Question/s about fan creation featured at Story, Art & Sound.

Whyte Lyon·1/14/2018, 1:17:35 AM·3 votes·2,433 views

I would love to know what is the in-depth rules / guidelines for fan made content, specifically art creations and what of that kind can pass for SA&S acceptable?

I bring this up because over the last 5-6 months I've noticed a slight rise in fan creations making their way into SA&S. I feel very passionate about incorrect types of fan art being shared to SA&S and I like the fact that moderators (sometimes) lock those threads, because they do not belong there. However a few hours ago a generally talented fan shared their recent efforts with the community [Young Ahri] (oh great the artist removed it). And I think because of the 'young' aspect of the illustration, makes the art work lore-related content. In what may be my naive opinion, is acceptable for SA&S and shouldn't have been locked. In fact I would campaign that the artist's thread be unlocked.

However I would love to understand more because as a "casual" fan artist myself, I've illustrated a few of League's characters in the past. The difference with my art compared to almost any other League fan artist is that I don't draw the game's playable champions, instead I illustrate the faceless NPC's from the lore. I have read the rules of Story, Art & Sound and to me, based on the lore-focus of those drawings [This being my most recent] I can be confident that they and any future illustrations like them will be exempt from thread locking, right?

9 Comments

sumerska1/14/2018, 1:20:06 AM1 votes

I'm fairly certain that only official artwork created by Riot is allowed on the Story, Art & Sound section. Fan art goes on Concepts and Creations.

ModWulf Helhammer1/14/2018, 5:42:54 AM1 votes

Hi!

So when a thread with some kind of fan concept gets posted on SA&S, we usually try to catch it and remove it, directing them to Concepts & Creations. However, we don’t always catch them in time, and if it’s a popular thread, it can rise up pretty quickly and get a lot of discussion, and threads like that we try not to delete (unless there’s something really bad in them).

But in general though, any artwork type content relating to the game that isn’t produced from Riot goes in Concepts & Creations.

ModCaptainMårvelous1/14/2018, 8:30:48 AM1 votes

Wew, I missed this. So, lemme just get this out of the way:

Generally, we -do- want to encourage people to post on C&C instead of SA&S with their content. Most of the time we delete stuff and encourage them to shuffle things over there. That said, mods and (by extent) archivists are humans too. We might miss a post that ends up blowing up on SAS or something might not be reported for incorrect board. That's where the lock comes into play: We don't exactly want to delete the thread because it has so many upvotes/posting/etc. At the same time, we do have to make a point that these sorts of things are in the wrong place. In general, while it might not be the answer you want to hear, the fact is that things do slip through the cracks and we make mistakes or people don't accurately report things.

Now for some other questions you probably have:

##"WTF why not just move the thread!?"

Trust me, if we could? We would. Tech isn't there yet and Riot is the one who holds control over the boards. All mods would like to just move threads but, simply put, we can't.

##"So I guess you're gonna lock my thread now?"

Naw. The general rule-of-thumb I like to use is if it's not on the front page and it was up for hours, there's no real point in forcing action. Yes, it SHOULD be in C&C but I'm not going to come barging into your thread with a handful of views and scream at you. Just know for the future, if that's ok.

##"You didn't answer the main question though!"

Right then. To me, I think the only time I'd view fan art on SAS as accept is if the artist is now working at Riot and has done concepts for a skin or a VGU. It's incredibly iffy and something that might vary on a moderator basis but, to me, it's discussing a Rioter's work. Take Riot Hylia for example: He's done incredible concepts for all sorts of champions and he now works at Riot. It's entirely possible he could translate the work he's done into a full-on skin or VGU. Other than that very rare, very specific circumstance? All fan art, writing and concepts should go to C&C regardless if you're drawing a piece of Lux shooting lasers at Cassiopeia or Scrumpo the Shuriman Shovelboy shoveling dirt in front of his terrible farmhouse.