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bonesiii

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  1. bonesiii
    Random updates yet again! Huzzah and stuff?

    I've concluded that there are two major types of food.

    1) Pop Tarts.

    2) Cheese.

    Yes. They don't mix, right? Plus, I can eat cheese everyday for my whole life and never get tired of it. Pop Tarts are better as every-once-in-a-while breakfast.

    All other foods fall under these categories. I defy you to find a food that doesn't fit.


    We've got new phones in the house. They've got a robotic voice that "says" the listed identity of the caller. I put "says" in quotation marks because whoever programmed it forgot how to teach it to pronounce things in English. It's virtually impossible to figure out what it says just from listening -- you have to go over and read the screen to see the number. Kinda defeats the purpose, no?

    For example, if a caller's ID isn't listed, robophone says: "Nahm oonahvay labble."

    We've been going around pronouncing things unavailable with this pronunciation ever since. It's fun. Our cat, Hunter, likes to stand by the door when we're going in and out and sniff. She's an inside cat, but sometimes she does creep up as if she's going to go outside. So I say: "Ohwoot seedeh oonahvay labble!"

    "[Person]'s cell" becomes "Person S Cell". "Cell Phone OH" (abbreviation for Ohio) becomes "Cell Phone Uh-wedge". And then when it gets a last name? Totally incomprehensible.


    Readers of Captain of Treason might wonder why there's been no new chapter in a while. It's because:

    1) The next chapter has hugo RPG spoilers, and:

    2) We're sooooo close to being able to put up the full RPG skeletal version that I've decided just to delay CoT until then. If we don't have it up within two weeks I will be shocked.


    The above means I'm mostly oonahvay labble for stuff on BZP for a while. A ton of people keep PMing me random questions lately. Not sure why, but if I seem very slow to reply, that's why. I'm not complaining, just saying, don't expect instant answers.

    Also, not really sure if I'll worry about keeping the Bones Blog weekly for a while. I've got a ton of potential content, but takes time to write it up. We'll see. Just to let yall know ahead of time.


    Don't worry, though; I'll keep up with the contest voting schedule.


    Physics-defying 2001 set. Recently, my brother moved out of the room we've shared for a years and took my sister's room, since she's moved out now. The process involved digging out the extra LEGO pieces I've had sitting around for a while. I build a lot of Fusion MOCs (using both System and Technic/Bionicle pieces to give a semi-robotic look) for MOCs that represent vehicles and suchnot in my non-Bionicle fiction universe. I came up with an excuse to actually use a lot of the extra pieces that I didn't think I could use -- junkbot racing. Made a ton of hovering racing vehicles and their robot drivers. Twas fun. (This would be like demolition derby, except with no limits cuz there are no people in the vehicles. )

    So anyways, as I was building, I wished I had four of those ladder pieces, yanno? They can add nice texture. I used to have just one of those pieces, many moons ago, but it broke. But I didn't want to bother actually getting any. They were, you could say, oonahvay labble.

    Then, my mom was rearranging, and she discovered a box labeled "LEGO", with a date stamp of 2001 on it. She opened it up, and found a traincar set inside. A real life LEGO set, just sitting unknown on a shelf, from eight years ago. Nobody knows how it got there. And it was supposed to be both black and blue, but was missing the blue pieces (though I ironically had all of those pieces as extras).

    And it had four black ladder pieces.

    Of course, by that time I'd already worked around needing those pieces. So I just built the traincar as per instructions with my extra pieces, and then turned it into a cooler-looking train engine with other extra pieces. But I'm sure if I can ever actually get a better camera than my Stupidcam™ and I can thus actually take MOCs apart, I'll have plenty of uses for the ladders.

    The Bones Blog banner above shows this set (a pic I found on brickshelf of it cuz I was too lazy to scan the instructions ). It's just the car on the right. Engine wasn't included; I have no idea if that engine is even a real set, but the traincar is. Kinda boring set by itself, lol. And that CG pic isn't 100% accurate (those gray handles inserted into blue bricks are really just one big blue piece with attached handles), but whatever. I have little time right now lol.
  2. bonesiii
    How to fix maj URLs -- Click the Edit button, and immediately submit post/comment/whatever. That's it.

    I got B6 to set the word filter to change "maj.com" to "majhost.com" automatically. But you do need to actually edit and resubmit for it to take effect. (You don't need to type anything in your post yourself.)

    Majhost?! -- Okay, I know I advise against criticisms when you don't know the story, but IMO if you present yourself as an image hosting site, you are making a promise that you will fight to keep the image URLs the same, basically forever. That's the whole point of such a site. Besides, maj was shorter, and length matters for a lot of URLs, such as Invision avatar URLs. Maybe there was a good reason for the change, but it seems frankly careless. (And I know there was warning, but I'm objecting to the move in the first place.)

    Sigh. If only there was another hosting site as easy to use as maj/brickshelf... They really are the best, but sometimes wacky things happen o'er there that leave us all hanging.

    S&T#4 Grace Period -- every post has been checked and now this topic has instructions for everybody who needs to fix something to be approved.

    Also says which unapproved ones have my approval -- I just haven't actually updated the list to reflect them yet. Trying for that today/tommorrow.

    RPG News -- Ojhilom and I have been working like mad these past weeks on the RPG. He's away this week, but I've just completed major chunks of the workload. My top priority to-do list before we can put up the skeletal version has shrunk considerably, and I intend to push through to completion SOON. As in, sometime this year. But hopefully August. There's seriously that little left to do.

    Epics Contest -- So cool that I won! That is actually my first win of any BZPower contest ever. And aside from my S&T#4 entry, only the second time I've ever even bothered to enter a contest. (Won second place in the art contest I entered years ago.) I guess I just take a Yoda-esque approach to contests -- "Win, or do not. There is no try." Maybe that's a bad thing, cuz I don't get the fun of producing cool stuff even though they don't win. But whatever -- it payed off this time.

    I seriously doubt I'll be one of the S&T winners, though. Some of the other entries are way better than mine IMO.

    And that's enough for today -- gotta go be contest host again... Oh, don't forget to check out the 2nd Chances MOC blog contest winners in the below entry.
  3. bonesiii
    Here we go -- the winners of the 2nd Chances Beasts MOC contest! The following beasts will be featured in Bionicle Paracosmos Epic #4: Twisted Island -- writing has already begun and outlining is in medium stages. Too often good MOCs die in the dustbin of BBC history. I have seen so many good old MOCs that didn't get enough recognition IMO -- this contest was a chance to bring some of them back in what ways I can. So who won?

    Firstly: 2nd Chances Powerpoint Compilation -- Sorry for the slow load time, but there's the .ppt file I used to arrange the winners and put all the bios and suchnot in one place. If anyone wants. (I might try a real file hosting site later, especially if anyone wants that.) Also includes info about roughly how many of each type of beast will be on Twisted Island.

    I'll arrange this in three categories -- the two actual contest categories, and a third "parawin" category. Parawin is an honorable mention basically; the member who made the MOC already won in another category (since each person could enter up to three beasts), but I like the beasts enough that they will get cameo mentions in the story.

    Bold parts of bios are added by me (not counting minor typofixes and wording improvements).

    Thanks to Ojhilom for helping me choose winners. And here we go...



    Category: 2nd Chances

    1st Place

    Member: Bundalings the Bunny
    Beast: Kunu Leke War Slug
    Bio: A cow-like sea Rahi, it often oozes quietly to itself. () Don't let its size and placid attitude fool you; when it's angry it can move amazingly fast and be extremely vicious. They live in herds, and eat algae.

    Host Comments: Bundalings can thank my brother Ojhilom for winning first place in this contest. I was going to rank it a little lower, but Ojh liked it best and convinced me to like it best as well lol. We chose this one because it's very coherent, inventive, and is built very innovatively. It's got similarities to a Tarakava with the treads, it keeps a very consistent three-way color scheme, and the design is perfect as a slug Rahi. The Rahkshi feet and other surface pieces are used so well they create an almost scale-like layering effect. Also, notice the pieces holding the small white spikes on the very back/top ridge in -- those are hard pieces to use in MOCs, speaking from experience () but here they fit right in. The use of the ball pieces on the ends of tentacles as slug eyes is inventive too. All in all, this has the best of the best in our opinions/tastes as a MOC.


    2nd Place

    Member: Shine
    Beast: Venom Swimmer
    Bio: Muscular and swift, the Venom Swimmer is a water serpent with mutagenic venom in its spines and fangs. The mutagen has random effects, but it always makes it harder for a being to move or fight. It can affect physical shape as well as powers.

    Host Comments: This is also a very coherent MOC that uses pieces in innovative ways. The tons of joint pieces work excellently as a serpent sort of beast, and the Bohrok forehead and Rahkshi jaw pieces work perfectly together as well. I usually don't like red and blue together, but it works well here (and on Takadox), especially with so much black (better IMT than Takua for example but maybe that's just me). And that about sums it up -- it's pretty simple compared to the Kunu Leke War Slug, which is why it's second, but it's also an excellent MOC, definately worthy of more than being left in the dustbin of past BBC contests.

    Note that the beast names and (most of the) bios for both this one and third place are my ideas, used with permission.


    3rd Place

    Member: Darth Vader
    Beast: Mecha Spider
    Bio: Giant spider. Venomous, and creepy. Eats things, and is found in many places.

    Mecha spiders are the elephants of the spider Rahi world, towering over Toa and walking on powerful legs and wide feet. They are so named because only their brains and some internal organs are biological -- their legs and most parts of their body are totally mechanical.

    They are strong enough to uproot or topple trees. They digest their biomechanical victims into a metallic substance they weave into super-strong webs. The substance is kept in molten form inside their adbomen section, which is a totally mechanical forge. They use the webs mainly to construct dens and to climb; they’re hunters, not trappers.

    Host Comments: This wins for basically the same reasons as the first two -- innovative use of pieces and coherent MOC design. The use of the Rahkshi shoulder pieces as feet especially sold me; those are very difficult pieces to incorporate. Also, the back torso use of tires is innovative too -- tires are used a lot in MOCs, but rarely do I like how they're used. Here, they make sense. It ranks third mainly because it's a little simpler than the first two and doesn't look to have had quite the amount of work put into it as those, but I must say this is my favorite beast in the whole contest. Its potential for my epic is pretty big -- in a way it kinda reminds me of some of my original ideas of the LOST Monster (before it was revealed to be smoke, which I admit I like even better than my mechanical ideas), so you can expect some LOSTish feeling moments.


    4th Place

    Member: -Zip Er-
    Beast: Zu Rama
    Bio: A smaller species of Nui Rama that inhabits the caves of the island in hives. They cooperate with each other and can change color to fit their surroundings, although their original color is red. They feed on liquid Protodermis, and have no predators, but are very stupid and tend to get killed in flights and fights. These bugs enjoy fighting larger creatures and flying.

    Host Comments: It's a small MOC, but a very well-built one. The use of the Mantax/vine antennae, Barraki eyes, and face piece (also used on the body) is masterful. The limbs are simple, but fitting and the whole thing works great as the creature it is (even though I believe it was originally created to be Radiak, heh). It has an energetic, dangerous yet stupid look about it, like a lot of real bugs, unlike most bug MOCs, and that fits the bio perfectly. Plus the color scheme is very coherent, and I must admit that the orange and blue helped sell me enough to rank it fourth. Oh, and the use of folding wings is excellent whether it's Radiak or a Zu Rama -- most bug Rahi sets and MOCs neglect that function in my observation.


    5th Place

    Member: ((Primus))
    Beast: Kran
    Bio: Makuta Kran was mutated in a horrible accident that fused his Kanohi to his face. Thus, Kran has gone partially insane (before, he was rather sensible). He is rather aggressive and quite Rahi-like.

    Host Comments: IMT this is the best Makuta MOC I've seen, better even than the sets for the most part. It could pass as a very, very coolified Chirox anyday. And yet it is also clearly a beast from the way he poses it. The best piece use is the silver Onua claws as ribs -- makes a great empty-chested look kinda like the Phankuta if you take the weapon out which makes it look undead. Head and mouth design is very good as well. It ranks semi-low mainly because it is still humanoid, and I did specify that I was looking mainly for non-humanoids.


    6th Place

    Member: ~Blue Diamond~
    Beast: Haze Glow Beast
    Bio: Haze Glow Beasts are gargoylish creatures typically depicted as winged humanoids with demonic features: generally horns, a tail, and sharp talons depending on the gender. Their legendary name comes from their strange habit to glow at night giving them a ghostly appearance. Their ghostly features go even further as they have been known to phase through solid objects. Unlike any other typical Rahi, these beasts feed on nightmares as well as evil thoughts for a source of energy but are powerless in sunlight. They are typically found in caves and forests.
    Haze Glow Beasts are mutated Kriitunga who spent much more time in their desert island's mutagenic sands than is safe. Their ghostlike powers were gained because they almost spent too much time in the sands -- much longer, and they would have gradually become more and more ghostlike until they died. Their haze glow is orange in color.

    Host Comments: Before I comment on the MOC I must say something about the bio. This entry, and one other in the New MOC category, was astuondingly close to creatures/enemies I already had planned for Twisted Island. Kriitunga are creatures similar to Matoran but instead of a mask-wearing head they have a variety of sort of conical forward-facing heads, and come in a wide range of designs due to the mutagenic sands mentioned above. The main antagonists of Twisted Island are in fact also mutated Kriitunga, mutated in ways extremely similar to the Haze Glow Beasts. It almost makes me wonder if you guys are telepathic, 'cuz nobody on BZP knew that yet.

    But onto the MOC: This is also somewhat humanoid, but it's different enough that it clearly looks like a beast, or at least a ferocious alien/mutant. The head design's pincher claws and (if I'm understanding the image right) Pridak feet work well as an innovative beastly head. The faun leg design is also good. Aside from the wings the rest is pretty standard humanoid designs, but it's well made, especially with the hand claws. I also like the four-winged design -- nice to have a change from the old two-wings every once in a while. Plus the very consistent white and black scheme works.


    7th Place

    Member: Major Marvelous
    Beast: Nui Dragon
    Bio: Originally supposed to be the ultimate weapon against the Dark Hunters, this Rahi proved to be too powerful, even for the Makuta, and was sent to be executed by Kojol. Kojol instead had him transported to the Dark Hunter base anyway. Kojol, expecting the dragon to be there by now, had then learned of a boat being sunk about 50 miles from the shores of Destral and a report of a giant dragon flying away. Recently, the Nui Dragon had been living on Voya Nui until captured and placed in a zoo.

    Host Comments: This is a complex almost-masterpiece beast. Ignoring the wings for now, everything about this is extremely coherent. Right away what made it stand out to me was the use of wide legs and body tapering to a smaller head -- a perfect stable design for a massive and tall creature. Too often I see MOCs of large beasts that don't pay much attention to realistic physics -- something this heavy should be built more like an elephant than a giraffe. The side-by-side Piraka feet work great in that category. Further up, the body and especially the Axonn-ax pieces as shoulder blades look great, and the head is awesome, bearing some resemblance to the Haze Glow head design actually. Plus the hands look innovative.

    Now, the wings are the biggest flaw. Frankly, they don't look like wings, but like a jumble of pieces randomly sticking off the back. There's also some incoherence with the neck, legs, and arms -- including what appears to be a Lerahk staff sticking out of the neck's side for no apparent reason. I can cut some slack for the leg incoherence though, as it is difficult to master that really thick look and keep it coherent at the same time (again speaking from experience, and from observation of others' MOCs). But the wings are the biggest reason this isn't up there in the top three -- they bring the look of the whole beast way down IMO. Still, of the "lower-down" winners, this is my favorite and it will undoubtedly get a much more significant story role than the MOCs to come.


    8th Place

    Member: Jadis Faust
    Beast: Charybdis
    Bio: This rarely-seen swamp creature is avoided at all costs. Charybdis wait submerged in the murky waters for unsuspecting prey to pass too close. They then lunge out and latch on with razor-sharp claws and teeth, dragging the unlucky individual back into the water.

    Host Comments: Judging Jadis Faust's first two entries (the third I didn't like much) was extremely difficult. Between this and his Shadow Griffin, the only thing that made me choose this is that it looks more Bionicle, at least for this epic. Then, once we chose this of the two, placing it among the other winners was torture. It's a very excellent MOC, among many excellent MOCs. Look at the pic in zoomed-in-view -- the piece arrangement speaks for itself pretty much as there is innovation all over it. For some reason, though, I still didn't feel that this was quite the feel I wanted for the top most featured beasts in my epic, and that is the main reason it has ranked here.

    A flew design aspects I didn't like, though, include the red piece -- doesn't fit the rest, the chain, and the other two big silver parts. Also, the body's bulk is well-designed, but IMT it doesn't look cool so much as just fat. The direction I would have gone would have actually made it fatter, but just putting some stylistic armor piece in the front and trying some layering like with Bundaling's MOC would have improved it. Also, for the weight, the arms seem rather weak.

    But the head design, body shape, claws, and tail all work great together, and it definately works as a beast.


    9th Place

    Member: Distorted
    Beast: Ragnarok
    Bio: An ex-Dark Hunter, Ragnarok mysteriously disappeared while on a mission to recover some stolen DH weapons. He was found a month later, apparently mutated and unable to speak or understand Matoran language. As a result, Ragnarok was thrown out of the Dark Hunters and left to fend for himself.

    Host Comments: I love this design -- the main reason it's ranked so low is that it is hard for me to see this as "beast" and not as "humanoid". The bio makes it work as a beast, but I have to rank mainly from MOC design, and the appearance still looks more like a Dark Hunter than a beast. So for this one, it ranks low not because of MOC flaws as a general MOC -- I can't find any -- but for not fitting the theme as well as the above winners.

    As a MOC in general, though, this is top-notch. Knights piece on the head, cyclops look, and tire pieces on the limbs stand out to me as the main innovation. Plus the black with clearblue look is striking. The cape works, though this would still be just as top notch without it. I especially like the wrist/hand design -- those two pieces work great togethere there. Body and lower leg design is very simple, but anything more complex there would have ruined the look IMO. So great job on a superb MOC, Distorted -- and don't let the ninth place make you think otherwise; it's just slightly misplaced in this contest.


    10th Place

    Member: The Pointy-Haired Boss
    Beast: Pack Muncher
    Bio: A small vicious (with a cute appearance ) creature with powerful jaws. It hunts in large packs (hence the name). They are essentially equivalent to land piranhas.

    Host Comments: A very very simple MOC, but a very very coherent and cool one, the idea of land piranhas itself is one of the topmost brilliant ideas in this contest, second perhaps only to the Macrovirus or the top three winners' designs. And it places here without even factoring that really. Not that much to point out about the greatness of that simple design -- just look at it! I'll note that though he comments on its cute appearance, to me it looks vicious mixed with cute. The curve down of the forehead combined with the Rahkshi "teeth" gives it that deceptive "I'm cute, come closer so I can bit your head off" look. Perfecto. Obviously, it ranks tenth simply because it is so small and simple.


    11th Place

    Member: Cap'n Bionicle
    Beast: Paleiteo (pal-ai-tee-oh)
    Bio: An ancient beast spawned from the very depths of the earth, a carnivorous beast that haunts the bogs and deeper trenchs of the Swamp. It lurks into shadows and is unseen except for its pale, luminescant eyes. Fangs the size of steak knives and fins as big a Cathedral windows cut through the thick water like warm butter, and legend has it that the accursed monster can even crawl onto dry land in times of great need for food.

    Of course, any who see it are considered raving lunatics, so who knows if such a horrid thing exists within the gloom of the Swamp. Whether it's true or not, it has certainly given the place a reputation.

    Host Comments: This Rahi reminds me of one of my own sea-ish MOCs, the Fihbawa Squirt-Gun Rahi (the second Ta-Koro boss in my RPG), as it's somewhat awkward-spindly looking, yet also dangerous looking. It ranks so low because there's a lot of incoherence in the body and neck design IMO. But it's okay, and if you take it for intended to look spindly, it's an innovative blend of whale and stilt-bug that I like. The tail is the best part, and the cookie-cutter head design works well for this MOC. I like the clear blue "spikes" at the top of the head too.

    What I would have changed would start with that Piraka claw on the torso -- I'd have rotated that and extended it so it formed ribs, rather than just a piece on the side, which would have made it look even creepier than it does, and I would have changed the torso, mainly getting rid of that blue piece at the very top. As it is, it's not top-notch, but it shows an imaginative mind and that is primarily why it's among the winners.


