Dear TNT: We'd like our BC back, please! The new rule that we can't enter the BC on our side accounts has devastated all the BCers, and dozens of people are leaving the site because of it. But don't just take my word for it, have a look at what some other people have to say:
Click a comic to go to the lookup of the user who drew it.
A Little More Detail
Multiple Entries
In some contests, such as the Lenny Conundrum, having multiple entries might increase your chances of winning, allowing you to submit two answers if you can't work out which is the right one. In the Beauty Contest, this is not the case at all. In fact, most people who have entered more than two pets at once say it is actually harder to win because of the amount of advertising required. Allowing side account pets would not give us a greater chance of winning, merely a greater choice of which pets to enter.
Community
Decreasing the amount we are able to enter the Beauty Contest will decrease the time people spend on the Beauty Contest board, damaging the close, friendly community that can be found there. For most people, advertising, meeting new people and sharing tips is one of the main attractions of the contest, part and parcel of the whole thing.
Fun
A lot of people enter the Beauty Contest for fun rather than for the prizes. Linked in with the idea of community, many people enjoy the strong group feeling of spending a week in the contest. From posting an initial sketch and asking for tips to improve it, to previewing a finished picture, advertising it, asking for and giving votes, critiques and ratings, and finally celebrating or mourning the outcome of the contest, the BC is much more than just a way to earn neopoints, it's one of the most enjoyable aspects of the site!
The Neopoints
Earning neopoints on a side account is against the rules and is why entering the BC on a side account is not allowed. However, if we look at this example, we'll see just how little can be earned from entering the BC.
A good BCer might expect to win gold in species every time she enters. Since a winning pet is banned from entering again for another four months, that means she could expect to win twelve times a year, earning 120,000 np.
If she was trying to be cunning, she might try and win silver every week instead. If all four pets came second in their species every week for a year, she would earn 1,040,000 np, an impressive amount. However, it is time-consuming, difficult and rarely successful to advertise more than two pictures at once, so that value would be more likely halved to 520,000 np. It is also unavoidable that some weeks the pets would win bronze or not place at all, and it is quite likely that they would occasionally win gold, getting themselves banned from the contest for four months. The end result is probably likely to be no more than about 200,000 np.
On the other hand, look at a player of Plushie Tycoon. If he was as good at his chosen game as the BCer was at hers, he would be a tycoon every month, earning himself 1,200,000 np over the course of a year. Even coming in the second prize category would win him 600,000 np for the year, a good deal more than a BCer of the same ability.
A person who was good enough at a single flash game to win full neopoints every day would earn 1,095,000 np over the course of the year, considerably more than a BCer.
A person who excelled at the plots and came in the highest point bracket of the recent Lost Desert Plot would have won an item worth a cool 5,000,000 np for just a few month's participation on the site.
So, from a neopoints point of view, this rule does not make a lot of sense.
Quality of the Beauty Contest
The biggest impact of this rule is going to be on the Beauty Contest itself. The people who enter the contest on side accounts are people who love art and the contest and so enter good pictures and vote responsibly. It is realistic to say that at least half of the best entries in any one week are entered on side accounts, and so once these pets are no longer entered the contest will see even more of a proliferation of entries that are doodles, scribbles and otherwise devoid of effort and respect for the contest.
Overall
Overall, most of us enter the BC for the experience rather than for the neopoints. The vast majority of us would be willing to sacrifice the small cash reward we get entering on a side account, especially if we were still able to win trophies. If there was any way we could mark an entry as a side account entry and not receive the neopoints prize, or even have a seperate non-prize BC for side account pets, most of us would be perfectly happy to keep entering!
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