Level Contest 9: The Autumn Contest

[HeroLinik]

OK guys, I'm finally gonna admit why some of my reviews were bad, and do not say that this is an excuse to be a CC10 judge. Read through this and take note of the real reasoning as to why my reviews were bad, and do not say that I am making things up, because each part of info here is utterly true.

So I was picked as a judge for CC7, and I felt honoured to be the judge as it was for a site-wide contest, as well as for other non-SMBX community members as well. I didn't submit a level as I thought that I might get my level sent to me by mistake, and I would have to review my own level. So here's what happened:

The deadline for CC7 had approached, and the levels were being sent to all the judges. We had around 80 levels to review, and this was only my second time at being a contest judge, and the first time was in the SMBX Revived contest, but that had only about 10 levels, when this one had 70 more. It was just the awfully bad timing of when the contest ended that was a factor to why some of my reviews were bad. I had exams at the same time and I couldn't fully concentrate on my level reviews with exam pressure, and there were really long levels like MECHDRAGON777's level, which had complicated chains of events, which I really didn't want to review because they would eat up time that could be spent revising for my exams. That meant I was forced to rush some of the reviews in order to get them done before the deadline, and at the same time I had to revise for my exams, so on the review for General Guy's Base for example, I mentioned the level had no exit when it really did, but it wasn't apparent that you had to run outside with the factory collapsing around.

On the day before the Tier 1 results would be revealed, I was forced to stay up in the late hours because I had to finish an important assignment for school, which had to be finished and turned in on the same day Tier 1 would go out. After finishing the assignment, it was 11:00 PM, and I had only four levels left to review, as I thought, and Sick Ass Swamp Romp was among them. Because I was extremely tired, I couldn't tell that SASR was actually a serious level, and because of a combination of all these factors, including exam pressure and important assignments for school, so I couldn't tell that it was a serious level, especially with the Spark spam and Mario swearing, so I put it down as a joke because I was tired and I wanted to sleep. When I finished and turned in my reviews to Valtteri, it was past midnight, and I read through them, and I raged when I realised I'd forgotten to review Heaven Haunt. In those days I thought my reviews would be excluded if I hadn't done all the levels, so off I went, reviewing Heaven Haunt, which just had to be a really massive level, and I was tired as well, as stated before, so I couldn't be bothered playing the level or looking at the complicated string of events.

What I don't get either was that Quill had exams as well, yet he made good reviews and was picked again for CC8 and CC9.

[Chip Potato]

Are you aware that ToB's name is supposed to be sarcastic?

I was being sarcastic myself.

[Kyo]

SMBX: Revived Contest hat more than twice as many levels as you mentioned but okay. And seriously, if I was you, I would have resigned. I mean, you knew you'd have to review 80 levels at a bad time. If you would have resigned and told Valtteri to note you down as judge for the next contest, it wouldn't be as stressful as it was and you would have made better reviews. But that's past now. Zlaker and Bomber didn't complain about your previews reviews only because they were bad, but because you discriminated all other judges for being biased when you yourself didn't even do a good job as well.

[HeroLinik]

SMBX: Revived Contest hat more than twice as many levels as you mentioned but okay. And seriously, if I was you, I would have resigned. I mean, you knew you'd have to review 80 levels at a bad time. If you would have resigned and told Valtteri to note you down as judge for the next contest, it wouldn't be as stressful as it was and you would have made better reviews. But that's past now. Zlaker and Bomber didn't complain about your previews reviews only because they were bad, but because you discriminated all other judges for being biased when you yourself didn't even do a good job as well.

The thing was that if I did step down as judge I feared I wouldn't have got it again for CC8, and he might have found someone "better" or a new level judge. And once again, exam pressure played a part in getting demoted from level judge. And the bias thing about SASR was just what I initially thought because I personally believed Magical Malice Castle should have won the contest because of its awesome gimmick, while SASR was just an ordinary level. Granted, the Spark thing is quite creative, but I thought Valtteri might have told one judge Ace made the level, and that judge sent a chain PM to all the other judges saying to give it a high score because Ace made it.

[Kyo]

You don't have to be a level judge to get a tournament judge position. And that chain PM assumption is quite dumb if you ask me.

[HeroLinik]

You don't have to be a level judge to get a tournament judge position. And that chain PM assumption is quite dumb if you ask me.

But then why did every single judge give it 9.something/10? It can't be a coincidence. Also, whoever said that I should never be a contest judge again made a pretty dumb statement. I'm not gonna say who it is for risk of being downrepped, but the post on the other page explains it clearly.

