GUI Olympics: Week 3 Results

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 by Frogboy | Discussion: GUI Championships News

Week 3 results!

After lengthy and careful consideration, here are the results for week 3 of the GUI Olympics.

Event: WindowBlinds - Most creative visual style

Rank Author Skin
MikeB314 Airlock
essorant Pixel 8
^^Gabriel G-Pod
treetog Antares
danilloOC Sektor

Event: IconPackager - Best themed (icons that fit a specific theme) icon package

Rank Author Skin
treetog Thunder Storm (Icons)
volter15 Smile 3 ))
farid nafar HFN Sapphire

Event: WinAmp Pro - Most usable Winamp skin

Rank Author Skin
Andrew Mackowski EMP 2
Anemovatis AR7
kriptoner D-Reliction

Event: WindowBlinds - Best themed visual style (a visual style that fits a specific theme)

Rank Author Skin
treetog Thunder Storm WB
- vf - Alloy Bezel 4
Scarebear 10pin
EventHorizon Mime

Event: IconPackager - Best Pseudo-OS icon package (an icon package that you could see coming with an operating system)

Rank Author Skin
Miloszwl d3A
Leothar Amdio
Rokey The Last Order

Event: WinAmp Pro - Best power user Winamp skin

Rank Author Skin
Andrew Mackowski EMP 2
a-t-o-m-i-c Impulse
Muniom Designs Resurgence

 

173 Reply 7 Referrals
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Frogboy
Reply #21 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:45 PM
BTW, if you want to see how close the themed category was, here wree the actual numbers: https://www.stardock.com/brad/standings.html

rpeterclark
Reply #22 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:45 PM
If I had known I was able to take advantage of some influence over the judge's opinions I would have been posting like mad about who I thought should win. That you are stating this after it's all over is what boggles me. I had just assumed, like everyone else I'm sure, that the judges would not be biased by other people's opinions of the outcome.

Plague_
Reply #23 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:49 PM
Frogboy, my interest isn't in the WB/Icons categories, it's in the most usable wa skin category..

Frogboy
Reply #24 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:55 PM
..so what exactly do you think the words "Tell us which skin you think should win" in those news items meant? It's not that the judges use the responses as a guide. But if you look at how close some of these events are, it is helpful to the judges to look and see what other people thought. Different people have different opinions. Like I *just* wrote, one of my favorite themed skins was SugarFree. And it didn't win so obviously the judges aren't being overly influenced by outside forces. Personally, I tend to think some people just go by screenshots and don't use them. Some judges I know consider whether something is even remotely usable even if it's in a different category. That is, if it's totally unusable or buggy (that's another major issue) then they'll deduct points. I've already been talking on the Stardock IRC channel (irc.stardock.com) #stardock about the entries and the skins that people think got robbed (or icons) were ones that, IMO, were very impressive in their screenshot form but when you used them they had issues like having the inactive taskbar text be almost the same color as the background so you couldn't see it or not have a help button or have some other issue that people just looking at the screenshot wouldn't realize. I'm not saying that the judges have the end all be all knowledge on what is "the best". But I am saying that they did spend a great deal of time using the actual skins and icons (we're talking many many hours) and the results are, obviously, the result of several different judges giving their own votes that often had nothing in common with another judge. This is particularly true on ones that are really a matter of taste (like the themed ones).

Frogboy
Reply #25 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:56 PM
Plague: The nullsoft guys were the main judges on the Winamp ones so talk to them over at Winamp.com.

rpeterclark
Reply #26 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 1:02 PM
I suppose it should have then read "Tell us which skin you think should win because the judges will take what you say into account when deciding the winners". Otherwise I had taken it simply as a way to keep everyone excited and talking about the competition.

Plague_
Reply #27 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 1:02 PM
Well, as far as I know, none of the "nullsoft guys" involved in creating the skin engine are judging here.. Which means they don't neccesarily have the same knowledge as some of the veteran skinners have (I've been coding winamp3/5 skins since winamp3 was in alpha stage).

Rontz
Reply #28 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 1:16 PM
i'm totally rpcs and plagues opinion! FIRST the judges seem unable to do their work properly (and i'm wondering why some of the best skinners say that... could it PERHAPS be that it's true?!?!?!)... i disagree with almost all rankings. ok, d-reliction is great, true, so is ar7.... but emp2?!?! no offense, it's nice, but definatly not first place! and for best power user... impulse and resurgence don'T have that much features but they won... those two skins are those which are the less "power user"like skins entered, in my eyes. frogboy, it was asked that the judges should post their oppinions WHAT made them a special skin, and i think this should be added for EVERY SKIN on EVERY EVENT! i can't understand the descissions in any way, and this would perhaps help to clear some arguments up. anyway, on the next guio, i think real PROs should be judges.

vrank
Reply #29 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 1:19 PM
Congrats to the winners. I'm not going in discussion with the results.

