Cosplay Arenas - General "Rule(s)" of Thumb [Discussion]

What do you base most of your ratings on in the Cosplay Arenas?

Reference Image	11.7%	[ 7 ]
Gender	1.7%	[ 1 ]
Skin Color	0.0%	[ 0 ]
Eye Color/Style	0.0%	[ 0 ]
Other	5.0%	[ 3 ]
All of the Above	81.7%	[ 49 ]
Total Votes:			[ 60 ]

[Pilotslover]

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

Pilotslover

crying

What is with all the misplaced entries this week? Can people just not read?
And so many without references, to make it WORSE their white knights are banging on about how they're not important.

I have NOOOOOO CLUE! It's rather annoying :/

The one that's going around screaming "you guys are sooo mean" is pissing me off. And she's like "you don't have to be so mean haruhi"

Honestly, in my opinion, the arenas is the only serious place on Gaia. If you want to show off your avatar for fun, go to the avatar talk forum.

That's how I see it too.

It's a contest, you're there to be judged for pete's sake!

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Panda Berry In Space

I do think that having a reference is extremely important. If you don't have one, you probably shouldn't cosplay. That includes book characters, because there are a lot of people who don't read the descriptions and flame you for not having a reference anyway. (On the subject of book characters, everyone pictures words differently, so your interpretation might be waaay off from someone else's, which could cause a bad vote.)

One huge rule that I think potential cosplayers should note is that, with eyes, less is more. The arena commenters are not particularly fond of sparkly eyes, so you should avoid using the "magic" eyes as well as the Mana Seed ones. You should go for a more subtle, plain looking eye that doesn't attract too much attention. Some people think that the sparkly ones are actually "creepy" -- I've had people tell me that about my Sailor Venus cosplay.

Another thing I'm finding is that, if the character is overdone, it doesn't matter which way you try to explain yourself: it's overdone. You're not going to get very good ratings if you're doing a character that everyone has seen before, because everyone is bored of it. I know it's really hard to cosplay lesser known characters, especially when Gaia has items that cater to more popular ones, but you should really try to do something different.

If you did something to the character to make it significantly different from the original, it should probably go in the original arena. Human versions of animal characters, or public domain characters with "[your] own personal spin" are examples of this.

Yeah novel characters are really hard for me to judge, unless it's a very very good description and I can see what they were trying to accomplish. Books that were turned into movies I don't let slide. There's a reference out there.

Agreed. Sometimes I think certain cosplayers also spend way too much time and detail into the face alone more then the cosplay itself. The Sailor Moon this week, for example, has way too big of eyes.

Overdone characters I don't mind if they do something unique with it. One week, there was a Link cosplay and they made it into a scene to where he was slashing grass to find rupees. Those kind of overdone characters I don't mind C: Be creative~

Yes. When someone says "my twist on" I always tell them that it then pretty much becomes an "inspired by" character, which should go in the original arenas.

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

IIDarknessChosenII

Pilotslover

I see your comments on the arena a lot and usually agree with you, what makes me laugh is the white knights who trot along to defend a terrible cosplay ...

It's a contest, if you can't take people telling you what's wrong then leave.

The white knight this week is pissing me off...

Me too BI

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Pilotslover

IIDarknessChosenII

Pilotslover

I see your comments on the arena a lot and usually agree with you, what makes me laugh is the white knights who trot along to defend a terrible cosplay ...

It's a contest, if you can't take people telling you what's wrong then leave.

The white knight this week is pissing me off...

White knighting should be reportable in the arenas, it's a contest after all.

RIGHT!? I want to report them!!! BI

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Pilotslover

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

Pilotslover

crying

What is with all the misplaced entries this week? Can people just not read?
And so many without references, to make it WORSE their white knights are banging on about how they're not important.

I have NOOOOOO CLUE! It's rather annoying :/

The one that's going around screaming "you guys are sooo mean" is pissing me off. And she's like "you don't have to be so mean haruhi"

Honestly, in my opinion, the arenas is the only serious place on Gaia. If you want to show off your avatar for fun, go to the avatar talk forum.

That's how I see it too.

It's a contest, you're there to be judged for pete's sake!

emotion_yatta It's always nice to meet someone who shares the same views as you on here, especially when it comes to the arenas.

[Pilotslover]

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

emotion_yatta It's always nice to meet someone who shares the same views as you on here, especially when it comes to the arenas.

