rabidcoyote, Dec 27th 2023 wrote:I changed up the poll to add the third option, didn't think it'd remove all of the votes </3 72 people voted "yes" up until this point and it made for 92ish% of votes total if I'm not mistaken!
Bring back CS contests!
For anyone unaware, in 2011 CS held a baking competition in which you could win Amazon vouchers, badges, magnets and even custom pets. Each participant would also get a participation prize of a cake building item set.
As Lex. pointed out, there was a three month window in which monthly writing competitions were held - that was 2022/23, and prizes were strictly CS pets, so not entirely what I have in mind. The thread can be found here! It was discontinued due to lack of time it seems, which is a shame but completely understandable of course <3
I've been hoping for a rerun of the '11 cake contest ever since it was first announced because it seemed SO FUN!!! But I was too young at the time and it seems instead it's been forgotten and it's such a shame. If such contests were held regularly, I feel like they would attract people to the website just as well as Dec 18th does, and having a birthday cake contest even if it's every few years could possibly help with a more stable userbase. ;w;
If not a cake contest, Fanart competitions could also possibly be a good idea? There's always place for features during events but having a prize pool for them would definitely make more people willing to make fanart, and more fanart means more exposure, and more exposure means more users?
Competition ideas:
- CS cake contest reruns (for every "5" and "0" anniversary?)
- Writing contests
- Write a CS song/poem (since recording would be illegal as per CS rules - suggested by BlueEyedKite here)
- Drawing contests:
- fan art competitions
- NPC designing/drawing contests, ie. for the (new) shopkeep (see suggestion: add the old shopkeeper back by miskit)
- Simple competitions, ie. origami/designing a bookmark (suggested by Codex here)
- Instagram raffles (suggested by i<3 wolves678 here)
Reward ideas:
The majority of those are meant for bigger contests, perhaps even limited to anniversaries?
- Guaranteed item reward for entering, like in the 2011 cake contest
- IRL trinkets!! Stickers, pins, keychains, whatever is affordable!
- Custom pets/items (plushies of your OC?)
- (for NPC designing/drawing) Having your art used on the website as a banner
- CS pets
- A ribbon or title shown underneath your UN in forums, maybe?
Additional notes:
- Rather than having monthly reruns of the same competition, perhaps having set certain months for certain competitions in advance would be less demanding?
- It's important to recognize we won't all do well in the same kind of competition; the anniversary competition could be split into a couple different ones, with one physical goodies winner in each category (or more if budget/circumstance allow it, of course) - one account would only be able to claim one physical bundle, to keep things fair.
Voice of The People™:
CanisCoyote wrote:I remember doing the cake contest with my best friend, we made a sheet cake and cut it in half and then each decorated our half at my house. It was so fun. I think it would he great to bring something like that back again! It would introduce unique ways to get unique pets and/or items.
vinyl wrote:huge support! i was an active user on the site when this contest was happening, but back then i was too young to have a chance to participate. i'd love to see something like this come back, even if the prizes are reduced to CS-only stuff like custom pets, rare pets, and C$ instead of amazon cards.
tricks wrote:Definitely support this. I think this along with IRL merch like the stickers we used to have would make the community tighter.
Harbinger. wrote:Big support! From what I've heard (as I was not on the website back then), users found the experience enjoyable by getting to make a cat with friends or family, or even by themselves! They had fun doing it, and I believe this not only would boost player numbers, but also give a more interactive and happy-go-lucky environment to the website, if that makes sense.
Starfalling wrote:Support, even if it's something different or a variety (actually especially if it's a variety, for the sake of accessibility to differing skill sets/disabilities/budgets for players) more contests would be cool
