It's time for fun, so BWL organized a new contest for everyone, no modding skills are required :)

Each week, a new drawing is published (showing a scene from the Baldur's Gate series), and questions attached (such as "who is in the picture", "where is it", "what is odd"). The winner of the week is the person who correctly answers the most questions. The winner of the whole contest series is the member who has the highest total score (all weekly scores are summed).

Though the current picture is a BG1 drawing, Baldur's Gate II content is also possible, that is why I posted about this in the present forum.

Looks like it could be interesting enough. I shall go and take a look.

How about link for lazy b******s like me?

Here are the links:

Discussion Topic and Submission Guidelines (http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=3948)

Picture and Questions (http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=3947)

I am interested! I have sent my answers. (me crosses fingers)

Heh, I know where that's from.

Week 1 is over! The first announcement of results is going to happen today (7th July), please visit the contest's forum for more information (see the above links of Sir Carnifex).

I should shut up, but I am unable not to reveal that one of the winners is an active Sorcerer's Place member! :)

Good to hear. :D

Nice work, Decados! Congratulations!

Ha! It seems I could not answer the last question. Shame on me, I never realised the artistic details, such as shadows and all...will be more careful from now on! :)

This is fun!

Thanks Baronius.

Don't worry Silverstar, I missed the shadows too! Although I would have said the lack of people was Very Wrong indeed- imagine going through the streets of a normally busy town centre and finding nobody at all. *shrug* Ah well.

Thanks Baronius.

Don't worry Silverstar, I missed the shadows too! Although I would have said the lack of people was Very Wrong indeed- imagine going through the streets of a normally busy town centre and finding nobody at all. *shrug* Ah well.

I have to blame the lack of people on a couple things. First, I hate drawing them. For me, they are very difficult to draw and I tend to shy away from doing them. And second, the peculiar distance distortion I used for the effect of the picture made it even harder to get proportions correct. Consequently, I quailed at the thought and just forgot about the soldiers and commoners. :D

Any future town pictures I'll try to populate somewhat so it doesn't look like a ghost town. As for Nashkel, what can I say? The kobolds ate them!

And to all those who enjoy this... I'm very glad to hear that they appreciate the work. Thanks and continue guessing!

It isn't hard to find justification anyway. When the player plays the game, he experiences and sees certain things, which consist of static and dynamic elements. For example, the fact you have to investigate the Nashkel mines or that Nimbul is there are quite static things. On the other hand, it's not a fixed thing whether you kill Mulahey with an arrow or with a Burning Hands spell, or in some other way. Similarly, with a little imagination, we can accept that the picture doesn't present a scene (in dynamic aspect) that the player actually experiences in the game:

For example, Nimbul paid someone to make an uproar (or perhaps fire) somewhere, which lured away soldiers (to restore the public order) and commoners (to stare and follow the events). I can imagine that all people (including men, soldiers) will go to the place of fire in case of a bigger fire in such a town, to stop the fire. For similar reasons, a big scuffle has the same effect. So Nimbul can remain alone and do his job without anyone disturbing him (perhaps he has other assignments as well beside Abdel).

I know it sounds a bit arbitrary but with a little imagination, it's acceptable. Of course, I don't say participants should have assumed such things. As the document that contains the results says, it's actually a mandatory reply if one has no better idea. I wouldn't have done otherwise either if I had been a participant. Fortunately, if practically no one answers a question, no one will get the points so it won't make any difference in the results. Furthermore, no minus points are given for anything. For questions that don't require a unique answer, you can list more things. This is the case with the "what's wrong" question, but e.g. not with the question of "who is it" (where a multiple answer such as "Nimbul or Bardolan" means 0 score).

I stink at this contest. :)

Second week's picture is available!

Week 2 is over. Results will be announced on 18th July, please check the contest's topics for more information.

[insert expletive here!]

I forgot to answer! I'm pretty sure I know what the answers are as well.

Ah well, I guess.

You didn't lose too much score, as the results of Week 2 aren't too rosy... except the winner's who got 6/6, but he didn't participate in Week 1.

---------- Added 11 hours, 20 minutes and 40 seconds later... ----------

New picture is up!

Hmm, I would only have got 4.5 for week 2- I'd have answered question 4 incorrectly.

Still, saying Charname was going to complete the quest seems reasonable to me, given that the house is on the wrong side of the river. If we had seen him on the right-hand bank, then it would indicate he was going to complete the quest in the game (assuming we could also see the bowl), but not in the picture. Yet by the answers he would be going to complete the quest. The swapping of banks makes this question too misleading, IMO. Nevertheless, it is in the past now- onwards to week 3!

given that the house is on the wrong side of the river
This isn't correct (and was worth 0.5 point only), Sir Carnifex was tricky. As I've quoted Raven's submission at BWL, the picture is actually inverted (mirrored).

Oh, I am aware that it has been inverted. However, there is nothing to say whether the entire piece has been inverted, or just those parts of the bank that are in view- the bridge may be completely unchanged and the swapping of which side the house and trees are on does not conclusively indicate which side the city is on. Believing it must have also swapped sides is as much jumping to conclusions as believing that only the visible sides have swapped.

My point is that there is no clue in the picture as to whether Baldur's Gate is on the left or right bank (and therefore which side the rest of the map is on). Without knowledge of whether it was just the house (and trees) that has been moved, it is impossible to say whether the party is on their way to the house, or away from it into the city. There is simply not enough information in the picture to conclusively claim one way or the other.

However, it is, of course, your decision and not mine, so I won't protest this point any further. :)

As I also said it at BWL, I'm aware of the fact that the contest is not perfect; it's the first time we've organized a contest of such nature, so we're also learning from it. So criticism is welcome.