When I first joined the site it was different, smaller, so entering was more a casual thing but it's a contest now and since it costs so much you'd think people would realise it means something.

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Pilotslover

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

emotion_yatta It's always nice to meet someone who shares the same views as you on here, especially when it comes to the arenas.

When I first joined the site it was different, smaller, so entering was more a casual thing but it's a contest now and since it costs so much you'd think people would realise it means something.

Yeah! I remember when the prizes and entry fees were much much smaller too. I am glad that they did raise the price to enter because it would make people rethink...or so we hoped they would do.

What cracks me up is (I think we've talked about it already) when people submit an incomplete cosplay and is like "I couldn't afford this this this this. Don't say anything about the skin, eyes, hair, blah blah blah."
It's like...Um the entry fee is 10,000! Save that for a better avatar.

[Pilotslover]

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

Yeah! I remember when the prizes and entry fees were much much smaller too. I am glad that they did raise the price to enter because it would make people rethink...or so we hoped they would do.

What cracks me up is (I think we've talked about it already) when people submit an incomplete cosplay and is like "I couldn't afford this this this this. Don't say anything about the skin, eyes, hair, blah blah blah."
It's like...Um the entry fee is 10,000! Save that for a better avatar.

I think we may have once, yes, but it's always worth repeating it. There's one this week who I want to slap around the face with a paintbrush!

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Pilotslover

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

Yeah! I remember when the prizes and entry fees were much much smaller too. I am glad that they did raise the price to enter because it would make people rethink...or so we hoped they would do.

What cracks me up is (I think we've talked about it already) when people submit an incomplete cosplay and is like "I couldn't afford this this this this. Don't say anything about the skin, eyes, hair, blah blah blah."
It's like...Um the entry fee is 10,000! Save that for a better avatar.

I think we may have once, yes, but it's always worth repeating it. There's one this week who I want to slap around the face with a paintbrush!

I think I know who you're talking about xD;;;

There's one that keeps deleting all the "mean" comments they're getting on their cosplay and only keeping the one that said 5/5. Honestly, people are probably just writing that to write it. Because that cosplay is crap.

[Pilotslover]

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

I think I know who you're talking about xD;;;

There's one that keeps deleting all the "mean" comments they're getting on their cosplay and only keeping the one that said 5/5. Honestly, people are probably just writing that to write it. Because that cosplay is crap.

Was going to say something about an Apple but the paintbrush made it obvious enough clearly!!

I hate people who delete comments, not going to lie, it winds me up.

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Pilotslover

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

I think I know who you're talking about xD;;;

There's one that keeps deleting all the "mean" comments they're getting on their cosplay and only keeping the one that said 5/5. Honestly, people are probably just writing that to write it. Because that cosplay is crap.

Was going to say something about an Apple but the paintbrush made it obvious enough clearly!!

I hate people who delete comments, not going to lie, it winds me up.

xDD;; yes, paintbrush does!

RIGHT!? It's like, if you can't handle the truth, then you shouldn't be in the arenas.

[Pilotslover]

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

xDD;; yes, paintbrush does!

RIGHT!? It's like, if you can't handle the truth, then you shouldn't be in the arenas.

I rock. XD

That said, I agree, I hold to the adage of 'If you can't stand the heat then get out of the kitchen'.

[OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-]

Pilotslover

OHS-Fujioka_Haruhi-

xDD;; yes, paintbrush does!

RIGHT!? It's like, if you can't handle the truth, then you shouldn't be in the arenas.

I rock. XD

That said, I agree, I hold to the adage of 'If you can't stand the heat then get out of the kitchen'.

Agreed.

[IIDarknessChosenII]

Panda Berry In Space

IIDarknessChosenII

I'm white knighting the aura cosplay who's picture is in the description. Honestly, when they can't get it to work in the URL slot, the best thing to do is put the link in the description. apparently, c/p-ing a link is still too much trouble. I don't mind that. I DO mind having to go to google myself and search for an image.

Yeah, I can understand that. What site were they trying to link from? I know that I once tried to submit something to the art arena from deviantART, and it was broken. Maybe someone should compile a list of sites that the links don't work for.

I think it's from photobucket...

[Panda Berry In Space]

IIDarknessChosenII

I think it's from photobucket...

Huh, that's very strange. I use Photobucket, and it's worked fine for me.