[RudeGuy]

But then why did every single judge give it 9.something/10? It can't be a coincidence.

What if the level was good that it got those votes from everyone?

[Bomber57]

You don't have to be a level judge to get a tournament judge position. And that chain PM assumption is quite dumb if you ask me.

But then why did every single judge give it 9.something/10? It can't be a coincidence. Also, whoever said that I should never be a contest judge again made a pretty dumb statement. I'm not gonna say who it is for risk of being downrepped, but the post on the other page explains it clearly.

Because they thoroughly enjoyed the level? Don't use unconfirmed rumors or assumptions to prove your points.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

Holy shit castlewars stop taking assumptions.

and stop acting like you know everything.

we know as much as you do.

[Arale]

What? You know the judges are usually in the top 10, top 20 if it's a big one.

That's because they give biased scores just to make their levels place in the higher tiers. Emral is a classic example of a biased judge whose only intent was to win.

Um no, you're a great example of a biased judge. Emral can at least see the difference between a joke level and a serious level.

dude a "joke level" isnt a super official classification, if a level's fun then its a good level, whether its silly or not :B

when you get right down to it, "was it fun" is really the purest form of judgement of games

[zlaker]

dude a "joke level" isnt a super official classification, if a level's fun then its a good level, whether its silly or not :B

when you get right down to it, "was it fun" is really the purest form of judgement of games

I agree that joke levels doesn't have a super official classification, but it's pretty easy to see the difference between it and a serious level.

[Arale]

dude a "joke level" isnt a super official classification, if a level's fun then its a good level, whether its silly or not :B

when you get right down to it, "was it fun" is really the purest form of judgement of games

I agree that joke levels doesn't have a super official classification, but it's pretty easy to see the difference between it and a serious level.

well i mean, were talking about levels in a series thats about a plumber jumping on turtles and eating mushrooms. levels aren't going to be "serious". so i mean, if a level presents itself in a very non-serious manner but is still fun, then who cares

[Nexia]

Holy shit castlewars stop taking assumptions.

and stop acting like you know everything.

we know as much as you do.

Baring the first line, that was actually unnecessarily rude imho.

Don't use unconfirmed rumors or assumptions to prove your points.

This.
castlewars: I honestly agree with Kyo and Bomber on the assumptions part, there isn't any reasonable or credible evidence to suggest that there was that sort of chain PM. A lot of us have our theories and assumptions about certain things, but you can't really expect everyone to be convinced by just them when going to prove a point.

I'm sorry to hear about your stressful situation at that time :/ shit happens.

[zlaker]

dude a "joke level" isnt a super official classification, if a level's fun then its a good level, whether its silly or not :B

when you get right down to it, "was it fun" is really the purest form of judgement of games

I agree that joke levels doesn't have a super official classification, but it's pretty easy to see the difference between it and a serious level.

well i mean, were talking about levels in a series thats about a plumber jumping on turtles and eating mushrooms. levels aren't going to be "serious". so i mean, if a level presents itself in a very non-serious manner but is still fun, then who cares

When we're talking about "serious levels" we usually mean levels with serious design :/

[Arale]

You can make a level that is designed to be fun while still being a joke.

If a level looks nice but is simply no fun to play, I would personally rank it lower than a goofy parody level that's entertaining.

[JupiHornet]

So when is Tower of the Biased 8 coming out?
Obviously after the judging, but...

[HeroLinik]

Also, another reason why I didn't want to change my place for CC8 was because I didn't know that they'd made the contest seasonal, so I thought that CC8 would be held in summer (not intended to be a Frozen reference, so don't take this seriously!) 2015, and I would have exam pressure again. I was pretty annoyed I'd thrown away a perfect chance when I found out that CC8 was this summer.

Also, I'm not taking anything down as any "assumptions" or the truth, it was just what I thought because the scores were strangely very high.

[Valtteri]

It's not strange when the level is actually really good...

[HealthyMario]

WOW, over 90 people joining this contest, it's going to be even longer than CC6 probably. That could mean that I will do even better in CC6 depends on the lvl designing skills the new users has, as well as how many joke levels will appear this time round.

[RudeGuy]

So when is Tower of the Biased 8 coming out?
Obviously after the judging, but...

We are still too far for that, don't you think? Anyways, ToB8 will be started when the judging period is over.

WOW, over 90 people joining this contest, it's going to be even longer than CC6 probably. That could mean that I will do even better in CC6 depends on the lvl designing skills the new users has, as well as how many joke levels will appear this time round.

Depending also on your skills. Don't forget that!