Mini rant about the latest dev crate contest

I agree. More dev engagement on a casual, personable level would be amazing and do wonders for community-building.

Although I personally did enjoy this recent contest (sans all the plagiarizing), because it did share a bit of insight into the devs' lives. And I always love a good writing contest.

 

Did you draw it? I'm kind of confused on its corrilation to your paragraphs

 

I agree.. which is kinda sorta why I didn't take part in it. Yeah, they gave us small hints that were at least one sentence long.. and I can't write a story based on just that. Or someone who I'm not familiar with, you know? If they spent more time doing what you stated above, we could get a bit more familiar with how they are and then the contests could be a bit more interesting.

 

I think those little one sentence blurbs about them weren't much insight, though. Having had no contact with any of the developers in the past (which I think goes hand in hand with what Kefo is saying) and only having those little sentence descriptions to go on made even participating in the competition difficult, in my opinion. It could have at least been a mixture of a fan art/fanfic competition and a get to know your developers thing as an opportunity to slightly bridge the gap between them and the community, but instead, it felt like a lazy way to garner attention and fan worship.

 

I feel like it's a lot of contests for crates. And i remember when modcrates came out they stated somewhere that mods could give them to helpful players of the community. I really don't see that with any crates.

I realize it may be hard to find the genuinely helpful players, or maybe it's does get awarded and I'm just not aware of it.

Anyways. Participation from devs would be greatly appreciated.
Not just the times they come into pub or campus to do trivia

 

That's why I said "a bit". It was kind of a fun challenge to have to write (and draw if you took that route) about characters with only a small blurb about their background/etc, which may have been what ATA was going for.

Either way, it absolutely wasn't a lot of information and I do think ATA should expand upon it somehow! I have a feeling they like their sense of anonymity, but there are ways to preserve that while also being a bit more intimate with the PIMD community.

One of the devs gifted me a PIMD Crate randomly for helping out with a mini-tutorial for that GoT hunt. I remember Rynnethia got one when she made her PIMD Help Guide app. So it does happen, and I just assume the receivers don't really brag as much. It's more of a silent recognition since they don't get an announcement thread to declare that the player won a crate, like they do with contests. I'm unsure if the mods have randomly gifted helpers, though.

 

I do love writing challenges- I even pay to be a part of a creative writing class, so I get that! 😊
And I also respect their desire to retain anonymity in some aspects, as that's totally reasonable.
However, I think a competition like this directly contradicts any desire for anonymity- it asks people to create an image of them, and even dive further into that with stories.
I would prefer them keep their privacy and interact with us in a thoughtful but professional way if they are concerned about their privacy than host anymore competitions like this, which are just self-fulfilling and do nothing to benefit the community.

 

What are some examples of developer community engagement that you would encourage or suggest?

I, too, definitely enjoyed Marcie's (and possibly the other devs) hands in @Trashieee and @Manic's engagement. But I think if ATA did that for, like, every PIMD-related relationship-milestone, it would sort of ruin the uniqueness and originality of that engagement.

That makes sense. I didn't really think of it in that way!

 

My interpretation of this beautiful piece of art is op pointing out ata's presence in clown world. Honk honk

 

That's so valid.

 

Also kefo hit the nail on the head pointing out that the latest contest was just a form of self admiration on ata's part. And it worked.

One of the descriptions was a Dev that is constantly eating and everyone drew her as a thin character. LOL. They've brainwashed their audience into adoring and flattering them.

 

I was gonna participate, and I still might idk, but I realized I just don’t know enough about the devs to portray them properly.

I know Marce likes music.

Jean made the pet rock grit tradeable after seeing us struggle to care for our dear pebbles.

Wanda pops up in campus and pub sometimes to say hi & thank us for playing the game.

Rodgers really likes Captain America.

Strange doesn’t have a normal avatar.

Claptrap is new.

That’s as far as my dev knowledge goes. Hence my suggestion of drawing their favorite item or something. I know I could probably make an item for at least half the devs with the little blerbs they provided us with but a portrayal of what I think they look like? I just wouldn’t feel right doing it. I mean they could at least let us know their skin colors because I would feel like I was white washing if they turned out to be Asian or Mexican or just any race that’s not white.

More proper interaction with the devs would be great, especially in forums but it just doesn’t seem like something they’re interested in.

Also those complaining that this competition is just a way for them to self-aggrandize themselves, It literally says right at the beginning “This is your chance to express your creativity and flatter us silly.”

 

Or whitexican like me 🤭

 

If that means half white/half Mexican then Hi fellow whitexican.

 

That's exactly what it means, amigo. 🤭 Hola.

 

the latest pimd crate contest left a bad taste in my mouth too. it seems so disconnected to try and increase community engagement by celebrating people that we don’t really know.

(i’m also a relatively new player and i get if the contest was aimed towards those that only know the devs personally)
(which would almost be more messed up ?_?)

i love pimd and i’m happy to support the creators who made the game what it is! it’d just be nice to feel a little more humanness from the apes. 🤗