    12th Place

    Member: -Veq-
    Beast: Collosus Keras Crab
    Bio: Big crab thingy. Eats... anything.

    Host Comments: Not much to say, just that I liked this as a powerhouse giant crab. It features a lot of good design, but also looks kinda patchwork rather than coherent. The clashing green color at the top, and the mismatched leg designs stood out the most as flaws to me. But it uses cool parts well, and also uses layering pretty well. Mostly, it creates the impression of being a Collusus very well.


    13th Place

    Member: Taka-Tahu-Nuva
    Beast: Brachio
    Bio: A dino thingy, based on a Brachiosaurus. Just ignore the little Norik guy =P. Gigantic - is probably around 30 bio long. Is generally a calm beast, but once enraged, you can't stop him. Lives on mountains.

    Host Comments: Another that I really don't have much to comment on, but it's a good MOC. Very in proportion to be a Brachio, and the tail design is the kind I think all dragonlike beasts should aim for, BTW. As for the rest, well, it's kinda run of the mill and looks very stiff. Having the rest fit the sleek, sinister design of the tail, even keeping it in proportion, would drastically improve this MOC. But for what it's worth, it's cool.


    14th Place

    Member: kyuubi
    Beast: Rahi Trap
    Bio: As the name suggest, this is the Bionicle version of a venus fly trap. Rahi traps look like plants, which confuse other Rahi. This is how they eat. Their roots help them move around from place to place.

    Host Comments: I was hoping I'd get some plant entries, and this is one. It's extra-simple, but clever to use the green spines that way to form a fly-trap type plant. I expect these will get a fair amount of presence in the story, although more as scenery than major plot drivers, since Twisted Island is a jungle-swamp.


    15th Place

    Member: chetario
    Beast: Muraenidae
    Bio: For centuries, the Matoran of Mahri-Nui have feared the dark waters for many reasons, but one of the major dangers that infests the water is Muraenidae. This creature has taken many of the Matoran's Hydruka while they were harvesting, and Matoran themselves. It has also taken many of Kalmah's squids (which he is not too pleased about). Like all water-breathers, the air bubbles that the Hydruka shoot are lethal to it, but it takes a massive amount of them to take down this giant eel.

    There have been many attempts to tame this awesome creature, from the Matoran to Ehlek, the eel Barraki. It is known to be one of the only creatures to be untamed in the water by the Barraki. Muraenidae has a lot of powerful attacks: a bite that can mangle a Matoran's hand, powerful fin strikes, and fin blades that can cut though the toughest airweed. When it travels in the darkest parts of the waters, its natural fluorescents light up, along with its eyes.

    Host Comments: The final winner in the 2nd Chances category, this MOC was chosen as the single reprentative of a style I've noticed. The winning MOCs above all generally pay close attention to coherence and exhibit often a wide arrangement of pieces in the MOCer's collection (and skill in the MOCer's head). But there's a second sort of "style" of Bionicle MOCs that comes more from a lack of pieces, and probably experience, as well as skill, but that the people who use it seem to enjoy. There were many entries in this contest and in BBC contests that use this style, and vast majority of official combo models use it (notoriously so lol) ever since the '01 Kaita.

    For lack of a better term, I'll call it Grade B MOCs. The vast majority of Bionicle MOCs are in this style, and I do have to say, they may make awful photos, but in person they actually tend to look way better. And to most Bionicle fans who like simple snap-together styles, they may even look cool; I know kids who make MOCs like this and are excited about them. So I wanted to choose one "Grade B" MOC in each category as the last place winner in fairness.

    I chose this one because the jaw design is cool, mainly. It actually looks somewhat coherent in main shape. It gives me exactly the sort of impression of a creature that the bio describes -- a creature so alien, deep marine, that it has to have a Latin-sounding name, and is far more fearsome than attractive, with powerful jaws. I don't really like it at all from the halfway point to the back, but the front half I like.

    The main advice I have for MOCers who make MOCs like this (at least assuming you would like this better; I dunno) is to think about cool pieces for armor, and to pay attention to coherence in design and color scheme. Front half of this is fairly coherent in both categories. It flows well together. But the back half looks like random pieces happened to get stuck together in the storage bin and magically turned symmetrical -- that's not coherent. Also, the use of blue and yellow that don't match anything else is incoherent there too. Also, the frontmost jaw pieces look "armored" which is good (IMT) -- the rest basically has no armor (the Metru feet pieces are okay for this though I guess).









    Category: New MOCs

    The contest theme is both a Paracosmos contest and an old MOCs contest -- in fairness to those who like the theme idea but wanted to make new MOCs, I changed my mind shortly after starting the contest and added this category. I think this basic setup will be the tradition for all future Bones Blog MOC contests -- 2nd Chances and New MOCs categories -- because it turned out great in both categories. Without further ado...

    1st Place

    Member: Atako
    Beast: Nui Chiropt
    Bio: He is a type of bat found in Onu-Wahi tunnels known as the Nui-Chiropt. (For those of you who don't know, Chiroptera is the name for the bat family.) This guy is feared by many Matoran who work in the tunnels, and with good reason. Nui-Chiropts have been known to grow to such size that they can swoop, grab two Matoran by their masks, and carry them away into the dark recesses of the tunnels. Fortunately, they can be scared off by the waving of a single lightstone. This guy also has a face only his mother could love.

    Host Comments: This MOC absolutely blew me away. IMT, it is far better even than the vast majority of BBC contest winners, and it was made just for my contest. That's cool. This is a perfect lesson in coherence -- every piece is strategically placed to work together to form a cool-looking (and practical) shape as a whole creature.

    What stands out most to me is the backwards Antroz wings to form the part of the wings that connects to the body, the torso piece that creates the exact body shape that real bats have, and the ears. There's a balance of tiny, almost dainty parts like the perfect feetclaws and the teeth and snout, with strong, thick looking parts like the bulkiness of the head and the hugeness of the wings. It perfectly balances huge striking shapes that look strong and capable of real flight that are big enough that you can clearly get the shape just at a glance, with tiny detail you want to zoom in closer to in a few places -- same balance I strive for in my .ppt artwork and have mentioned in the guides for those incidentally. Also, the torso piece is used in exactly the right way so that its cool texture appears as armor, even though there is no extra piece added to it.

    Notice also how the color scheme is done. There really isn't much white or red/orange in it at all, and yet where it is appears purposeful. The eyes are obvious, and the mixed colors in the wings are built into the pieces, but there's enough space between them and they are prominent enough that they look a lot like a typical butterfly wing pattern (except on a bat), plus the black of the top Chirox wing cuts through the Antroz red to create a serration pattern (another thing I mentioned as a good thing in my .ppt guides). The red fits well enough with the orange eyes, creating a bit of matching there, and the white of Chirox fits well with the sensibly white claws and teeth, being spaced out reasonably rather than bunched in one random place -- plus the Chirox white is right where a real bat would have a claw, incidentally.

    Another thing this shows is that you don't necessarily need a huge parts bin to make a coherent MOC -- there's really only seven major chunks in this MOC and the small parts are common pieces. The trick is to use the pieces strategically, and this MOC is the emitome of strategic design.

    Sheer brilliance incarnate in plastic, Atako!


    2nd Place

    Member: Vaka-Nui
    Beast: Esranos Dragon
    Bio: A powerful beast, native to an island far to the west, though some have migrated elsewhere. They have powerful claws to slash on their front legs, while the back legs’ claws are meant to grab prey. They are most awesome in the sky, dominating other fliers, but are weaker on the ground, though they are still a formidable foe even there.

    Unlike some Rahi, they have an excellent ability to think. They are very observant, and you will not be able to fool the same one twice. They are masters of using the wind to their advantage in the sky.

    These Rahi are usually by themselves, but will help one another if one is hurt, or there is a draught or lack of food. Fortunately, not many are left, almost to extinction, due to not enough food for them to eat at some places, otherwise these Rahi could destroy much together.

    Abilities: They have powerful bodies, which they know how to use. They rarely go walking blindly into traps, but if they do, they have enough strength to get out. One could defeat a entire team of Toa (with some bad injuries). Their roars can be loud enough to make some enemies collapse.

    The scales of these creatures are strong enough to prevent some damage from protosteel, and therefore cost a fortune to buy (if any hunter gets one alive)

    Host Comments: Another very innovative new MOC, this is one of the best dragon MOCs I've seen in a long time. Dragons are a tricky business, IMO. They're very common MOCing subjects, but very uncommonly do they actually look as cool as other creations. Cliche dragon designs to me look more wimpy than realistic or cool. I think with a lot of people, dragons just get an automatic pass because the idea of dragons is cool -- not so with me. But this one actually looks awesome.

    The Fenrakk piece combined with the Nuju tools for teeth was the first thing to wow me here. I've never seen anyone else think of that -- indeed, the Nuju tools often seem neglected in MOCs in general. Seeing the pieces together there, it just seems like the combination was destined. The second thing to wow me was the spine. Very cool and speaks for itself. Now, the body design is kinda standard, but it looks strong, and the legs are pretty good too. The front feet I like -- they remind me of a design I just used in one of my own MOCs actually. Back claws look more like a result of lack of pieces than good, though. Oh, and the use of the Matau Hordika tool at the end is good -- that's a clumsy piece in general but it works there.

    The main weakness is the wing design. It's okay, but it's the airplane-style of wing design, which to me doesn't come off quite as an aerial acrobat wing design. It doesn't compare to Atako's wing design. It's enough to place this MOC second instead of first, but the wings are much better than for example the Nui Dragon wings, and if you like the airplane style on a creature, I suppose they're fine. They just don't wow me, unlike the head and spines.


    3rd Place

    Member: Toa Talvak
    Beast: Scorch Ant
    Bio: Insectoids with a fiery bite that live in vast, underground colonies and known to collapse the ground around prey to catch it. Some Matoran have tamed them and used them as mounts for military.

    Host Comments: At first, Toa Talvak's Kerta Air Serpent was going to be his winning MOC. Ojhilom liked the Scorch Ant better, and I really wouldn't mind either way -- the serpent would have placed the same, as both are brilliant MOCs. The Scorch Ant is a very Indiana Jones-esque bug that is very cool looking and very coherent. The design is large but simple -- and elegantly so. Rahkshi back pieces are some of my favorite armor pieces, as are Metruan armor pieces, and this MOC shows why -- they work great together to make a roundish, bulky, thick-armored look. The moderate use of silver and the use of dark gray fits well with the mounted Cordak. The Barraki jaws work perfectly as bug jaws. And if you look closely, you'll see that the Bohrok body pieces that make up the back of the body have a stinger attached.

    Overall the body shape is striking too -- huge head but small abdomen section, unlike real ants. It makes a more intimidating appearance IMO than real ants (which have more of a "squish me!" appearance ). It ranks below the top two because 1) Atako's MOC is so brilliant, 2) it's simpler than the Esranos Dragon, and 3) I do have some complaints with it. For one, it's unclear whether the black pin pieces are the eyes or the Metru brain pieces are (I'm assuming the brain pieces are; in which case I would have tried to remove the sticking-out pins somehow). Something more on the legs might have been nice -- not much, but perhaps some red Bohrok eye pieces to balance the colors even more. And the antennae look clumsy. Still, freaky-cool MOC!


    4th Place

    Member: TOA BIONUI
    Beast: Macrovirus
    Bio: Normally these are tiny creatures about the size of Protodites and Niazesk. But one specimen got enlarged under mysterious circumstances and now poses a threat to anyone passing its way. The virus attaches to its prey using its teeth and tentacles and then drains the prey's lifeforce like a sea squid.

    Host Comments: As I alluded to earlier, this is one of the most brilliant ideas in the contest (and indeed that I have seen in a long time). The use of the Jaller crab/armor pieces to form a germ shape is Einstein. The red spikes complete the shape, which otherwise I always felt just looked off for a crab -- this is a far far better use of the piece than any official set, lol. Elegantly simply way to combine them, and the open maw look with the teeth makes it seem just savage and threatening enough to naturally large creatures that it's not just a lightbulb-shaped germ sorta thing that looks freaky but harmless -- this looks like it can latch onto you and kill you fast.

    Very very simple, which is why it's 4th, not first, but hugo kudos for an inventive concept in both piece usage and story!


    5th Place

    Member: Toa Zaxvo
    Beast: Twayzivl
    Bio: Twayzivl is a humanoid beast about the size of a Matoran. He resides in the forests of the wilderness, and has great intelligence and memory. His senses are much better than a Matoran or a Toa; he has the eyesight of a hawk and the hearing of a dog. His claws are natural protosteel, and no one has gotten close enough to understand how that can be and lived. He has great speed, and his black and grey armor help him blend into the shadows.

    Overall, even with all his great senses, he prefers sticking to a stealth approach to capturing prey. His tail has a blade at the end, he has great control, strength and flexibilty with this tail. He can use it as a third limb, a weapon or even a climbing aid! The possibilities are limited only to what is in his range and what Twayzivl can think of. His heart is located not in his chest, like Matoran, but in his neck, which is why his neck appears to glow.

    Twayzivl is a mutated Kriitunga who fled those beings’ desert island after spending too much time in the mutagenic sands. Prior to being placed in the zoo, he lived on the jungle island of Nhoakrus.

    Host Comments: This is the second of the two entries so close to things I'd already planned I wonder if the enterers are telepathic (and can somehow read minds over the internet... ). In fact, this is actually closer to my original design of Kriitunga than the MOCs I have now and haven't taken pictures of yet due to my Stupidcam™. It's a neat little MOC that uses pieces in innovative ways left and right. I especially like the torso design, as it's similar to a design I've sketched myself, but never seen anyone actually use. Tail and arm designs are probably second best besides that.

    Weakpoints -- well, the whole heart in the neck thing feels random. Seems out of place on the MOC. Also, the thumb Bohrok eye pieces are angled weird to be thumbs -- better would have been to aim those up to face the rest of the hand like an actual thumb. Also, the connection for the mouth area is a little weird.


    6th Place

    Member: ~~Zarkan~~
    Beast: Guurgorn
    Bio: With its giant maw of teeth and huge forelegs, the Guurgorn looks quite fearsome. However, this extremely dangerous Rahi’s true power is not in its strength or jaw, but in a bizarre power it possesses. The Guurgorn seems to have some sort of connection with the powers of the Mask of Repulsion, only used in reverse. Instead of pushing itself away from things, it pushes them away from its body.

    This power allows the Guurgorn to hunt extremely effectively – when it spots food, it pushes the unfortunate creatures away, knocking it against walls, trees, and other objects until it succumbs to the pressure. It can also prevent blows from even grazing its armored skin, thus it is not wise to challenge a Guurgorn with standard weapons. Fortunately, Guurgorns are quite rare, and they have not been known to attack Matoran or other sentient beings unless provoked.

    Host Comments: A bearlike sorta creature, this MOC is pretty strong in body design and armoring department, and in head design. The limbs feel awkward, which is main reason it ranks here. Nice back feet design, and interesting way to armor the upper half of the front legs. Inventive bio, BTW. The Piraka feet as leg armor doesn't seem to work so well, and although the huge foreleg tiny backleg approach is unique, it just seems awkward. But all in all this is a cool beast with a cool bio.


    7th Place

    Member: Crudelious
    Beast: Lizard Spider
    Bio: Highly venomous fangs, acid spit and burning gaze (turns foe into ashes if they don't get out of the spider's view quickly)Looks: A lime and dark green spider with glowing bright green spikes on its back and tail and a glowing bright green head. Red eyes and six legs, front legs have claws and can be used as "hands". The tail is used as stabilization and has a venomous stinger. Very stealthy and a quick tree-jumper.

    Host Comments: This MOC is sorta on the border between what I consider a Grade A MOC and Grade B. It's fairly coherent. The color scheme is good. It's also generic in a lot of places, though, especially the head which is just Ehlek, which hurt its ranking. But notice the innovative piece usage in the leg with the claws and the back leg. I think the biggest weaknesses are the head and the simple fact that there are three types of limbs that seem to have no relation to one another. Biggest strengths -- it still looks pretty intimidating, its color scheme is spot on, and there's some innovative piece usage. The bio makes it sound like a terrifying foe storywise, so I'll have fun with it.


    8th Place

    Member: Nara
    Beast: Daddy Long Fangs
    Bio: It was mutated by Roodaka to make an ultimate species of Visorak. Something went wrong, and it enlarged and will attack Vortixx on sight. There are only 50 of them left in the Matoran Universe, due to Vortixx weaponry. It eats anything smaller then itself (He's about 30 bio), but loves the mountain on Xia.

    Host Comments: Like Muraenidae, this is the reprentative "Grade B" MOC for the New MOCs category. What I especially liked about this one was that it goes with the thin limbs theme in a sensible way -- as a Daddy Long Legs basically in Bionicle form. And the front two legs are good for that. I've noticed a sort of anti-thin attitude among many MOCers, which is fine if that's their preference, but as a realist I accept that there are thick and thin, and both can be dangerous in their own unique way. So I like it when I see a MOC that doesn't just slap more parts on just to avoid thinnitude.

    Body is straightforward. Back legs though -- I wish they had been kept more like the front legs. On the plus side there, though, there are eight of them, which is what real world spiders all have (unlike Fikou or Visorak lol). Too many spider sets and MOCs neglect that. (Not that I have anything against bugs with less legs, but the label spider is confusing -- Bionicle gets away with it, don't get me wrong, since it's not Earth Physics. Still.)







    Parawins

    "Para" means "alongside" -- Paracosmos means "universe alongside" -- so a parawin is a win alongside another win. The following MOCs are from members who already won above, but are good MOCs that I like and will get at least a cameo in the story (NOTE: the final one is an exception that won't be in Twisted Island -- read on ). Due to pic limit, I won't d-link these.



    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: Bundalings the Bunny
    Beast: Kamitsu's Pain
    Bio: It seems like a plant, like the Daikau, but it's really quite sentient. It devours prey like the venus fly trap. At night it sometimes moves along the ground, seeking better hunting grounds. Its flowers/mouths turn brown and shrivel when malnourished.

    Host Comments: Ironicles. This is actually the MOC that inspired this contest, and it isn't a winner. Add to that -- it was the very last MOC snuck into the entry period at the last second. I am 100% serious. You could not make this stuff up. Of course, Bundalings got first place with another MOC anyways. But it's so awesome and I owe it for inspiring this thing. So it is the top Parawin, and you can assume that its cameo role might be more than the usual definition of cameo. We'll see.

    I think the brilliance of it speaks for itself. Just... wow. That roxorz various soxorz.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: Bundalings the Bunny
    Beast: Deadwing
    Bio: This bulky beast lumbers around and flies and does... stuff.

    Host Comments: Have I mentioned Bundalings makes good MOCs? I think I may have somewhere in there. BTW, notice how he's used those L-pieces with the curve (here on the arms, and in Kamitsu's Pain on the "necks") -- those pieces are often used poorly IMO in both sets and MOCs. Often they don't look very attractive, as if they'd be better left off. But both those uses look good. I avoid them except where they actually fit into the flow of the MOC, as in these MOCs.

    Deadwing is a cool-looking mix between rhino, ape, Makuta, and plant. It's a mix that works. Although in the normal poses it looks a lot more humanoid and less beasty.


    Categ: New MOC
    Image Link
    Member: Toa Talvak
    Beast: Kerta Air Serpent
    Bio: A vicious flying serpent. Spits acid and eats carrion. Multitudes of these beasts can be seen flying in circles above potential prey. Matoran consider the Kerta Air Serpent to be a bad omen.

    Host Comments: The aforementioned alternate placer for Toa Talvak, I went with the Scorch Ant over this mainly for story reasons on Ojh's advice. This is a carrion beast, whereas the Scorch Ant is a beast that's more likely to be on the direct attack. MOCwise, it's rad cool, and I especially like the six wings -- eight if you count the tail wings. Color scheme is again very coherent. Head is good. Wings look powerful, good for flight, intimidating. Tail looks good thin -- makes it more believable that this thing could actually fly. I would classify this as a good dragon design, though it doesn't go by that name.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: Vaka-Nui
    Beast: Mahvoki
    Bio: Special Rahi, these creatures mostly live in jungles. They were brought from a distant land by a trader, and have spawned in many places since.

    Mahvoki are fast and ferocious, and have lots of energy. They usually hunt in packs big enough to overpower huge Rahi, but small enough to be able to escape/hide from any danger. Sometimes they hide in the bushes until wandering Rahi come by for them to pounce on. They will let their prey go and chase it for fun at times.

