Basically people are negative because they have become disillusioned with the contest and the fact that, while a lot of levels are really great, a lot of them are not. This didn't change from vldc9 or 8 or anything really. In fact, we've been progressing amd slowly getting better. The sheer volume of the hack has been the main cause of disillusionment.
Most of this is also due to the ridiculous hype that was attached to the contest and the somewhat dissapointing outcome. Not with the levels themselves, but with the judging process, collaborative effort, etc. Having talked firsthand with the judges myself, it's insanely unfun to judge all these entries, and it also basically caused multiple people to drop off the face of the internet and has already stirred up multiple controversies.
That, combined with the huge number of contests in 2017, has made a lot of the community weary of over-hyping things. I'm thinking the reactionary consequences of this was people being drawn to more simple things, purely vanilla levels, creative simplicity over huge ideas, etc. Basically over-ambition may be to blame, but I definitely found myself sacificing good simple ideas for over the top ambitious stuff. And the actual collaborative process itself was extremely ambitious and well... it fell flat.
Originally posted by Locke_LockOriginally posted by ThePat545that doesn't redeem smwcp2 or how horrible 70% of vldcx's levels are
Don't be so negative. Just because you apparently sinned with your level doesn't mean the rest of the levels are bad. I haven't played or seen any of the levels yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing the different level design techniques used by the creators.
Come back to me after you have sat down and played all 180 entries all the way through. You are taking an extremely overly simplistic view of the situation. "Different level design techniques" is especially amusing because most people do not have "level design techniques". I don't want to crush your optimism, because by all means, there are entries to VLDCX that will blow you awa with sheer creativity and insanely ingenuous level design. Those levels are few and far between.
You shouldn't be talking about what this contest offers having not played any of the entries either.
Don't listen to Pat though because he is just memeing and hasn't seen all the levels either, and apparently it's a meme now to hate on vldcx so yea
Also @NGB
Lolyoshi is done, Koopster is getting close, Noivern I'm unsure, the rest are not even near close because they got a really late start.
Also, when you speak about "world 1 levels", the opposite is actually true. Most people basically tried too hard. If you wanna see a contest with a lot of good level where people come up with good, simple ideas, check out OLDC.
I agree that negativity is dumb. I'm not trying to be negative here, just realistic.