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Sneak Peek: New season, New year, New CCC

Sir ArmaMalum··4 votes·771 views

Hey all!

If you didn't see already in this post, I'm planning on bringing back the CCC, in a fashion. Unfortunately not this month, I want to pad things out with individuals and I want to wait and see how a few other things pan out that may affect the CCC's future iteration.

tl;dr of linked post: After getting a peek at the MCCC's inner workings and looking at what I interpret the concepting community wanting, I've come to the conclusion that the CCC had it's own place as a showcase or event, whereas the MCCC has it's own unique place as a challenge. I believe by adjusting how the CCC works I can have both events work well in tandem and be a great thing for the concepting community.

#SO

I have an idea for the future of the CCC. I'm going to be talking to individuals and it may (may) be part of a much bigger project I want to tackle (depending on how certain events unfold), but that's about as far as I'll go with dancing around subjects. I want to hear what people think of the initial idea pertaining specifically to the CCC, largely due to the low amount of available visibility in the aforementioned post. Here goes:

Current plan is to change the CCC into the Comunity Concept Showcase. What this means is that I want to move away from a contest and more towards a gathering of conceptors who want to both highlight their own specific creation as well as see the marvelous ideas of others. In other words the CCC before was kind of like a spelling bee, not fierce but still a competition, and I want to move more towards a sort of 'county fair' where people can see the creativity of those around them and encourage others to try it out as well. If that makes sense.

While logistically staying relatively the same as far as scoring and entries are concerned there may be two main changes:

#1. Schedule change

There will be two CCS's every month.

The first being on the second week of a month, this week will be the entry week and the following week will be the judging week, with results announced at the end of the week (Saturday).

The second being on the fourth week of a month, same week distribution, and the first week of the next month being the judging period.

The reason for this is two-fold. A) It separates the inevitable influx of concepts from the CCS and the MCCC, so as each contest doesn't need to have their entrants fight for visibility that week. B) it addresses a concern of inactivity that the CCC had in the past between entry and results (sorry!)

#2. Anonymous Judges

Removing the anonymous judges is more of a side-effect of the increased frequency of contests. Quite simply, I won't have time to round up judges every week, so instead I'll bring in judges and have their names known from the get-go. In my imagining (welcome to suggestions otherwise) these will be people selected by their previous contribution to the CCC and further volunteers will be a guest judge and, if they do well, will get the opportunity to judge when they have time. Ideally I could eventually build a surplus of capable and generally awesome judges that can rotate in and out. If I get enough I'll probably step down as a judge myself and stick to the role of organizer.

Scoring weight will remain relatively unchanged. I feel it's a good representation of a general concept while still being friendly to the inexperienced (which is a priority imho).

#NOTE AGAIN, the CCC will NOT return this month. Sorry.

tl;dr:

  • CCC is coming back next year (a.k.a. next month)
  • CCC will change a bit
  • CCC may be involved in a bigger project of mine
  • I hope to get the CCC in a form that works well with the MCCC and, ideally, synergizes well.
  • Feel free to drop your two cents on what should be done/stopped, etc etc.
  • Questions as well! Questions are great because they help me help you!

4 Comments

BigBenClockTower2 votes

I'll drop a couple!. :D

1¢: Firstly, every other week is a very TERRIBLE idea. I cannot shovel 3 months of work into 1 week, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this arena. Trash concepts with zero effort will thrive in a system working with such short time limits (especially when the school, work, and life factors are applied), and will not set good standards for the community. While a showcase can work, this move would basically force everyone who wants competition into the very flawed MCCC format. Why flawed?

2¢: As iterated in other posts I've made on this issue, there is simply too much restriction by theme and challenge to foster in any sort of creativity. Each concept created for it as well ends up being very similar because they all incorporate the same ground, which stifles individualism and uniqueness in concepts presented for it (Riot doesn't have a theme or challenge to fit into, and they still have problems with making people completely different, in all senses of the word). Additionally, for those people who spend months (like me) on making their designs perfect, they cannot afford to shoehorn that much work into the small 3 week period the MCCC gives. As mentioned above, work, school, and life must all be considered, and all three do eat into design time (hence the multi-month projects).

3¢: Ultimately, if the competition spirit and philosophy is to be retained, the MCCC needs to heavily consider what made the old CCC attractive. We want to encourage participation, but incredibly strict time limits and requirements combine to make one nasty concoction that I can almost guarantee will turn people (particularly the new designers who may want to try their hand at this) off.

4¢: As for the CCC, a showcase is very thin ice, with cracks already forming before anyone even sets foot on it, and I'm still skeptical how cool it'd be, given that highlights ultimately remain unsatisfying. This is only made worse if I have an awesome concept I spent 3 months on, and can't actually enter it into a serious competition unless I either redesign them from scratch, or settle for a "highlight" that is very unfulfilling, considering the amount of work that was done to make the concept what it is.

5¢ (TL;DR): I would be incredibly wary and careful before we take the CCC into new and shaky territory. As the MCCC is a very narrow and hard-nosed competition alternative, forcing both sides to choose "by-the-book competition that is unnecessarily harsh" or "highlight something rushed but cool for absolutely no reward, mental or physical" is a very, unequivocally, bad idea.

