Emblem Discussions

[Aumaan Anubis]

I usually notice who just want/chase an emblem rather then just earn it. Most of the time the person says stuff like "Why don't I have this emblem" or "What do I do to get this one" etc. They are just asking for the emblem, it's like if I were to go "Why ain't I a Staff member" or "Why don't I have more emblems". Whats really sad is these people actually get the emblem they wanted sooner or later by just chasing after it. I don't know anymore it just seems that emblems are losing their value if people are just going out and chasing them.

On the plus side, if gaining emblems requires you to do something positive toward the HM community, then chasing emblems can't be that much of a bad thing, could it? They're of course doing it for the wrong reason, but the short term results are the same.

[Tural]

The idea is to reward people for doing something good on their own accord. They should do it because they are good people, not because they are greedy. They may be helping in a minor, less quality-rich way, but that doesn't change the fact that they look bad because of how shallow they are. The people who chase them are ruining the entire system for everyone. And yes, it is blatantly obvious when someone is doing so, and there is no defending yourself, as your excuses fall on deaf ears. People notice when you're acting like that, and you may gain emblems, but you lose the respect of those who treated you like a decent member of this community.

[Supermodder911]

Tural Speaks the 100% Truth.

[CabooseJr]

Like Tural said, you have to earn them by doing various deeds. Everybody has an equal chance to get emblems, except for the emblems that are no longer given out which is something I am going to look into.

[neodos]

Everybody has an equal chance to get emblems.

no.

[JK-47]

Everybody has an equal chance to get emblems.

no.

Yes.

[SHOUTrvb]

The system isn't bias. Sometimes is hard to judge for whom certain emblems should be given; like for the Graphics emblem. However, everyone still has an equal chance to receive said emblems.

[Pepsi]

While there are people on these forum who do go searching for emblems as a pseudo cure for social acceptance or treasure hunting if you will, I also would have to say the chances of doing anything and receiving a emblem for it is slim to none in my neck of this forum. I used to think those with many emblems must have accomplished many things and are very wise but after reading some of the comments and remarks from those people I was sadly misguided in some aspects of how they earned them.

Lets take my own personal situation for instance for example. I have done little mods in the past but here recently released the "Halo: FTW" mod in the PC section. If you read what all the mod entails you can see its a total revamp of HaloPC completely from bitmaps to AI. New scenery, effects, just a ton to be honest. In a little over two weeks it has 7400 page views and on its 12 page of discussion still going strong. Then theres the mod before it "Halo: Redux" which was a precursor to the FTW mod dealing with mainly bitmaps alone. That topic is almost at 10,000 views being released on halloween. I also released a mod with the help of Conure that killed the timer at the end of the maw run so you could have free roaming time to explore which was once deemed impossible..

no you cant, its scripted...

..but times change with new applications and we figured out how to do it. All three of these mods were deemed outstanding and moved there. Iron_Forge one said this to me in a thread and since he made this comment i've tried to live my modding work based on his comments..

I'm afraid you have it backwards...It becomes harder to make an outstanding mod, not easier...Just because less mods are made, doesn't mean we should suddenly make mods outstanding just for being good...

And you're wrong on your following post aswell...There are things that make it outstanding...The first is, you look at a mod and you instantly go "wow, thats freaking amazing!"...Imagine there are 0 tools that let you inject bitmaps, and someone releases a really well done skin...You'd see it, never seen anything like it before, and think to yourself "wow, that's freaking amazing!"...

The other thing, is just public opinion...Real public opinion...As I said before, and before that...10 pages of "wow, this should be outstanding", and "10/10 man, awesome" isn't public opinion, it's people weighing in based on some picture in the thread...They probably didn't even try it...Now, if it's several pages of peoples comments, asking how things work, etc. etc., and you can actually tell tons of people are actually playing the mod, and still playing the mod...Then you go "well, thats above average now isn't it", and it becomes outstanding...

The fact that you have all the tools at your disposal now to do amazing things with HPC, just makes it that much harder to do something that jumps out as outstanding...Yes the game is years old...In my opinion, an outstanding mod takes x amount of time...Since you have all those tools at your disposal, you should still spend x amount of time, but with those tools x creates a much better mod than 4 years ago...This far into the cycle of HPC, there should be basically no outstanding mods unless that time and effort is put in...To lower the standards would be an insult to those who have made it...

And as for you not asking for your mod to be outstanding, you made several references to your mod, and how many downloads it had, and how you felt upset that your mod didn't make it in this thread...

At the time I was naive and wrong to think like I was in that thread, but now in retrospect I totally see where he was coming from especially when talking about time committed and seeing users actually posting questions cause their using your mod and not the "wow" factor on pictures. The FTW mod also got front paged on the HBO site also which I found personally cool seeing as a mod for a very dated PC game got attention like that.

A few days ago I was rather upset over the incidents that were happening in the SotW thread and was ready to call everything in with modding all together until I received a PM from a well seeded moderator here saying he didnt want to see me go cause he felt I was a great asset to the HaloPC community. I also heard this from another moderator on Xfire as well as my peers in my final mod thread.