    They usually are quite cooperative with one another, enough to have a pack sometimes temporarily combine forces with another pack to accomplish goals they need help with.

    Host Comments: This is another really good small MOC, and fourth of four Parawins that I don't really see flaws worth mentioning. It seems very catlike in appearance and bio, but without the ears. Reminds me of my family's Hunter, a female Calico. She can be fast and ferocious too (bandaids on the arm right now from the latest incident lol -- but she's sweet otherwise). Anyways, everything about this is a strong point; the legs are angles just right so as to look realistic, the head is clever and has a back part that makes sense. The body is simply but sensible and cool-looking. And the tail is good. Note the joint in the body's center -- makes it look very agile. This isn't a main winner simply because it's so small it would place lower ranking in the 2nd Chances category compared to the Esranos Dragon's 2nd place in the New MOCs category.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: Jadis Faust
    Beast: Shadow Griffin
    Bio: Shadow Griffins are the complete opposite of their noble cousins. Creatures of darkness, they swoop silently through the night looking for sources of light to devour. They especially crave the bright heartstones of those who stand for good. The darkened heartstones of evildoers give them no satisfaction.

    Host Comments: As I mentioned, this and Charybdis were really tough to judge. Many of the flaws I mentioned in Charybdis aren't present here. But I still felt at the end of the day that Charybdis was closer to the "Bionicle" style. This one feels... I dunno, like it doesn't fit with the other winners. I know I wanted variety, but the angular, blocky, heavy wings especially felt more like a different genre than variety within the styles I was aiming for, whereas Charybdis flowed more biomechanically. This seems more like a robot gargoyle.

    But it's good enough for a cameo, definately. So it serves the variety, just not with as much storywise focus. Specifically designwise, the legs are well-formed, and the head and front claws especially work great together. The wings feel a little conglomerated rather than coherent, although I hesitate to criticize that here because it feels intentional as part of a different style. (Or maybe it's just the limit of pieces Jadis Faust had to work on. ) Back feet and wiry-thin tail are kinda iffy. Thinnitude and all, but it was -so- thin compared to the rest of it it felt out of place, and ideally I'd want four claws like the front two.

    Alas, though, I cannot say I am rocksolid confident in the parawin status of this one. Perhaps there's a Parauniverse out there where a parabonesiii ranked this #1 in the 2nd Chances category.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: -Zip Er-
    Beast: Rastreador
    Bio: A completely alien creature, it originally came from another dimension. It has no organic tissue and is very similar to Bohrok, except that it can function on its own. Its multi-jointed arms can grapple any object for balance on trees or land, and its outer claws help it slice through thick objects. It uses sonar tracking with its head to find materials to repair itself when damaged, and if another Rahi gets in its way, the sonar tracker blasts out waves of heat energy to incinerate the threat. It is rumored that these creatures are controlled by another force, due to the fact that they show no emotion or feelings. They can be found in the inner parts of the island.

    Host Comments: I love this MOC -- it isn't a main winner for two reasons. 1) The Zu Rama was so cool and felt more beastlike. 2) It's got very few actual Bionicle parts in it. But the whole concept is rad cool and I can't resist having it have at least a cameo so here it be. It's very Johnny Questian BTW. (Sp?)


    Categ: New MOC
    Image Link
    Member: Vaka-Nui
    Beast: Rurzquator
    Bio: This beasty is a terrifying sight. The origins of this Rahi are unkown. They are extremely dangerous due to their hostile nature. They will even attack each other to keep intruders away from their territory. They have little brains, but make up for it with enough strength to make the ground shake.

    Host Comments: Ignoring the cheesy-but-funny name lol, this is a pretty good MOC. It didn't feel "terrifying" on sight enough to me, though, unlike the Esranos Dragon (or a real T-Rex). The oversized head in this case looks more "cute" than scary. I can believe that if you knew what it was capable of bio-wise you'd be terrified, but again I had to judge primarily on MOC design. Main suggestions would be to cut the Fenrakk head from this one and try something more innovative, to make the torso more bulky and hunched over like a Rex, and to make that tail start bulky and taper off. Also trying for a bigger jaw (without just using the old Fenrakk cookie-cutter teeth) would make it more intimidating. The head fin things are good, the arms are good, and the legs are good, though.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Image Link
    Member: kyuubi
    Beast: Silver Serpent
    Bio: The silver serpent is a old rahi. It eats a lot of things, especially if they are in its way.

    Host Comments: I wasn't going to include this one, but Ojh liked it. And it's got a lot of strong points. I'm just biased towards having at least one main winner be a plant creature, I guess, and against just having a whole slew of giant beasts (which wouldn't be very varied). So kyuubi wins with the Rahi Trap instead of this. But this is pretty good.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: -Zip Er-
    Beast: Kyrakky Crab
    Bio: A hermit crab that lives on the bay of the island, it eats microscopic sand organisms. It uses its shell to protect it from predators, and is very cautious.

    Host Comments: There's nothing dangerous about this creature, so "beast" would be a stretch. But Ojh liked it and it's well-built, so it deserves at least an honorable mention. And it's possible a few non-dangerous creatures could be in the epic's zoo, so I'll try to squeeze in a cameo.


    Categ: New MOC
    Image Link
    Member: ~~Zarkan~~
    Beast: Kiku Fly
    Bio: At first glance, the Kiku Fly is not a particularly fearsome creature. Spanning only about a foot in length, this insect looks fairly weak, and would seem to be easy prey for larger creatures. However, the Kiku fly is actually an extremely dangerous creature. Using a self generated magnetic force, the Kiku fly works in large swarms, latching onto creatures far larger than themselves and carrying them away to their hive.

    Any unlucky creature that runs into a Kuku swarm will quickly find itself flown away to its doom. Besides their main power, Kiku flies also are resistant to most forms of energy attacks, including fire, plasma, and sonics. Their one weakness is that they are extremely susceptible to water based attacks. Matoran and other sentient species know to run to the nearest water source if they are being chased by a swarm of Kiku flies.

    Host Comments: Neat design and awesome bio, so that's cool.


    Categ: 2nd Chances
    Image Link
    Member: TOA BIONUI
    Beast: Takea Shark
    Bio: The Paracosmos version of the Takea Shark, this is a common sea predator all over the Matoran universe and the sea around Mata Nui Island. They are fierce and acrobatic, and eat fish or any other creature unfortunate enough to find itself nearby when you’re hungry. The sight of their fins is enough to strike terror into the hearts of Matoran. However, if they’ve recently fed, they will leave you alone.

    Host Comments: This isn't really a Twisted Island beast (was entered as a "Katea Shark"), but I loved the design way better than the official Takea, and TOA BIONUI has given me permission to use this pic anytime a Takea is used in the Paracosmos. (Such as in my Epics Contest #7 winning story, Mindfire.) So in a way this is actually a big win, as I use Takea sharks a lot in many stories (you can specifically expect many in Epics #5 and #8, eight being the last of the Mata Nui Island stories). I suppose there might be some in the zoo, since they are after all dangerous, but there's a story reason that's unlikely so I doubt I'll include any in Twisted Island.
  4. bonesiii
    Random updates:

    --Epics Contest poll is up until Wednesday! I hope you consider voting for Mindfire.

    --Posted artwork for Mindfire! Mindfire Art, Avs + Coolified Icarax, Mutran, & Bitil Avs. Basically it's the symbol in this entry's banner and avatar versions of everything in this image:



    --All that art and several sketches are now featured in the Review Topic. A few sketches in there are never-before-seen but drawn long ago, some as far back as 2001.

    --Ojhilom and I are already working on choosing winners in the 2nd Chances blog contest (which is now closed). So many good entries it's very difficult to choose the placings. If things go how I want them to, the results will be in another blog entry this week. I think I'll also release the powerpoint collection I'm using to compile the winning entries as a downloadable file.

    --The S&T contest list code glitch seems to be figured out. It did indeed eat an entry but the member in question let me know (plus a second entry appears to have been eaten and another was duplicated). Now the list should have everybody on it. Next I will be double-checking the entire list just to be safe. Aiming for Wednesday to be done with that. No promises. When done, the approval time will begin (will be at least two weeks long).
  5. bonesiii
    Welcome to the first Bionicle Paracosmos Contest! For anybody that isn't aware, the BP is my adventure mystery fanfic series, with epics, short stories, and an RPG; all of those that are online listed here.

    For the future Epic #4: Twisted Island, I need a lot of super-dangerous beasts that will be let loose from a "zoo" of sorts as part of that epic's core mystery. These could be Rahi, mutants, animalistic titans, diminutive creatures, even seemingly nonliving objects that are actually alive and dangerous, etc. Whatever -- as wide a variety as possible is what I'm looking for.

    This is a MOC contest because I've seen so many BBC contest entries or just random posted MOCs that are really cool, but only one can win, and they get forgotten and can't be in later BBC contests. I'd like to give them a second chance.

    Therefore, this contest is open to past MOCs, with a seperate lesser category for new MOCs! The the winning MOC entries in this contest will be featured in BP Epic 4: Twisted Island.

    Entry Period

    Begins now. Ends 11:59 PM EST (which I call midnight ) on Thursday, July 3.

    Categories

    At first this was going to be just for past MOCs, but on second thought I've decided to have two categories. 1) Past MOCs. 2) New MOCs.

    Rules

    1) Either a past BBC entry or a non-contest MOC may be entered in Category 1.

    2) Past MOCs must have been made before May 15, 2008. Please link to the MOC's topic or something else with a date attached. Anything else goes in the New MOCs category.

    3) No BBC contest winning MOCs.

    4) Only enter your own MOCs, though you can ask others if they'd like to enter a MOC they've made.

    5) Up to 3 MOCs per member.

    6) Follow all BZPower rules.

    7) I pick winners, but will listen to any "nominating" comments you make for someone else.

    8) No set number of winners; will depend on how many enter, and overall quality of entries.

    9) Entry format:

    [img][/img] Category: [2nd Chances, or New MOC] Beast Name: Topic: Description:
    (Direct link the image by pasting the pic's URL between the image tags.)

    Notes

    1) Preference will be given to the past MOCs category.

    2) I might wanna modify the descriptions somewhat for Epic 4; will ask enterer for permission if so, though.

    3) Most likely only one of your three entries can win. For this contest though I might make exceptions; in that case, only one would get much story time, and wouldn't actually claim a spot on the numbered list of winning entries.

    4) The island in Twisted Island will be mostly jungle with some swamp ground and some dry ground, and the only sources of light are various glowing plants, creatures, or lightstones. However, creatures from this "zoo" were collected by a mysterious being from all over the Bionicle universe, so pretty much anything goes. Just to set the stage for you a little more without giving too much away.

    5) Preference will be given to non-humanoids, remember.

    Prize

    Winning beasts will be featured in Bionicle Paracosmos Epic 4: Twisted Island. Top winners will get the most story time, with the top few being important to the plot. Winning entries will also be listed in a winners' blog entry.
  6. bonesiii
    Today the Bones Blog brings you an aspect of opinions and discussion brought up in the past entry Friends Can Disagree ("How to Disagree Intelligently" section) -- the benefit of having a "possibilities attitude." This is a key principle I've found that I think can help a lot of people. Important points bold.
     
    Conflicting Goals
     
    When it comes to opinions and discussion -- indeed, life itself -- people have goals. Goal #1, hopefully, is to be right. To have the opinion that is actually true. To know the truth. (We're talking about thought-opinion here, not personal taste; see "Can Opinions Be Wrong" blog entry, Important Entries content block to the right -- so the kind I define as "theories about reality") I have previously described the three pillars of fiding the truth as logic, all-inclusive research, and an open mind.
     
    But there's a competing goal that often gets in the way. Satisfying the ego. Pride. The goal is "I want to appear confident and I want to feel confident".
     
    This second goal is not evil. Self-confidence is a key part of a healthy mind -- hesitation and doubt can often cause us trouble. For example, if you hesitate while your car spins out in ice into oncoming traffic, you'd better not hesitate to correct and work your way back to the right lane. In in-person disputes, hesitation is (illogically) seen as a sign of weakness -- of being wrong. Doesn't make you wrong, but you might lose any chance of convincing the other person if they are too set in their ways or you run out of time.
     
    However, the two goals often conflict to set up a trap. If a subject comes up in discussion that you haven't really been able to research or think through logically well enough, you will be tempted to say something now now now. Otherwise, you appear "stupid" to many people (non-logicians lol).
     
    So the trap is to grasp onto an opinion -- any opinion -- and defend it to the death. The first idea to come to you becomes "my opinion".
     
    Other times, you have already formed this opinion -- maybe even done a ton of research on it, but someone else disagrees with it. Instead of hearing them out, you simply defend your own opinion. You see their opinion as "wrong -- not even a possibility," simply because you hadn't considered it yourself beforehand or the like. (I call that an "Instant Rejection Fallacy", BTW.)
     
    The idea of it is all about appearances. You want to appear to know you're right. You want to appear confident.
     
    I myself have fallen prey to this trap -- I'll call it the "Confidence Trap" -- many times. Even long after I considered myself a logician, this messed me up a lot. I had a certain dilemma in a subject not allowed on BZP, for example, that I honestly could not for the life of me figure out well enough to be confident in it (something I consider a life and death issue). And even just with little things I've gotten stuck in this trap countless times.
     
    The Confidence Trap
     
    The key concept here is essentially that you only actually give one possibility a chance (or only the possibilities you want to, etc.). After all, if only your opinion is even possible, in your mind, it's far easier to be confident.
     
    Why is this a trap?
     
    Simple -- you've lost sight of finding the truth. Do you know if "your opinion" really does seem to fit the facts? How can you accurately judge that if you are stubbornly refusing to consider other possibilities?
     
    Many people get so entangled in this snare that they actually lose sight of goal #1 completely, or worse, actually think that "my opinion" is the truth. Some people go so far as to think all opinions are subjective, that truth is arbitrary, that there are no absolutes, and other such self-invalidating lines of thinking.
     
    Another thing I've encountered often is confusion over just what an "open mind" is. People generally think they're open minded -- and often they go so far as to see the term "close-minded" as a meaningless insult mudslinging debaters throw around. They tend to think that if they're close-minded in some ways, everybody else is too so it's no crime. "Open" is a vague term, after all -- open to what? Clearly, the term doesn't mean open to anything, or you'd be open to becoming a murder or the like.
     
    Most often, they have confused personal taste with opinions, so they consider themselves open-minded only to an artificially limited range of types of opinion. For example, obviously if you like a Bionicle set, you probably just plain do or you don't. (Although sometimes we can artificially close off some of our own tastes and we can learn to open those up.) And they know that if they have an opinion that a set will sell well/poorly, actual sales results have the final say about what's true. But they often think that universal statements like "This is a low quality set" are off-limits to debate (they miss that quality is part of taste when it comes to entertainment), even though logically, such an opinion is highly questionable.
     
    (Again, see "Can Opinions Be Wrong?" People making that mistake often use the word "opinion" when they really mean personal taste, I've noticed, as if it was a catch-all term. Not always though.)
     
    Doubt doesn't even touch some people's minds who use this approach. They may feel literallty 100% confident that they are right -- and yet be wrong.
     
    Who cares? Well, with Bionicle debate, indeed, who cares? It's just a toy.
     
    But what if you make the same mistake on a life or death issue, and choose wrong?
     
    What if you do this with a career-or-unemployed issue? How about a relationship-fail-or-success choice? You name it, just about any important issue in your life has multiple possibilities, and the consequences of choosing poorly can be huge.
     
    Beyond that, though, is there really such a thing as a small issue?
     
    This trap can, for example, rip up a good relationship merely as a long series of "straw-that-breaks-the-camel's-back" times when someone refuses to listen about the small things. There's always the "if you can't be trusted with the small things" saying to keep in mind. Mental practice with the small things CAN, most definately, help you understand the big things. Time and time again I have learned lessons about reality while debating things as trivial as the Piraka's teeth that later I've been shocked to find helped me understand something far more important.
     
    Besides, an "I'm right no matter what you say" attitude is a big part of what can tear friends and whole communities apart. You might think your "one possibility" attitude in a complaint/debate topic is just a trivial thing about a toy, when in fact it can be more about you as a person and how you relate to other people. People have eyes -- attitudes aren't generally lost on them.
     
    So even on small disagreements, this trap can cause big damage.
     
    Solution
     
    So I think the best way to approach discussion/debate/dispute/argument/opinions/life itself is a "possibilities attitude." Put simply, if you consider multiple possibilities honestly, you're a lot more likely to arrive at the truth. With any question, you try to put into mind multiple possibilities, analyzing them to see which makes the most sense.
     
    In fact, you will actually be even more confident if you embrace it fully!
     
    Self-confidence shouldn't be associated with "your opinion." Too often, people confuse their identity with their opinions. Wrong approach. Instead, treat "your opinion" simply as one possibility, the one you're leaning towards right now, or even the one you're convinced of right now. Base your self-confidence on who you are, not what you think (a lot of times people fail here because they let others dictate to them who they are rather than owning up to their own personal tastes and talents).
     
    For example, when I'm making a Bionicle storyline theory, I don't actually believe it's true (generally).
     
    I know it's possible that it isn't, but I do to create food for thought and go on record that it's the theory I think makes the most sense at the moment. Chances are it will be disproven. I have self-confidence regardless of that, because of my "possibilities" approach. I am confident in my own worth for what it is -- that shouldn't be tied to whatever my opinions happen to be.
     
    So when someone disagrees with you, treat their opinion as an actual possibility. Analyze it honestly for its own worth. Of course, never give into the temptation to agree just because you feel like it either -- but be willing to agree IF it actually makes sense to you.
     
    With more important issues in life, it makes sense, BTW, not to be quite as willing to agree. Especially not with in-person debates, because way too often there's something you are forgetting that you'll later think of (or something you haven't learned yet) that will show you actually were right. But just having the attitude that "I still think you're wrong, but it is a possibility" goes a long way, and ironically actually makes you appear far better than if you appear stubborn. But mull it over in your mind and do more research -- maybe you'll end up changing your mind after all.
     
    A tip -- don't just stop at considering others' points as possibilities. Practice always thinking up a full range of possibilities on your own.
     
    Use your imagination and ask yourself "what else is possible?" This is the best mental practice I know of, and can help you in so many aspects of your life I wouldn't have time to try to list them all.
     
    Of course, you don't always have time to do that. Time constraints have to take first priority, of course, usually. One thing a famous inventor advised though -- take time out to be alone so that you can think. Exact quote or source escapes me, but it's true. Sometimes finding your way is as simple as taking a quiet hour alone to think things through.
     
    "Meditation", as it were, cheesy though that might sound.
     
    A Place for Feeling
     
    Notice that I call this an "attitude." I am implying that this is more emotional than logical. It's sort of both, actually, as I'll get into below. But it's first an attitude.
     
    Emotion is the #1 blockade between a person and the right thing. I'm sure you've heard the saying "a level-head". Star Trek grasped part of this with the idea of Spock the logical Vulcan, seeing logic and emotion as opposites. But these ideas are missing something -- emotion is not the opposite of logic, but rather a foundation of it. You just have to have the right type of foundation.
     
    In the past I've talked about how ultimately emotion is necessary for logic to have a point.
     
    Knowing you're right leads to a feeling of peace and safety. Being right might lead to life instead of death, giving you the chance for positive emotion in your life. Etc. What's the point of anything if there's no positive and negative at the end of the day?
     
    There's another part to it, though -- it takes the right attitude to begin with if you will decide to be logical about a question.
     
    Contrary to popular misconception, logicians like me are just as emotional as anybody else. But we don't let emotion decide our thought-opinions for us. Emotion is for personal taste, logic is for thought. If you have the emotional attitude that you welcome the truth, and that you might not necessarily have found it yet, you can enjoy the process of thinking things through. And you can enjoy the feeling you get as you get closer and closer to the truth.
     
    If you train yourself well enough in logic, you can even get so good at spotting good and bad arguments you can actually "feel" which one makes the most sense far faster than if you took the time to consciously think it through. This is tricky and requires total honesty and total lack of ego, though, so it takes a lot of practice (it's sort of like muscle memory).
     
    Training yourself in the attitude of giving different possibilities a chance can, with practice, make you able to almost uncannily sort out the truth in just seconds (at least as far as you can tell based on what research you have). I would compare the experience to the main character in Ted Dekker's novel Blink (or like the old classic Dune), to in seconds being able to "see" multiple possibilities and choose the right one.
     
