We're looking at doing a bunch more competitions on AusGamers and I'm canvassing for ideas for them.

Typically we just do the "25 words or less" dealies because they're easy to run, easy to judge, and (I think) easy for people to enter. Those are really the three main criteria.

What sort of competitions are you guys more likely to enter?

(I'll send a Tekken t-shirt to whoever posts the best response in this thread, assuming someone actually does post something useful at all. NB, this is not a competition.)

how about the best sob story for why we didn't win the last competition?

We haven't done any good photoshopping here for ages so a PS comp would be cool. Or how about a "post your setup" comp, but that's prolly lame.

something along the lines of a highest postcount competition, would be good;

give everyone a chance to win

"If you were a professional gamer, what piece of hardware would you choose to endorse first, and why?"

(pretending for the moment, that you actually had a say, and that you weren't being a puppet for EA/Razer/ATI/Eds)

Best Caption for upcoming game/movie pics- wouldn't matter if it's funny or poignant or lame as lolcats.

Best 100 word game/demo review.

best competition idea competition

Most likely to enter one where you just put in an email address and have a random draw.

Best reason for why Jim is so annoying. (Multiple entries allowed.)

How about a highscore contest with an game that's been free released?

Guess it would be hard to keep legit though.

I loathe the "in 25 words or less ones" they always make you feel pretencious and full of s*** when you write them, I much prefer photoshop comps or the caption ones (cause I won COD4 from the last one :D)

i like what chub is thinking!

although how do we protect against the hax?

fastest lap on mario karts (one of the non cheating trax) ??

Most likely to enter one where you just put in an email address and have a random draw.

Lucky draw ones require a lottery license which just makes it too painful to bother with

Well

The obligatory screen shot comps. meh
Speed runs, high scores ... meh

You could try the beat the drum style send us a photo or mp3 of you promoting product X inappropriately.

MS Paint "action shots"/fake screenshots, I'd find examples but I am terminally lazy.

Also product name written on skanky chicks body parts works for me.

What about a best/funniest screenshot or something/

fastest lap on mario karts (one of the non cheating trax) ??

Bah, don't even bother, that comp would be over in a matter of seconds ;)

yes, i would win

that would win best joke^

I quite liked the idea that the makers of "Destroy All Humans" had which was to come up with a new weapon that fits the theme. Marks for originality, humour and well thought out designs plus bonus points for something that would be balanced and fun.

If you're looking for a competition with an ongoing theme i'd suggest a "achieve the best result on this gaming metric" type thing. An example of this for the Wii is http://wiinintendo.net/category/weekly-challenge/ where they pick a game and what metric they're measuring (something like complete mission X and complete it as fast as possible).

Most racist haiku.

Most racist haiku.

Abo's sniff petrol
Jewish people are tight wads
Ching chong China man

Abo's sniff petrol
Jewish people are tight wads
Ching chong China man

Thats not racism, that's just merely stating some facts.

fastest lap on mario karts (one of the non cheating trax) ??

Voted this.

I reckon a good one would be to guess what blizzards next-gen MMO is. Funniest/most interesting one wins.

qgl under the table drinking comp!

Who can get someone else banned first.


doob you only want to get under the table so you can suck cock.

Get a random photo and judge peoples camption submissions.

Something lolcatz stylez.

Get a random photo and judge peoples caption submissions.

The whole "in 25 words or less" comps annoy me, because you have to a) Play to the sense of humour of the judges, which might not match your own or the general population, and b) Really works against those just not naturally creative.

It's kinda like asking someone to draw a picture of a scene from a game (you need to be good with drawings, and then you might only be good at sketches, anime, certain styles etc) or having a photography competition.

Unfortunately they're the fairest I guess because they're a talent that while some have, everyone can try (even though many fail miserably).

I think the only Ausgamers comp I've won anything in was the WoW beta comp, and that was because it was a random draw.

Perhaps do a "perdict some random event that will occur ahead of time" which is loosely related to the competition (eg, as a very lame example, what game will be #1 on the sales rankings next week, or who will win X tournament/game in a tournament - kinda like a tipping comp).