So if im a good asset to my community, can deliver outstanding mods and I do have the respect of being asked not to leave then where are my emblems or Nessa's since she is co-creator of these mods and knows just as much as I do? Would me or her deserve a emblem for skinning, modding or being a vital part of the forum helping the HaloPC community?

Should we? Prolly.. but here the catch. I have new words to live by now..

Emblems should be perceived as a purely positive, and never a negative...Having emblems should make you feel better, not having emblems shouldn't make you feel worse...They're just the communities way of recognizing other people for doing something that helped out in some way...Just because you don't have one doesn't mean you didn't help out, just that you weren't recognized...And in the end, that shouldn't be why you helped out, and if it is, the motivation was wrong, and you're not deserving of the emblem anyways...

Now I have new words to live by here on the forum. If my motivation for doing something for the purpose of gaining a .gif image by name then I shouldn't have done it in the first place. Ill still write tuts, try to break new ground in HaloPC and continue to be a helping hand in the areas of expertise I know. Not for the goal of gaining emblems but for the reason the members I associate with daily want me here. Sure I can go vote in some area or do other things to try to exploit the system but doing that would make whatever emblem I gained worthless. One day I hope to gain a emblem representing helping people and one for skinning. Thoes two would be great to have alone, but the fact people use my mods, positive feedback on my mods (Tural, yours ment the most to me to date) ill continue doing what im doing and being a part of things where I can.

Forge, you guided me once in "What makes a outstanding mod" thread and I learned from that. Im doing the same here too.

Good luck hunting guys and hope you have fun seriously. Some just like the mystery and adventure of it all. I, myself will just be surprised one day if one pops up and I hope I have no idea what I did to deserve it nor do i want to know. Ill just know I was recognized for something and keep going on my daily routine.

Sorry for the novel but ive been reading this thread for some time now and finally had my time to post my thoughts in it. I began my post on how I used to view things and ended it with how I view them now. Hope it didn't throw people off.

[neodos]

This is not a community anyway if the opinion of one person can change all of the others

And i though justice must to be neutral, and justice has power, now we see all the moderators with tons of emblems, which is not neutral at all, yes they got some emblems before becoming moderators but they got much more after and seems like there's still some sort of ring of members friends with moderators that get emblems easly, but yeah i am not going to discuss on this because we can't get anywhere with some know who.

And just like you, Pepsi, i had to ask for the emblems, then i got em, because what i did wasn't maybe considered as outstanding by people like Iron Forge, (who are not really on the forums and don't really know what's going on though, so not a good opinion) but i got a lot of feeback of people that enjoyed my mods, or tutorials or researchs.

I think that sometimes those who give emblem just forget to look at who diserves it, but eh you shouldn't ask for them, they say, and then how do we get em? we need to be "friends" with em or know them so they know us, because posting a mod is now like selling a product, like if we consume and then throw all to the trash and forget who created by the way.

But reading what Iron_Forge says he is only thinking that app does everything, that's right, apps are TOOLS but the TOOL doesn't make the MOD at all, skins have to be made, tags, effects, sounds etc
Tool is just used to build a mapfile not a gameplay or a theme which is what makes a great mod.

And to be honest all those who judge like that didn't even made a mod for a while so they really don't know what they are talking about.

[Pepsi]

I can see what your saying but you know what? I have the greatest mod in my life, something I truly can say I created and no one can produce something exactly like it..

MY Real Life Mod

Thoes are my kids Allison and John. When people say positive things on my kids then I know ive done right in life and not on one of millions of forums on the net. Life is what counts, not here. To be honest, hearing my daughter tell me "Halo looks pretty daddy cause you did it" means more to me then any emblem or member feedback could ever portray.

Having a emblem would just be "nifty token" I guess.

[SHOUTrvb]

Focusing mostly on the upper paragraphs of Pepsi's post, I can safely say that I relate to a lot of the points he was trying to get across. Before I go into the emblem factor too much, I would like to state that being a strictly PC modder myself as well, I've seen the neglect that PC modders have received. Not even just for emblems, but are generally shunned upon by console modders wondering why the hell PC has outlived Halo 2 modding, and CE modders wondering why people even still use PC when CE has almost limitless options. I'm not yelling bias, but there plenty of outstanding mods out there, and the modder has received no recognition for it. Even the older ones that came long before these tools were released.

The above is sort of aside the point though, and not a full interpretation of what Pepsi was going for. It's obvious that Pepsi has the ability, and has shown it numerous times. For that though, does he even need an emblem? Everyone knows who Pepsi is and what he's capable of doing. If you don't, pause reading this post and proceed to the PC section. It will become apparent quickly. That's where my love/hate factor comes in with emblem hunting. Emblems are meant to be fun. There's nothing wrong with saying "Hey! That's a pretty cool thing to have. It tells people what I've accomplished." However, there's a part that usually comes after that as well. You have the righteous "Maybe if people know what I've done, they will be more interested in seeing and enjoying themselves", then there's the kill-joy "Those emblems seem to speak Status. If I can get one, maybe I can gain popularity here". That's not even so bad, but it makes your actions obvious, and ruins the emblem system's fun.