I would like to note that all credit regarding the pictures and questions goes to Sir Carnifex, I am just the organizer and usually a second judge (even the answers are from Sir Carnifex). When Sir Carnifex returns from vacation, he will probably check this thread too.

Well, the shadows (yes, those pesky things again!) are an indicator that the entire picture IS mirrored. That is unless people thought I'd pull the same "shadows going in the wrong direction" stunt again (but nobody indicated they thought that). The positioning of the trees and the specific coloration of some of them is also an indicator that the house is on the correct side. Of course, all that reasoning seems so easy to me because I already know the answers as I draw the picture.

Next contest, someone else will have to be the artist so I can take a shot at the guessing. I doubt I'd do too well myself.

Reminder to all those who plan to submit:

Two days left until the end of Week 3!

Week 3 ended. We have two winners again: Groundkill and Raven.

Detailed results can be found on the contest's forum.

Picture of Week 4 should become available on Wednesday (20th July), i.e. tomorrow.

The week 4 picture is up.

Decados and Silverstar need to do some catching up. :)

Shoot! I missed tha last week! Ahh now I truly and really have no chance to win this competition at all!

But this will not prevent me from trying, must...keep...the fighting spirit! :)

Aaand this week's question is especially tough...I can guess a few places that fit the picture, but I can never be sure! Gotta rely on luck over wits this time.

Remember that the pictures try to present typical features. As I've written at BWL somewhere, it can't happen that the whole picture is a big wrong scene! That is, e.g. when you see such a room with a table, it can't happen that the room is wrong and should actually be a jail, and the table is wrong because it should be a torturing table :)


Reminder to everyone: deadline of week 4 gets closer and closer!

Remember that the pictures try to present typical features. As I've written at BWL somewhere, it can't happen that the whole picture is a big wrong scene! That is, e.g. when you see such a room with a table, it can't happen that the room is wrong and should actually be a jail, and the table is wrong because it should be a torturing table :)

Reminder to everyone: deadline of week 4 gets closer and closer!

Of course, that's only as long as we stick to core difficulty level. Perhaps the next contest should be done on Insane? :D

Week Five is up.

We have removed all earlier pictures (more precisely, replaced them with links) so dialup users won't have difficulties loading the page that contains the latest picture.

Deadline for Week 5 is close. This is a very very easy picture for those who played the given game (I cannot reveal which game), it seems that the tougher drawings of the previous weeks caused some participants to lose their interest!

Results of Week 5 are up.

For the information of those who are still interested: week Six is up, and it seems to be very easy IMO. :)

I have thought hard for the 4th and could not find the answer. And I simply missed the week 5 (which was very easy, IMHO) due to my school starting.

Week 6 is very easy again too, and I know all the answers, I think. I will leave it up to others though, since I can never catch up with you guys. (that, and I do not have much time right now, sorry!)

Great game anyway, and I liked the detail of characters in drawings!

I'm glad you like it! I think Sir Carnifex is doing a great job.

Thanks for the compliments. I give it a try anyway. :)

Silverstar, you may not be able to win the overall now, but we really do need some more people to enter so Raven won't be able to gloat that he's the weekly winner each time. I think someone needs to take him down a notch. :D

This game is pretty cool, I must admit. I think I'll start participating from Week 7 on.

Glad to hear, DCD! I hope you know that you can participate in Week 6 too (today is the last day of Week 6), in case you believed that it would be too late to enter Week 6 (if the reason is different, ignore my previous sentence).

So, as I've already said in brackets, it's 26th August today, so submissions for Week 6 can still be sent by midnight (24:00 GMT).

Week 7 is off to a fast start. Already two entries within a few hours of it being posted. :)

Reminder (a bit late I know): there is a bit more than one hour until the deadline.

Bah I wish I read this thread sooner.. I would have loved to take part in the first 6 weeks :cry:

Bah I wish I read this thread sooner.. I would have loved to take part in the first 6 weeks :cry:
Tell you what... If you haven't looked at the answers yet, PM me your answers for the first seven weeks and I'll score it for you. It won't be official, but it's still doing the contest. :)

And you can officially enter week eight and on.

Note: Official answers are only accepted at the BWL forums. Since I don't check here too often, I'm likely to miss anything here.

Good enough for me! :D

I havn't got an account over there so would you prefer I make one then PM the answers to you there or just here on SP?

By Week 8 I guess I'll have to register anyway.

The drawing for Week 8 is now available! :) :)

Reminder: Deadline will be over today (more precisely, Sept 25, 24:00 GMT)

Four submissions have been received so far. It's not hard as it may seem to be.

Yeah, although I'm sure I won't even get ONE question correct :(

Yeah, although I'm sure I won't even get ONE question correct :(
The scores are up. Go look at them. :)

LOL! You've got to be joking :rolleyes:

If only I'd started in the beginning...

Congratulations for the maximum score, Silvershield!

Depending on the level of interest, we might organize another Guess the Scene in the future. :)

The next week, Week 9 will be the last but one week, and the last week where guessing will be needed based on a picture. Week 10, the final week will be in 2009 (the delay is for technical reasons), where participants must make some small mod based on the picture (can be for BG1, BG2 etc.). Of course, Week 10 will be also only worth 6 points, so those who don't want to make even a small mod (we will provide a userfriendly editor too) don't need to participate. They will just get no score for Week 10.

I would like to mention that the contest isn't dead, the last-but-one week (Week 9) will be organized as soon as Sir Carnifex has time to draw the picture (which should happen soon).

I think after this season, we should expand the game. It's actually quite fun :D I had hoped that more members would have participated though..

Week 9 -- the last but one week -- has started! Entries can be submitted!

Week 10 -- the final week -- will be organized in 2009.

Deadline of Week 9 has been extended!

New deadline: 12th November 2008.