02-23-2024, 10:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2024, 06:00 PM by xenosthelegend. Edited 1 time in total.)
Well, I guess I’m joining the Heck HO movement after all. Or at least I am talking to whoever is willing and able to make a change in favor of the users of the ISFL. Look I know I can drone on and on about meaningless things but for once in my media history I have something serious to talk about and it all has to do with graphics.
I could write a 20k media piece filled with garbage and complaining about how awful Baron is, I could start a podcast and record for an hour about how annoying Bamford is and in those two scenarios, I am getting a set amount of money based on the amount of words I write (good or bad) or the length of time I was talking on the podcast. But there is a third element to this that I haven’t included and that is GRAPHICS.
It has come to my attention that graphics are paid based on an incredibly SUBJECTIVE and UNFAIR grading system. For someone to work on a graphic for hours and hours making something that they deem perfect and only receive a 2 or whatever the GARBAGE grading scale is, is incredibly unfair to them and ruins one of the main reasons for doing the graphic in the first place. We want people creating fun and interesting things don’t we? Then why prevent talented people from doing what they love just because the “grading criteria” doesn’t think it is worth anything? If you are going to grade something subjectively then make all forms of media graded subjectively. Rip my media apart for not having good grammar or a plot line that makes sense, crack down on podcasts for people leaving mid-way through to eat dinner, or give it a bad grade because you didn’t like their opinion on something. Or, as one of my sources so eloquently put it “I can make a podcast while eating a bowl of god damn Cheerios, smacking the entire time on mic because heaven forbid I conserve this entire time to my craft. No, I need to eat while on mic at the same time condensing two past times into one. You couldn’t wait? Talk about quality”. It is UNFAIR to artists who are putting in the time and effort to make something meaningful in this league to be shit on through a grading scale that makes no sense. I get the formulaic payment scale getting paid a set amount for template sets, jersey swaps, and logos, but if someone is doing an original graphic that they are taking time out of their day to do how is that fair to them when I’m writing a bunch of gibberish and getting loads and loads of money for it?
I will give you an example because I’m sure you don’t understand what I mean. I requested a graphic be made recently and the artist made it with no questions asked. He even came back to me about any changes I wanted to be made and time and time again did whatever I asked. He spent a significant amount of time more than I will be making this media piece and yet I will likely make a significant amount more because “the grading scale says so”. It doesn’t matter that I, the one who commissioned the piece, think it’s perfect. It only matters that it isn’t up to “grading standards”. Sure if you’re going to draw a stick figure you should get paid less but there’s a point where time should be rewarded over someone’s opinion.
I understand not letting the person who commissioned the graphic to be able to pay for it due to colluding and handing out money but there HAS to be a better way of paying people who make graphics than “this guy is worse at Photoshop than me so I’m going to give him a bad grade”.
And yes, I know swoosh made tons and tons of money doing graphics before I showed up to this scene and is one of the reasons the grading scale is in place but there has to be a threshold where time and creativity is rewarded. The biggest problem out of everything I have said so far is different graders have different criteria as to what is “perfect” “very good” and so on. With one grader you could be getting a two out of seven while with another you could be getting a six. I’ve heard of graphic makers hoping for certain graders based on how they grade. And don’t let this confuse you into thinking I’m blaming the graders because I most certainly am not. They have just about as hard of a job as the graphic makers themselves deciding based on a broken grading scale what they are going to give each graphic.
Imagine this for a second: I just finished my 20 thousand word article about how much I hate Baron (true story). I submit it and get a grader to go through it and they feel that you know what, the writing was a bit sloppy, and actually, it drones on a bit too long, and the grammar? Awful. And you know what? There aren’t enough literary devices in there. And for that I’m giving this media piece a 4 out of 17. I would be livid! I put so much time and effort into that article only for it to get a 4 out of 17?! And that is what these graphic makers have to deal with every single submission.
I will leave you with one more anecdotal story before I make my leave. A user by the name of “Trennik” appealed the grading he received on some of his graphics. Some of you graphic officianatos may recognize the name for various reasons. I’m not here to pass judgment on the “skill” or “quality” but I am going to explain why graphic makers need to be paid properly. He made this appeal on October 11th having posted the original graphics on the 5th. He thought he should be bumped up to at least a 3 on a few of the graphics and upon further inspection thought he deserved a 5. On October 25th the appeal is denied and the ruling of 2 out of 5 is upheld. After two prediction posts later that same day, Trennik’s only other post on the website after that date would end up being his last post on the ISFL website to announce his retirement 5 days later. Earning money is hard it’s as simple as that. And Trennik, who I’m sure wanted to succeed, saw graphics as a way of doing so. Not posting in many PTs he likely didn’t like writing. So to get money and TPE he relied on the money from graphics to improve his player. But through the broken grading scale, he received pennies and I want you to read this last part carefully because it is one of the main reasons I believe graphics should be paid differently. Trennik says “It took quite a bit more effort and tooling”. He put REAL EFFORT and REAL TIME into improving the graphics he made but the grading scale calls it bad and that’s that. This is exactly how you lose users and engagement that this league so badly needs. Heck HO and fix your grading scale. Reward time and effort. Please and thank you.