Frogboy
Reply #30 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 1:49 PM
Yes, the guys involved in Winamp engine are judging. I have no opinion whatsoever about the Winamp skins since I don't use Winamp.

StillWater Skins
Reply #31 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:05 PM
I personally disagree with a lot of the decisions too, but I certainly won't start kicking up a fuss about it here. Why? Because I've organised a skin contest myself before (though not as large as this one, of course!). And one of the things that I learnt very quickly was that people will always whine and moan about the judges' decisions. Frankly, I don't envy the position of the judges and organisers of this thing at all! Everyone has different tastes, and everyone pays extra attention to different aspects of a skin. Something that seems to one person to be a minor discrepancy seems to another person to be a major flaw. While something that for one person is an unimportant detail is for another person a terrific attribute that makes the skin deserve a gold medal. Before anyone complains about the results, they should consider this: What if the results were exactly the way YOU would have liked them to be? Wouldn't there be a load of people that would strongly disagree with THOSE results? Yes, there would be, and many of them would also be "pros", you can count on it. And would those people be justified in disagreeing with you? Yes, they would be. So give the judges a break, because if any one of us were judging this ourselves, we would be copping just as much crap from the public as they are

EventHorizon
Reply #32 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:07 PM
Well said StillWater.

Miloszwl
Reply #33 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:10 PM
i am so happy that I can say only: thank You! btw can You change "Miloszl" +"Miloszwl"? Small typo . Thanks.

a-t-o-m-i-c
Reply #34 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:28 PM
I have to say some of these results seem somewhat disappointing to me but as StillWater nicely put it, we can't really do anything at this point and there is no way to make everyone happy. Lets just hope the last events will more justly represent the popular opinion on some of these categories.

rpeterclark
Reply #35 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:43 PM
Even though I was disappointed in the results I would have been totally fine with it had Frogboy not said that "if you had some opinion on what skin should win some event but didn't comment on the news item, you have no one to blame but yourself". That implies that *I* or any of us could have had some influence over the judges decision by simply making comments on the news postings. I don't blame the judges for the events not turning out the way I would have liked if it was understood between them that taking user comments into account when making their final decision was acceptable. But if this was the case, then the people competing in these events should have been made aware that they are not only bieng judged on the merits of thier skin, but on the kind of comments it recieved as well. Perhaps contestants could have then had thier friends or teammates come in and give them in cheer in the news postings hence giving the judges a better impression of thier skin and squeezing out a couple more points in a very tight race. It's not like I am making this argument for myself, I am not on any teams and I didn't submit any skins. This isn't anything personal as far as I'm concerned but if I if did have something at stake in this contest, I'd be pretty upset that something as easy as a few positive comments in the news posts could have swayed things my way... but wasn't told until afterwards and then told they could only blame themselves for not making a a bigger case in the news postings.

sz1
Reply #36 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:59 PM
If the comments were really meaningfull, skins submitted just before events had no change (talking about event on news posts usually stops before the event). I don't think that was right in any means if that was really the case.

Frogboy
Reply #37 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:15 PM
rpterclark: No one lives in a vacuum. As I have pointed out *repeatedly* the judges used these skins for days before deciding on them. That's why it's taking so long. It's a huge leap to assume that people's responses in news items somehow determined the outcome. What I have said and what I am trying to get across is that comments in news items do have *some* influence with some judges. That *should* be common sense I'd think. If I were judging a skin, I would read through the comments, look at the screenshots, look at the news item comments to get an idea of what people are thinking. Then I would make my choices based on what I thought were best. While I can't speak of the Winamp skins I can say that all of the WB/icon packages that won were deserving. I can think of other skins that were also deserving but at that point it's so close that it's impossible to say whether one is "better" than the other. It's a judgement call (no pun intended). Heck, I'm not even sure which skins people feel got "robbed".

rpeterclark
Reply #38 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:43 PM
"...news items do have *some* influence with some judges". I had just assumed the judges were impartial. "It's a huge leap to assume that people's responses in news items somehow determined the outcome". Then why do I have only myself to blame for the outcome? Maybe that was an overstatement? If so, I'll just drop it.

biohazard emirua
Reply #39 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:47 PM
Congrats to all the winners!. In my opinion EMP2 is the best WA power user skin(many features... maybe some of the ppl who are arguing just havent looked it well) and then the most usable for its simplicity... I was expecting Legacy in the best themed VS... oh well.... I only have one question... why d3A was first and the Last Order was third in the Best Pseudo-OS icon packager?.... why d3A was better than the Last Order?(I think the last order looks better.. just my opinion)... they look very similar... they should have the same place

jhon tikis
Reply #40 Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:52 PM
Many thanks first to all skinners for their hard work and secondly sponsors for supporting this event, wich helped (me at least) benefit of some of the most inspirational skins/icons yet. Thanks all. And the judges as well of course.

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