Please. Your thoughts on joining Monthly Challenges.

[NeonKnight]

Mostly I joined here to learn about making maps. I may need to join another site to learn about how to make time.

No, no. We have that here too

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2356

[Sagenlicht]

Well I am kinda new as well, so this was my first challenge as well. But I am definitly planning on joining them regulary as I am sure I will learn alot by doing this.

Personally I cant see an intimidating factor, at least not for me. Sure I wont win, but I dont think this should matter at all? In my opinion these challenges are about fun and improving your mapping skills

[ravells]

My thought is having different tiers or competitions for the various levels of mappers. Maybe run two competitions at once, one for previous winners and one for the 'herd'.


Map on my Cartographic 'brothers',
-meleeguy

Funny you should mention that...

I just use the mapping challenges to experiment with different styles. If I don't have enough time in a month I try to find a style where I can complete the map quickly (like this month's entry as I was starting a new job and about to go on holiday).

I find that it's the encouragement that I get when I post my first effort that gives me the confidence to go on. I think that most of my maps are terrible compared to others - the trick is just not to let it worry you and to do the best within your limits. Of course it's nice to win occasionally, but it's just fun being part of a community where you help each other get better.

Have a bash - that's what I say, and use the challenges to improve your own skills. All that can happen is that you'll get a little bettter.

[Ascension]

Here's how I see it...in college I was in a fraternity, we had some 150+ dudes but only 20 or so of us really ever did anything..making floats, playing intramural sports, running for office, etc. So no matter how many members the guild has only a fraction will actually do anything. This is really not a problem though...everyone joins hoping to get something out of it...even if it is just the ability to view the pics we all post up. Those who are the most passionate about what they do will be the active ones irregardless of "what others think".

The second thing is that I think some of the past challenges have focused on what I call the "close up" stuff like dungeons and encounter-style maps. Certain programs like CC3 and Dunjinni are the best tools to use for these types of maps with some post work in Photoshop or GIMP. I don't own either of those tools/programs so in order for me to do a pretty dungeon it requires me to invest a disproportionate amount of time creating something. If I had either of those I could whip out a decent dungeon in a day or two but since I don't it takes me some 5 hours just to create a decent chair. So challenges like those require me to have the right software so I'll just skip those no matter what. Sure I could draw something up by hand and that would be enough to suffice for a quickie game thrown together but would never come close to being something worthy of being called artistic.

I joined in June so I don't remember what that challenge was but July's challenge was that inn...I'm gonna skip that, August was a VTT dungeon and I did that one just to attempt to wrap my brain around that medium. I probably should have skipped that one as well since trying to do it all in Photoshop was very time consuming and irritating since I don't know anything about that stuff. This month's challenge was very generic despite being given an initial rough sketch. I just like to draw (or in this case, use a mouse to draw) and close up stuff is harder to do than the city or regional stuff that I like.

I think, and this is just my own hunch, that if the challenges were more generic and "large-scale" like cities and regions and what not that there would be more entries. The thing that I think is most important is the scale...all of us are good at drawing maps but we're not all good at designing a pub with all the doohickys that go inside...heck it took me 5 hours once just to do up a nice table whereas I can do a whole continent in 2 hours. So for me, I'll join in on the bigger stuff and forgo software specific stuff like dungeons.

[mmmmmpig]

I will be attempting to enter into more of the challenges no matter what they end up being. I know that real world intrusions have made it difficult for me to participate or even lurk here recently, but since those pressures seem to have abated...

Anyhoo... I find that entering into artistic challenges of any kind do nothing but make you better. I don't think it is surprising that 28 is a record amount of entries. Many of the people who frequent here may not make maps, they may just like looking at the cart porn that many people here produce. There are some significantly talented folks who post here.

[Aera Lure]

No, no. We have that here too

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2356

LOL. I stand corrected.

[Sirith]

The second thing is that I think some of the past challenges have focused on what I call the "close up" stuff like dungeons and encounter-style maps. Certain programs like CC3 and Dunjinni are the best tools to use for these types of maps with some post work in Photoshop or GIMP. I don't own either of those tools/programs so in order for me to do a pretty dungeon it requires me to invest a disproportionate amount of time creating something.

...

I think, and this is just my own hunch, that if the challenges were more generic and "large-scale" like cities and regions and what not that there would be more entries. The thing that I think is most important is the scale...all of us are good at drawing maps but we're not all good at designing a pub with all the doohickys that go inside...heck it took me 5 hours once just to do up a nice table whereas I can do a whole continent in 2 hours. So for me, I'll join in on the bigger stuff and forgo software specific stuff like dungeons.

I think you have a point here, one that applies to me as well. I draw and paint maps, so dungeons take me more time to do than overland maps, because the latter is WAY easier to simply draw or paint.
Though for me it's also that I just love overland, regional and continental mapping waaaay more than drawing dungeons and buildings

So yeah, I should've joined this month, but let's just say I had other stuff on my mind, that distracted me from this . That said, I haven't joined ANY challenge since I first signed up, mostly because of those distracting things, so I may not be the best person to comment on challenges

[RPMiller]

To all the CLs: Based on the input from this thread it looks like we are solidly on the right track regarding our discussions. That is very pleasing.

To all members: Keep the comments coming, this is really great stuff and extremely useful to our endeavors. You should be fairly pleased by what we have planned for this next challenge so make sure to get your mouses (or is that mice?) warmed up and new nibs on your styluses because if the above is suggesting what I think it is, I expect another great turn out for this next challenge. (please don't prove me wrong )

Finally, a question: Would you all be interested in a forum for challenge suggestions? One of the things that the CLs run into is keeping up on challenge ideas and coming up with ideas that will truly inspire great turnout. Based on your feedback above it sounds like you all have some ideas that you would like to see. What we could do is start a Members Monthly Challenges Suggestions forum and everyone can post threads there and discuss possible challenge ideas. If each thread is started with a Yes/No poll, everyone can then vote anonymously whether they like the idea or not and at the end of the month we'll take the current leading thread (highest number of Yes - No votes) as the next challenge. This will not happen every month though as we have some other stuff in the hopper for the future, but more on that... in the future. What do you all think? The idea here is that you the members will have much more say in what the challenges are, and thus we'll have a higher turn out, and it will lighten the load on the CLs a bit. So it will be a win/win. Thoughts?

[Gamerprinter]

I think a forum dedicated to Polls of Challenge ideas - is a great idea. I have in the past PM'd Arcana to ideas for challenges, but I think a public suggestion box and voting tool, would go far to keep interests high, giving users a collaborative way to gear the direction to where they want to go.

I'm all for that!

GP

[Jkaen]

I wouldn't suggest any ideas, but if it helps you guys i see no reason hot to do it