Odin
Mar 18, 2006, 01:04 PM
Yes, that's right, LMAT doesn't work. As much as you want to say otherwise, you know it's the truth. I really wish it would, but it doesn't. And here's why:
1. Disreperencies
People often do not understand the rules of LMAT. For example, take this dialogue from LMAT February:
No. The horizontal rain is mine and thus I may delete it anytime I want, which I did when I could (aka before the deadline).
dont make rules up after starting the thread, foo:rolleyes:
However, it is common knowledge that one may remove his own tiles if he wishes, if not stated in the rules. Some people (like Jerry) follow the word of the law, while others (like Cooba) follow the spirit of the law.
2. Disagreeing
While I understand that it is hard to get 20 or so people to agree on a general theme, it must be done a lot more swiftly, lest the team wastes more time. People often disagree on things such as the presence of horizontal rain (which sparked the dialogue above), the color or texture of ground tiles, sign designs, or even the name.
3. Lack of effort/caring
Quite a few tiles submitted by certain people are obviously shoddily done, showing the prowess of 5 minutes in MSPaint. Furthermore, these people are upsetted when others do not like work of this quality in the tilesets. Sometimes, mini-projects are taken in order to salvage the tiles, however most of the time they are removed by group consensus. The main problem with this method, however, is the lack of speed for it to be effective. Which brings me to number 4:
4. Lack of time/motivation
While this has been stated before by many people, a major problem with LMAT is the lack of time a group has to create a tileset. However, this is not exactly a fault of Violet's design, however, because people can be motivated to design an entire polished tileset in a few days (see LMAT Valentine's Day). Rather, this is a problem with the team taking up too much time to create a tileset. Instead of more time to snooze in bed, the LMAT crew needs a cup of coffee to motivate them to get the tileset done.
While there may be other, smaller problems with LMAT, these four are the major ones we need to take care of. My suggestions to help improve LMAT include:
Include a new rule: "The LMAT leader has the right to add, remove, or otherwise modify any rules, with notice"
Be more clear with the rules. Try making it easier to read. That way, people might be more inclined to read the rules. Doing something as simple as proving a few spaces between lines may make the difference to a good amount of people (I know it does for me).
Encourage effort and reward it, and remove all artwork below a certain level of quality. Quality doesn't necessarily mean a 5-minute drawing in PSP. A good drawing can even come out of MSPaint.
Decide on a theme in the first post of LMAT. This is probably one of the main factors in making LMAT Valentine's Day so speedy.
Reward the LMAT crew for achieving small goals, such as "create a textured background by 15th April" or "create a full ground tile set by 10th April."
LMAT has the potential to be great, we just need to be able to squeeze this potential out.
1. Disreperencies
People often do not understand the rules of LMAT. For example, take this dialogue from LMAT February:
No. The horizontal rain is mine and thus I may delete it anytime I want, which I did when I could (aka before the deadline).
dont make rules up after starting the thread, foo:rolleyes:
However, it is common knowledge that one may remove his own tiles if he wishes, if not stated in the rules. Some people (like Jerry) follow the word of the law, while others (like Cooba) follow the spirit of the law.
2. Disagreeing
While I understand that it is hard to get 20 or so people to agree on a general theme, it must be done a lot more swiftly, lest the team wastes more time. People often disagree on things such as the presence of horizontal rain (which sparked the dialogue above), the color or texture of ground tiles, sign designs, or even the name.
3. Lack of effort/caring
Quite a few tiles submitted by certain people are obviously shoddily done, showing the prowess of 5 minutes in MSPaint. Furthermore, these people are upsetted when others do not like work of this quality in the tilesets. Sometimes, mini-projects are taken in order to salvage the tiles, however most of the time they are removed by group consensus. The main problem with this method, however, is the lack of speed for it to be effective. Which brings me to number 4:
4. Lack of time/motivation
While this has been stated before by many people, a major problem with LMAT is the lack of time a group has to create a tileset. However, this is not exactly a fault of Violet's design, however, because people can be motivated to design an entire polished tileset in a few days (see LMAT Valentine's Day). Rather, this is a problem with the team taking up too much time to create a tileset. Instead of more time to snooze in bed, the LMAT crew needs a cup of coffee to motivate them to get the tileset done.
While there may be other, smaller problems with LMAT, these four are the major ones we need to take care of. My suggestions to help improve LMAT include:
Include a new rule: "The LMAT leader has the right to add, remove, or otherwise modify any rules, with notice"
Be more clear with the rules. Try making it easier to read. That way, people might be more inclined to read the rules. Doing something as simple as proving a few spaces between lines may make the difference to a good amount of people (I know it does for me).
Encourage effort and reward it, and remove all artwork below a certain level of quality. Quality doesn't necessarily mean a 5-minute drawing in PSP. A good drawing can even come out of MSPaint.
Decide on a theme in the first post of LMAT. This is probably one of the main factors in making LMAT Valentine's Day so speedy.
Reward the LMAT crew for achieving small goals, such as "create a textured background by 15th April" or "create a full ground tile set by 10th April."
LMAT has the potential to be great, we just need to be able to squeeze this potential out.