In the last few months, interest in the contest has dropped significantly. Reason could be their unofficialness, but I can't remember other unofficial contest having so few participants. People who don't join contests (anymore), can you please give a possible reason why you don't join contests? And to everyone, do you have suggestions to improve? Or general ideas? I just want to investigate why so few people join lately.

__________________
SpeedZone Editor
Hi! I am a forum signature virus. Please copy/paste me to your signature to help me spread!
Yay!...I got a kilopost! (1,000 posts)

I never really go for these contests but I guess I can say something.

People have other things that come before the computer and simulations like school, work, and personal life issues.

I'd suggest maybe twisting up the objective more and give it a spot on the home page.

I don't participate either because I don't know how to practice NoLimits correctly in order to make good rides. But on ^'s post, even with School and all, there's still a month to complete the ride. So, I think the reason is that maybe more people do not join because their confidence in their skills may not be high. And the only way to become better is to practice. And with an instruction manual that does not tell you what to practice, it's hard.

I play the trumpet and I know how to practice it: there's exercise books and techniques that can be followed. Sure there's the question thread, but there are no exercises to practice. Unless I'm unaware of them. That's what I think about it.

Why does that imply a decrease in interest? I only see that as a reason for interest to be low, but not as a reason for interest to drop (even further).

I would like to know why people who used to join now don't join anymore.

__________________
SpeedZone Editor
Hi! I am a forum signature virus. Please copy/paste me to your signature to help me spread!
Yay!...I got a kilopost! (1,000 posts)

Maybe the people who used to join only joined for the official contests because they had a chance at the season pass prize.

The prize wasn't even a big deal to me. Though, I only joined 1 contest I think.

I haven't really enjoyed the rules very much because when I finished say a hyper coaster the rules would end being to make a hyper coaster that month. I have less free time from school now also. A major turn off for me was the partner contest, I really didn't like that one.

I think you should make more challenging contests. I would love seeing something where you gave us a template with a mountain, islands, etc, and tell us a challenge to go with it (like telling us that we have to stop at 3 of the 5 islands, then give bonus points for visiting more then the required amount). I think the simplicity of the contests turns people away, and without a prize to pull them back in, they don't see the point of doing it. If you just did something like a $10 gift card, I bet it would bring in a lot more people.

__________________
Pay no attention to me.

Lately I have barely been able to work on my tracks, so finding time to complete an entire track within a month just isn't feasible for me.

I tried to do the last one with the Arrow/Vekoma coaster, but completly ran out of time.

To be honest, I think alot of people are just losing interestin ThrillNetwork's Speedzone. Just look at the main speedzone page, the last time a staff member gave an update was by Kyle L back in January. The last time the contest winners circle list thing was updated was when I won (still havn't recieved my prize...) over half a year ago.

Maybe Speedzone contests should get its own little spot on the front page? Right now is feels like Speedzone is shoved into the corner of the site and is slowly being forgotten about.

__________________


Q

No prize means I don't enter.

__________________

Yeah, I enjoyed the official contests with the season pass prize...It was a huge incentive to enter. That's the reason why I haven't entered since last year. WWS has a contest with a $50 prize, and I'm in that. Also, prizes make competitions more competitive.

__________________
Check out my NL recreation, Superman SFNE! http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/...ad.php?t=33703

^So maybe we should start charging for Speedzone?

I don'ty know about the rest of you, but prizes cost money...perhaps Speedzone should be a pay-site then?

I never knew any of your NL designs could be worth that much , I thought we all did this for FUN and friendly competition.

I guess I was wrong.

__________________

Unfortunetly this year due to the new Six Flags changes we aren't getting a season pass as a prize this year. I however am working on an alternative for SZ. Please bare with us, keep entering our contests, you will get better and will be in great shape for our official contest.

__________________
~ThrillNetwork's Social Networking Director~
This signature is up for rent.

I could careless for a prize like i said earlier. Its just a nice reward to get one if you win. Its not the main reason why I join the contest.

"I never knew any of your NL designs could be worth that much , I thought we all did this for FUN and friendly competition."

That's true, but I have much much more fun when designing my own coasters with my own criteria, hence why I haven't entered any contests without prizes. No, I'm not in it just for the money or prize. Like most, I'm competitive and I like competing, and I also like to do my best and show others what I can do. However, incentives make me more interested in entering a contest instead of finishing my own designs which, like I said, I generally enjoy doing more (and are still competitive, just in a slightly different way).

__________________
Check out my NL recreation, Superman SFNE! http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/...ad.php?t=33703

the prize was definitely a motivation, but the real draw for me was always the theme of the contest. i only entered ones that i felt like i had a good idea for something original. i havent gotten that with recent ones. its just my own personal preferences.

