Comments on: World In Conflict: Call For Cartographers

By: Janto

Janto — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:48:21 +0000

Well, as with any competition, the real prize for the company isn’t the winners, but all the other entries they receive. It’s not a huge issue for fan-created material, but I’ve heard designers mutter about entering competitions and seeing their (non-winning) designs be used by the company latter, which is just a tad unethical, even if it’s legit. Still, could be worse. I seem to remember that some publisher had a clause whereby they automatically owned any portfolio material you sent them, although possibly not throughout the universe.

By: Rook

Rook — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:50:46 +0000

I’m sure once they had 1000 entries submitted, any future maps they would have developed, someone, somewhere would have cried that it was a rip-off of their map. Just look at the UT3 boat map dabacle.

By: Okami

Okami — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:52:34 +0000

1000€ for a fully realized RTS map? No bad deal for them… Not that I’m implying that they are evil money grabbers who exploit their fans. I’m really not. But if there’s a reasonably number of entries, the chances are rather good, that they’ll get a few really polished and well balanced maps.

By: Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:52:06 +0000

Jonathan; as I read somewhere recently, there are major problems having any kind of prize-offering competition in some regions. No doubt that’s part of the boilerplate agreement needed.

Interesting (and quite good!) prizes. The DirectX 10 one is a joke though, since it sounds like all the graphical effects that get added with DX10 are more applied during battle then on the map itself. What do they do anyway, take screenshots in both and compare them? Urg…I’d hate to judge that :)

Shame the ownership rules are so draconian, but I suspect they are necessary, since otherwise there could be a ton of problems. The use of the persons name is a bit unsettling however.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:29:07 +0000

From the European Legal spool
“The full terms of the Contest have been deposited at the office of Maître Venezia, huissier de justice (court officer) at 130, avenue Charles de Gaulle BP 131 Neuilly-sur-Seine in Neuilly-sur-Seine (92 203). They are available on simple written request sent to the organizing company. The stamp will be refunded on simple request sent to the Consumer Service of Vivendi Games Europe, legibly bearing mention of the competition, first name, last name and details of the addressee by joining his bank account details.”

Levels of legal flim flam mean I can’t tell whether that’s meant as another joke or whether lawyers think you’ll give someone your bank details to refund a stamp.

Still it’s good that they specify that World in Conflict is an “interactive game”.

By: Kismet

Kismet — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:46:53 +0000

It seems that those rules are only for North Americans, for us Europeans there's a more down to earth (!) set of rules.

By: Rook

Rook — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:40:38 +0000

I think in world in conflict Dx10 has volumetric lighting (god rays), soft particles (smoke doesn’t clip and is affected by other objects such as helicoptors) and cloud shadows. It also has some special sort of dual screen rendering.

edit: ohh you cynic.

By: Mull

Mull — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:38:58 +0000

Umm, when will the results of the WiC favourite tank competition be announced?

By: John Walker

John Walker — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:37:40 +0000

I think it involves making a map that will work fine in DX9, and then lying about it to sell graphics cards and operating systems.

By: RichPowers

RichPowers — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:07:53 +0000

What type of added functionality does DX10 offer? I thought that was a peculiar category.

Users make awesome maps; contests spread the awesomeness to the community; the circle of life is complete…or something.

By: John Walker

John Walker — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:05:51 +0000

Can we have the same incredibly mad rules of ownership?

By: Jim Rossignol

Jim Rossignol — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:03:37 +0000

Anyone think we should run an RPS map-making contest?