    A Place for Thinking
     
    Ultimately, logical thinking and all-inclusive research are the most important parts of a search for the truth. An open mind is a starting point -- but a starting point with no way to judge where to go next is useless. Knowing the common logical fallacies to avoid, knowing the basics of validity and soundness, etc. are huge keys. This is part of why I say that logic isn't so much a field like astrophysics or engineering, but something that everybody can benefit from, sort of like a healthy diet.
     
    But a possibilities attitude can help you even if you know nothing about logic, and even if you have no idea where to begin researching or lack the time.
     
    For example. If you hear the allegation "Five thousand people can't be wrong!" in an ad, you think of the possibility "but maybe those people have different needs or wants than me." You don't have to know that's the logical fallacy of "Ad Populum" to figure out for yourself that it's invalid. Simply consider if there's any realistic way for the statement/argument to be false.
     
    When it comes down to the wire in debate, you'll find that often this approach means you have to hold your tongue or say "I'm not sure about that yet" way more often. Sometimes you just have to swallow and face up to that when you take this attitude. Because you can't just feel your way to the truth most of the time -- you do have to consciously think.
     
    And it cannot stop at just thinking -- research is needed. But thinking first about what kind of research is a good starting point is wise. Also, many people even in the highest functions of life tend to reject some sources of research before they even look at them -- this is contrary to finding the truth. You can't know if something is a realistic possibility until you give it an honest chance.
     
    BTW, I'm defining "research" as knowledge, facts, evidence, etc. and not necessarily the stuffed-shirt definition of "read it in a book and cite your source." I'm just talking about things you know. Stuff in your head.
     
    Go back to what I've often said about ignorance -- it's not "stupid," it's not an insult IMO, it's nothing to be ashamed of. But it is "not knowing something," and to find the truth, you do need to know as much as you can. So if you don't have enough knowledge yet, it's usually best not even to form an opinion per se, or not to be too confident of the one you're leaning towards. To withhold judgement.
     
    In short, "possibilities attitude" sums up logic, all-inclusive research, and an open mind. It is the way to find the truth.
     
     
     
    ION:
     
    --Deadline for 2nd Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! (Bionicle Paracosmos Contest #1) is now moved to 11:59 PM EST (which I call midnight) on Sunday July 6. So you get a few extra days.
     
    --S&T contest list should have every entry in it now (with possible exception of one that seems eaten by a code error), but has NOT been double-checked yet. Therefore, list-updating time is extended to next Wednesday. I've also got real life nonsense clogging up my schedule right now, so no guarantees about how soon the grace period can start.
     
    --The bonus/contest epic BP: Mindfire is totally posted. (Has a fair few typos but editing period is closed so will have to wait till after contest to fix -- what I meant is clear in most). Would love more reviews.
     
    --Finally got around to making Mindfire's support banner:
     

     

    [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=289176"][img=http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/SigStuff/ParacosmosBanners/mindfire.png][/url]
  7. bonesiii
    [Pretend there is a Bones Blog banner here. ]
     
    Various stuffishness:
     
    1) I can has reviews? (Link goes to Mindfire. )
     
    2) I'm planning on reviewing everybody else's epics contest entries. I enter, I want reviews, they enter, it's only fair I review theirs. No? Of course, this week will be a bad time for a lot of people to review I'm sure, as it will be for me, heh.
     
    3) S&T weapons contest entry period ends noon EST, Wednesday June 25. After that point the grace period will start. Remember, if you've already entered, you don't need to worry about getting approval before the entry period deadline. You'll still be able to change things after that, because the topic will remain open and the grace period will still be on.
     
    Therefore, I'm trying to focus on answering only questions in these last few days for people who have NOT yet entered but want to.
     
    4) Don't forget my blog contest! "Ends 11:59 PM EST (which I call midnight) on Thursday, July 3." Link: 2nd Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! (Bionicle Paracosmos Contest #1)
  8. bonesiii
    1) As yall may know, Bionicle Paracosmos Epic #3: Captain of Treason is now posted. 3 chappies posted so far of 21. In case any of my blog readers didn't catch it.

    My biggest work yet, and took the longest to write. It completes the 2001 series of Paracosmos stories that included Epics 1 and 2 and the 4 short stories, all listed in the collection topic. It's the culmination of the "hidden enemy" mystery plot, and large parts of it I had actually planned as far back as 2001 in real time. Of all the stories in the BP so far, this is the most important.

    I hope everybody loves it.



    2) I've entered the Epics Murder Mystery contest with Bionicle Paracosmos: Mindfire. I'm considering it the third in a "bonus series" of sorts, building off of the previous bonus short stories, Faces of Shadow and Sacrifice.

    That one is based on a concept I actually had planned already, but modified to fit the contest. I wrote it nonstop, 7+ hours a day on weekdays since pretty much the entry period began (and the final chappie and prologue aren't actually written yet). This one almost totally "wrote itself" -- I had no idea when I started how it would play out, and I'm still not 100% sure how it will end. I have an idea of how it will, but I can't be sure.

    Been loads of fun. And loads of hard work!
  9. bonesiii
    --------------THIS ENTRY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:--------------


    Today the Bones Blog brings you a list of aspects of sets and story that have been demonstrated to be "what most fans want." Of course, this isn't an all-inclusive list (lemme know if I forgot something you know of), and it should be cautioned that this could change in the future, and how much of a majority wants each thing is very difficult to pin down. Some of these haven't hurt sales horribly when not done in the past, but many have, and the idea in general is to improve sales as much as possible, to please more kids and keep Bionicle healthy in a challenging toy market.

    Basic profile: 9-11 year old boys who enjoy action figure roleplaying melded with an easy snap-together construction. Enjoy adventure stories about heroes fighting villains. (With a note that there are exceptions, but these are in the minority.)

    Setwise:

    --Quick, easy builds.
    --Roleplaying focus (rather than MOCing, for example).
    --Variety between team members (nonclonism).
    --More "Bionicle" style; less "Technic" style.
    --Balljoints, as opposed to gears.
    --Projectiles
    --Heroes to be "noble humanoids"
    --Villains allow more non-human styles
    --Mild level of "Biomechanical" style
    --Eye-catching colors

    Storywise:

    --Action Adventure
    --Good guys vs. Bad guys
    --Suspense
    --Good guys win (overall)
    --Cool powers
    --New locations

    Marketing:

    --Distinctive packaging
    --Awareness


    Now the first thing to understand about this list is different personal tastes. I say this so often, but so many people still don't seem to know it. So once again, personal taste means that different people are wired to like different things, and that's okay, and even good, because it gives us variety. People are like snowflakes as I also often say -- no two are the same.

    However, certain tastes tend to be shared by a majority of Bionicle fans, and for Bionicle to remain financially healthy, it should appeal to the majority tastes as much as possible. That doesn't make the minority "wrong" -- they are allowed to like what they want, but unfortunately it does mean Bionicle can only rarely give them treats. I.e. Bionicle can't please everybody.

    Secondly, we must remember that in 2001, LEGO didn't know all this, and actually targeted many of the original sets towards different tastes, incorrectly thinking different tastes would be the majority. Essentially, this is summed up here: History of Technicism Vs. Bioniclism. Some people often mistake that history as evidence against this list; rather, this list is basically why LEGO changed many of the original things (and sales have gone up as a result). It's trial and error, basically. LEGO has learned from its mistakes -- this is a very good thing.

    The quick, easy builds part is one that trips up a lot of people who don't share that preference in debates. They confuse this for something beyond just taste, thinking it means the majority fans are less intelligent or the like. No, it's just that most Bionicle fans have tastes not geared so much towards machinery or other physical complexity, but towards storylines and roleplaying.

    Meaning, they channel their intelligence into the roleplaying and imagining their own stories. That's simply how they play, and IMO it's not really surprising that these would be the ones most attracted to a set line based on a storyline more so than any previous LEGO line.

    Basically it's "allocation".

    I have a theory that most people's intelligences are roughly equal, as I've mentioned before, it's just that we allocate our intelligence to different areas from other people. IQ tests for example are biased towards the kinds of allocations of people more like me. But that doesn't mean that people with low IQ test results are "dumb" -- if we designed a test that was biased towards how they allocate their intelligence, someone like me would probably look dumb.

    Let's bury the myth right now that the simple build is anti-LEGO or means LEGO is slowly getting rid of the brick. They actually tried that with Galidor and it failed miserably. Kids do want the simple build -- it's not that they just want to get that annoying build step out of the way.

    It's more that they want to quickly be able to play with a character that they built -- a sense of pride that "I made this guy!" even if it was from instructions. MOCers don't get much satisfaction from that, but that's because of personal taste.

    (Also, titans usually do have fairly complex builds even now.)

    Nonclonism is wanted by most mainly because of the roleplaying preference. A roleplayer wants to "collect the team", but not if the team members basically all look the same. Fans of clonism usually don't understand that; they tend to be MOCers or the like. But roleplayers don't usually care about getting the same pieces in different colors. They just want variety in their quick-build action figures.

    Another myth to dispel here, a newer one -- "Clonism" refers to members of a single team being clones. It doesn't refer to the whole "Inika clone torso" thing that many have raised. Seemingly, most fans don't really care if 2008's torsos are the same pieces as 2007's. Most likely this is because the 9-year old age range, the main driving force of sales, is a new group of kids every year. Kids grow up, and most lose interest in toys as they get older.

    Also, reusing torsos has been done every single year (other than 2001 ). Even in 2005, when the Hordika were an exception, the Toa Hagah had this. So far reusing torsos has never lasted longer than three years. 2008 is the end of a three-year arc. So it's likely that we will see new torso designs in 2009 (maybe even more so since it is a new chapter of the story).

    However, I want to caution that there are two reasons why that might not happen:

    1) Toa designs have been gradually improving towards most fans' tastes over the years, and the Inika/Mahri/Nuva shape, since it finally ditched the gears and has a sort of biomechanical feel and is "noble heroic", seems to be near ideal. It may be difficult to improve further on it. So there may not be as much of a need to make new torsos in 2009.

    2) Nonclonism has meant that, if you look closely, this torso re-use is still a lot more varied than 2002-2003. Some are backwards Inika torsos. The Piraka torsos could be used too, and the Hordika torsos are still reused in 2007 Matoran. Budget-wise, if you want a whole team to have different torsos, you can't make six new torsos. You have to re-use pieces a lot. Ignoring this fact has helped create the Inika-clonism myth -- nonclonism is actually part of why Inika clones get reused a lot.

    Personally I do think we will get new torsos though. We'll see. I just hope we won't go overboard and attack LEGO if they do decide not to -- so I'm warning you guys now that there are good reasons not to.

    BTW, reason #2 there has also created the myth that there's less new pieces now. Wrong -- there's simply more reused pieces because each set has its own piece for most places. There are actually about the same amount of new pieces, and my counts so far have actually shown slightly more new pieces, at least in most categories. For example, there's almost always at least two new foot pieces each year now, compared to 2002-2003, when there was only one per year (Bohrok, then Rahkshi).

    Gears were the number 1 fan complaint consistently since 2001. Not much more to say there; that horse has been beaten to death a fair few too many times. However, I have supported a proposal to return gears to one or two members of a team of six canister sets each year, possibly boosting sales for those since there does seem to be a bigger minority that likes gears than many things. I stand by that proposal so far. And of course Icarax has a gear this year, though he's technically a titan.

    Projectiles -- I'll just link to the History of Set Gimmicks in Bionicle entry for them. Basically they're more fun for roleplayers than most past gimmicks, hence they remain.

    The Noble Heroism is a subject for a future blog entry, as you guys may know if you saw the (now dead, I'm sure) topic I started asking for opinions on that. One of my theories is that this may be part of why the Mistika are designed the way they were to a degree, although that's a can of worms I won't bother jumping into unless anybody wants to ask about it in comments. Another important factoid here is that this is part of why the Hordika sales were mediocre (though not horrible); they were seen as villains by most fans. (Hero sales are usually a lot higher than villains).

    Villain style is pretty self-explanatory. Fans accept a wider variety here, which is why a lot of minority fans tend to like some villains better than any of the new heroes. Still, villains sell less than heroes.

    Biomechanical style essentially means rubber, but also anything like for example Carapar's shell style. Older sets had a major flaw in that they looked just like robotic "stand-ins" for the actual storyline characters. Hence the typical myth "they're robots". Newer sets do a much better job of representing the characters' biomechanicalness, although IMO it's gone down a bit since the Piraka/Inika, and I'm not totally sure why. It may be that it wasn't a big factor according to focus group testing, or maybe it actually was seen as going overboard with it. I'm not sure. In any case, newer sets, especially villains, still tend to seem more biomechanical than robotic, and their sales are through the roof.

    Eye catching colors -- translation, brown sold poorly. Kids want red, blue, green, orange, yellow, etc. Now, I've supported boosting ice and earth sales still more by using something like iceblue and purple. Greg has said that white and black do sell pretty well, though, so it's not a big problem. Personally I think it would be more consistent, though, even if the boost in sales was minimal. Every little bit helps, doesn't it?

    Oh, and the roleplaying preference is the reason for the whole 3 heroes 3 villains per yearhalf thing in 2008, which I think is a very wise idea.


    Now, storywise I don't really have much to say. We typically talk about story more in terms of what makes sense than in terms of what most fans want. Story is freer to have a lot more imagination unleashed without worrying so much about it -- basically, the story team and Greg specifically are free to put in anything they like, and let us like it or not as we may. The rules mainly are in terms of how violent it's allowed to be. IMO as an aspiring writer (and in the opinion of most published writers I've heard from / read talking about this), that's the best approach.

    Still, Bionicle does have to keep the audience in mind when it comes to story. Writing a temporal mechanics geek's dream come true of a storyline would be a very bad idea, for example. I would love it. But most fans would just be confused by it. So bad idea. As another example, romance is best kept out of it, because it's not what action figure roleplaying boys aged 9-11 want.

    In the other direction, keeping things mysterious and epic in feel (if the results of Greg's poll here on that are indicitive of most fans, which is somewhat debatable), and keeping the characters realistic, and in general making sure it's a fun action story, are things the storyline should try to keep up in various ways. The story shouldn't be oversimplified, or most fans get bored with it, as was demonstrated by 2002-2003.

    And on that note, Greg has commented that input from BZPower and other online fans is actually more helpful for storyline. Actual fans of the storyline are less in number than the total fans of the sets; many kids just go to the toy store, buy off the shelf, and go home and play and don't know about the storyline. The story helps sell the sets, and I'm not going to venture a guess into how many percentagewise are in either group.

    But story fans do tend to be online a lot more than set fans, which makes sense. So online fans tend to be a bigger chunk of a tiny percentage of story fans than set fans. Also, since story can have more freedom of variety, Greg's more free to do things we like, and other story fans probably won't know the difference in a lot of cases.



    Marketing is actually the biggest issue Bionicle faces today, according to Greg's response to my draft for this article:



    In a sense this is a good thing. The 2009 movie is happening, and 2009 sets are happening as well. Also, it means that most other problems have been solved. One thing that worries me is the bad sales of the second and third movies, though -- if there's a 2010 and 2011 movie too and we see the same thing, it might mean no more movies will ever happen, which could seriously hurt Bionicle in the future if the toy market changes radically. I hope the movies are spaced farther apart this time.

    Also, maybe different marketing and advertising tactics can be used in the future to help solve this issue.


    Main other thing here is the whole canister thing. The need for packaging that stands out is why canisters are used. These also need to be different from last year's sets. So far this seems to have been consistently a strong point of Bionicle since 2001.




    Well, that's all I've got. Please post any comments/questions/disagreements/cookies/nukes/etc.




    --------------THIS ENTRY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:--------------
  10. bonesiii
    Enter the 2nd Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! by July 3rd! Winning MOCs will be in Epic #4: Twisted Island!


    I've been debating on and off whether I should do yet another random stuffish entry or the What Most Fans Want entry today. This won out because of the first random stuffish thing below. WMFW will be next week's entry.Bionicle Paracosmos Epic #3: Captain of Treason will begin early next week! Watch the Epics forum for it!

    Background for those who don't know -- epic is already written, just not published yet, and it takes place after the RPG. I was going to wait until we could get the RPG skeletal version up, but I'm getting impatient. Also, we are very very close to a skeletal version going live of the RPG. There are some spoilers from the RPG in the epic's later chapters, but I'm not going to worry about the timing of it.


    I finally decided to enter my own S&T contest (lol) with the Lightstone Rifle. Wasn't sure if I was going to enter since I generally think it's unwise for a host to enter his own contest. Decided to because 1) there will be multiple winners, more than any previous S&T contest , and 2) I got in the mood to actually draw the thing, figured I might as well give it a shot. (And of course, members will vote -- I have nothing to do with who wins -- and I and the helpers don't have anywhere near as big a role as S&T2.)

    BTW, there are a few appearances of it and a modified version of it in the later Epic 3 chapters (though with purple lightstones).

    It was actually that section of the epic when I was writing it that inspired the original idea for the S&T contest.


    Someone suggested having more winners in that category due to me entering. I haven't ruled it out, but the problem is, there are way, way fewer entries in that category than most of the others. I want to keep the math of how many people win consistent -- right now Description and MOC may very well get more winners, but not Art. So if you guys want that, you have to enter a lot more Art: Computer entries.

    Note, however, that top winners will still be chosen in each category (except Art). So there will be a top winner in Description, for example.

    And I doubt I'll win anyways. Entered mainly cuz I'd like to have it be in the Expanded Universe. I'm pleasantly suprised to see a lot of people like it though.


    By now you're probably shouting at the screen for me to get to the thing about the BBC. Here tis. Put simply, the problem with BBC contests doesn't exist anymore, lol. Two things I mean by that. One, I had a problem with them for a long time similar to a problem a lot of people have with Bionicle -- I just didn't have the time to follow them due to the Dreaded Real Life plus all the BZP duties I had to put on hold. In reality, it's a problem with me, not the BBC, just as it often is with Bionicle fans who have been bogged down by other things demanding their time or have aged a lot since their first year, etc.

    Thankfully I'm finally starting to be able to follow BBC contests again lately, and lemme tell you, you guys are amazing. I'm sure this is old news to all yall () but IMO the vast majority of MOCs that enter and win those contests are better by far than official sets. I know sounds weird from me -- I love Bionicle sets, don't get me wrong. Not an insult towards them. It's a compliment towards you guys. :-D

    I've missed being able to follow 'em, and it's good to be back in the swing of things. Two, I've agreed with Tufi's comments about the overuse of humanoid MOCs. I can enjoy those fine, don't get me wrong, but personally the really fun part of MOCing is being able to break out of the mold of what we look like and imagine characters or creatures nobody's ever seen before. Obviously part of that went into my current Beasts MOC blog contest.

    Now, here's the point I wanted people's takes on -- coming back to BBC contests, it seems to me that the too-many-humanoid-MOCs problem (from my POV anyways) has been largely fixed. I remember a lot less inventive MOC shapes back when I used to follow MOCs. What's your guys's sense on that, if you've been following BBC contests more than me? Agree? Disagree? Whonot?

    Is curious. Artwork Forum too -- you may have noticed I'm posting more art again now. I'm also finally able to actually pay more attention to other people's art topics and comment, etc. That was a hugely missed part of my life when I was so busy, and I sincerely hope I can keep it up and get more into it, etc. I'm two things principally -- a writer and an artist -- and I've felt like I was starving without this. Also, I always feel guilty when I post an art topic but I don't go around posting in other people's topics.

    I want comments as much as the next guy, so I feel like I should be out there posting in others' topics. I know, I have a right to look and leave. :-P But that's not really what I'm talking about.

    And fun Art contest last time!


    Requests -- I still can't seem to get into the mood to fulfill some requests I'm late on. And I really think I'm better off just posting my own artwork and doing guides to help others see how to do it themselves. Requests just... I dunno, maybe they're just not for me. They come in at unexpected times, and even when I think I can do them it doesn't usually work out. Toa Velox, I'm especially sorry yours has taken so long. It really shouldn't take that long, I just can't seem to get around to it.

    (If you read my last randomness update thingy, I'm not accepting new requests, BTW. I miiiight change my mind if I ever catch up, but... yeah, unlikely.)


    Spoiler policy. Glad to finally get that off the ground. Good questions asked so far; I think most of the basic questions have been asked and answered. Of course, there will always be some people that don't like any new policy, and I hope we can discuss back and forth politely in those cases and reach an agreement on what's best. A lot of times people don't know the reasons behind the policy, so they jump to conclusions. Sometimes we didn't think of something that they did, though, so it's good to have those kinds of discussions.