Caption comps are better tahn '25 words' comps imo. Why not the reverse of that - give a caption and you have to find a photo that would go to that caption? Maybe you guys write a fake news snippet/article which needs a photo? You could get some hilarious results there.

Maybe get people to take/post a photo of the product you're giving away in a store or something with some strange associated scenario. Maybe a template page you can print out with the product as '[product] + [place something here] = ', with the requirement of what's on the right being the outcome. Eg, 'Game + [person holding blender] = ' with a paper factory in the background. Eg, 'Small wristwatch + [person holding growth hormone] = ' And a massive building sized clock in the background.

I don't know. I'm just throwing ideas out there. As a one-off some could be fun.

mspaint a scenario/game/whatever

Due to it being mspaint it can be funny solely due to the fact its so badly drawn.

if you have the giveaways before the review, try a "pick the score" and the first 25 or what ever to guess the right score, am teh winnah.

since you can't do lucky door prizes, make it a captcha answer thing.

you pass two captcha's then can submit your emailadress, which can only be entered once.

person whose two captchas are alphabetically closest to the prize's name win.

it's a game of skill not chance since you would keep refreshing until the assigned captcha is close to the spelling you r after.. then the next one would appear.. if it's way off you cancel back to the start since only one entry per email...and since you have to do 2, lots of people would do one then start again... so you are also helpig out project guttenberg (sp) by encouraging ppl to do them

AGN User ID's, if you've got a number less than 20 you're a winnah.

AGN User ID's, if you've got a number less than 20 you're a winnah.

winner!

seems like ppl here like to read / write stories...

how about a comp to write a short story that could be the basis for an expansion / sequel to a game.

would make for some interesting reading + let the forum vote on it.

fastest lap time on stunts

This is a response to the first post in the thread.


Get a jar. Get some jellybeans. Put the jellybeans into the jar. Take 360 degree photos of the jar... maybe make an animated gif of the jar. Have people on the internet make guesses as to the number of jellybeans within the jar, each guess costs the person $1. I suppose you have to give a prize to the winner - get some $2 electronic thing from Crazy Clarks and say it's worth $80, nobody will know.

Write the first episode for a new tv series called Coonan the Barbarian

I like Idol's idea; some sort of thing with a "real world" object that you can only see in photos or some digital representation

highest score in donkey kong

don't you have to register competitions with the government or something? I would have done the jellybean thing years ago if I didn't think I would get arrested for it!

favourite ausgamers popunder flash ad and why (20 words)?

don't you have to register competitions with the government or something?

You have to get a lottery license (for some states) if they're luck-based.

Raven (and others) -

25 words or less competitions have nothing to do with how much you amuse the judges, or pander to their likes and or dislikes. The format is all about avoiding the need for pesky (and expensive) permit numbers.

The gaming boards in each state look at competitions in two ways: Games of skill (ie 25 words or less), or Games of Chance (random chance to win).

Games of chance require permits, which depending on the length of the comp, and the value of the prize, can be expensive. Games of skill, however, require NO permits. Free. "Easy to run".

Of course, the catch is that many "Games of skill", where a person provides a 25 word grab of how much they are prepared to hump the leg of the judges if they are awarded the wonderful trip to inala, are in fact still random draws. Sometimes you get literally thousands of entries for these things - simply pick a name from the list at random, read their 25 words and as long as it doesnt say "im an axe murderer", then w00t, winner found.

now that i read there's actually a prize, make a where's wally picture, and put about 50 wallies in there and they have to count how many wallies there are and then bam winner

or maybe buy a book of riddles and have the riddle solution as the answer, but i guess you wouldn't have too many people actually entering, maybe have to put email address to be shown the riddle (are you trying to farm email addresses or have people look at a contest page, i don't know). could also be a prize for most creative (but ultimately wrong) response

i can provide the jelly beans;

ive gone through 4 paint cans of them so far, just giving them out to people at work

i dont think i could ever eat a jelly bean again, after all of them ive eaten;

CURSE YOU DULUX AND YOUR MARKERTING DOMINATION OF MY FACE

Spook - have a guess how much $$ Dulux spend on jellybeans each year :P

surely its not free;

coz ive bought dulux expressly becuase of the damn jelly bean deal

in the end, we were refusing them, as we couldnt give them away

what about a reverse-auction ? no need to use real money, just 'enter your bid' one per email address. the lowest unique amount wins.