I never really got into the unofficial contests. I have done the official ones a couple of times though. And I did win 3rd place in the August one and never got my t-shirt...... I just like the official ones better. They just feel more....."officiall"! They feel like there's more to them. And like some other people have said, maybe giving Speed Zone it's own little place on the home page would help.

__________________
"If you focus on your giants, you stumble. If you focus on God, your giants tumble."

I think that part of the reason that contest interest is so low is because interest in the Speedzone section seems to have dropped off quite a bit. As for the contest being unoffiicial vs official, I do think that the prize was a little incentive for me atleast to participate in the official contests. Also, having a link to your coaster being posted on the front page of the Speedzone section was nice (mines still up there seven months later!). As a suggestion to get more interest though, I don't think you need a prize, but by posting the winning coasters on the homepage of Speedzone, that would atleast make these contests feel more official. Just a thought.

__________________
My Nolimits roller coasters:
Big Bad Wolf (2nd Place -August Contest 05)

I tell you exactly why contest interest has dropped.

1. No more prizes, plus those who won prizes never recieved them.........can you say lame?

2. People have things other than NL to do.

3. There have been months where the contest coaster was changed or the contest was changed (ex. May/June being changed to just May).

4. When people do have time to build with NL, they build what THEY want to build, which is not necessarily what the contest coaster type is. EX: I've been working on an Intamin Junior Hyper for 6 months now (on and off), but none of the contests have a coaster of that style available.

5. People aren't confident in their NL skills because they are afraid of getting owned by those who use tools.

6. IMHO, one month (except in the summer) isn't long enough to build a coaster, as you have streaks of a lot of work done, and then you have weeks where you feel like doing nothing.

7. For the most part, the contest is way too broad (design a Vekoma/Arrow corkscrew). it needs to be more specific and encorporate terrain. Just look at the Coastersims contests.


As for ways to fix these problems, add Speedzone contest info to the main page (not just top uploads, which are sometimes a week old or more). To make room, you could just remove In The Loop info, which could have a page of its own or could move to another site (the latter is the preferrred method of the two).

We definately shouldn't make Speedzone cost any money, since it already has low user activity anyway. Just take some of the ad money and put it toward some prizes. Or just write Six Flags and ask for sponsorship again.

__________________

Whats with everyone and saying put speedzone on the homepage? Isn't some stuff speed-zone related already there?

^Yeah, but it just says "Latest 5 Uploads," which covers all roller coaster games and is way too general (It should at least specify RCT 1/2/3 or NL or other). Plus, sometimes the number 4 and 5 uploads are over a week old.

__________________

I see. I rarely every look at the home page so I doesn't really bother me. But to get NL contests spread more I guess something has to be done.

They should get better at handbuilding then. I managed to make Raspberry Beer Blast with no tools at all.

I got my pass and went to Great Adventure - 9 hours away on it.
Owned.

I still hand build and I seem to do just fine. The only time I use tools are for hills (which is about as easy as drinking from a cup - theres a ton of tutorials on building hills) and using the AHG to output my ride which isnt doing anything but heartlining the track I BUILT by hand and smoothed.

Owned x2.


This whole "confidence" thing is irrelevant. If you dont join because you have low confidence then you also are afraid of defeat and failure which lends itself to something greater in life.

But if thats all thats holding people back - thats sad. I joined like 2-3 contests before I was ANY good at all. I even have one or two of them laying around and they are pretty crappy. But I still entered.


I found in those cases I learned the most because I tried new ways to build and new elements which required me to be innovative and creative.

__________________
#1 Ride - Voyage @ night
#2 Ride - Voyage @ day
#3 Ride - Voyage anytime.
High Quality Coaster Gallery http://www.real-coasters.com/

I've only entered a couple contests but every spring my interest drops because it's the end of the spring semester, I start going to car shows, I start going to parks, and I pick up more hours at work. That's my story anyways.

__________________
Holy CoW! - another NoLimits project

RIP Geauga Lake 1888-2007
F CF

Another thing that would help is if you updated the winners circle thingy w/ every contest, official or unofficial. That would show people that there is something going on.

__________________
"If you focus on your giants, you stumble. If you focus on God, your giants tumble."

The summer is always the slow time. As said above, people go outside.

__________________
#1 Ride - Voyage @ night
#2 Ride - Voyage @ day
#3 Ride - Voyage anytime.
High Quality Coaster Gallery http://www.real-coasters.com/

1. no prizes
2. not enough publicity? winners circle and front page specials on contest winners would help....
3. final exams etc holding up high school to college aged students from competing, who make up at least half of these forums (if not more)

__________________
Stanley Cup. CHAMPS.. CAROLINA HURRICANES
========================================
Montreal, New Jersey, Buffalo, and Edmonton went home EMPTY HANDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Which one? ;-)

Haha. You remember. I freaking sucked at NL at the time. We pulled it off though. We got a 8.04 rating on CS. Though only 4 people voted.