So I’ve read a lot of posts over the last day and we’ve discussed a lot of the points presented. I’ve got good news for this last round of deliberation (the entry topic will likely be going up tomorrow, so stuff is going to be locked in).
The first bit of good news is in regards to inorganic Inika masks and altered Mahri masks. Mulling it over a bit and soaking in a lot of the feedback regarding regional masks caused us to ponder our conclusion, and so we spent some time going back through Greg quotes and reading some of the stuff he said about Lhikan’s Hau, as well as discussing a lot of the points made in this topic and elsewhere. Long story short, we’re going to be allowing custom inorganic Inika masks and Mahri mask designs after all.
We went back and forth on this point, because we feel like Lhikan’s Hau represents an outlier. It’s the only described instance of a regional mask in lore, and clearly is the exception rather than the rule. People like the Voyatoran and Mahritoran using the Metru masks, etc. show that 9 times outta 10, the mask shape is shared. HOWEVER… there is enough reasonable doubt and enough possibility for additional reasonable variants to exist that we do agree with it making more sense to allow them as candidates. If Greg was able to write off the differences in Lhikan’s Hau with such ease in this quote, I’m sure he’d be just as cavalier about any differences in Inika masks. Probably not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. Likewise with Mahri masks, by the way. Some differences in shaping could totally be viable, and while unlikely, wouldn’t present any contradiction in lore.
From a practical perspective, this has benefits too. As @ToaArcan pointed out, people are far more likely to want to paint and use inorganic variants people have made rather than the rubber masks used on the Inika, so it’s generally a boon to creativity to allow for the extra variety. Our initial move to restrict their use came when viewed from the Greg-centric outlook of the situation, viewed in context to the overall discussion about his prior answers to questions about the masks’ default shapes. The regional difference argument is pretty convincing, and doesn’t conflict with any of that at all, so we’re going to let them be used. Go nuts!
The next bit of good news (albeit less so) is on the perspective of potentially changing the contest structure to ensure Hagah uniformity. I’m sorry @Hazash, because this clearly means a lot to you, and I respect the passion by which you’re advocating for this. Ultimately, none of the solutions you’ve pitched are flawless, and none come without a potential downside that would then have to be solved and accounted for. While I’m not doubting there are others who wish for Hagah uniformity (your poll already shows there are others, when viewing the results), you’re the only person who I’ve seen vehemently argue the point throughout the multiple topics we’ve had so far. As such, I feel like most of the compromises we could make would risk opening the door to additional problems and disenfranchise other groups or other people in select circumstances. I’m not going to go through every one of your proposals and reply to them (although we did read and discuss them all), but I will highlight a few of the more convincing ones and explain why we are (or aren’t) willing to go for them.
This is a decent as it would allow for uniformity by way of manual selection and ensure the best odds of selection from a pool. However, we won’t be utilizing it because of what we feel it represents for the spirit of the contest. Say you’re a builder who puts his heart and soul into Bomonga, and you make a really great Bomonga. It’s excellent, and a very popular entrant, matching canon perfectly, excellently representing the character, using creative building techniques, the whole nine yards. You make it all the way to the finals bracket… only for your entry to potentially not even be selected because, all of a sudden, an element of judging has been introduced, as your MoC is subject to the whims of artists to choose it from a pool of six.
Sure, the odds of it being chosen in at least some art entries is pretty high if it’s such an excellent MoC, but there’s no guarantee. Moreover, there’s no guarantee the artist would represent it in as convincing a manner as you did in your entry photos and general build presentation. Maybe the technical skill just wouldn’t stand up to a better-drawn version of a different MoC, even if the design itself is superior, and it would lose because of that. Maybe the rest of the Hagah chosen, made by COMPLETELY different people, are not as appealing to people, and so Bomonga would lose because of factors outside of the MoCist/artist’s control.
Put yourself in that person’s shoes, and you’d see why that option, while best for the sake of team coherence, really isn’t great from an individual or creative standpoint. Additionally, there’s no guarantee that the final six entries in each finalists’ bracket would have a combination, between all four sets of them, that would achieve perfect team cohesion anyway. So you could change the entire system and end up disenfranchising people only for it to not achieve the intended goal. As such, while it’s a good idea, we won’t be going through with it.
This is an easy one, so I’m slotting it here. We’ll do this. I kinda like the idea of narrowing things down to the top 3 vs. the top 6 anyways, just from a competition perspective. As such, consider this one way to help mitigate things slightly.
This is another decent solution, but the issue comes, again, from respecting the creative process. We have an entire segment in the rules regarding MoCists needing to give consent for whether their mask is allowed to be changed in the group art portion or if it should be preserved. This is because numerous people brought up issues with respecting the initial creative vision of the MoCist, as people might design their creations with certain Kanohi in mind and want them to be preserved in the final group shot.
This same logic applies to metallic colors and staff choices. These are big things, large elements to design and overall aesthetic. Leaving them up to the whims of the final artist to change as they see fit could be a surefire way to alienate or displease the initial creator, who would have their creation altered beyond their initial wish, all for the goal of consistency which, while nice, is not a canon requirement. Their Hagah could be 100% appropriate for canon, meet all the criteria for our contest, and be altered just become too many of the other Hagah are gold (even though a perfect ratio of golden-armored Hagah is not a stipulation of canon. That’s really my major issue with it.
All I will say is that this one, I think, DOES have potential merit as a solution if we do end up with certain conflicts, such as identical spear tips (which could be changed a lot easier than colorization, without as much harm to the aesthetic of the model). We could potentially could use this as an option to correct things later on down the line. What I think would allow for us to best utilize this option is to add a stipulation to the “consent” requirement for the alteration of masks: two extra pieces to give consent on, that being metallic color choice and spear tip.
To explain this in simpler terms, we would essentially require this to be submitted in each entry topic:
I give consent for my mask to be altered in the final group art if the artist chooses: (Yes/No)
I give consent for my metallic color choice to be altered in the final group art if the artist chooses: (Yes/No)
I give consent for my spear tip to be altered in the final group art if the artist chooses: (Yes/No)
By giving the choice to the creator, it fixes the prior issue of feeling as if creators were subject to the whims of the group shot artist to make changes to their models that weren’t sanctioned or asked for. By specifying whether they’re okay with it or not, it could potentially help narrow down a listing of winners that would be okay with it (for the people who value this) and make things easier on the group shot artists if they choose to make alterations (i.e. three Toa mandate no changes, one Toa is fine with changes, suddenly it’s easy to modify).
Overall, I do sympathize with the want for a uniform team, believe me. I think that it’d be cool. Based on everything we’ve heard about the Hagah, though, there’s nothing that mandates it in canon. As such, I’m very leery about messing with a tried and true contest structure or taking away peoples abilities for creative expression to accommodate a desire that I haven’t seen too many other people express (at least not as eloquently as you’ve voiced your concerns). These compromises are about as far as we’re willing to go, and hopefully they can somewhat alleviate your concerns or, at least, pave the way for a good outcome all around.