(are you trying to farm email addresses or have people look at a contest page, i don't know).

Neither, we just want to do more cool s*** and bring more people to the sites. That and publishers like having their products flaunted about.

Sometimes you get literally thousands of entries for these things - simply pick a name from the list at random, read their 25 words and as long as it doesnt say "im an axe murderer", then w00t, winner found.

All the 25 words or less contests I've ever judged for GameArena have never been like this. We've always made an effort to pick out entries that genuinely entertained us. And the same will hold true for AusGamers. I can't speak for other publications though of course and I'm sure it does happen.

I quite liked the SOF2 deathmatch competition that was run by gamearena (i think) when the SOF2 demo was released. The winners won a copy of the full game. Only difficulty with this type of game though it is relies on a freely available demo, might work though.

best computer gaming room setup

If you want publisher friendly how about best marketing slogan for a new game (obviously not showing the 'this game sucks' entries). Or most creative product placement (kind of like jjj did with the beat the drum stickers ages ago).

Otherwise take a random sound grab or zoom in on a screenshot and guess the game if you want a weekly comp.

You could also do a fantasy publisher comp - entrants pick a bunch of games from different publishers (limit 1 per pub), at end of comp those who get highest total points based on either GFK sales or gamerankings score etc win.

how come the rest of you guys can't come up with awesome publisher-pleasing ideas like that!?!?

We haven't done any good photoshopping here for ages so a PS comp would be cool.

I vote this however I feel it will just bring on people putting white speech bubbles everywhere in cs screenshots saying things like lol owned noob and omgwtfbbq using ms paint.

I guess you could give people a phrase and have them draw/photoshop/act out that phrase and take a photo of themselves, then whoever posts the best wins, and whoever posts the absolute worst gets a mug or something with the qgl cluepon on it.

You could also do a fantasy publisher comp - entrants pick a bunch of games from different publishers (limit 1 per pub), at end of comp those who get highest total points based on either GFK sales or gamerankings score etc win.

That's a really cool idea ... base it off metacritic scores. Although publishers probably wouldn't go for it, because it's using games from different publishers.

Competitions should be run as the last couple have as a funny caption/best response sorta thing. However the winner/s should be determined via a global poll that is voted by ausgamers staff and its members across the whole community (are there any other big forums other than ausgamers & qgl?).

Maybe approach some game company to be in on it. Great publicity for them, and it's not some s***ty marketting ploy cooked up by the company... it's genuine interest

there's always the bribe trog game i guess....

i like the photoshop/pic caption ideas but i think the judgeing should be done by the public with a voting system that cant be hacked.

+1 for Photoshop or turning games into movies type comps.

QGL so you think you can dance.

So in summary, I think the following suggestions (by others) are good:
- You provide the picture, entrants supply the caption
- you provide the caption, entrants supply the picture
- 25 words or less comps
- New game release, entrants supply the marketing slogan
- (my favourite) you provide the theme/game concept, entrants supply the gun / enemies (with abilities) etc...

I think all are good for weekly comps, just mixed around week on week. I'm against photoshop style ones where you (a) need a $$ program (dollars optional) and (b) need skillz (I only have nunchuck skillz). Voting, if public voting, you will need to cull back to a Top 5 prior to vote, dont wont to scroll through a 100 s***e ones to vote for 1 good one.

But seriously (kinda), do a Southpark themed comp - best gun/enemy/game concept.
My entry:
FPS
- Character: Cartman
- Role: Heavy Weapons
- Specialist guns:
- Fart Thrower, Fuel - apple juice (longer its stored the more potent it gets), Gun connects to Cartman's arse, Switch between pure methane and flamer.
- SC Launcher, Fuel - Stem Cells, Weapon is a multi-ordnance launcher, Fires (1) rocket style, fists (2) shotgun style, fire ants (cos they eat you alive) (3) mini-gun style, babies (really small ones)

sorry, bored at work...
:)