[Malacite]

Following the immense popularity of last year's Fan Art Contest, a similar contest will be held this year around the time of the Doll Festival.

We will therefore be accepting all fan art submissions under the theme of "The Ladies of Vana'diel," beginning today up until Monday, March 3rd. Be sure to get your submission in on time!

For details on how to submit your art, click here.

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FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site


Following the immense popularity of last year's Fan Art Contest, a similar contest is planned to be held this year at the time of the Doll Festival.

Continuing the tradition that began in March of 2007, the official theme of this year's contest will be "The Ladies of Vana'diel."

Perhaps there is a majestic female NPC somewhere out there who blows your mind at every encounter. A special lady-friend in your linkshell, mayhaps? Or even just a random adventurer whose look has taken up permanent residency in your memory banks? The time has come to put these women to paper and/or pixel!

The Doll Festival is laden with beautiful motifs which lend themselves splendidly to visual representation, and artists are encouraged to use them in their illustrations: multi-tiered doll stages, luminescent paper lanterns, and delectable rice cakes, just to name a few!

We will be accepting all submissions as of today until the aforementioned deadline. Entries will then undergo a fair and balanced judging by our development and online operations teams.

Several lucky winners will have their masterpieces posted for public display right here in Topics near the end of March.

We look forward to viewing your submissions!

How to Enter
Requirements:
- Contestants must possess an active FINAL FANTASY XI account
- All contestants must agree to the defined terms and conditions
* Contestants under the age of 18 must obtain the permission of a legal guardian before submitting entries.

Submission Period: Monday, February 2nd, 2008 ~ Monday, March 3rd, 2008 (6:59am)

Theme: The Ladies of Vana'diel

How to Submit Your Art: Submissions may be sent via email. The body of the mail should contain all of the required information listed below, with the illustration attached (see below for file format/size information). Emails should be sent to the following address.

Email Address: doll-festival@playonline.com

Email Subject: The Doll Festival – Fan Art Contest Submission

Required Information:
- Your PlayOnline email address
- Your FINAL FANTASY XI World name, as well as your character's name
- Your nickname or handle
- A title for your artwork
- A personal comment or caption for your artwork
*Should your illustration be chosen for display, the above nickname (and your real name, if submitted), artwork title, and personal comment will appear along with your artwork.

Illustration Size: 1024x768

File Format: .JPG or .GIF

* Illustrations must be original pieces of art.
* Please attach only one illustration per email. Contestants will be limited to only one submission.
* Contestants will not be notified directly of the contest results. Winners will be announced publicly in a Topics posting.

Warning
To avoid any complications concerning submissions, please read the following terms thoroughly. We ask that all contestants understand and agree to these terms prior to submitting their artwork. Square Enix will regard all submissions to the Fan Art Contest as implicit acceptance to these terms, without exception.

Regarding prizes:
Winning contestants may not transfer their claim to a prize to another individual/character.

Regarding personal information:
The personal information accompanying contest entries will be utilized in sending prizes to contest winners. In all regards, personal information will be handled with the utmost security in the same manner as laid forth in the guidelines of the PlayOnline User Agreement.

Regarding inappropriate submissions:
Entries falling under either of the below categories will not be considered by the judges:
- artwork containing obscenity, vulgarity, discrimination, or any other offensive subject matter
- artwork containing any plagiarized or copyrighted material
Infringements upon copyright/intellectual property, personal credit, privacy, etc.
- counter to public order and/or morals
- submissions with content judged to be grossly deviant from the established theme
- depiction of characters not related to FINAL FANTASY XI
- Square Enix reserves the right to judge whether or not material is appropriate for public display
- entries not containing all of the required information, or containing erroneous information

Regarding copyrights:

All submitted entries will become the sole property of Square Enix (in accordance with all rights stipulated by International Copyright Law, Articles 21~26, Article 27, and Article 28, together with all rights provisioned by future amendments to said Articles).

*SQUARE ENIX OWNERSHIP OF ENTRIES
All entries and other materials (the "Entry Materials") (including all copyright, trademark, and other proprietary rights associated therewith) submitted by you become the property of Square Enix upon submission, and Entry Materials will not be returned to any contestant. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge that Square Enix will own all rights to use, modify, and make derivative works of the Entry Materials, without separate compensation to you or any other person or entity. You agree to take, at Square Enix's expense, any further action (including, without limitation, execution of affidavits and other documents) reasonably requested by Square Enix to effect, perfect, or confirm Square Enix's ownership rights as set forth above in this paragraph. Entry Materials may be used by contestants only for purposes of the Contest or for private, personal, non-public viewing. Entry materials received by Square Enix may be destroyed by Square Enix at any time following the Contest.

[Akashimo]

If they weren't gonna own people's work as their own, I'd enter in the contest.

[Feba]

If they weren't going to pick out complete and total shit and call it art, I'd be borderline interested in the contest.

