There is not much for this competition that I could see reworked, but anonymity is one of those that cannot be fully scathed from these competitions.

A. No anonymity rounds allow for personal creator bias to prevail. For instance, if ChrisMDB and Terry Inferno entered a round together without anonymous entries allowed, say, Terry Inferno garners more votes simply for the voter liking Terry Inferno more than ChrisMDB (sorry Chris). It is rather unfair to have that aspect in a 'fair' competition. Allowing so adds this aspect of 'unfair' into the competitions, and I believe it is the main reason why anonymity is in these competitions now.

B. Anonymity ridden rounds, while not all agree with this attribute of the competition, it certainly saves for some drama out of personal bias for a competitor. Having no anonymity in a round, like stated before, is unfair as many may or may not vote for an entry just because they like the entrant more than the other three.

- Because Build It! competition rounds now are anonymous, we rarely have an instance of unfair advantage.
- Entrants' entries are only revealed as for the entrant failure to not disclose their entries - whether by description, screenshots, or general chat in the competition itself.
- Because anonymity is there, we will have less and less chances for personal bias, drama, or other certain things to weave their way into the competition and cause unfair advantages to any entry.

To me, it makes very much sense to keep anonymity in the rounds as it saves for extra, needless drama. Period.

Another hotly contested part of Build It:

The Build It! competition, while it can be rather drab at some points, it is meant to be light-hearted and fun. Constructive criticism is one thing that never fails to be reiterated in each round, and that is: tips for improvement, personal complaints, and general advice at why an entry is not garnering as many votes as another.

While most constructive criticism is meant to be a friendly reminder that there is improvement needed in your build - to which, you can apply aptly to your next entries, several can take it the wrong direction and either, cause drama, or do not take the CC to heart.

So, if your entry is being ridiculed for its lack of cohesion, minor fixes, improvements, or even nitpicks, take to heart the meaning behind it, and not take to heart that you think the person who has replied is being rude or inconsiderate. CC happens to each entry regardless of who you are, but it is only your choice to pick out what way you want to respond to that CC.

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In the whole just of things, keep the competition bright, fun, and friendly by remaining calm, not spoiling your entry, and simply trying your hardest. Good luck to each and every future builder out there!

There is not much for this competition that I could see reworked, but anonymity is one of those that cannot be fully scathed from these competitions.

A. No anonymity rounds allow for personal creator bias to prevail. For instance, if ChrisMDB and Terry Inferno entered a round together without anonymous entries allowed, say, Terry Inferno garners more votes simply for the voter liking Terry Inferno more than ChrisMDB (sorry Chris). It is rather unfair to have that aspect in a 'fair' competition. Allowing so adds this aspect of 'unfair' into the competitions, and I believe it is the main reason why anonymity is in these competitions now.

B. Anonymity ridden rounds, while not all agree with this attribute of the competition, it certainly saves for some drama out of personal bias for a competitor. Having no anonymity in a round, like stated before, is unfair as many may or may not vote for an entry just because they like the entrant more than the other three.

- Because Build It! competition rounds now are anonymous, we rarely have an instance of unfair advantage.
- Entrants' entries are only revealed as for the entrant failure to not disclose their entries - whether by description, screenshots, or general chat in the competition itself.
- Because anonymity is there, we will have less and less chances for personal bias, drama, or other certain things to weave their way into the competition and cause unfair advantages to any entry.

To me, it makes very much sense to keep anonymity in the rounds as it saves for extra, needless drama. Period.

Another hotly contested part of Build It:

The Build It! competition, while it can be rather drab at some points, it is meant to be light-hearted and fun. Constructive criticism is one thing that never fails to be reiterated in each round, and that is: tips for improvement, personal complaints, and general advice at why an entry is not garnering as many votes as another.

While most constructive criticism is meant to be a friendly reminder that there is improvement needed in your build - to which, you can apply aptly to your next entries, several can take it the wrong direction and either, cause drama, or do not take the CC to heart.

So, if your entry is being ridiculed for its lack of cohesion, minor fixes, improvements, or even nitpicks, take to heart the meaning behind it, and not take to heart that you think the person who has replied is being rude or inconsiderate. CC happens to each entry regardless of who you are, but it is only your choice to pick out what way you want to respond to that CC.

--

In the whole just of things, keep the competition bright, fun, and friendly by remaining calm, not spoiling your entry, and simply trying your hardest. Good luck to each and every future builder out there!

