37 replies to this topic

[Darklord]

Rule number one, you have to be a member of wamp to enter. Rule number 7, public vote. This all means that popular wamp persons have an advantage.
Thanks but, no thanks. Good luck to all who choose to enter.

You have to be a member in order to use our gallery (both to submit and to vote). We have over 2200 members we dont need to troll for new ones!
As for public vote you will find that most of our contests are won by new or relatively new members.

It might sound cliched but Wamp really is the friendly mini place. We have always had peer voting and the best stuff always win. 99% of people enter our contests for the fun of it, you only have to see all the help people give their fellow competitors in the WIP threads to know that its about painting first winning second.

I appreciate its your own choice to enter and I respect that but feel a little dismayed with being tarred with a trolling brush. We have hosted these contests for years now and Wamp is THE place for online contests and attract the biggest companies around for them. Theres obviously a reason we are successful at it.

But ont take my word for it, theres 3 or 4 people in this very thread that are Wamp members, I am sure they could give their opinion if you wanted it.

Appreciate you replying though mate and if you change your mind your more than welcome!

thanks

Brett

[salyvan]

Rule number one, you have to be a member of wamp to enter. Rule number 7, public vote. This all means that popular wamp persons have an advantage.
Thanks but, no thanks. Good luck to all who choose to enter.

I had considered that as well. I mean, great work will always be appreciated, but I just didn't feel like I'd have a chance against members with whom 'voters' had familiarity.

I'm not following the logic here; I understand the sentiment, but not the logic. Couldn't the same point be made for anyone new to this board? Certainly there are more "popular" members here for whom the same could be said. Regardless, I signed up for a new account with WAMP when the contest thread went up and I'll be entering (since I'll be painting anyway; might as well enter). I looked through some of the galleries and there are some talented painters, so I really doubt I will place, but it will definitely make me push myself a little harder.

[Nameless]

Rule number one, you have to be a member of wamp to enter. Rule number 7, public vote. This all means that popular wamp persons have an advantage.
Thanks but, no thanks. Good luck to all who choose to enter.

I had considered that as well. I mean, great work will always be appreciated, but I just didn't feel like I'd have a chance against members with whom 'voters' had familiarity.

1. well, that's the specific of any forum-based contest, isn't it? you need to be a registered member to post your entry on the forum or in the forum gallery. it's the same here - you need to be a member of this forum to take part in any of the contests held here. I'm not sure why would that be an issue in case of the WAMP contest only. Not to mention that word "trolling" does not support the image of a friendly Reaper forum very well, even if someone thinks that wamp folks only made their contest to get new members.
2. Adrift, you seem to be a very active member here, and I suppose quite popular too. Shall I be afraid that judges will like to promote that somehow here? Secondly, if the open voting system was used here (and it was used until recently, it was MonkeySloth who changed that - less than a year ago?), would that issue be raised by you?

Folks, let's treat both contests as fun events and great opportunity to see cool paintjobs on Reaper minis and improve ourselves. BTW, Reaper minis are not that popular on this side of the pond, as D&D and dungeon crawl type of games are not as popular as in your country. So, why don't you just help the company we all love by entering that WAMP contest and showing EU people that Reaper makes good minis?

[Adrift]

I might be mistaken, but wasn't the deadline the 24th for 'non-subscribers' and is the 31st for 'subscribers'.

Does subscribing mean an actual monetary subscription, or just signing up to join the community?

[Nameless]

I believe the first is correct.

[MonkeySloth]

2. Adrift, you seem to be a very active member here, and I suppose quite popular too. Shall I be afraid that judges will like to promote that somehow here? Secondly, if the open voting system was used here (and it was used until recently, it was MonkeySloth who changed that - less than a year ago?), would that issue be raised by you?

Yes it was me that changed it. I'll also add that it's very hard not to vote for people that I tend to interact with which is why I have a lot of judges that aren't on this forum and I myself try to stay away from WIP threads during the time one is running as I don't want to get attached to any particular peice of work. But even before that the Reaper contests were always won by the most talented painter and it was usually 3rd place that was the popular person vote and I have little doubt that WAMPs winners truly are the best painters that entered as, while I'm not a WAMP member, I do check out their contest entries and the winners are always stunning.

I'm going to have to support darkloard and Metalchaos on my feelings about contests, if you're entering solely to win you're doing it for the wrong reason. You should be entering one to challenge\motivate yourself and to have fun.

[buglips*the*goblin]

Fun is the key. I'm not one for contests most of the time, but I'll probably get more involved in the ones on the Reaper site. I don't especially care about winning, I'm all about the participation. That's why I run so many WIP things, all of which are either interactive or illustrations of my attempts (semi successful) not to embarass myself.

I distrust contests, but I have no particular reason to find WAMP's suspect. Given that, I'd extend the benefit of the doubt that that community is enthused enough about the process and joy of the hobby that it would overrule any temptation for bias - and that would be my position until given reason to believe otherwise.