Pepsi has the right attitude about it, but that's not say that things are perfect. There are a lot of deserving people out there who walk without any recognition whatsoever. The emblems were created to help with that, if only partly. Just to clarify, by deserving, I mean strict rules; no begging. This is something that should be more carefully examined. Why shouldn't a PC modder be able to get a modding emblem? Why is it that SnaFuBAR walks without a single emblem after helping numerous people learn to model, and has produced some of the most fantastic assets to mods I've ever seen. My point is that those people have the right attitude, have done the right things, yet have nothing? Even though everyone knows who Snafu is as well, and he's never asked for an emblem or a vast form of recognition, for those reasons he shouldn't get it anyway? I know Snaf (not personally) from way back, so I like most know what he's done, but the same can't be said for newer users who just roam around trying to start stuff.

And I think I stretched that out/repeated myself a lot in there. I'm not even sure it fully applied actually..however that's my take on it.

More emblems +
more emblems given +
less whiny people +
better attitude about the system (not the same as the above) =
Happy Halomods. - To sum it up.

[Philly]

Thinking about it, having two emblems is nice. I might take away my country emblem so I just have a lone heart. That would represent me more.

[kibito87]

Thinking about it, having two emblems is nice. I might take away my country emblem so I just have a lone heart. That would represent me more.

Thank you. I personally can't stand the flag emblems. It's like a fake emblem that people show off. It's not like anyone truly pays attention to it. Takes up space if you ask me. But I respect what has been said above by Pepsi and Shout. Thank you guys for the imput, hopefully things will change around here.

[Tural]

The flag emblems do have a purpose, they have good reason, and they do not "just take up space" or "show off" anything. Go back and read Iron_Forge's post on the matter, it explains a distinct, logical reason for them.

I'll be honest, I didn't read all of Shout's/Pepsi's post. The basics of it were that PC modding gets neglected, I believe. I'll agree with that. I think that if there is an emblem that appears to be given specifically to Halo 2 modders, it should be mirrored by one for PC, where there is just as much, if not more activity.

Perhaps someone could help come up with a design for one, yes?*


*This does not promise anything. It was a cheap plug and it should be treated as such. Only a fool would quote this comment as being an accurate representation of the outcome of the contest or the winner.

[SHOUTrvb]

Yeah I need to design more anyway, so I'll support the cause.. Oh, and I worked for like a full day getting all 240 of those flag emblems, there Kibito.:p Though I appreciate the rest of the comment. The flag emblems were designed for a very simple reason.. to let users support their country. I won't lie, I'm not from Russia. I chose my emblem because I like how it contrasts with my avatar. :p However, it does its purpose for most of the other users who use it correctly.

[kibito87]

Go back and read Iron_Forge's post on the matter, it explains a distinct, logical reason for them.

Though he may have given a logical reason for them, that does not mean I should given up what I think. My opinion was stated and that is what i'm standing by. I don't like them.

Moving on.

[-Legendary-]

Everybody has an equal chance to get emblems.

no.

Yes.

Well some of them like, the Golden Age, you could of gotten it, but now you can't. Maybe there should be a silver age >_>

[grimdoomer]

could be one for halo 3 age thing, like if you where here and modded befor halo 3 modding, but you would have to make it more then that or every one would have it. Maby you activly modded befor halo 3 then activly modded halo 3?

[Tural]

No.
Time period ones lose value when you add more.
The few for time periods are all we need.

Everyone had equal chance to get them. You could have joined back then, nothing prevented you from doing so. The system is not unfair in the case of time period emblems.

[Iron_Forge]

Nice to see so much good discussion in this topic, it's been dead for awhile...I actually read all the posts here, and rather like the long winded ones...

I have more emblems than anyone, I always will...I'm the emblem king...You all lose...

The flag emblems aren't so much emblems, as they are an efficient way that flows with the forums layout that says "hey, I'm from here"...Lots of people abuse them, and thats OK too...Canadians tend to be super patriotic, even more so than crazy Americans...I like the fact that I'm Canadian, and I like the fact that others know it, and go "hey, Forge is Canadian, I'm Canadian too, and I didn't know that"...It's pretty common to hear Canadians tell others that actors/singers/etc are Canadian, because we feel it's important in an American dominated society that others know we make a difference...The flag emblem lets me do that, and feel a close bond with my Canadian brothers...

Yes, Halo PC was completely neglected for emblems, because you need to focus on where your members are, and you need to have clear cut czars...When emblems came out, the majority of the members were interested in Halo 2 modding...Go to any of the download forums for any of the halo variants...How many threads there have had a post in the last day?..The last week?..The last month?..The PC forum is much more active now than it was two years ago...Two years ago, there was a good chance your mod would be off the first page of the H2 downloads forum within days if it wasn't popular...It