    And many thanks to everybody who voted in the poll and posted arguments that we used to decide parts of the policy. Some of you even made such good arguments you convinced me to go less time than the majority voted for on Serials.


    On that basic topic, the "Are the Admins Harsh" topic has been interesting. Hopefully we staff are helping to clear up some misconceptions a lot of people have about why rules are in place, why we do things the way we do, etc. I personally wanted to keep a link record of this post of mine. Basically I am using that example to explain why we don't allow discussion of banned members, and why often bannings that people think are unjust actually are. Also, Takuta-Nui's post here is very relevant. Hopefully this helps people.

    For the record, "no discussion of banned members" is a rule. A lot of people are pushing it and even breaking it in there. As long as the admins are okay with the topic, I'm not going to challenge anyone for doing so, but please do realize that it is a rule.

    Also for the record, I don't want in any way to be misunderstood as attacking the member I quoted in that post. He said those things for understandable reasons, and I am glad he brought it up. Obviously a lot of people don't understand what's going on in cases like that -- so I hope we can help make it clearer.


    Got tons more ideas for blog contests, so should be good there for a very long time.


    Sometime in the semi-near future, I'd like to start a blog series called "Plain English Fallacies." This would be about the list of common fallacies, and also some that I have identified that aren't "official". IMO the most important aspect of logic that everyday people can benefit from is knowing a lot of these basic fallacies. Fallacies are basically a list of ways of thinking that have been shown to be very untrustworthy. The ones I'll be listing show up all over the place. In newspaper columns, in political speeches, in conversations at a restaurant, in complaint topics here, wherenot, they are unfortunately everywhere.

    Problem is, logicians traditionally use "logicianspeak" to describe them, and they have these horrible Latin names that you have to memorize. Which is fun for logicians, but for everybody else, it just turns them off. So hopefully the whole "plain English" thing will be helpful.

    For now I'm assuming it will be a fallacy per entry -- and they'll be super short entries compared to most of mine.


    When you use "lol", do you actually laugh literally "out loud"? I use that all the time as a faster way of saying "that's funny!" but I usually don't actually burst into laughter. Maybe we need another acronym. lq? Laugh quietly? limh? Laugh in my head? ltych? Laugh that you can't hear? itttc? It's the thought that counts?


    And probably ten more things I forgot.


    Don't forget to entry the 2nd Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! A lot of great entries so far -- the Twisted Island epic can still use a ton more.


    Finding good photos of jungle/swamp scenes at night is freaky tough. Wants more, for when TI actually comes around. This entry's banner and the banner of the 2nd Chances entry are the only two good pics I have. Got one more but it's CG and you can really tell. [nerdy moment]I need something more real.[/nerdy moment]
  11. bonesiii
    The time has come to announce the winners of the Powerpoint Faces Contest! This was an awesome contest, with so many great entries that Ojhilom and I agreed we couldn't just judge by the usual percentage of entries, but instead by a par of work, quality, and craftsmanship put into the entries, keeping in mind that avatars were the goal of this. So as long as it looked up to good avatar quality, we accepted it.

    As such, we ended up choosing seven top winners, eight other winners, and only four entries actually lost. It just seemed right since we didn't get hundreds of entries but the 15 winners obviously put a lot of work into it. Now, the catch here is, there are only seven top winners, and this isn't just a title -- it comes with a surprise bonus prize!

    With many many thanks to Black Six for approving this, the top seven winners will receive 80x80 avatars!

    Also, many thanks to Black Six for uploading all of the winning avatars to BZPower's server! You guys now do not have to worry about any outside image hosting site having downtime or going offline -- as long as BZP is running so your posts can be seen, your avatar can be seen too. (Of course, this only applies to these avs.)

    I'd also like to thank my brother Ojhilom for helping me judge these entries. Wasn't easy to do!

    And without further ado, here's the winners!



    1st Place

    Member: Ary
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: A picture of Ary.
    My comments: The top three winners here are all super-super excellent. It was very difficult to decide what order to place them in. Ary gets the first spot because it's the best overall package and the best art in technical terms. It is a "coolified" Bohrok head, but not just with my usual method of coolifying -- it works by exaggerating how large and small certain parts of the Bohrok are, turning the eyes into curved eyes, and showing the whole thing at a very steep angle, making it the Bohrok look very intimidating, similar to one scene that stands out in my mind from the 2002 flash anims where a Bohrok bent its forehead forward like that and gave that well-known growl.

    The art is perfectly done, and what's more, it looks awesome in avatar size, yet when you zoom in, you keep seeing that Ary filled in more and more detail. You can't even appreciate all of it fully at the zoom shown above. He's got the lighting and shading done perfectly, and the wide empty area also gives it a sense of space that makes it work for avsize despite how detailed it is. There's even a subtle backwards glow effect on the eyes that makes the center look darker rather than traditionally brighter, making it look even more intimidating. This perfectly captures, IMO, why Powerpoint can be used, with skill and work, to produce art virtually up to par with super-expensive equivalent programs -- it deeply impressed me. Sheer awesomeness, Ary!


    2nd Place

    Member: Rangan Mercenus™
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: Named Firefly (Ta-Miruan). Ancient, powerful, Gukko-esque creatures, with an omnipotent mind and a shrill matoran voice. This Bird is one of the few remaining species, almost on par with species wide extinction, they are in hiding, waiting for the shadow to come...
    My comments: Rangan entered this before most of the other entries. When I saw it, my jaw literally dropped and I stared in amazement for a few seconds. I'm frankly at a loss to describe how awesome that bird head is. Wow. Until Ary entered I thought it would be impossible to beat. However, though it doesn't show up in avsize, there is an erroneous line in front of the forehead tuft thing, and really those tendrils probably shouldn't be going down only one side of the head there as it appears (the back of the head between the first two tufts, and the forehead, should be lower). They are very minor errors, just enough to push him down to number two.

    The great parts of this? Dang. Everything else? The color scheme is perfect and creates a very creaturey look, the texturing looks just right of a balance between organic and coolified, the glowing eye makes it distinctively Bionicle -- and these things together make it look worthy of appearing in a Bionicle movie. IMO it's cooler than the MOL Gukko by far. There's a complex lighting system going on that you might not notice at first, that is following the shape in near-perfect 3d mimicking, although it could do with some shading on the lower right side of the head (my right, not its right). One thing you can't see in this that I got to see when he sent me the .ppt file was that the jaw was added seperately, always a good idea, so theoretically it could be animated to work like an actual jaw.

    Must mention this too -- Rangan also entered an awesome Kanohi of Madness. I really couldn't decide between the two, since that is awesome too. I had to have him choose via PM which of the two he preffered. Rangan, if it's possible, I'd love to include that mask sometime in my fanfics as a "Rah-Kanohi."


    3rd Place

    Member: Thormen
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: It is the Kanohi Krunoch, the legendary Mask of Chaos. It is not just sentient, it is also schizophrenic, wrecking chaos in the mind of whomever dares to wear it.
    My comments: I heart the Krunoch. There had been some debate going on recently about Chaos working as an element suggestion (which I would definately support for evil element). Thormen's entry here captures the awesomeness of chaos. Purple is the best color choice, definately, for one. The whole thing forms a Vahi-esque mask shape with the eyes being the gaps between some of those spikes at the top (I'm not even sure which spikes, and that's good, considering the theme). Yet there are four other faces stuffed in there.

    There's great lighting on the whole thing, with an edge effect making the mask looked curved like a bowl with the edges farther from us than the front, and the lighting on the center thing. There's a subtle modification of one of the spikes. The center thing actually forms a sort of sombrero (Hey, I know how to say that in Spanish, can you guess?) over the lower face, which looks like a Pakari. The faces to the right and left look very 2001-ey. Plus there's the simple tiny face stuffed in on the left side of the sombrero. But the best detail doesn't even show up in the av-size; those scratches. Gives the mask a great texturey look and, again, fits the theme.

    The main flaw is that his use of 3D stops with the lighting; there really oughta be thicknesses in the eye-gaps and the like. Also, for the sake of the avatar size, that sombrero spread so wide the rest of it looks kinda small. Won't be so bad now with 80^2, but it is a problem. Also, it's a shame about the scratches not showing up in avsize, because that is an inventive idea. So Thormen gets third place, but believe me, all three of these are so close to equal it's unbelievable. This worked out great since I promised the top three would get featured directly in a sidebar. Awesome work to you too, Thormen!

    And BTW, I'd also love for this to be the mask of Chaos in my fanfics if you approve, Thormen -- I've already planned that as a Legendary in there but planned nothing specifically after that. Pwetty pwease?


    4th Place

    Member: Atako
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: N/A
    My comments: Atako entered three neat ideas. I almost went with his Miru, but Ojh and I finally agreed that this "modified Pakari" was better. The pic above speaks for itself as to why. But I'll say it anyways because I want giant paragraphs that torture you guys horribly upon readifying.

    *ahem* I have never seen anyone do plastic so perfectly as Atako does here. Notice there are no black lines at all, unlike all of my own work and the top three (and all the other) winning entries. This, combined with incredible attention to lighting, makes a near-photo-quality plastic mask. For that alone this had to be a goldstar winner. Now, look at the curvy serrated gap area. Now, repeat after me: "Wow." I honestly could not tell until I zoomed into 400% (Powerpoint's max standard zoom) that those parts were drawn as vector and not real plastic. Hugo Kudos!

    Now, it's not one of the top three because there are a number of big errors here. Mainly, just about all of that awesomeness is lost in the av-size, and this was an avatar-related contest from the start. Look closely at the eyes and you'll see it pretty much has to be a single eye, and it doesn't look intended to be a cyclops. There's gray mysteriously behind the eyes, but nowhere else -- where's the rest of the head? These negatives are unfortunately enough to push it down to fourth.

    But that doesn't negate the awesome, awesome job done with the lighting and texture, so this goes no lower than 4th! And BTW, your other masks were pretty good too, Atako!


    5th Place

    Member: ~~Zarkan~~
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: The Kanohi Maleka, the Mask of Size.
    My comments: Judging by his comment when he entered, Zarkan will be surprised he's ranked so highly. And I do have to say, the next three's specific order wasn't worried about too much as Ojh and I thought they ranked about equally. But there are three reasons why this is #5, aside from the fact that I just plain love the shape -- it looks like a turtle, and I heart turtles.

    First, it's the exact opposite of Atako's mask above -- it doesn't look super amazing zoomed in as big as above, but click the avatar link and look -- it looks awesome in avsize. One of the things I was looking for in this contest was avs that designed well to avatar size, since I announced that beforehand (and 80x80 isn't super larger than normal). Of the entries that work well small, this is IMO the best.

    Second, he makes use of a shading technique inside the gaps of the mask for the cast shadow on the gray head behind that I hadn't thought of. It's the standard rectangle center gradient effect, but aligned just right for this position. I had always used overlayed trans-black for shading myself, which isn't as cool looking as this.

    Third, I think this shape is one of the most coherent and striking in the contest. It has a slight resemblance to a Pakari (like #4), but is different enough that it's not super-obviousa and looks like it could work as a Mask of Size rather than strength. The whole shape flows together perfectly yet has plenty of variety.

    It could be improved by some light-reflecting lighting like Rangan's bird's beak, a glow effect on the eyes, better handling of 3D in the center/mouth area, and a better mock curve on the outermost edges. But these are all cosmetic and weren't enough to push it lower on the winners' list.

    And Zarkan, I'd love this one to be in the Paracosmos also, if it's okay with you. Was planning a BP mask of size since 2001 but all my previous designs stunk so never worked it in anywhere.


    6th Place

    Member: Zyglakky Yoshi
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: N/A
    My comments: Zyglakky grabs spot # six in a way I completely didn't expect -- not so much for the single mask itself, but for the overall work he put in. The slightly larger white mask above is the one he chose as the actual winner, and he didn't actually enter anything else -- instead, he recolored the mask in a variety of ways -- some not even shown above -- in Powerpoint. I have never bothered doing recolors in Powerpoint because it is tedious work. If you've never tried it you can't appreciate just from looking at the recolors how complex it can be. And he did it tons of times. I've selected a set of six including the white one above to look like the standard six elements, plus one that looks Bones Bloggish.

    One of the other reasons he places so high is the inventive use of the target reticle. Makes perfect sense for a vision-esque mask. He actually assumed it wouldn't show up in the av-size and didn't include it in the recolor for his av, but as 80x80 avatar IMO it looks nice, although I admit it still doesn't look as good as the fullsize.


    7th Place

    Member: Mr. Mord
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: The Kanohi Mâhne- The Great Mask of Adaptation.
    Known wearers- None.
    Power- Obviously stated. Acts like adaptive armor. Also makes the wearer look like a fool.
    My comments: Mr. Mord places seventh with what I think is unquestionably the weirdest entry in the contest. It looks very old-school robot, villainesque perhaps. He's using a few good effects here, including 3D serrations, edge-effect lighting, dark-center eyes, and a new effect, slightly lighter lines decorating the surface. The latter makes it look nearly realistic as a metal material and is the main reason he gets the last of the seven 80^2 avs.

    This could have been improved by a more purposeful eye shape; that would have been enough to place it 6th or even 5th. But even without that, he gets a larger av!




    8th Place

    Member: Bepura
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: Bepura's character's mask, the Bevokai, Great mask of limited invulnerability.
    My comments: Here we start on the other winners. The level of quality I was looking for here was up to basic par for an avatar that I might actually post in an Artwork topic for people to use if I had made it. I daresay many of my avs are higher quality IMT than some of these entries (), but still, all of the following work perfectly as small avatars and so they claim a spot on the winners' board as well. But yall get stuck with normalsized avs, sorry.

    Bepura's entry here is a pretty much flawless mask design for a small av. There's only a few hints of details that you see on zooming in, but he makes up for it by filling the rest of it with an oak-leaf style serration collection. Better lighting and 3D thicknesses would have enabled it to place higher, but that doesn't detract from how cool the mask looks IMO. Alas, you can't all win Goldstar level.


    9th Place

    Member: Adventurer
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: N/A
    My comments: This is one of Adventurer's oldest faces, made back when the original guides were posted. It showcases his very tribal style well, and of the three he entered, it was the best IMT. His entry#1 was pretty good too, but wouldn't have looked good enough in either av-size, IMO. For the record, Adv, I was a little disappointed you didn't enter several of your others, which I would have places higher, namely this and this. Still, this face catches your style just as good as them; it would have been for more technical reasons that the linked concepts would have ranked higher. All of your work is a very unique style compared to most of the entries, just like Atako's entry, and that deserves big kudos alone; you've made .ppt "your own" as TV talent show judges are so fond of saying.


    10th Place

    Member: Toaraga
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: His favorite mask.
    My comments: Toaraga claims 10th place with a literally last-minute entry (although since he had PMed an earlier version of it to me already I would have accepted it anyways). This is a very set-accurate Matatu (my favorite power from 2001, incidentally), but it takes a very "Paper Mario" twist on it that works well. He was in danger of placing a lot lower from his first draft which was a lot simpler, but this creates a unique look, perfectly done, and manages to present its own style as well.

    What I would have done to improve this is first, the cast shadow is needed behind the eye gaps too, and then add a sliver of reflected-light along the upper and leftmost edges of the mask itself, sortof coolifying the Paper Mario esqueishness. Adding a gradient effect to the lighting and maybe a shine on the left-upper-most corner is also a trick I would have done. Those additions would have made it more technically correct and at the same time, shown more clearly that the flat look was intentional (I'm not even sure if it was; but I like it anyways ).

    If it looked striking enough this might have placed goldstar. Note, though, that Toaraga gets a 100x100 av because he's a staffie. Probably worked out best ranking semi-low since 80x80 wouldn't exactly be special for him.


    11th Place

    Member: Toa Talvak
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: N/A
    My comments: Toa Talvak entered three neat ideas including a caterpillar head thingy and a wolf head; I had to give him his choice of the winner as I couldn't decide. This mask is probably the best choice anyways since it is the most Bionicle-esque. This is a another mistake-free entry that's good for the higher range of other winners, but could have used more lighting and some 3D thicknesses. It's a simple but great entry that looks great as an avatar.

    BTW, I do have to say that if this hadn't been a "Bionicle-style" contest, the wolf's head would have definately been chosen because it would place higher. It roxorz. And same with the caterpillar thing. However, it IS a Bionicle style contest, so that's why I saw those three as roughly equal and gave him the choice. Good drawing on all three, Toa Talvak!


    12th Place

    Member: Nuju Metru
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: Mask of Life.
    My comments: Nuju Metru claims 12th place with an Ignika. Now, this one actually disappoints me because at first glance I actually ranked it as a Goldstar winner. Ojhilom warned me that it was out of proportion but I didn't quite see it. I was noticing that it obviously took a fair amount of work and pulled off a great Ignika, that IMO was the clear winner of the three things he entered. Unfortunately, that was just because of my blurry sizing down of his entry image to estimate its size -- when I got the .ppt file, I realized that the line on the upper left serration thing was too light, and the proportion WAS off in the mouth area (compare the right side to the left). What's more, when I ungrouped in an attempt to adjust the line mistake on the forehead, I realized he had apparently been working with text objects instead of normal shapes, so I couldn't click on it -- something else in front was blocking it. To work around that would have been more my work than his, so I couldn't justifiably do it.

    So this one moved down mainly because those errors show up glaringly with 80x80, but in normal size they're not quite so glaring. So in a weird way, it's a good thing for the entry. Now, these errors ARE kinda small when you consider that it's a very striking Ignika shape overall. So it's definately a job well done -- just for future reference, Nuju Metru, try using the Polygon tool and reading the Symmetry section again in my guides, as those things would have avoided these difficulties.

    I must also take some of the blame here because if I'd listened to Ojh maybe I could have picked one of his other two entries in time and it could have placed higher. But I ran out of time, I'm afraid.

    13th Place

    Member: Bundalings the Bunny
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: The Mask of Alternate Paths, not to be confused with the Olisi.
    For instance, you come up to a fork in the road, and you don't know which way to go. Just activate the mask, and you can see what will become of your decision in the near future. You find that one way you'll walk into fog and plunge off a cliff and find yourself in a swamp full of angry Makika toads, and the other way goes to the Matoran village.

    It is flawed in one aspect however: it can only see a limited way into the future. It may be that if you fell in the swamp, you would defeat the toads and find a cache of Kanohi, so in the end it's a better choice. Making decision while using this mask can be very tricky, and full of regret.

    Note the Happy/Sad face, modeled after the theater faces. The idea for this mask came from my longing for a mask like this in the story, and perhaps I will include it in one of my fanfics.

    My comments: Poor Bundalings gets the unlucky number. Unless of course you're an ancient Mayan in which it is a holy number... but then they might eat you alive so yeah no thanks. Anyways, this is a neat mask shape (with a neat bio BTW). Looks similar to something I would draw. It places a little low mainly because of symmetry "sewing" errors (the worst of which I did remove for the art above and for the avatar), and inconsistent use/disuse of 3D thicknesses. But it's a cool shape. Not much more to say here.


    14th Place

    Member: xccj
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: An enemy mask xccj plans to use in an epic.
    My comments: xccj has shown .ppt works before, and he deserves big kudos for previously making tons and tons of Bionicle characters in Powerpoint. I had to judge based on his actual entries though, and of those, this was unfortunately the only one I thought was up to part to win in this contest. It's a good enemy mask, and like I said earlier, paying attention to working good in av-size is important, which this qualifies for. The gradients on the spikes and the face are the main reason it won; also notice how the standard rectangular lighting works well here by creating a jutting-forward-nose effect. I usually shy away from using the rect-lighting effect because I've never been able to think of a good use for it, but right here is a great use of it, similar to Zarkan's use as mentioned earlier.


    15th Place

    Member: Toa Z
    Avatar Link (to be used ONLY by this member).
    Any bio info: N/A
    My comments: Toa Z claims the 15th place with an ape-like face/mask. Again, not all that much to say, except the use of gradients works well for an avatar size, and this is the second most colorful entry in the contest aside from Rangan's entry (defining color as specific colors, so different shades do count, since you have to do work to put even a single such color in), yet that color doesn't clash but complements. And it's also a cool shape.


    Special Notes:

    NOTE to the Goldstar 7 winners: You must PM Black Six after you apply your av to your profile to have him resize it up to 80x80.

    One member was planning on entering, but failed to meet the deadline. I gave Takua the Wanderer a chance to enter on the weekend (directly after contest closure and since my weekend job eats the whole time anyways), but he chose not to enter for honor reasons. Kudos for that choice though I wouldn't have faulted him had he chose to enter late.

