EVE Online Screen Shot Contest – Win PLEX

It is time for another contest. As with my past contests, this one is specific to a single game.

This time around, EVE Online is the game.

If you don’t want to read my boring rationalization for the contest, skip down to the heading that says “The Contest.”

You might know that I run another blog that is focused on EVE called EVE Online Pictures.

The Shot That Inspired The Blog

It is mostly screen shots with very few words. The few words part can be difficult for me as I often feel the need to explain the significance or background of a given screen shot. But I manage to hold off that need most of the time.

The pattern of the site is simple.  I post two screen shots a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Some times I post more, but usually it is just two a week. I tend to pick them out and queue them up to post about a month in advance. It is a pretty low maintenance affair.

Only I haven’t been playing much EVE Online lately. I’ve been playing a bit of the economic game to extend my subscription, since I’ve been living on ISK purchased PLEX since May. And, of course, there is the skill training game. But I haven’t done much else since the Twilight Cadre wormhole expedition fell by the wayside.

Which means that I have not been taking very many screen shots.

I have a couple of thousand EVE screen shots sitting in various folders, so I could probably go on for a few years on what I have squirreled away, I tend to prefer posting screen shots I have taken recently. Digging through the old screen shots is kind of a pain and I seem to pick out the same shots each time through the pile. I’ve managed to post a duplicate picture only once, it is annoying to pick out the perfect shot to realize that it was also the perfect shot three months back.

My solution of late has been to hang out in Amarr, the Jita of Amarr Empire space, and to take screen shots of passing ships and the battles that erupt there from time to time. But those screen shots all seem to have the same “feel” to them, at least to me, so I hate to just keep posting them.

So I want so fresh screen shots. This is where you come in.

The Contest

The contest is simple.

You send me your best EVE Online screen shot.

I look at all the entries, pick the best ones, send out prizes.

What could be more simple?

Well, there are rules and stuff.  Click on “more” to see the whole deal.

The Prizes

The two individuals who send me the best screen shots will each win a 30 Day Pilot License Extension, or PLEX. For those not up on the game, that is essentially 30 days of game time with a street value of $17.50 and an in-game value of approximately 330,000,000.00 ISK.

In addition to the two PLEX, I will also be giving out 10,000,000.00 ISK each to the best picture in each of the following categories:

• Best picture featuring a rookie ship (Ibis, Velator, Reaper, or Impairor)
• Best picture featuring a ringed planet
• Best picture featuring a planet or moon (no rings)
• Best picture featuring a space station (player or NPC)
• Best explosion picture (we love things that go boom)
• Best classic graphics picture (dig into the archives)
• Best mining operation picture (rock breaking)
• Best industrial ship picture (haulers of all sizes)
• Best drone picture
• Best guns/lasers/missiles blazing picture
• Best spacescape
• Best humorous picture
• Best altered picture (PhotoShop, Polyvore, whatever however you want)

All that ends up being worth about 800,000,000.00 in ISK.

How To Enter

Take a screen shot or dig through your old EVE Online screen shots.

Rename that screen shot to something I can associate with you.  You character name would be good.  Append a digit if you are sending more than one picture.

Send your screen shot(s) to wilhelm2451 [at] yahoo [dot] com with the following information:

Your in-game character name:

A brief description of the picture: (ship types pictured please, other details if you can)

Attribution information: (Who should I say took the shot, link to your blog, corp, MySpace page, whatever)

Proposed Title: (I have to call the shot something on the blog, your suggestion is welcome)

See, simple.

The Rules

A little less simple.

Entries must be your own screen shots.  Use of promotional material from CCP will disqualify you immediately.  We’ve all seen them.  Don’t bother.

Use of the work of other people without their express consent is also forbidden.  Just be good and use your own screen shots, okay?

If I have already linked to or posted a screen shot of yours on EVE Online Pictures, you may not submit it for this contest.  Sorry.

You may enter up to five screen shots.

You must submit your entry via email to wilhelm2451 [at] yahoo [dot] com.  The subject of the email should say something like “EVE Online Contest” so I can find it easily in the spam folder if Yahoo happens to have taken a dislike to you, your domain, or your country.

Your picture should be in .jpg or .png format.  If you send me a .bmp, I will likely convert it to one of those formats before posting it.  If you send me a picture in a format that PaintShop Pro cannot open or a corrupted image, I will send you a notification that your entry is invalid.

You can ask for clarifications or further information in the comments section following this post, but all entries must be sent via email to the address specified.

You must submit your entry Noon Pacific Time of Sunday, October 10th, 2010.  That will be 3pm Eastern Time and, since we will still be in Daylight Savings Time here in the US, that lines up to 7pm (19:00) UTC.

If you are a winner, the PLEX will be assigned to the EVE Online player you have designated in your email via in-game contract.  The PLEX will be physically located in the Amarr system. It is already purchased and sitting there.  But as I understand the working of PLEX, you can apply it to your account remotely.

Winners will be announced in a post on Sunday, October 17th.  The winning screen shots will be posted on this blog.  All screen shots submitted will, over time, be posted, with attribution, on EVE Online Pictures.  Unless your picture is crap.  I won’t be posting that.

Any given individual can only win a single prize.  If you win one of the PLEX, you cannot win one of the other categories as well.  Similarly, if you manage a screen shot that pulls together all of the category elements in a single shot, you can still only win in a single category.

Both PLEX prizes will be awarded, even if I only get two entries.  If I only get one entry, then that person will get both.  If I get no entries… well… screw you all then.

The 10 million ISK prizes for specific categories will only be awarded if I receive pictures that fit a given category.  If I get no industrial screen shots, no prize for best industrial ship picture will be awarded.  Alternatively, the list of categories is not fixed.  Feel free to suggest a category in the comments.  I may come up with additional categories as time goes on.

You may opt to donate the PLEX, should you win, to the current PLEX For Good campaign.  This option is especially appropriate if you are not currently playing EVE Online but want to enter the contest.

While I will consult with others to help winnow down the field of entrants, the winner will be decided by me and me alone.

Any questions, ambiguity, or disputes will be resolved by me alone and all decisions will be final.  There is no appeals process.

Suggestions

Go look at EVE Online Pictures.  That will give you an idea of what I like.

Then you can either cater to my whims or say, “screw you buddy, I listen to my own muse!”

My own style tends to be 4:3 aspect ratio pictures with the subject in the center that have a punch-in-the-face obviousness to them.  “Look, a ship!” or “Look, a space station!”

The flaw in that is that my shots tend to be static, like the holiday shots my mother-in-law insists on taking.  Everybody stand still.  Smile.  Move in a bit.  Shift over to the right.  Is everybody ready?  Wait, let’s get Joe in the picture.

So I am drawn to more dynamic shots.  I have a few explosions of my own, but could always use more.

I will also probably favor shots of ships I do not yet have on display.  Being Caldari and living in Amarr, I have a lot of Caldari and Amarr ships, stations, jump gates, and so on, but not so many Gallente or Minmatar

You can crop.  I do at times.  However, if you are getting down to, say, 800×600 in size, you might be hurting yourself.  I hate to say it, but size does matter.

You can leave the UI on, but it had better be part of the message of the screen shot.  Nobody who leave the UI visible is likely to win the “best spacescape” prize, as an example.

Watch for confidential items.  If your alliance has an ultra-secret channel, don’t send me a screen shot with the channel visible.

Final Thoughts

If you have any questions, email me or post a comment.

Now go find that winning screen shot.