My vote goes in favor of no this time around. While I like the idea to extents, the horizon is just to broad for it to work in this setting right now. Personally, I would think it would work quite better if it was drawn up assets at the time of the competition. I don't think that people should go to the DLS, and dig stuff up, because where is the filter going to be? Somebody digs a fantastic asset for TRS2004 up, adds it to the competition, X people with TS12 SP1 or TANE download it, and find out it doesn't work in that version, and then it turns into a trash talking ground of either those who use old versions of the game or the content creator himself, because he made an asset that doesn't work in TS12 or TANE. That's not really going to improve the hobby in any way, shape, or form.
In terms of content creation, it needs to be specific as to what the asset is, and I think for the given time frame, should always be something scenery related. Locomotives and rolling stock in general take a long time to get to perfection. Far longer than a week to make it right. Again, there isn't going to be filter, so anybody can dig something up they want, once again causing the very issue mentioned above. It gets worse for rolling stock and locomotives because people hardly ever see eye to eye on what they consider detail and such. This will turn a friendly competition into a war zone that will end up driving more creators away than it will do good for the hobby.
Personally, a system that could work would look like this:
Theme for asset of the week: Warehouses
Rules: Asset must be made fresh and adhere to all CoC guidelines, other than that, the sky is the limit!
Voting criteria: Functionality
Creativity
Usefulness on layouts
Appearance
When we as the users go to vote, we have to make our vote in ACCORDANCE to those criteria, deciding which one was most suitable.
Voting: Each person has 1 vote regardless of how many entries. And they must weigh one of the criteria, they can lean heavily on one of the above, but they must consider all before voting for any one asset.
When voting, you provide feedback on why exactly you are choosing the asset, and then give a brief feedback on all the other assets providing the up and downs that you personally seen with each asset.
I think that by each voter providing feedback on the ups and downs of all the assets, not just the one would help the hobby grow, as it would help the creators drive this game further into the future with the help of the users. But sadly, it can also turn into a war ground, and there is no safe guard anywhere on this forum for this. Certain people will want to use that as a way to bash the creator, bash his work, and not be constructive, and when they do so, their post should be removed, and their vote not count. This should be a 3 strike policy. 3 strikes, and your out of the game with a ban, and then bans continue for users caught doing this multiple times until they get that it is not a way to bash, be childish, and a henderance on our hobby.
I think emphasis should really be about the user provided constructive feedback rather than the competition itself, thus why I believe that upsides on each one of the assets should be discussed.
I think in that form, we could really propel assets which propel the hobby into the future. Because then when the assets used on routes and etc are better, than so are the routes and stuff. The future could be bright, if people do it right.
As peterwise stated:
The same goes for these petty squabbles. These must inherently drive people away, N3V's cash flow falls, N3V dies, our hobby dies and everyone loses. These forums are not, or certainly should not be, a forum for petty bickering, name calling and fruitless dispute, but for for rational, well thought out, positive, even passionate discussions leading to positive outcomes for us all. Isn't that what we all want?
That is a statement that I couldn't agree more with, and sadly will occur on this front, and end up driving more people away than it creates excitement. It is for this reason, that strict rules must be put into place to ensure that the children of the forums do not come here, and start petty bickering for the mere hatred of N3V, TANE, and other people. It is also one of my main considerations, and reasons I vote no. There really is no control of these people, and sadly, they will continue to harm any perceptions of good of this hobby.