TLDR: Stop making graphics subjective and fix the grading scale to reflect time and effort. I get the grading scale was put in place to stop people from exploiting the system but right now HO is exploiting the graphic makers, not the other way around.
I could write a 20k media piece filled with garbage and complaining about how awful Baron is, I could start a podcast and record for an hour about how annoying Bamford is and in those two scenarios, I am getting a set amount of money based on the amount of words I write (good or bad) or the length of time I was talking on the podcast. But there is a third element to this that I haven’t included and that is GRAPHICS.
It has come to my attention that graphics are paid based on an incredibly SUBJECTIVE and UNFAIR grading system. For someone to work on a graphic for hours and hours making something that they deem perfect and only receive a 2 or whatever the GARBAGE grading scale is, is incredibly unfair to them and ruins one of the main reasons for doing the graphic in the first place. We want people creating fun and interesting things don’t we? Then why prevent talented people from doing what they love just because the “grading criteria” doesn’t think it is worth anything? If you are going to grade something subjectively then make all forms of media graded subjectively. Rip my media apart for not having good grammar or a plot line that makes sense, crack down on podcasts for people leaving mid-way through to eat dinner, or give it a bad grade because you didn’t like their opinion on something. Or, as one of my sources so eloquently put it “I can make a podcast while eating a bowl of god damn Cheerios, smacking the entire time on mic because heaven forbid I conserve this entire time to my craft. No, I need to eat while on mic at the same time condensing two past times into one. You couldn’t wait? Talk about quality”. It is UNFAIR to artists who are putting in the time and effort to make something meaningful in this league to be shit on through a grading scale that makes no sense. I get the formulaic payment scale getting paid a set amount for template sets, jersey swaps, and logos, but if someone is doing an original graphic that they are taking time out of their day to do how is that fair to them when I’m writing a bunch of gibberish and getting loads and loads of money for it?
I will give you an example because I’m sure you don’t understand what I mean. I requested a graphic be made recently and the artist made it with no questions asked. He even came back to me about any changes I wanted to be made and time and time again did whatever I asked. He spent a significant amount of time more than I will be making this media piece and yet I will likely make a significant amount more because “the grading scale says so”. It doesn’t matter that I, the one who commissioned the piece, think it’s perfect. It only matters that it isn’t up to “grading standards”. Sure if you’re going to draw a stick figure you should get paid less but there’s a point where time should be rewarded over someone’s opinion.
I understand not letting the person who commissioned the graphic to be able to pay for it due to colluding and handing out money but there HAS to be a better way of paying people who make graphics than “this guy is worse at Photoshop than me so I’m going to give him a bad grade”.
And yes, I know swoosh made tons and tons of money doing graphics before I showed up to this scene and is one of the reasons the grading scale is in place but there has to be a threshold where time and creativity is rewarded. The biggest problem out of everything I have said so far is different graders have different criteria as to what is “perfect” “very good” and so on. With one grader you could be getting a two out of seven while with another you could be getting a six. I’ve heard of graphic makers hoping for certain graders based on how they grade. And don’t let this confuse you into thinking I’m blaming the graders because I most certainly am not. They have just about as hard of a job as the graphic makers themselves deciding based on a broken grading scale what they are going to give each graphic.
Imagine this for a second: I just finished my 20 thousand word article about how much I hate Baron (true story). I submit it and get a grader to go through it and they feel that you know what, the writing was a bit sloppy, and actually, it drones on a bit too long, and the grammar? Awful. And you know what? There aren’t enough literary devices in there. And for that I’m giving this media piece a 4 out of 17. I would be livid! I put so much time and effort into that article only for it to get a 4 out of 17?! And that is what these graphic makers have to deal with every single submission.
I will leave you with one more anecdotal story before I make my leave. A user by the name of “Trennik” appealed the grading he received on some of his graphics. Some of you graphic officianatos may recognize the name for various reasons. I’m not here to pass judgment on the “skill” or “quality” but I am going to explain why graphic makers need to be paid properly. He made this appeal on October 11th having posted the original graphics on the 5th. He thought he should be bumped up to at least a 3 on a few of the graphics and upon further inspection thought he deserved a 5. On October 25th the appeal is denied and the ruling of 2 out of 5 is upheld. After two prediction posts later that same day, Trennik’s only other post on the website after that date would end up being his last post on the ISFL website to announce his retirement 5 days later. Earning money is hard it’s as simple as that. And Trennik, who I’m sure wanted to succeed, saw graphics as a way of doing so. Not posting in many PTs he likely didn’t like writing. So to get money and TPE he relied on the money from graphics to improve his player. But through the broken grading scale, he received pennies and I want you to read this last part carefully because it is one of the main reasons I believe graphics should be paid differently. Trennik says “It took quite a bit more effort and tooling”. He put REAL EFFORT and REAL TIME into improving the graphics he made but the grading scale calls it bad and that’s that. This is exactly how you lose users and engagement that this league so badly needs. Heck HO and fix your grading scale. Reward time and effort. Please and thank you.
TLDR: Stop making graphics subjective and fix the grading scale to reflect time and effort. I get the grading scale was put in place to stop people from exploiting the system but right now HO is exploiting the graphic makers, not the other way around.