Hey! I made a nickel! XD

Anyways, my cents on the sneak peek here. Again, sorry for the text walls, but the TL;DR doesn't do the post justice. I like the idea here, but the execution given what the CCC and MCCC are/were is very poor. >_<

Sir ArmaMalum1 votes

Firstly, every other week is a very TERRIBLE idea

I completely agree that the creation process shouldn't be in one week. I would be hard pressed to just get the kit down of a concept in a week. And that's assuming I'm on holiday and not in classes :P

I do think we have two very different interpretations here, which shows a major flaw in my explanation, my apologies. I specifically expect people to have been working on the concepts for a while and 'drop off' the concept in one of the entry weeks. I'm not going to do the level of restrictions the MCCC does, any 'bonus category' I plan on adding would be something that can be added to an already existing (but not posted) concept. I will not incorporate a mechanic that forces an entry to be started on the first week, only finished.

My thinking is that this would be happening eventually anyway, when the CCC/CCS/etcetc eventually stabalizes and becomes something that's expected. We already had people really putting their best foot forward in the October contest even, I know Flintfall was starting to work on his October entry in the middle of September iirc.

As iterated in other posts I've made on this issue, there is simply too much restriction by theme and challenge to foster in any sort of creativity

Personally I would argue it simply enforces an engineering creativity style instead of an artistry creativity if that makes sense. Kind of like the creativity that a programmer uses to get a job done versus a best-selling book. That being said I am 100% for the CCC being a place for the latter, as well as being a driving force to draw in new conceptors and encourage a good community feeling (and therefore feedback and the like).

This is only made worse if I have an awesome concept I spent 3 months on, and can't actually enter it into a serious competition unless I either redesign them from scratch, or settle for a "highlight" that is very unfulfilling,

Now this I'm really interested in, I personally did not view the CCC as a 'major competition' but more of a fair, where everyone puts their best foot forward and admires the creations of others, and someone happens to also get the nice big blue ribbon. Of course this is my individual interpretation and I will safely say I have a different outlook on the CCC than the entrants. Did you personally see the CCC closer to a true-blue competition even without a tangible prize? Did you enter more for the challenge of rising to the top or for showing your concept into the limelight? I was assuming the latter held true for most, but I will be the first to admit my assumption may be wrong.

I would be incredibly wary and careful before we take the CCC into new and shaky territory.

10000% agree, and that's actually the whole reason I'm taking this month off to make sure I got the CCC in a good state before letting it loose once again. :D

I'll be checking in with the concept boards often this coming month. I'm specifically looking for responses just like yours BigBen. Because if everyone stays silent or agrees with me, it's not because my idea's perfect it's because I'm not reaching enough people. So I want to say thank you, you've given me a good bit to chew on and that's exactly what I was looking for!

BigBenClockTower1 votes

I can address a couple of your comments back to me (thanks for reading the full post though).

Did you personally see the CCC closer to a true-blue competition even without a tangible prize? Did you enter more for the challenge of rising to the top or for showing your concept into the limelight?

I entered it more for the competition, yes. As someone who has been an avid Roleplayer for close to 11 years now, ideas for characters come naturally to me. I have new ideas every day, and always jot them down. In making a Champion concept, I take one of those ideas and refine it based on the picture I have in my head for reference, which can take up to a month sometimes. When I finish, I conform everything else to that idea, and make it work, regardless of how optimal or not it is. This building process is why, for example, Melanthe, Maiden of the Marshes, wasn't quite so synergistic as she was thematic. Since I put in all this work, I enjoy the competition over showcasing. It's nice to feel accomplished and encouraged, as opposed to being noticed with no other real satisfaction.

Personally I would argue it simply enforces an engineering creativity style instead of an artistry creativity if that makes sense. Kind of like the creativity that a programmer uses to get a job done versus a best-selling book.

I see that point, but, when it comes down to it, artistry is one of the big things a MOBA has against other games, and to lose that is to become like every other AAA FPS with ten identical sequels. Yeah, a new weapon or method of wielding a power could be cool, but if the game is otherwise identical in look, it'll be poorly received compared to its predecessors, even if the new method is unique. MOBAs on the other hand, can design individual characters to fulfill a power fantasy and archetype (unlike having every player be a carbon copy Spartan in a different color), and the aesthetics are 90% of that, with engineering being the other 10%. The MCCC (in my eyes) encourages concepts that match the mechanics requirements, then shoehorn in a character based on the challenge theme (that may or may not be probable to connect to their ability kit). This dampens the character, as their entire being is now based on function, instead of character.

I'd rather have a mechanics poor, but three-dimensional, character (see Sona, who can befriend Undead, make Noxian Leaders attend concerts, connect mentally with whatever a Summoner is, and have her own personality to boot, with the twist being that she is mute, but plays music that can enrich a soul; had / has one of the crappiest ability kits in League period) instead of a mechanics rich, but two dimensional, character (see Jayce, who is a generic good guy comic book hero, in many ways, especially given his relationship with Viktor, who's a pretty generic bad guy "I will make everyone machines, muahahahaha!" type, yet Jayce has one of the smoothest and most complex, yet balanced, ability kits I've seen to date).

I specifically expect people to have been working on the concepts for a while and 'drop off' the concept in one of the entry weeks.

This is more acceptable as long as the restrictions stay far, far, away. :D

Sorry for more text walls, but I wanted to address your perceived questions (if I perceived right, I hope I did D: ).

Vbunnie1 votes

well then if I dont have to worry about not being a judge umm can I judge maybe? I also have been wanting to unleash my potential baby I mentioned before....you know the one about the elements? I was hoping you could maybe assist me in setting it up or providing your gifs or mention in your hall of fame as prize. Or of course I can create the hall of fame and you the gifs? It might compete with the MCCC but hey it is a free system and mine having most likely less requirements then the MCCC would make sense. I was thinking about adding a lore element to the mix but I was unsure how to introduce this exactly...Um tying it to a faction maybe? or maybe a species...aka race?

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