    For the record, however, if you had entered this mask, TtW, you would have placed as a Goldstar winner.

    Finally, thanks again to Black Six for allowing the prize-uploading! Enjoy your avs guys!


    ---------------------------------------------
    Enter the Second Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! Winning beasts will be featured in Bionicle Paracosmos Epic #4: Twisted Island!

  12. bonesiii
    Enter the latest Bones Blog Contest! 2nd Chances Moc Contest: Beasts! (Bionicle Paracosmos Contest #1)



    Notice to anybody who has entered the S&T Xian Weapons contest up till now:

    I think we've got the list of rules pretty much as up-to-date as it will get, so go back and read it over. Any entry that was entered before right now that breaks the new rules can be fixed, by editing the problem out and posting again in the entry topic to tell us what you changed.

    Approval is necessary to make it to the polls!

    Also, the entry list includes notes on some entries that break rules, so if you see that for your entry, gives a clue what to do. Hey, that rhymed!



    Entries that break original rules follow normal procedure listed in the rules. Original rules were (summarizing):One entry English/Bionicle only No WMDs Descriptions & Bios under 400 words No gore No current weapons with little or no modification No painted/cut pieces Hand Drawn rule if unsure, PM me Obey All Rulez! So those rules don't count for what I'm saying, though a lot of them can still be fixed if the rule is broken, depending.

    Finally, I'm going to have a grace period after the entry period closed like we ended up doing in S&T#2 to give people a chance to fix these mistakes.

    ION:Winners of .ppt Face Contest will most likely be announced next week. I heart contests. I heart Xia. Sometime soon, look for "What Most Fans Want" here. Go enter the blog contest below.
  13. bonesiii
    Random Cool Monsters <-- Could use replies, and includes two monstrous avs.

    Also: Tren Krom! Wallpaper, Banners, Avs!

    Powerpoint Face Contest is now closed. I'm PMing winners to ask them to send me the .ppt files where necessary to make the avatars. Without revealing their names just yet, this contest turned out so well it's been more about deciding who has to lose than who won -- Ojhilom and I decided that we had to judge winners by anybody that's over a certain level of quality, rather than percentage of enterers. Also, there's a surprise in store for some of the winners.

    Next Bones Blog contest will be the Second Chances MOC Contest as described below. Will launch next week.

    Also launching next week if all goes as planned -- the S&T Xian Weapons Contest!
  14. bonesiii
    The above is the fullsize version of adult version of a Flame -- the first place winning entry in my last blog contest, where members entered descriptions of would-be Pet Peeves, and I designed the images in Powerpoint as the prizes.

    That's exactly what this contest is NOT.

    This time around, you guys get the job of artist. Design a Bionicle style face using the methods I outlined in this two-part guide:

    Powerpoint Art Guides:
    ● Vector Art In Powerpoint: Quality, Inexpensive, Easy
    ● Coolifying With Powerpoint Vector Art

    I'll pick winning entries (and listen to any endorsements you guys make of other enterers). No set number of winners -- will depend on how many entries there are -- and you can enter up to three different faces. Only winning face per member. Winners will get BZPower-uploaded avatars made from their winning face!

    These can be masks, or just faces. Heads underneath masks, whatever you want.

    FREE 60-DAY TRIAL

    For those few who don't have Powerpoint but want to participate, there is a free trial of Office (including Powerpoint) available here. Haven't tried it but hopefully there's a Mac version too...

    ENTRY PERIOD

    Contest starts now and entry period ends on Thursday, May 15, probably at midnight.

    DA IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS

    1) Design a Bionicle-style face in Powerpoint that could look good as an avatar.
    2) Screenshot the face you've created (it can be a largish, zoomed in pic as long as it's not screen-stretching. Don't worry about making the pic small enough for av-size, I'll handle that, but you might want to watch how detailed it gets, keeping in mind much small detail won't show up in an avatar).
    [EDIT: BTW, keep the Powerpoint file handy, because I might need to ask the winners to email me the actual .ppt document. I can see that sizing some of the entries so far down will mess up the pixelizations of the black lines. Also, making sure the lines are thick in the big images you give me would help too.]
    3) Upload the image to an image hosting site.
    4) Post the image here.
    5) If you want you can describe anything about it you want, though try to keep it kinda short.

    FANCY-SHMANCY RULES

    1) Each member can enter up to three faces.
    2) Only one of the three can be a winning pic (you can say which you like best yourself).
    3) You can recommend others' entries for winning, and I will take it into consideration.
    4) Winners ultimately picked by me.
    5) Number of winners is not set in stone.

    TIP: If you can find tricks/methods I didn't include in my guides, I'm a lot more likely to be impressed. (But it's not necessary to win.)

    BRIBERY PRIZE

    I will showcase the winners in a blog entry to be permanently linked to in the important entries list here, and showcase the top three winners in a permanent blog sidebar here.

    But even better, an avatar version of your image will be uploaded to the BZPower image archive by Black Six, and the link provided to you via PM -- giving you an avatar free of offline hosting sites. If BZPower's server is running for people to view your av, they'll be able to.

    ADDITIONAL INSRUCTIONS

    Have fun!
  16. bonesiii
    Which blog contest should I run next?

    Makuta Jeopardy -- will have audition contest, then AIM game with three contestants. Bionicle trivia. Will be introed in the next interview, which will be with Makuta DoomAH. Answers will come from BS01 "Random Pages" under major categories.

    2nd Chances MOC Contest: Beasts! (BPC#1) -- any past MOC, whether from a BBC contest or not, except for actual BBC winners, can be entered. Winning MOCs will be beasts set loose from a "zoo" of superdangerous, exotic beasts in an upcoming Bionicle Paracosmos Fanfic. Multiple winners.


    Was planning to do #1, but I'm leaning more towards doing 2nd Chances now.

    And don't forget to enter the Powerpoint Faces contest if you can! Ends midnight EST Thursday! See entry below.
  18. bonesiii

    Focus Groups

    By bonesiii,

    Enter the Powerpoint Face Contest by May 15!



    Today the Bones Blog brings you a short interview with Greg Farshtey on the subject of focus groups, an often-misunderstood concept lately. What are the facts? Bold is for important points. Blue is me, black is Greg.

    The Q&A

    bonesiii:
    I've noticed lately that one of the cookie-cutter arguments complainers are using has been the anti-focus groups one. [someone] just claimed in a topic for example that focus groups just like whatever LEGO throws at them in thanks for being chosen. He also said younger fans buy "anything".

    GregF:
    That is a very common misconception of people who have never attended a focus group. Trust me -- I attended the initial groups we did for Dino Attack when the theme was just going to be hunting and trapping dinos -- beautiful sets, and the kids hated every one of them. They wanted the heroes to be attacking the dinos, so they got redone as more aggressive sets and sold great. Same with BIONICLE -- the kids are forced to make choices in these groups, of which sets of the group they like best and why. These are professionally run groups, managed by market research professionals outside of LEGO Company, so a kid who just says, "I like everything!" won't be allowed to get away with that answer.

    bonesiii:
    Why are focus groups important?

    GregF:
    Focus groups are important because, with any product, you need to gauge reactions from your primary audience. This is why movie studios do previews and have people fill out comment cards .... this is why TV producers have people watch their shows and turn a dial up or down when they like something or they don't. Every manufactuer just about uses some form of focus group or focus testing, whether they do it themselves or they hire an outside firm to do it. And all those BIONICLE sets everyone on here loved in 2001 and 2002 all came out of focus groups too.

    bonesiii:
    What's the basic process of choosing focus group members?

    GregF:
    LEGO contacts our market research firm, tells them what we want to test, how many sessions we want, how many kids in what age range, and what level of enthusiasm we want them to have for the line (heavy users, medium users, light users, and sometimes even rejecters, though not often). They then recruit the kids, so we have nothing to do with the selections directly. They also conduct the groups and present a debrief when they're done, we just observe from another room.

    bonesiii:
    How important are their reactions to the final product compared to other things like past sales or just set designer's instincts or whatnot?

    GregF:
    Designer instincts and past sales tend to go into the initial design phase. And they do play a part in that you don't automatically change everything you hear a criticism about -- some things have to stay the same for manufacturing reasons, etc. Also, you pay more attention to comments you hear from multiple groups, not just comments from one or two. If you have, say, 8 or 12 sessions over three days (which is common) with different groups of kids each time, and they all pick the same option or they all hate the same thing, you have to pay attention to that.

    bonesiii:
    Do they like "anything"? It would be pointless to bother with them if they just liked everything, right?

    GregF:
    You're right, it would be pointless. But that's not the case. It's pretty easy to spot kids who aren't really into it or aren't thinking about their feedback, and less weight is given to their comments. Most of these kids take their job very seriously and they get pressed to defend their comments. If they like something, or they dislike something, they have to say why. If they think something could be better, they have to say how it could be better. The difference between a focus group and an online forum is that focus groups are pushed to be as constructive as possible in their comments, where online posters can just say, "That stinks!" and no more. Because of that, we get a lot more valuable feedback from the groups.

    I would also add that focus groups are not just used for sets -- they are also used for TV ads, magazine redesigns, online and offline game testing, etc.

    Are focus groups infallible? No, they're not. But what I see when I see people screaming about them is that they are basically saying, "They should listen to me and not them" -- in other words, the complainers don't object to focus groups, they just want to BE the focus group.

    My Thoughts

    In my observation, this is more of a "grasping at straws" tactic that some complainers have started using. Some of it might be taste discrimination; implying that the focus groups and thus the tastes of most fans are somehow inferior to the complainer in question, or it might simply be an assumption that the focus groups aren't accurate.

    If it's taste discrimination, I've already addressed this fallacious, but somewhat understandable mistake here: Taste Discrimination Fallacy, Equality of Taste.

    If it's a question of accuracy, there's some huge problems with that.


    1) Complainers don't have magical access to what the majority wants anymore than anybody else. Just because we might wish we were the focus group doesn't mean our tastes would be more accurate to the majority. In fact the opposite is often true; online fans are often very different from most fans, in any franchise.

    2) Random sampling is a proven technique for accurate polling in all areas, including political polling and in fact any kind you can think of. Naturally, the majority will most often be the ones picked.

    3) Many of the trends in focus group opinions were represented vocally on BZPower before several problems were fixed. Gear unpopularity, and more "violence/darkness" come to mind. The latter fits Greg's example from Dino Attack too -- so before the problem was fixed, the "complainers" basically were the same taste-group as the focus groups.

    4) LEGO uses an independant firm, and the system inherently requires intelligent responses. It's not the simplistic "LEGO shows a few kids the prototypes and they all say 'I likey!'" that complainers seem to have in mind.

    5) Most importantly, as LEGO has improved sets more and more, listening to focus groups included, sales have gone up.

    Either way, I've seen the argument come up seemingly because almost all other illogical complaints have been so thoroughly debunked, while this one hasn't. Those using it display an almost shocking ignorance of what focus groups are exactly and how they work -- ignorance is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but if you're going to propose that something is a problem, you should be familiar with its details. Yet those using it seemingly have made no effort to find out, so it seems more like a convenient excuse to keep complaining.

    Hopefully, this entry will help clear up such confusion.

    Ultimately, the important lesson is that NO illogical argument should be used to say "I don't like this; LEGO shouldn't have done it." We're all free to dislike sets, but that's a matter of taste, not a matter of what LEGO actually should do. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean it's a "problem" -- because you're not the only fan.

    Instead, we should seperate our personal tastes from our opinions about what LEGO should do. So if focus groups' tastes tend to be different from yours, you should be mature enough to say "I wish focus groups and most fans shared my tastes, but this is reality and I can deal with it. I agree LEGO should pay attention to focus group results."



    Now, if you can show some problem with focus groups that none of us have thought of, by all means, let's hear it. Otherwise, that argument ain't gonna fly no mo'.



    Calling all artists!

    Enter by May 15th!
  19. bonesiii
    Today the Bones Blog brings you my own history related to complaint topics, and a major aspect of what I do that most complainers do not realize off the bat. This is being posted because of a recent misunderstanding, but I've needed to say it for a long time. It's also proof that I can be a windbag, so apologies.

    Okay, anybody who knows me knows that I post in complaint topics a lot. I am usually disagreeing with complainers (when they post illogical points), and they often wish I hadn't done so. I've been called a "debating monster", I've been called distinguished and well-spoken, and I've been called an inhuman robot. What I do is admittedly often above the level that maybe a lot of people here want to think about, or sometimes even need to think about. I'm very wordy but often misunderstood, and even some of the people I respect most have been rubbed the wrong way by what I do.

    So why do I do it?

    The Misunderstanding

    Complainers often assume I am trying to stifle their right to complain. The number one response I get is "this is my opinion, I have a right to it, why are you trying to stop complaints about Bionicle?'

    Saying this is not evil -- it's perfectly understandable. But from my point of view, it's kinda funny and ironic, because what they do not realize is, I am actually doing the exact opposite. Before I started doing this, complaint topics were automatically closed for potential or actual flame, and I do claim credit for a huge portion of why today we can almost always keep them flame-free and thus open.

    So I'd really appreciate more gratitude from complainers. :-P But it's understandable, because that's not super simple a concept to grasp, and not obvious to someone who's newer to BZPower debates.

    So let's review the history.

    Importance of Complaints

    In 2004, when I was a new staff member, I mostly left complaint/debate topics alone. I don't like fighting -- I just want to get along with people. But I'm also a logician, and I'm also a big fan of Bionicle. That means I have a vested interest in Bionicle doing well.

    But what happens if there's a problem, and Bionicle isn't doing so hot? If its designers become out of touch with the majority of fans, and sales decline too far, how can it keep going? LEGO would have to cancel Bionicle and move on to something else. If LEGO itself faces this problem overall, it could go out of business.

    Equals bad.

    So say there's a problem. How do we fix it?

    By complaining.

    Constructive criticism, suggestions, whatever word you want to use, the fact is that on-target complaints are vital. We have helped Bionicle in this way before -- we helped show them why clone sets were a problem, and it was because of our complaints about that, combined with sales data that showed that we were right, that made LEGO decide to introduce more variety in teams.

    Flame is the Enemy of Free Speech

    But at the time, complaint topics had been getting more and more flamey as time went on and the original fans aged so much that they could no longer relate much to the new Bionicle. 2002 to 2003 had huge problems, but since it was still trying to hang onto appealing mostly to the minority preferences we see on here a lot, the main complaints were more of yawns in the form of posts than flame. But in 2004, Bionicle went more towards the majority tastes, and BZP's "nostalgics" (if you will) got upset, sometimes angry.

    GregF was in these topics, trying his best to provide a more objective point of view. He deserves even more credit than me for helping out in this way. But what I saw all too often was the idea that "Well, he just works for LEGO, he's making this stuff up" or the like. He was giving complainers important info they didn't have previously, and it helped a lot, but many didn't want to hear it and refused to believe it just because the source worked with LEGO. Things just kept on getting out of hand.

    Now, our job as staff is clear. We're here to be a family friendly forum. We cannot tolerate flame. We will not. The admins made that crystal clear from the get-go, long before I ever even knew BZPower existed. I support that call, and obviously most online fans and their parents do too, or we wouldn't be as big as we are. We have to do our best to promote respect and kindness among members, even as they disagree with each other.

    So what else could we do? We had no choice but to close these complaint topics when they got out of hand. By late 2004, complaint topics were almost always closed automatically because they'd become about as controversial as religion or politics discussions.

    What do you think that does to free speech, guys?

    At the time, a big complaint lodged towards us was that we were stifling free speech when it comes to Bionicle complaints. This despite the fact that many of us were on the front lines posting complaints, including admins! I refuse to pretend that somehow what we did back then was stifling free speech.

    The ones stifling free speech were the flamers.

    Enter Me

    But, I felt there was something else we could do. Or at least, that I could do.

    For many years now, I've considered myself a logician. What that means to me is I approach debate not as mudslinging, going around in circles, speechifying to defend whatever I happen to have said to protect my own selfish pride and ego -- that was when I was a kid. I was lucky enough to be taught logic growing up, and it fascinated me. I learned more and more about it, and I used it. I started to realize I had been a fool as a kid to argue by my ego.

    I became a logician -- which to me means I approach debate as a search among friends for the truth -- the real, actual truth, that is, not anyone's idea of it. I learned a lot about how avoiding logical fallacies and analyzing argument structures could help understand what was really going on in discussion, and better communicate what I wanted to get across. I don't claim any credit for this at all -- as I said, I was lucky. I came to believe logic was the key, as well as an open mind and in-depth, all-inclusive research, to finding the truth.

    Posting on here, I realized I had a talent for steering debates away from flame and "defensive debate" and towards respect and "truth-seeking debate." When I did this, flame in topics was reduced dramatically. And since I don't work for LEGO, nobody can use that tactic on me, and I'm able to back Greg up on a lot of things that might otherwise be brushed aside. Dosn't hurt that I can zap your proto if you flame me either. :-P

    So I decided to go into as many complaint topics as I could, and "moderate" both as a job and like a debate moderator, to try to avoid flame and thus keep the topics open. The job was too big for just me, so as I went, I tried to encourage as many of our older members to learn some of the things I learned and help me in the same way. Again, Greg's input, beyond even just the storyline, since he has access to facts like sales or focus group results that we don't have, helped a ton. Without that, I doubt the following would have been possible:

    Complaint Topics Stayed Open

    I still remember the first complaint topic I managed to keep open. Okay, so I don't remember what the subject was, lol, but it was in early 2005 or late 2004, don' remember which (crazy memory), and I did my best to stem the slightest hint of flame. I had been debating in complaint topics for a while now, but they were still getting out of hand. I had discussions with some of the admins about this, especially Ninjo, and everybody agreed trying to keep them calm/open was best. I was talking a lot about the goal of keeping the topics open because at the time, that was the biggest problem.

    And in this topic, the topic starter and I were able to have an intelligent discussion, and those that came in with more harsh tones and the like I critiqued and some of them responded intelligently. There was only minimal flame that was also spam, which we could warn or delete. And the topic died of natural causes after a while. I watched it like a hawk after the discussion waned, and I saw the exact time it happened.

    I still remember proudly telling Ninjo it had stayed open, and he was quite pleased. So I kept at this. Some more had to be closed, some getting quite out of hand, but things were clearly improving.

    By 2006, complaint topic closure was a distant memory.

    Debate Guide, etc.

    The Dreaded Real Life started really getting in my way around 2006, and I began having trouble keeping up with complaint topics. So I posted things like the BZP Debate Terms Guide (which is still the orange link in my sig, and free for all to read and learn from), or blog entries like Can Opinions be Wrong? or Why I Do What I Do. Though there were and always will be misunderstandings along the way, there's a whole generation of BZPers now who does a great job of helping do the same thing.

    Let's also not forget that I'm the guy who hosts the Complaint Topic Archive (though it still needs work and you can help! Go there!). So to suggest I'm somehow against them, given that if nothing else, is as absurd as saying Elvis was against rock music.

    Also, I've posted plenty of my own complaints, often right in the very posts that people respond to when they accuse me of being against complaints! I've posted both things that personally I find displeasing, and things that as someone concerned for Bionicle's health I think are real problems too.

    But It Can't Stop at Just Staying Open

    Okay, so cool, I've backed up the right to complain, usually despite the lack of gratitude. But why did I do it in the first place?

    Because I think on-target complaints can help improve Bionicle.

    So naturally, that means to be consistent, I also have to be trying to get you guys to think about this:



    What we need to focus on is asking ourselves this about every complaint:



    You find that out by the three things I mentioned -- I call them the Three Pillars of Truth:

    1) Logic -- not fallacies, not flame, not mudslinging.

    2) Open Mind -- not falling back on what you find easier to believe, not sticking to it due to pride/ego, etc.

    3) Research -- not "assumptions" -- facts, hints, evidence, and not disregarding or ignoring any evidence or such.

    I am doing my best to provide #1. Greg, news articles about sales, and many other things are sources of #3. But only you can provide #2 for yourself. That's the one thing I can't control about debates. Do you have an open mind? Would you admit it if you were wrong?


    And of course, let's not forget that individual taste, majority taste, emotions, and business decisions are all mixed up into this, as I explain in this blog entry: Can Opinions Be Wrong? I don't wanna rehash all that -- if you haven't read it, please do -- but the basic idea is we each have different preferences for entertainment, and individually these "tastes" are outside logic.

