplistic, lacking shading entirely. The integration of items that do not work within this established standard would create either very odd and mismatched avatars, or necessitate a lot of administrative editing.
2. Speaking as a computer gaming artist, I can see a number of difficulties involving the proper creation of clothing files by amateurs. Gaia would basically have to make their entire system of graphic editing available to the population of a site as a whole--including tutorials on how to create layered clothing correctly, with proper file formats and transparency. Since the administration never seems to have willingly given up their exact layering system, they seem unlikely to do so now, and they may in fact consider it a "trade secret."
3. Copyrights. You've addressed this mildly on the first page, but the system of rights in America is a minefield, and an international system simply does not exist. I can't see the administration risking the company itself over a legal battle that might take place years in the future, and might involve them on a global scale. sweatdrop
These three issues seem to be the major points the supporters of this petition will need to seriously and thoroughly address, before the Gaia administration will give this idea any serious consideration. Until that time, I simply can't sign it.
I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that a compromise can be reached.
I think that the idea is more to bring design ideas to the administrators, rather than have inexperienced programmers try to code new clothes.
I certainly could design a set of clothing using something like Photoshop, but I'd be utterly hopeless at coding the things (NOT a programmer).
This is just another way of bringing user creativity and fresh ideas to the admins of Gaia.
Addressing copyright law: While I am no lawyer, it would seem rather simple to create a general contract to address the ownership and usage of the art. Say, the creator of the designs remains the owner of all images they submit, but they revoke their right to determine distribution. Distribution is then in the hands of Gaia. That way they wouldn't be able to suddenly request the removal of an entire set of clothes, but they would be able to use their own artwork without fear of legal repercussions.
Of course this one would be best figured out by a team of lawyers.
I think many of the detractors are overthinking this a tiny bit.
While there are many bugs that would need to be worked out of a system such as this, I doubt anyone is suggesting that this system be implemented immediately and repercussions be damned. This is simply a notice to admins that Gaian users would like to have more say in the style of clothing worn by Gaians, rather than leaving it completely up to the admins.
I personally would *love* to see a set of punky, or gothic clothing (I really like the raver clothes).
'Tis a bold move, and I salute it. And sign biggrin As stated before.
-JM
Totally signed, and pimped *points to siggy*
I've designed some items here and there; my faves are probably the feather boas I did for the Pride Petition; I'd die just to have a boa for my avi, regardless of cheap gradients. xD
++I just love the Rejected Materials designs, as well as the Raver ones. It'd be quite a bit of work from individuals, but Gaia has some serious pixel artists and dollers who I'm sure would be more than willing to gun through. I know I like doing different poses when I design a new item.
As far as the copyright status, Gaia should of course explicitly state that all designers give the right to use their items on the gaiaonline website and in promotional materials; Or perhaps having some variation on Creative Commons licenses where the original artist receives credit for the design.
Personally I think there should be some benefit to the artist besides "your work is seen by thousands of users!", because that's a load of bull for prospective professionals. The creative team who works for GaiaOnline gets paid for their time and effort; I think that maybe getting some kind of GStore certificate of rational pay to the winners might work. You can buy gift credits for international users, and they can also shop from the GStore, correct? I suppose the real issue is with the legal aspects. ._.;;
I've designed some items here and there; my faves are probably the feather boas I did for the Pride Petition; I'd die just to have a boa for my avi, regardless of cheap gradients. xD
++I just love the Rejected Materials designs, as well as the Raver ones. It'd be quite a bit of work from individuals, but Gaia has some serious pixel artists and dollers who I'm sure would be more than willing to gun through. I know I like doing different poses when I design a new item.
As far as the copyright status, Gaia should of course explicitly state that all designers give the right to use their items on the gaiaonline website and in promotional materials; Or perhaps having some variation on Creative Commons licenses where the original artist receives credit for the design.
Personally I think there should be some benefit to the artist besides "your work is seen by thousands of users!", because that's a load of bull for prospective professionals. The creative team who works for GaiaOnline gets paid for their time and effort; I think that maybe getting some kind of GStore certificate of rational pay to the winners might work. You can buy gift credits for international users, and they can also shop from the GStore, correct? I suppose the real issue is with the legal aspects. ._.;;
kana-x3
*signs*
I agree, a contest (yearly or biannually) is a much more practical way to let users design clothes - petitioning for only one item of clothing will never work; the amount of micromanagement it requires to review every single clothing petition will result in gaia admins ignoring them completely =.=;; Instead, a contest will ensure that the winners actually deserve to win, and cuts down on a lot of bad entries and weak designs.
In the long run this will actually cut down on the stress for the gaia admins because the gaia community will keep itself interested and involved, meaning the admins dont really have to worry about losing support for their site.
I agree, a contest (yearly or biannually) is a much more practical way to let users design clothes - petitioning for only one item of clothing will never work; the amount of micromanagement it requires to review every single clothing petition will result in gaia admins ignoring them completely =.=;; Instead, a contest will ensure that the winners actually deserve to win, and cuts down on a lot of bad entries and weak designs.
In the long run this will actually cut down on the stress for the gaia admins because the gaia community will keep itself interested and involved, meaning the admins dont really have to worry about losing support for their site.
I think it would be easier though if there were mods that you could tell you ideas to then they could tell the Admins.