[Neomage]

I agree. Last year's contest, well... some of it was good. But most was just plain horrible. Or scary. A beastmen strip club? Creative, yes, but.......

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Stupidity in this thread

• SE is asking you to draw and submit pictures of things they own. What else would you planning to do with it after you submitted your entry to them? Sell it? Not likely.
• SE can't pick prettier submissions if no prettier submissions are made. If one person out of an entire server makes an entry, it wins on that server by default.
• No one makes you look at the art to start with, so unless you are going to put your work on the line, you are not fit to judge the efforts of others who were brave enough to put forth theirs.
• What's considered art is subjective, its meaning isn't always to be pretty or pleasing to the eye.

[Akashimo]

Originally Posted by Omgwtfbbqkitten

SE is asking you to draw and submit pictures of things they own. What else would you planning to do with it after you submitted your entry to them? Sell it? Not likely.

Its just, I find it that they would take it as their own, even though its fan art. Contest or not, I find it unethical to own it like they as a company has made the work themselves, even if its their content, its still fan art, a person not on the companies payroll piece of work.

[Yellow Mage]

Originally Posted by Akashimo

If they weren't gonna own people's work as their own, I'd enter in the contest.

You do realize there is a very good reason they do that, right?

. . . I forgot what it was, though.

EDIT: That is why I shouldn't start to make a post and then idle: 'Kitten beat me to it.

[Mhurron]

Originally Posted by Akashimo

Its just, I find it that they would take it as their own, even though its fan art. Contest or not, I find it unethical to own it like they as a company has made the work themselves, even if its their content, its still fan art, a person not on the companies payroll piece of work.

You might have a point if they didn't come right out and tell you that that is one of the rules of the contest. If you don't like the rules, say so by not participating.

There is nothing unethical about it.

[Akashimo]

Originally Posted by Mhurron

If you don't like the rules, say so by not participating.

Which probally why Feba's right on why there's little good enteries.

[Mhurron]

Originally Posted by Akashimo

Which probally why Feba's right on why there's little good enteries.

The entries are as good as most other fan art.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Originally Posted by Akashimo

Its just, I find it that they would take it as their own, even though its fan art. Contest or not, I find it unethical to own it like they as a company has made the work themselves, even if its their content, its still fan art, a person not on the companies payroll piece of work.

Again, what else would you do with it? If you sold it, it has their intellectual property on it and they deserve a piece of that pie by default legally, the fact that you drew it from your talent doesn't change the fact you'd profit from thier property.

But even if you don't see it, you still don't truly own it, you just own the talent behind it if you drew it. So, what's the harm in SE owning what's partially already thiers?

[Akashimo]

Talent = intellectual property imho.

Both weigh the same. You have the talent and/or skill to make something. Therefore you have ownership of that.

Now, someone uses that as a base of their own work(fan art). Both parties have equal ownership following the use of what talent is above. But primarily more to the fan artist, due to it being their talent in that work, while still crediting the original owner as to where the subject matter came from.

[Pteryx]

The issue is this: By submitting an entry to them, you're transferring the entire copyright for this derivative work from yourself to them. They really don't need the entire copyright to put it on their website and throw thumbnails into promotional stuff, just non-exclusive publication rights without the right to charge money for the work. Thus, they are requiring that you give to them more than they need for the functioning of the contest and future contests.

Because they now own it entirely, it's technically illegal for you to post it yourself or share it with friends, even for free; they could, if they were so inclined, sue. They also could sell printouts of your fanart and not pay you a cent, since they require you to transfer all rights. To my knowledge, they haven't done anything like this, due to this not being a direct source of income for anyone. But the fact remains that they ask for more rights than they need to do what they have done -- and you'll never get the remainder of them back.

This is hardly exclusive to SE. Many companies have been quite greedy about what rights they want from creators in this age, music companies infamously so. Heck, the entire concept of intellectual property as we know it today is a conceit rooted in 20th-century media profit models. This is one big reason why I'm not pursuing the arts as a career path. -- Pteryx

[Feba]

# SE can't pick prettier submissions if no prettier submissions are made. If one person out of an entire server makes an entry, it wins on that server by default.
# No one makes you look at the art to start with, so unless you are going to put your work on the line, you are not fit to judge the efforts of others who were brave enough to put forth theirs.
# What's considered art is subjective, its meaning isn't always to be pretty or pleasing to the eye.

That's no excuse for shitty art.

The entries are as good as most other fan art.

Blatant lie. Look at deviant art, or neko sentai, or any of a number of other places. there is a lot of good fan art out there, MUCH better than almost anything in the contest last year.

[Akashimo]

Originally Posted by Feba

Blatant lie. Look at deviant art, or neko sentai, or any of a number of other places. there is a lot of good fan art out there, MUCH better than almost anything in the contest last year.

QFT