    We should not be arguing against each others' individual tastes, or saying our own are superior, etc -- we need to focus on figuring out what the majority wants, and maybe on reasonable ways to give the minority some treats too -- in other words, on what will actually help the financial health of Bionicle. (Yes, financial. :-P)

    That's the biggest area where things get confusing, though. People sometimes think when I say "opinion" I mean "taste" and thus I'm attacking them, lol. Which is the opposite of what I'm doing. ("Opinion" can actually mean both, so that's why it's confusing. Which is why I hate that word. :-P Communication needs to be clear -- that's the whole point of it. But that's why defining words is also very important for everybody to do.)

    My Bad

    Now, all that said, I am not Spock, I am not an angel, I am a human being like the rest of us. I do have a temper (it's in there somewhere), I do make mistakes, I do make dumb decisions, I can be just as unhelpful as helpful. One of the curses of being a logician is that I see so much that others cannot see, so easily, it gets incredibly frustrating when they don't see it and need me to repeat it over and over and over again. So I come across as condescending sometimes -- and this is wrong as just as foolish as when I was that little kid because the other people aren't telepathic. Who am I to demand they know everything I know?

    Why I Continue

    Believe me, with life how it is more me now, it's really tempting to just quit. Assume, hey, I've fixed the closure problem, nobody remembers that now, I'd rather be writing, drawing, coding RPGs, and being known only for being a friendly albeit-oddly-spooky face on the forums who gives people free stuff. Do any of you think I wouldn't love that?

    Before I staked my reputation on this, that's who I was seen as, and I almost never got any flak. (Not personally, anyways, just as a generic member of the eeeeevil staff, lol.) I remember well the days when the universal response I got from my argumentative posts, which were limited just to storyline discussion for fun, was "Wow, bones is always right!" Now it's usually "Bones, why can't you leave us alone?" You think I like that? I think you're getting me mixed up with guys like whoever was behind the MiB stuff. :-P

    But I still love Bionicle, and I still love BZPower, and I still know what complainers might not know -- that I can and do have a positive influence on both. I want Bionicle to continue, and I want BZPower to continue to be a friendly, respected fansite.

    Forums Gone Bad

    (Now none of this is going to be related to other Bionicle forums, to make that clear off the bat. Most of those are also well moderated, albeit much smaller than us. :-P And please remember mentioning other forums or linking is against our rules, so nothing like that in comments, please.)

    I've witnessed with my own eyes, -- and jumped right into the thick of it posting and having conversations -- what happens when there is nobody like me on a fan forum that has gotten "very old". Remember what I said about how flame warfare getting worse simply as a natural side effect of Bionicle getting older?

    Well, that's not a uniquely Bionicle phenomenon. Actually, the truth is we are far, far better off than a lot of other forums out there. The vast majority of other franchise fan forums are in a constant state of open war -- not just "flame war" like tempers flaring in a topic as we think of it, but like the whole forum in chaos with organized "sides" making a life for themselves out of insulting the other side as cleverly as they can imagine, just for being different, 12 hours a day, seven days a week (okay, that number is fictional, but you get the idea).

    I've seen this get so bad, it has helped rip apart the franchise itself. Any major fan of scifi will know to what I'm referring to.

    In that case, I joined the forum in question, and I tried to discuss about what the problem was -- before the franchise collapsed, mind you -- and it quite simply failed utterly because both sides were so entrenched it was clear it was too late. Note that "franchise" is the word I'm using for lack of a better word without giving away what forum this is. I faced professional insulters, mudslingers, those to whom complaining was an attention-drawing art, and all manner of things many BZPers who have never gone on these other forums haven't even imagined. I had to give up on that one to preserve my time to have a life, my sanity, and eventually the fact that the franchise was finished and nothing else would help anyways.

    Mainly it happened because the franchise got old enough to have "nostalgic" fans who, without anybody objective to guide discussion, convinced themselves more and more for years that they were superior to the extreme to everybody else (which I'm not just guessing -- they proudly declared it). And let's note that the franchise managers' lack of input and involvement with fans made figuring out the truth about what the problem was rather difficult, and I'm not pretending I totally understand it or don't place blame on them too.

    That was on a forum where there was virtually no moderation and no franchise employee input, BTW, so it's worth mentioning that those were big factors too.

    But those alone are not enough. There's another "franchise" (again, the word is just the best match I can give without basically giving you guys links to non-kid-friendly forums), this time in the fantasy realm, that has a well-moderated forum, and the person at the top of this "franchise" has been very open about what goes into making what the forum is centered on. Note that it's nowhere near as involved as Greg is, so it's still not ideal, I'll grant you.

    But the point is, that the staff of this forum do a great job of stopping flame. Complaint topics, like on BZP 2004, are almost always closed, though not always. So you'd think the problem had been solved.

    Think again. Complainers got more and more vehement, and more and more angry when their complaints just kept getting closed. You saw all of the things as in the first example, all the bad choices made by individuals, all the addiction to negativity. And again, with nobody to act as an objective voice between sides on this, the complainers formed a "side" against the "fanboys". And they formed their own website with its own forum to provide a place for those voices, in the name of "free speech."

    When I came across this website, I was frankly shocked at the nonsensical arguments they had showcased in in-depth guides to why, literally, the producer of this entertainment "franchise" was stupid, inferior, even downright evil. It was an admin-supported, admin created sometimes, comprehensive museum of flame. Some legitimate complaints were featured, but they were buried inside ridiculous ones. Incredibly transparent tactics were used to twist the facts to make it sound as if an actual crime had been committed by the producer -- I'm not exaggerating -- worthy of court action. If there was a truth in speech law, the producer in question would easily be able to sue them for harrassment.

    To make matters worse, the forum side of this featured a highly elitist system of rules that defended the right to flame above almost all (second only to the rule that if you have even the slightest typo, you can be punished -- again, I'm not exaggerating). To their credit, their rules allowed for "free speech" where those who disagreed could come in and post their arguments too. But the vast majority of posts were simply making a game out of flaming the producer in new and innovative ways.

    It really does sound like the Brotherhood of Makuta or something, seeing it written like this, I know. :-P But it is what it is.

    Anyways, so I decided to give it a shot at helping in this case. I analyzed their major sections in the "museum" as I called it, and in a few seperate topics I provided the objective view of it. I made it clear I expected disagreement and encouraged debate, but I was hoping it could remain intelligent and flame-free since I agreed with their goal of free speech.

    To make a long story short, I got through to a couple people and I did do some good, and I'm glad I did it. And there was some intelligent discussion. Almost all of it, though, was just bringing in the flame game to my topics, flaming me, accusing me of being a troll, putting my name through the old flame animation generators, etc, or just using defensive, mudslinging, sarcastic, trolling, and other harmful tactics. By the time it was clear I had "won" the debates and most of the entrenched were making themselves look foolish, the forum administrators suddenly decided to take their entire forum offline, replace it with a new one that tried to seem more objective, and conveniently erase past member accounts and the vast majority of past topics, including, surprise, mine. I didn't bother to re-join.

    Obviously, "free speech" was just a slogan. There really wasn't much of it.

    There's one other example, this one in the TV Mystery genre (okay, even that is saying possibly too much :-P), that in my observation has a reasonable amount of moderation, and has a lot of logical people in it trying to keep things civil. It's still full of flame, but it hasn't gotten anywhere near as bad as the previous two examples. I never bothered joining this one, as things seemed under enough control as is, and this was around the time when ole' Dreaded Real Life attacked me, heh.

    So why do I keep doing this?

    Because I am for free speech.

    LOLZ!

    Whoa, that went long.

    All that is a rewording of what I said a couple hours ago in reply in a topic. :-P



    I wonder if the fact that beating a fossilized horse shatters it fits with the fact that flame shatters free speech? Maybe, but I'm too tired to think about it right now.



    Coming Soon!

    So as I thought I was going to say sooner, you can all look forward to (or dread, depending :-P) a series of several blog entries coming soon that expand on some more important aspects of Bionicle, complaints, the history of all this, life, the universe, and everything. But don't worry, there won't be 42 of them....

    Also, progress on the RPG is continuing now, and you can expect yet another Survurlode interview coming soon (but I'm not sure who I'll interview yet). Oh, and I know, I know, I have been neglecting Bo Ring. Workin on it, workin on it.

    So don't worry, the Bones Blog isn't going to be pure logician/serious anymore than it ever has been. :-P
  20. bonesiii
    Random Thunks.

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    [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=39&showentry=29997"][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/bonesiii/BZPstuff/powerpointfacecontst/powerpointfacecontest_sigsize.gif][/url]

    Yall must use it, capisce?

    That's a Normalfied Calix, a Coolified Kaukau, Coolified Jutlin from my recent Phankuta art topic, Coolified "Igniru"request from GB#1 that was used in the second of the art guides as an example, the original Coolified Vahi, a coolified Hapori Tohu, and finally, a Ninja King face I made for Ninjo a long time ago that he used as his avatar for a while.

    These are a few of my faves from my own work; hopefully they can help inspire yall for the contest.

    You can see these and other Powerpoint art on my brickshelf, if you want even more inspiration.

    Elements

    A lotta talk lately about new Bionicle or fanfic Elements. Personally I think the more official elements, the better -- even many that Greg has turned down, I would include if it were up to me, but many would simply be considered evil elements just like Shadow. (Acid, for example.) And I really like the idea of "Abstract elements", like "Mind" for intelligence, or "Emotion", in which actual elemental energy would control these abstract aspects of the Matoran's world. I think these would really help make Bionicle's physics even more different from our world, which IMT is a good thing.

    Maybe more importantly, it would challenge and inspire imagination even better than "obvious" elements. I think imagination is a very worthy goal, 'specially considering this is LEGO.

    And I think a more complete selection of Legendary elements would make sense, even if they are merely "considered" elements and not actually used in the story. Time and Life don't sound much like a complete list. Force is probably the best example of one I'd support; it's basically kinetics.

    The best argument against Aether/Continuum/Space, I think, is that kids wouldn't understand it, and I admit I'm Mr. Physics so this is like kindergarten to me much more so than most people, but I think "the fabric of dimensions" is simple enough to understand -- and just say it can make wormholes, modify physics somewhat in an area, and maybe a few other limited things that could be compared to fabric -- but if it ruptures space, the whole universe pops like a balloon. Besides, all I really wish for is that it be considered an element. (Also, calling it "Space" would be confusing, so another good argument against it is that the alternatives are just as confusing for names.)

    Another idea I've had is "Mutated elements" -- where the element itself is mutated, not just the weilder. So the normal rules for elements wouldn't have to apply, per se, and they could be mixed with powers in some ways.

    A short list of some random, mixed up examples of elements I have now listed in my Paracosmos Notebook database as real elements in my fanfics:

    Lava -- A classified weilder of this rules a volcanic island; fits Ta-Koro style.
    Crystal -- Fits Ko-Metru, lightstones, heatstones, etc.
    Void -- Vacuum element; I think it fits best as its own element with its own EE, not as a "sub-element" of all others. Plus fits Levhak Kal better.
    Blue Fire -- The important element of the RPG, as fans of it already know -- probably best not done in Bionicle though.
    Shade -- Similar to Shadow, but not inherently evil. So stories about heroes who use the darkness are possible here. Another that's probably kept to fanfics.
    Music -- Sounds weird, but it's tied in with a classified physics concept of the BP that will be revealed in the Le-Koro RPG level. Is an abstract.
    Ghost -- Control semi-tangible ghostly materials that can defy gravity.

    Ocean -- a mutated element from Water; weilders can breathe water and repair wooden boats.
    Garden -- a mutated Le element, similar to Plants, but more for growing crops for food and controlling plant arrangement.
    Forge -- a mutated element from Ta; includes ability to make metal and melt it.
    Shredder -- a mutated Po element, can shred stone into fine sand with energy beams.
    Clockwork -- a mutated Onu element; can reshape any solid into clockwork parts and understand such machines inherently.
    ____? --- I still need a suggestion for a Ko-equiv for these mutated elements. Any idears?
    [EDIT: The above six are the Kriitunga elements. Also, the Ko-element is stasis.]

    Memory -- an abstract element
    Psionics -- an abstract element
    Venom -- an evil element
    Frost -- painfully cold evil element
    Tar -- an evil element
    Creation -- a Legendary; includes ability to know how to make things work, and to make them from elemental energy.
    Chaos -- a Legendary; includes ability to make order chaotic, plus understanding of "chaos theory" -- controlling things that seem random but are really more like complex dominoes, like dropping a feather, or hitting a target from a distance just right, etc.

    And there are quite a few more that are too classified to reveal.



    Petitions

    As I had to say recently, many members seem to think it's wise to make petitions for any random feeling they have. If you wish Bionicle would go back to styles that sold poorly, you make a petition. If you wish LEGO could magically make prices go down with no reductions in sets, you make a petition. If you dislike Onua Mata, you make a petition. If you want free cookies for life, you make a petition.

    Guys, that doesn't make any sense.

    First, you must logically determine what LEGO actually should do. Not just what you personally want -- that's personal taste. Bionicle has to appeal to the majority taste, which isn't necessarily the same as your own tastes. And your tastes aren't "better" than everybody else's either. Everybody's equal; to imply otherwise is a form of discrimination, as I talked about in a past entry here.

    Also, we are a very tiny minority among the fanbase -- sales results are a much larger form of "petition", and LEGO does listen to sales results quite a bit. So LEGO is concerned with what the fans want, enough to do focus group research and sales analysis and various other things instead of just making random things and hoping they sell. We shouldn't puff ourselves up so we think we're the only fans, or worse, the only fans that matter. Everybody matters.

    "Die-hard fans" -- I've heard the argument that devoted older fans are somehow more valuable. I would actually argue the opposite -- toys are for kids. Have you ever seen those cereal ads where they say "These are for kids, silly!"? Well, us adult fans must always remember that we are guests to this experience. Devotion is great, but acting spoiled is not. We should be grateful for the many nods LEGO has sent our way (especially including the storyline reason the Nuva were brought back -- remember that was never motivated for set reasons anyways; it was to have the Nuva in story spotlight).

    So petitions like that only send the signal that we want to bite the hand that's feeding us, I'm afraid.

    Now, sure, petitions for logical, good causes are okay. I've supported one -- the "bring back the collectibles" one. But that was because the starter thought things through and came up with an idea that was actually plausible. That's the key.



    Requests

    No matter what I do I just can't seem to get in the mood to fulfill some art requests from some of you. I apologize for the rediculous delays, and I'm afraid the delays are just going to continue for another few weeks at least. I will try to fulfill the requests I have at this point.

    However, from now on, I will not be accepting any art requests at all. No av requests, no banner requests, nothing. I just need to get that load off my shoulders so I can focus on other things. Sorry.



    Mysteries

    One of my favorite things, as a writer, is just reading storyline debates many of you have. Because recently some of my best ideas for Bionicle Paracosmos mysteries have come from things you guys have said. Obviously, I can't get specific or it would ruin the surprises. But the ideas can come from the least expected places.

    Similar to how I got great new element ideas from the "What Don't You Want" topic (), I got a great mystery idea from someone else who was arguing recently about how something was impossible. Basically, it made me think "what if it was possible? What could cause it?" and I made a comparison to something in the real world that fits the scenario, and modified it to make it possible in Bionicle.

    So keep on debating guys.



    This Week and Next Week

    Probably gonna be busy this week, as I've got a big to-do list from the Dreaded Real Life. I'm hoping to set a new policy in stone related to storyline so we can announce it soon. Don't worry, nothing unusual.

    Not sure what to expect for next week's schedule but something has come up that might cause me to be away for several days.

    If I do have time, I'm trying to catch up on all the Gold Key to Nongu nominations that have made. The problem is, some of the nominations seem so good I haven't had time to read them in detail due to their length.

    Workin on it...



    Next Survurlode Interview

    I have three ideas for who to interview next, hopefully in May. But I can't decide which of the three it should be. I am leaning towards a Lawyerahk named Bob -- I usually interview somebody that was hinted at in a past interview, and Lawyerahks are the most obvious category of those. But there's someone else who should be very interesting and who was named in one of the older interviews that I haven't got around to yet (and would be well timed). There's a third new character who should be really fun, but he hasn't been hinted at or introduced at all.



    Future Blog Contest

    I got a great idea for another blog contest. But since I'm already running one right now, I'm keeping it classified for now. Suffice to say, whatever you are expecting, that's not it.
  21. bonesiii
    (Most important points are bold.)

    If there was ever a "title says it" moment for blogs, this is it.

    But as simple as the statement "friends can disagree" is, it is shocking how profound and almost universally unknown it is to so many people. Whether on BZP or real life, people often start avoiding each other when they find out they like different things, or don't see eye to eye on things. This is wrong.

    Now maybe there are situations where this is all you can do. Being friends, even in the face of disagreements, is two choices. The choice of the one person, and the choice of the other. In the case of a community like BZPower, it's the choice of hundreds to thousands of different people. Sometimes you can do your best to be friendly even while disagreeing, but the other person just doesn't chip in. As as staff member especially, I know that this happens.

    However.

    Vast majority of the time, in my experience, the other person is being antagonistic mainly with a "you first" attitude. Meaning, they want you to demonstrate to them first that you are friendly, and then they know it's okay to be friendly with them. Until you do so, they assume you to be a possible enemy.

    Most flame wars start because all sides have a "you first" attitude, and since none of them, thusly, go first, they just escalate antagonism until it gets out of control. Here, we deal with that with punishment where needed. On some less quality forums out there, the sides get entrenched and often bring down the forum. In real life, it can lead to violence, or in less extreme, everyday situations, yelling matches, pointless damage to property, even breaking up relationships. Equals bad.


    As Dokuma put it in his excellent topic, "Voicing Opinions and Responding Intelligently":




    How To Disagree Intelligently:

    I think the best way to do this is to have a "possibilities attitude."

    By that I mean a positive attitude, and being thoughtful and fair rather than antagonistic. Always consider other possibilties besides just what you happen to already think, or what others happen to be telling you. This way it's much easier to see the other person as a friend, because you're not staking anything on selfish pride.

    When it comes to thought, I often talk about the 3 Pillars of Truth:

    1) An open mind. If you don't have this, there's really no point in talking, because discussion requires it.

    2) Logic. Emotion has its place too, but this can help you avoid being judgemental for wrong reasons, and other problems.

    3) All-inclusive research. This requires actual work and most of us don't have time for it. Probably the hardest part; if you don't have time for it, it's usually best to keep your opinions limited to what you personally like or dislike, not what you think LEGO should do.

    There's a fourth part to this that's maybe even more important:

    4) A positive attitude.

    Many people think there's a "glass half full/empty" situation, where you're either an "optimist" or a "pessimist." This is misguided.

    Optimism is healthier (it's been shown they live longer), but it implies a naive foolishness that actually thinks everything will be peachy -- and true optimists tend to end up getting disappointed and become the infamous "disillusioned", basically going to the opposite extreme and being pessimists.

    Pessimism is even worse, because even when a situation is almost totally positive, they obsess over the inevitable downside and let it rule them, making them miserable. Also as I say often, cynicism is really just the ultimate form of naivete -- just feed a cynic bad news and he'll sell his soul to you -- this is a common method of controlling others by manipulative types.

    But a "realist", which is what I describe myself as, is someone who brings a healthy, positive attitude to any situation, realizing that this world is just, plain and simple, messed up, and getting over it. Realists, unlike pessimists, know how to maintain emotional stability even in the face of bad news. Realists, unlike pessimists, do not ignore the good side of things; they embrace it. Realists also do not pretend that bad things will never happen; they expect them, but they don't think things will always be bad either.

    Poison or Medicine?

    This isn't just pie-in-the-sky philosophy. Your emotions are chemicals.

    When you let negative emotions rule you, you flood your body with harmful chemicals. Basically, you poison yourself with your own venom. And don't think a "I can take it" attitude is enough -- I've met people who think that they are emotionally unreachable because they don't let others' insults affect them, yet when non-people things don't go their way, they rant and rave about it, obviously letting it get to them.

    This applies to any unhealthy negative emotions, which is always a choice you make, though learning how to choose otherwise is difficult. Even if you think "they don't rule me", you can still make mistakes that a positive attitude helps you avoid.

    On the flip side, when you choose positive emotions, you flood your body with helpful chemicals, and this can contribute to physical health, and longer life, besides giving you clearer thinking.

    Essentially, emotions are a kind of drug. You can choose the addictive but harmful kind, or you can choose safe, beneficial medicinal ones.

    It Starts With You

    Nor is this just about your own health. When you express positive emotions towards others, it can be contagious, and help keep communities stable.

