Kitty Corp Meow Mix Forums

(I posted this a couple of months ago, but it's been mentioned recently, so I'm bringing it back to get feedback again.)

The sheer number of textures available can be rather overwhelming, especially for newcomers. Sifting through the seemingly endless lists of lackluster textures to find the gems often feels like a chore. I want to make this process at least a little easier.

What I have in mind is a texture review site. Just like one for games or gadgets or books, but we review textures. The team would be comprised of maybe five or six members: one from every more-or-less prominent hacking team (ESH, SS, and KC spring to mind), with the remaining spots available upon application for members of smaller teams and/or veteran forum members. I would also have guest reviewers - sometimes prominent texture hackers, sometimes randoms that few people have noticed. Note that the main focus of creating the reviewing team is not to form a group of the "best" but one that represents a variety of tastes and art styles.

The site would function as follows. At least twice a week, three or more reviewers would pick a texture from all of those available. (IMO, any texture posted for the public to see and use is also fair game for critique.) The texture would exemplify (or prove the need for -- negative reviews will be posted as well) at least one of several characteristics that makes a great texture: attention to detail, style, creativity, simplicity... I'll iron out the details if this idea gets enough positive feedback. Each reviewer would then write up a decent, thought-out critique, scoring the texture on each of the above-mentioned criteria as well as an overall score. Naturally, due to the nature of the reviewing team, different reviewers will give radically varying scores to the same texture. The beauty of it is that readers are presented with a variety of well-expressed opinions on what makes a texture good (or, to another person, not good).

"But Vyse," you say, "won't something like this just lead to bitterness and inflated egos?" Probably, but those would be due entirely to the immaturity of the people expressing them. The list of positives far outweighs that. First, the reviews shine a spotlight on textures that are truly outstanding. Second and more importantly, they encourage more work of the same quality -- the reviews effectively set a standard that doesn't really exist in the community now. I believe that, overall, reviews would strengthen and improve the texture hacking community as a whole. Finally, assuming the site becomes reputable, it could generate genuine competition for better scores. Competition is a good thing, driving people to make better textures. It also doesn't really exist in this community as of now.

Go ahead and post whatever feedback you have. If, after a few days, I feel like it's a good idea, I'll look into recruiting members and setting up a site.

"I feel like it's a good idea."

Seems like a good idea.

Thing is, are you just going to have teams (Like DasDonkey, ESH, etc) to review textures, and not other people? Someone like me, who has only made 3 textures, will I be able to review these too?

"...with the remaining spots available upon application for members of smaller teams and/or veteran forum members."

Also considering having guest reviewers occasionally, which should cover that.

Ah, sorry I skimmed through the post, I was making a StrapLoader :P

Well, to be fair, the "guest reviewer" part isn't in there. I should add that.

Sounds good to me.

good idea. for other members from smaller teams, i think people who have made many textures should be reviewers. it shows that they have some experience with textures, so they would know what a good texture is like, and what an "all-right" texture is. remember to be careful on who you would put on the team. (shadow and i know someone on smashers' inc who wouldn't be good for that) i hope someone puts this idea into play.

This sounds like a great idea, and I hope it doesn't die like it did last time.

That would be awesome, theres a lot of textures out there, some bad, some good.

Sounds remarkably similar to the "MeowMix Spotlight Review"... However, I like the idea a LOT, and agree with you completely on the idea that there are too many textures to "sift" through.

Your idea sounds like something that could easily work hand-in-hand with the newly released BrawlHacks Wiki.

More like your Spotlight thing is remarkably similar to this. I posted this way back in early May.

http://kittycorp.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=offtopicdiscussion&action=display&thread=1094

So I noticed! In any case - I would love to be involved in the project.

If a representative from MeowMix is selected, we would be more than happy to shut down the newly reformed "MeowMix Spotlight Review", and commit whole-heartedly to this new project.

So, is something happening with this? I hope this does get off the ground.

i would love this 2 work ^.^ There are alot of good textures out there, that no one knows about

Exactly. In conjunction with the Wiki, this idea would explode - and everybody would get a fair-game chance at making the "big-leagues".

I don't even know what the big leagues are anymore. Everything has just blended together and now people can just download stuff and not even acknowledge that someone went through a lot of work to make a texture. I am all for the strong texture community thing, but the emphasis has swayed towards substance, rather than appreciating someone's talent (like before anyone dared to post a download link).

I like this idea. It would be nice to get an artist recognized once in a while because they all work hard to get their things done, no matter what team they are on.

(sorry for the rant) :|

This will happen, by the way. It's just that with all of the forum issues recently, I've been... sidetracked. Right now I'm preparing the new gallery, and then I need to remake all of my music, and I actually want to make some textures of my own at some point...

But yeah, it'll happen. Preferably sooner than later.

Prehaps attack hack and model reviews should also be added to the site as well.

Edit: WOO 100 posts! and I still haven't added a texture yet  :notimp:

Necroposting much? >_>

Anyway, model hacking still isn't possible yet, so talking about reviewing them is jumping the gun by quite a bit.

And we have something different in mind for showcasing good PSA hacks.

Paranoid about Necroposting much?

I was just suggesting ideas, and I had no idea what you were thinking of doing for PSA hacks, as I don't think its been mentioned.

Since it's your thread Vyse, I'll leave it up to you, if you want to lock it for the necropost, or not.

Nah, I don't really see a point in locking it.

I also don't see the point of getting all offended because I factually stated what you did, but whatever. PSA didn't exist when this topic was active, so of course no one mentioned it. And our plans for it won't be mentioned until we're ready to put them in motion. It will be part of KCMM, though, not an independent site like this would have been.

So its just going to be a glorified version of our gallery?

Not at all. Read the post.

I did... still sounds like a gallery with a ranking system.

Then you didn't read it. There's no way you'd get that impression from what I wrote unless you're an idiot.

Keep that [censored] out of my topic.

Sorry for having an opinion vyse. :>.>:

Since I respect what Vyse said, I'll leave you with this: much rather be an idiot then a jack ass.

Now that THATS out of the way, I'm being a bit skeptical but I think your over estimating how many people actually do Brawl texture hacks, and if its going to be part of KCMM thats a another issue. We can't even get a lot of people on the blog anymore let alone this.

Well, this idea was actually dead. Someone suggested something similar in the IRC, and this topic came up, so I linked him here, whereupon he necroposted.

Jesus, I'm sorry.  I had no idea that it would be this big of a deal

...It's not a big deal. Again, I was stating factually what happened.

this seemed like a great idea, so is it happening?