Very well said, and I definitely agree. I've always taken CC well (I think) because I feel like if someone is taking the time and energy to give it, they very well could be right, and most likely are. My parents from a young age taught me to listen, mull it over if you will, then respond. In other words try to look at things from other perspectives. Getting CC is getting free advice. Of course sometimes it's not always easy to hear, for a moment. Especially if it's something we felt looked good or spent a lot of time working on. But at the end of the day we all have different ideas and preferences. Like I've said in other posts, please continue to send CC my way. I will always welcome it, whether I'm new or been here 20 years. I appreciate anything anyone sends my way. Hope everyone has a great evening!
-Brad

I do take constructive criticism well. At least to a point. At times its more like "yeah yeah whatever this is rollercoaster tycoon not gci, b&m or RMC" I bring that up because RCT3 is not meant to be realistic, yet all the cc that's been ridiculing people's entries, all of it is related to realism. I for one just want to have a winning entry, but Taffyta can get frustrated rather easily. She's apparently getting this idea that an rct3 entry has to be virtually real to be a winner. I don't know if that's the case or not but that's what I'm striving for, I may not be silveret but I'm going to try my best. As for Taffyta, she said she may come back but probably won't be entering Build-It again anytime soon. She feels the standards for RCT3 entries are too high. I just told her, "well you're just saying that because you can't take a loss Taffyta" she's always been like that, she's only happy if she wins. With that said I don't think Build-It is for her. Because she'll always be complaining if she looses. Believe me, I know Taffyta well. She doesn't take anything less than 1st place. So I'd say this competition isn't for her. I think I or someone is going to have to let her know she can't win all the time and shouldn't enter this contest if she thinks anything less than a win is the end of the world.

the standards for RCT3 entries are too high.

well yeah that the point considering the amount of cs ctrs cfrs etc.....

Well the point is this is a game not real. And Taffyta tells me realism seems to be standard. Not everyone in the competition is that inclined.

@Vanellope - while the game isn't real, you're designing rides that are supposed to be somewhat realistic. If "the standards" are too high, just don't enter. It really isn't hard to make something look both realistic and good in RCT3, it just requires time, practice, and patience. CS is really easy to use, it just takes time to learn, and if you aren't that invested in learning, then don't enter.

Drew hardly ever finishes layouts because he likes the layout side of things, but doesn't have the patience to sit there and theme, and that's fine. Will he win a competition with just a layout? No, and no one will, that's part of the rules, and just how things work. It's a friendly competition meant to help people get better, but when you sit there and complain about "the standards" being too high you're both: A. not doing anything constructive, and B. not working to improve yourself.

The competition isn't designed so that anyone with no experience can join the site and automatically win.

Realism can be a great part, but I want to throw out that not all build it winners have been realistic, if you check out Hyperspace by TheIsaac, that one won and its an insane piece of a coaster, I remember it well because of all the unrealistic things it does that it got away with cause its just so crazy and cool, so yeah a lac of realism can be ok if you have a really cool idea like that

Also when we talk realism, we're talking mostly terrain and layout, usually layouts are ok if you bank the fast turns and all that jazz, but honestly just spice up the terrain and add some variety of foliage and land colouring and you should be good in the realism aspect for most

Well if Taffyta ever gets back on tell her that. I'm more patient and know that even real rollercoaster designing takes lots of effort, lots of time, and lots of patience. And yes even lots of money. Taffyta is different she's in a mindset that if she thinks ita good enough it's a winner. Not stopping to think about anyone else's perspective and she thinks her opinion alone makes her work worthy of winning. I'm not the one complaining, Taffyta is. She feels the high standards make the competition unfair for new comers.

It's almost as in a sense, if you do not build realistically, you might not have as good a chance as if you did build realistically.

Over my year and a half bid on this site, I've gotten so very much better at building nice looking entries for the competition. While they still could be more realistic, they do not simply have to be.

Take an entry for a minute, it is perfectly realistic, other than its layout; it has a decent chance in the competition if its surroundings are good. Take another entry with the same exact surroundings, but a better layout, it will likely claim more votes because of that better layout.

Realism, which again, is a contested aspect to these competitions is often hard to be decisive or conclusive. I generally think realistic entry is a coaster with a great atmosphere, rocks, landscape, rivers, detailed buildings and park settings, among various other things. Not every entry will fit this bid, and many will try and fail. However, that does not negate our constructive criticism to help further your projects to that point.

Like Nave said, an entry does not have to be 100% realistic to win the competition. Many factors are included in that, like: shape of the other three entries (goodness, essentially), effort, execution, and over all quality. Generally speaking, an entry with a detailed atmosphere, bursting with hints of colour, lush, beautiful landscape, rivers, waterfalls, and various other landscape related things, layout and so many other aspects are entitled in realism, and more than not, realistic builds win.

With what Nave said, sometimes, entries often outshine the other three competitors' entries, sometimes even if they're more over, focused on fantasy rather than realism. Once again, many factors are included when four entries are entered and a round begins. Quality, layouts, POV, landscaping, and even descriptions are vital for realistic entries, and each entry to have a fair shot for a win.

I like to think that not every entry is perfect, nor will ever be so. So, it is up to you to judge each entry fairly for its purpose, (like, if it is in a desert, take that into consideration and not say "It is bland because it is desert."), layout, detailing, landscaping, POV, among other things are quite possibly the indicator between the winner and the other three unqualified entries.

Take into consideration, once again, its meaning, execution, layout, detailing, atmosphere, and a POV (for 3D entries) are needed in valiant effort to take a win.

Take note, and be fair to each entry. Otherwise, it could appear to others that you are not properly judging entries for their realistic purposes.

Good luck to all who enter rounds, and may the best entry win, period.

If that's anything to go by than RCT2 entries would never get my vote. RCT2 isn't realistic.