Basically if Reaper still had public voting, and I won first place - you'd know it was rigged. I've accumulated over 600 likes somehow, in under two months, so I guess that qualifies me numerically as popular, but my skills do not support first place. If I beat out, say, Adrift (whose use of color consistently blows my mind) then something fishy happened in the process. (If such a hypothetical situation arose, however, I wouldn't accept that result and would withdraw)

It becomes less clear if somebody is popular and skilled, but I'd still (and remember that I completely distrust contests as a rule) need to see some evidence before calling shenanigans.

[Adrift]

If I beat out, say, Adrift (whose use of color consistently blows my mind) then something fishy happened in the process. (If such a hypothetical situation arose, however, I wouldn't accept that result and would withdraw) It becomes less clear if somebody is popular and skilled, but I'd still (and remember that I completely distrust contests as a rule) need to see some evidence before calling shenanigans.

Thanks buglips. And yes, you are popular b/c you're hysterical. During the KS campaign I was more interested in the next hillarious thing that would come from your seemingly endless trove of material. I mean, one of the artists custom made you an icon!!!

[buglips*the*goblin]

Hey, who am I to argue? If I'm amusing and making people happy then it's all good. It's just a little strange to me, I guess, because I'm not actually trying to be funny. I'm like this all the time, so to me it's all just normal - and since most people I know are long used to it, it's a bit perplexing when I get such a strong reaction.

But it is pretty nice to be one of the cool kids.

[chaosscorpion]

I'll agree with Adrift, I would sign on as much to see what hilarity Buglips had added as well as follow the progress. Sorry for the hi jack; back to the contest.

[ThornDJL7]

My current goal is to be Adrift's equal. I've latched onto his work recently. Long term, I'd like to be as good as Mamageek whom I think is the best "regular" I've seen.

[buglips*the*goblin]

My current goal is to be Adrift's equal. I've latched onto his work recently. Long term, I'd like to be as good as Mamageek whom I think is the best "regular" I've seen.

What, you don't like my googly-eyed cartoon masterpieces? I'll have you know my Ogre could totally have his own Saturday morning show. Trying to turn smurfs into gold, or chasing fraggles, or whatever he does in his spare time.

[MonkeySloth]

My current goal is to be Adrift's equal. I've latched onto his work recently. Long term, I'd like to be as good as Mamageek whom I think is the best "regular" I've seen.

You know the best way to gain someone's knowledge and skills is to kill them and eat their brain. Totally works, or at least a made for TV Tarzan movie from the 80's claims it does.

[Shane]

OK, Just read this thread after a week or so and TBH I'm a bit shocked by the reaction from a one or two people.

Darklord (Brett) is the sole guy behind WAMP. WAMP is a popular forum with a over 2000 members, it really punches above it weight. DL doesn't have a large miniature manufacturing company behind him to help fund WAMP like Reaper does. I'm the guy that does Portal. I started Portal as a way to help WAMP, which has large running costs which where all taken care of by DL.

WAMP is famous for it's painting contests, We have, IMO the best mini companies who sponsor them, these include Hasslefree, Kingdon Death, Sodapop, Freebooter plus a few more and this year for the first time REAPER. We run these contests for a couple of resons. Firstly they're fun. Secondly, It helps promote not only WAMP & Portal but also the company sponsoring the contest. They give painters the chance to support a favourite company, paint a mini (Which we consider the fun bit) and have a chance of winning some stuff back from said company.

I also read that someone thinks that they're unfair and the contest will always go to the "popular" wamp member. This is strictly NOT the case! The last contest we ran was the Maelstrom Games' BaneLegions contest and it was won buy a guy who had joined WAMP specifically for the contest. His was simply the best paintjob on show. The contest before that was the Privateer Press one. This was won by ANA, who, again not only joined for the contest but also is part responsible for running Chest of Colors, hers was the best paintjob on show.

As to WAMP subscribers getting one extra week, Most members join and take part in the contest for free. Portal is available to download for free. organising these great contests takes a lot of time which is freely given by DL. Paying a host for WAMP isn't free. The fact is that it's bandwidth usage is huge, 10 to 12 times higher than most forums with similar user numbers. This is mainly because of the popularity of the contests and hosting Portal. Most people know this but some, who are in the position too decide they want to help out more so they subscribe. As a thinkyou we give them 1 week extra in a painting contest.

[Anne]

Wamp is great! Friendly, welcoming people, and an impressive resource for info on our hobby. The contests they run are great for expanding the miniature hobby and inspiring people to paint (and finish... hopefully...heheh). I love the company specific contests, because I usually end up checking out figures that are new to me in the various company shops, that I wouldn't otherwise have spent the time to look at/rationalize buying. Broadening of horizons is a good thing, and the contests are fun. Get some good feedback, see how other painters approach a figure, make friends, it's all good! :) If you happen to win, it's a bonus, if not, it's cool, you have some new work done to feel proud of.