    Remember that, as the Dog Whisperer says, you are a source of power. A lot of people don't know that they choose their own emotions -- usually subconsciously, but the conscious can take this over, and even train the subconscious. A lot of people also don't realize that the emotions they choose for themselves affect the world around them.

    Dogs for example pick up your own insecurities, and they amplify them. I have learned from newer pets that cats have the same ability, though in a different way. Well, us humans are actually the same way, though admittedly with people it is faaaaar more complex, unpredictable, and of course each person is their own source of power much more so than animals.

    Since everybody else is thinking, "you go first", do it! By choosing to think "I'll be positive first", you avoid pointless antagonism, and even steer antagonism back towards peace sometimes. As far as it depends on you, you can be friends even with those who don't happen to have your opinions -- which is probably everybody anyways.

    In this way, each and every member who posts is wielding power either to tear down, or build up this community.

    The Folly of the Haters

    Now, there's a side to all of this that I doubt most of you need to hear. But it's the obvious opposing view to this, so it needs addressed. That is, some people actually believe they can hate others, harm them, flame them, etc. without harming themselves at all.

    This is very rampant in other places on the internet, as you probably know, probably because people think the only bad things that could happen to them come from other people, and anonymity is a shield. Not true -- the poisonous chemicals of hate come from inside everybody and cannot be avoided if you hate. Hate can be addictive, but so can a number of illegal substances that harm the user.

    Yes, there can be a thrill rush from hate, but being kind to all is actually far, far more thrilling.

    Explaining this to people who've chosen this path is difficult, because the hate-addicted usually just use an "Instant Rejection Fallacy" and go all "peace is for wimps" on you. They also often display an "Inverse Accusation Syndrome" where they assume anyone intelligent that claims to want peace must be lying and actually secretely hates -- projecting their own fallacy on others, basically. Addictions have a way of making the addicted glom onto whatever fallacy they can, to decieve themselves so they aren't totally depressed by the consequences of their choice.

    But I've lived both sides of this. I've fallen prey to hate before. I'm a smart guy -- and that can be dangerous -- I've used that intelligence to harm others. But I'm also smart enough to analyze myself, and I now know for sure that this is an incredibly inferior approach.

    Many of the reasons I know this we can't discuss here, but I am confident enough in them after years of searching (with the "3 pillars" method) that I know the peace-seeking way is best -- it's actually IMO intertwined in the physics of reality itself. But we don't really need to discuss all that to see why the kind way is best -- "haters" get an emotional benefit only some of the time, while peace-seekers get it all the time.

    Another Tip

    A big mistake people use is assuming that anyone who disagrees with them is stupid (or stupider ). Bad idea.

    First of all, if anyone really was lacking in relevant intelligence due to genetic reasons, it would be out of their control. So to insult them for it would make no sense, and would be a form of discrimination.

    If, on the other hand, they are choosing not to use their brains, for almost any reason, "stupid" is an innaccurate label anyways. A lot of times they just have never been told how to use it for a situation -- for example, I would hope that after reading this, many of you would learn something new about how you can use your brain. That doesn't mean you were stupid before -- more like ignorant, which IMO is nothing to be ashamed of.

    More to the point, I believe that the vast majority of humans, even most of the so-called "mentally handicapped" are actually basically the same intellgence level, it's just that we allocate our intelligence in different areas.

    For example, IQ tests (one of which has called me a "regional mastermind") are fallible, because they are biased towards those who allocate their intelligence towards a more mathematic, analytical approach, like me. Yet I know that I sorely lack in abilities that I see commonplace around me. Others are often quicker to perform the right action in time-limited situations than me, where I have to step back and analyze before I can figure out what I'm supposed to do. As a consequence, I am much slower than most people. In many situations in real life and even some online when I don't have much time, I am the one who appears stupid.

    As another example, the "handicapped" often are far better than "normal" people at having a positive attitude, and so in a lot of situations they actually get far better results than the rest of us. Many just seem to understand this as if it was 2 + 2, where we are really slow at picking up on it. (That's not to say that brain damage doesn't decrease intelligence sometimes; brains are computers and some computers can be more powerful than others and this is okay.)

    Allocation. Remember that word.

    Most of the time, it's best to assume that the other person is probably just as smart as you. It's a very useful approach, and most of the time IMO it's true.

    Now, it's fair to point out that some choose not to use their brains right, on purpose, for selfish purposes. Sure, but even with this, I wouldn't go insulting their intelligence. Chances are they're plenty smart, and besides, we don't allow insulting others regardless so don't do it or else.

    I'll concede that with some people (not on here for the most part) who stubbornly choose pride over their brains, I do accurately label that "stupidity." But in the spirit of promoting a positive environment for discussion, it's best not to post that kind of opinion, because others who don't understand what this blog entry talks about might misunderstand and think it's okay to insult anyone anytime. (Don't ask me if I think that of you. )

    In other words, if you call someone stupid, a lot of times you're basically labeling yourself.

    Conclusion

    Friends can Disagree.

    But also, Disagree-ers should be friends.
  22. bonesiii

    Complaint Topic Archive

    By bonesiii,

    Love or hate it, complaining is an important aspect of Bionicle discussion. It's always possible that real problems could exist, and constructive criticism might bring it to LEGO's attention and help Bionicle's health. The Bionicle fanbase has a unique relationship with the franchise it follows because the LEGO company is very interested in fan input and correcting such errors. In the past we have helped with such things as clone sets thanks to this. As such, the ability to complain is a privelege to be protected and even celebrated.

    Of course, many complaints aren't realistic, informed, constructive, etc. or are , however the replies in many are sources of great insight into how Bionicle works, why choices have been made, and of course, into why the suggestions might not work. In addition, they are great opportunities to hone debating skills and can be for some (like me) quite enjoyable as long as they remain respectful and hopefully friendly.

    Therefore, the Bones Blog is now hosting a list of BZPower complaint topics. Please help by posting URLs of more!

    2006:
    Gear Functions Disappearing
    Violence Policy
    What The...? I Don't Get It -- Matoran story roles, good always winning, etc
    If You Could Rename... -- Kongu's sense of humor, personality

    2007:
    The Downfall of Bionicle -- gears, knockoff masks, etc
    LEGO, What Are You Doing? -- biomechanical set design, snap-together builds, etc
    Eye Colors
    Bring Back the Gears, Masks that [Fall Off]
    Too Much Articulation?
    A New Color Scheme -- black sets selling poorly, new color suggestions

    2008:
    No New Creative Lego Designs? -- Canister set torso similarities between teams
    "If I Were A Set Designer" -- Newva body design, collectibles, and more.
    Back in the Olden Days -- 2001 Nostalgia
    Time To Vent -- Mechnical functions, collectibles, proportion, complexity, and more
    Why Fans Like the Mata Nui Saga

    This was previously a sidebar, but I've decided it would work better as a blog entry.
  23. bonesiii
    Today the Bones Blog brings you a topic that is essential for any member of any online fan forum to understand -- the equality of varying personal preferences/tastes, and how not recognizing this can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, or worse. Bold is for important points, not emotionalism.

    This will be very to-the-point so it's easier to read -- if you wanna know more, please ask! Please realize my goal is to show an easy way to help us all avoid flaming each other, even if we disagree on things.

    Quality is in the Eye of the Beholder

    Bionicle is a toyline, a franchise with a storyline inspired by its toys. Toys are for kids to have fun, although some adults (like me) enjoy toylines as well. To have fun, kids must be pleased by the toy and the experience that comes with it, or by the storyline, etc.

    How you please each person depends on their personal tastes, also called preference.

    Tastes vary from person to person, and are largely wired into us from birth, not something we choose or can control. Tastes do change and develop with age and life experiences, and there may some small element of choice with them. But for the most part, taste is just like race, gender, hair color, eye color, facial features, etc. -- it's built into us.

    And thus, to put down someone else just because they dislike different things, or to insult the things they like, is a form of discrimination, and is wrong. Now, it's perhaps not as bad as racism, because it's easy to see that skin color or other racial features are not chosen by the person, but preference is invisible. However, at heart it is just as bad, and the hate directed at the "different" can hurt just as much.

    Or to put it how I often do -- People are like snowflakes. No two are the same.

    This means that "quality", at least in toys, is subjective, and depends on the person. Nobody can claim that their own tastes automatically equal quality. The only thing close is the majority taste, since that determines what will sell well.

    The Mistake

    However, the above facts are often misunderstood or not even known by people, especially when young. People often assume that what they like, everybody else must like too. When they dislike something, they assume it must be "bad" and that everybody else will agree.

    When people like this encounter others, it is confusing. They often react negatively to the different person (making a mistake I call "Instant Rejection Fallacy" which I will have a blog entry in the future), assuming they are making a wrong choice, or are somehow "damaged" or immature or less intelligent, etc.

    When they encounter things they dislike, they assume there must be something wrong with those who designed it. Many who do know that others like different things mistakenly think that those others are "lesser."

    In their confusion, people often try to "defend" their tastes by trying to sound logical about what is "good" and "bad" -- two problems being that they just use fallacies, which aren't logical, and that they didn't need to defend their tastes at all because it's okay to have them.

    It's an easy mistake to make -- but it's easily fixed if we simply realize that taste is wired into us, and not related to intelligence or anything like that -- if we realize that all individual tastes are equal. Seeing someone who's different isn't cause for alarm -- relax yall!

    Bionicle's Responsibility

    Bionicle has a responsibility to remain financially healthy in order to continue, and to support the LEGO company. In order to do this, it must please enough fans that it turns a profit (in the face of pressures such as the cost of plastic, the cost of steel molds, both of which have been rising, or the salaries of employees, or the costs to transport and package, etc. etc. etc.).

    This means Bionicle has a responsibility to please "most fans," or the "majority preference."

    Since each individual taste is equal, each one works like a vote. That's only approximate as some might spend more money than others, but you get the idea. With votes, majorities win.

    While it can give minority fans small treats here and there, vast majority of time the issue is this: "Does this please most fans?"

    Also, BZP is NOT most fans. We are only a tiny percentage of the fanbase, and even the active posts are often unequally weighted towards the displeased than the pleased -- because the pleased would usually rather just play with toys than go post somewhere.

    The Risk of Entrenched Hatred

    I strongly recommend reading my past blog entry "Am I Against Free Speech?," especially the "Forums Gone Bad" section, because on forums where lack of understanding of this basic concept runs rampant, many people tell themselves for years that they are superior to everybody else, and this wrong opinion becomes so entrenched that it is hard to teach them the truth. Just trying to do makes you "the enemy" in their eyes a lot of times.

    So whenever you see a topic or post doing this, I recommend linking here.

    We all must be vigilant and see to it that we don't let anyone fall into this dangerous trap, including ourselves. Just one post while you're in a bad mood can come across as TDF, and spark flame. It can drag down any forum, even BZPower, and it really only takes a month or even less time for such discrimination to become entrenched if there's something big to disagree about (like new set images). It doesn't always just plain die down.

    In the past few months, I've seen a lot more extreme taste discrimination in the form of some extreme, even hateful topics. These are beginning to risk us needing to start closing complaint topics, and if you read that other entry, you know I'm trying my best to prevent that. But I'm a busy guy and I can't do it all myself. Obviously, these usually come from newer members (though often longtime fans) who aren't as familiar with our rules against flaming, and almost definately have never seen any of my posts or similar posts.

    The Fallacy, 3 Main Forms

    1) Insulting someone with a different taste is the most extreme form of "taste discrimination."

    This is NOT to say "there's no such thing as morals." People CAN certainly make immoral choices, but morals are inside the realm of logic. Logic states that "I like" statements are considered to be outside the realm of logic, thus it is illogical to try to attach moral or universal standards to personal tastes.

    2) A lesser version is when you don't insult the people directly, but insult what they like. Even if you say that you don't want to offend anybody, doing that IS an insult to the person who likes it, because it implies they shouldn't like it.

    3) And a much lesser version is when you simply assume that everybody, or most people, shares your own tastes. You might not hate those who don't share your tastes, but you assume that entertainment is supposed to be targeted at you, thus you can tell people what is 'good' and 'bad' about entertainment purely by saying what you liked or disliked. Problem is, you might actually be in the minority on some things. World doesn't revolve around just you.

    This is a form of "Hasty generalization" fallacy. It also often comes in the form of "Chronological Snobbery" fallacy -- assuming that the new/old is good/bad just because it's new or old. Both of those terms are official logicianspeak, not my own terms.

    All of these are versions of a logical fallacy because, essentially, they look at something that is true inside one person (taste) and use it to say what reality must be, universally, about something outside that person (in this case, Bionicle).

    The argument "I dislike this, therefore Bionicle shouldn't do it" sums up the fallacy.

    "Taste Discrimination Fallacy" is my own term, to be clear. And don't confuse it with "He has discriminating tastes" -- that's just a fancy way of saying someone's picky.

    Again, What I'm NOT Saying

    I'm NOT saying that Bionicle doesn't make mistakes. If it appeals less to most fans than it should, that's a mistake, and needs fixed -- complaining about these is good and is the main reason I work so hard to keep complaint topics flame-free and thus open.

    I'm NOT saying logic is irrelevant to Bionicle. But it's usually more in the storyline realm than the set one -- plot holes and the like are a logical issue. With sets, almost everything is a matter of preference. Also, LEGO must use logic in order to determine what will appeal to most fans. Obviously it is capable of not hitting that nail on the head every time, but it's been getting much, much better at it.

    I'm NOT saying the majority taste is "better" than the minority. Individually each is equal, and a "tyranny of the majority" would be just as bad with this as with racism or any other form of discrimination. However, Bionicle has no choice but to try to appeal to the majority, and this is not wrong. Small treats for minority fans are cool and I encourage them, but we must be careful not to be ungrateful when this happens as LEGO has no obligation to do it -- we should not have a "more more more" attitude towards such treats.

    I'm NOT saying everything is about taste. There are some people who try to justify immoral behavior as taste -- this is wrong because issues of morals do exist inside the realm of logic. So for example murder is wrong universally -- a murderer can't justify it by saying he likes to do it.

    What else am I not saying... *thinks*

    I'm NOT saying that taste is as simple as "two sides." That's what entrenched flamers usually say, and it's waaay oversimplistic. However, there are two approximate sides on a lot of things. Watch for an entry coming soon on what they are.

    I'm NOT saying there's an "older fan" taste and a "younger fan" taste. While that might have changed slightly for the majority since new kids constantly get born, grow a little older, and join the fanbase, a lot of the original styles were unpopular even in 2001 (Rahi sold poorly, collectibles sold poorly, gears were unpopular, the most-complained-about year, etc.). I am a perfect example of a 2001 fan who disliked those things and loves the newer style a lot more.

    In reality, it was that in 2001 LEGO misjudged who would mostly like Bionicle, and since then, has changed to move more in line with the majority. The minority, which is often online and BZP members, dislikes this obviously. But they sometimes forget that LEGO can't please everybody -- so there will always be someone who dislikes whatever they do.

    And I'm not saying anything else bad. Bones = nice. I'm saying Beeeeee Gooooooood. Capisce?

    Examples of Taste Discrimination

    Some of these are near-quotes from recent topics, others are from past topics, most are paraphrased.

    "LEGO has killed Bionicle because I don't like a new set!"

    "This set is stupid."

    "Epic fail." (Sorry )

    "LEGO's selling out!"

    "Bionicle is cheaping out!"

    "Alright, no."

    "Dumbest set."

    "Golden Age of 2001."

    "Bionicle is for [insert random insult]s."

    "LEGO is milking the cash cow." (If something sells, means it pleases kids.)

    "I hate this set." (Hate is too far; if you hate a toy, you have problems.")

    "The Umbra Mistake"

    "Toa Mistake-a" (I know it's punny and all, but it's TDF.)

    "LEGO doesn't care about the fans, just money." (If it sells, means pleases most fans.)

    "You're a fanboy." (Probably the dumbest insult considering most Bionicle fans are boys and are also, well, fans...)

    "You're not a true fan." (Just because someone doesn't like part of a franchise doesn't make 'em any less a fan.)

    And there are hundreds of other similar statements that reveal a taste-discrimination fallacy. I've probably forgotten a lot of biggies -- I might add more.

    A Better Way!

    If we all simply understand that taste vary, and are equal, we can learn to get along with others much more, and avoid problems like flame. When you see something you don't like, be more like "Eh, not my cup of proverbial tea... not that I drink tea..." We are all different, and that's okay.

    Say things more like "What set do you like least?" or "Favorite set?" or "I didn't like that at all." etc. Usually things like "Worst set" are OK as long as they aren't flamey too.

    It's simple, really, even if it takes a few words to say the whole thing (), and when you have figured this out, life is much easier and more pleasant.

    That is all.
  24. bonesiii

    Contest? Contest?

    By bonesiii,

    So what do you guys think about me running a blog contest where you guys design Bionicle-style faces in Powerpoint, and somehow or another, at least a few winners are picked? Using the methods I explained in these two guides:

    Powerpoint Art Guides:
    ● Vector Art In Powerpoint: Quality, Inexpensive, Easy
    ● Coolifying With Powerpoint Vector Art

    But what should be the prize?

    I don't think I can do another sidebar gallery -- I've got enough images over there as is. And last time I made the images as an award -- this would be you guys entering the images.

    And obviously some rare people don't have Powerpoint so couldn't enter -- if anyone has a better blog contest idea, feel free to suggest.


    --------------------------------------

    In Other News, I totally just now noticed that "In Other News" written as an acronym spells "ion". Ironicles!

    *ahem* I am hoping to have time soon to run another S&T contest in spring/summer, hopefully the first Expanded Universe one. Whattayall think -- "Design a Xian Weapon"? Winners would hopefully become official weapons from Xia, and all qualifying entries would become part of the EU. Or would yall prefer a character-making contest first, or sommat?

    (Note that I have another classified S&T contest idea for much later this year, like around Christmas. Can't announce that yet. But I'd like to do one before then too, as it will be very unique and "standalone".)
  25. bonesiii
    So I wanted to post something besides the usual essay today but couldn't think of anything fast enough. This is a fallback I've had ready for a while, ever since an old (dead) COT topic. Plus someone else was blogging about UFOs so why not (see Czar's blog).

    Now, the UFOs in question here aren't the flying saucers. It's the giant, silent triangle craft with three running lights. There have been sightings all over the country, and I even know someone who claims to have seen one. This description is near-universal. It seems unlikely to me that it's made up.

    Well, a few months ago, there was an episode of Mythbusters that gave me an idea:



    Why I Think This is Plausible

    First of all, everybody's probably going "But what about ET?" Well, the answer is ET is working for us, and Rahkshi don't have running lights last I checked.

    But seriously, I don't think any of the alien ideas are actual plausible theories. That doesn't mean it's impossible -- believe me, I'd love it if there were aliens and if they had wacky enough technology to actually come here. But there's three huge problems with the idea:

    1) Statistics. Statistically the chances of life-supporting planets being close enough to us for a sublight trip here (and then only to fly around trying not to be seen) are pretty unlikely. Never mind the fact that in both major origins worldviews, logically, it's unlikely that aliens exist at all, but that's a subject we can't get into here (and is full of confusion among the populus). Statistics for the homes of aliens are an even bigger problem.

    2) Travel time. Let's assume that there's an intelligent, highly advanced alien civ on a planet on the other side of the galaxy. Unlikely, but pretend. They would have to spend hundreds of thousands of years to get here as sublight speeds, since there's an upper speed limit called the speed of light. Matter cannot reach or surpass this speed. So unless some aliens figured out how to make warp drive a reality, it's unlikely they'd come here.

    3) Least likely scenario. There's two main possibilities for these UFOs IMO: (1) They're classified aircraft, and (2) They're aliens. Since we know the US de-classifies aircraft every once in a while, we can assume they have classified aircraft right now. So for both the silent triangles and flying saucers, isn't it logical to conclude the UFOs are most likely classified aircraft?

    The argument I see so often is "Here's evidence that there's really a UFO.... Therefore aliens are real." That makes no sense, really. Evidence that an unidentified flying object really is flying, and really is unidentified, is just that -- evidence that something's in the air that we don't know what it is. It's a giant logical leap to say it proves aliens. No, I would argue that it barely even implies them.

    I think a much better argument is "Here's evidence of UFOs, and also, we can assume USA has classified aircraft. Putting two and two together, UFOs are probably just classified aircraft."

    And then, the triangle shape of this theory would explain one of the types we hear about so often.


    *waits for government to storm house*

    ----------THIS PRESENTATION SPONSORED BY:---------

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