ProjectJunebug

If you feel that the following is too long to read, then just know that I have grown tired and have no plans to associate myself with Fuwanovel anymore. If you want to hear the words of a weary person, then keep reading.

Words cannot fully express my disappointment with what has happened these last few weeks. I, like many others, was lured in by the promise of competition, an activity which was clearly presented with the purpose of building a stronger community. Now, I feel that this purpose was lost somewhere along the way, as I have found this crowd to be pulled into a rather ridiculous rat race. 

"A rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of a lab rat trying to escape while running around a maze or in a wheel."

-The English Wikipedia

I am a very serious competitor, and like any other sensible person, enjoy competition. Competition puts people against each other in ways that try our many aspects. Our patience, our skills, our knowledge; these are all put to the test, and hopefully, we will learn things about each other and ourselves while enjoying the experience. However, one of the things that maintains a competition is a guarantee of fairness; that there are no inconsistencies within the rules, that everything has been elaborated upon, and ultimately, that everyone who tries hard enough has a near equivalent chance of winning. This competition that we entered started in this way, but the longer that it went on, the more that it lost its meaning. As participants, we originally started out with tasks such as drawing, singing; tasks which can be gauged and done easily enough.

My first signs of worry were with the notorious Week 5 Daily Challenges where the whiteout text challenge occurred. Zodai pointed out in a rather well written wall of text the various inconsistencies that occurred in the competition that made it lose its fairness. Solidbatman responded, and his response immediately revealed much:

“tl;dr "Bats your competition for $200+ worth of prizes is too hard wah wah wah.

Zodai, I'm quite upset with you and depending on what I decide tonight, you may either be disqualified, or suffer a penalty, or nothing at all. While I did not explicitly state to not give out hints, it certainly was implied, and this is not meant to be easy. The first few weeks may have fooled you into thinking it would, but we must weed out the uninspired and only have the ones who truly want this prize standing at the end.”

-Solidbatman

First, Solidbatman felt that his pride being hurt was more important than the fact that the tournament had taken a turn to lose its sense of fairness, indicating with the first line that he believes that he was in the right. Not only did he skillfully ignore Zodai’s argument without providing a response, he equated complaints about the doability of the competition to difficulty, further evidence that he did not bother to even read Zodai’s argument. Even more insulting is the last line. “…we must weed out the uninspired and only have the ones who truly want this prize standing at the end.” The implication here is that people who cannot win cannot do so because they do not want the prize enough, when clearly there are flaws in the design. Most disturbing is the throwing around of the value of the prizes, which I will elaborate upon later.

As you all know, immediately following were the colored letter challenges. Aside from the fact that the absurd number of points at stake practically invalidated the first few good weeks of the competition, Solidbatman once again, and many times before, indicated that he wanted no questions asked because they were too troublesome. When there are factors of vagueness or other elements that require clarification, they should be provided for players, even if the players do not ask for them, even more so if they do. Would the words be in English? Would they have Romanized words? These questions were left unanswered until someone got the words right, and I felt further insulted.

First, Solidbatman made a mockery of the competitors with his words “You idiots are not for real”. Perhaps I am too sensitive. Perhaps getting called an idiot is normal for most people. But in this context, I found it to be unacceptable. Even more so was the next set, “Poor vibrantblade will never win this contest unfortunately.” I had competed with vibrantblade since Day 1, collaborated with him on some of the more difficult challenges, and even shared a few good jabs. Aside from the fact that vibrantblade is not a conventional word, thus calling into question the fairness once again, I felt hurt and insulted for my friend, who had been one of the most serious of the competitors.

Next, the gambling. Oh yes. The point totals went even higher, and the competition devolved completely. We had the notorious rule change after everyone called their numbers for the number guessing. Changing from a random selection of a person’s number to a scale immediately and utterly invalidated any single digit numbers practically. To elaborate, most people picked numbers between one and ten. Simple enough. When you have people that suddenly bet 666, suddenly, the range needs to accommodate that, making that number nearly half as likely to win. After all, single digit numbers are at one end of the scale while numbers larger than the winning 666 are on the other end.

The blackjack challenge was an utter failure. With no ability to account for accountability in a competition where everyone wants to win, this challenge should not have been issued, at all. It was a waste of our time, especially for those who played honestly. Honestly, the announcement of the addition of the Key 10^th Memorial Box is likely what provoked people to cheat. 21 is a little too ideal to get, and since 10s, Js, Qs, and Ks all count as 10, getting 20 shouldn’t be suspicious. With that logic while driven further to win because of the growth of the prize pool, the obvious cheating happened, and the challenge was pulled entirely.

Finally was the 6pm spam challenge. Immediately after the challenge was posted, SuperOreman, a new person to the forums like myself, asked for clarification on the challenge, and was met with no answers; just a typical Solidbatman response. Only at the end when he decided to choose a winner was it that he decided that last post meant person who posted BEFORE 6pm (congratulations, Edumax!), but this failure to clarify wasted time for the three people (including SupreOreman, who was left with no answers), and Solidbatman even jabbed at that fact, only showing regret that his attempt to troll everyone didn’t work due to his drowsiness.

Clearly, there have been numerous inconsistencies in this competition that have spanned from somewhat vague to utterly ridiculous failures. Why has nobody complained in spite of this? The simple answer that everybody knows but nobody will answer is because of the prizes. Solidbatman has held all of the competitors by chain, justifying his position because he is the one who can give away prizes, as well as the fact that he is not obligated to. After all, what weight do words made on the internet have? When questioned about the waste of time by Stray Cat, Solidbatman responded by saying that he shouldn’t bother with making competitions in the first place. Flutterz gave the response that perfectly sums up how most people feel:

“Please bother, we're all greedy fucks who want to destroy one another in a battle of wits to gain possession of free shit (I mean, I know I am, I can't be certain about everyone else though)! Just don't expect people to not be salty when the rules change halfway through and not in their favour.”

-Flutterz

Those of us who compete were brought in by the promise of goods, and the chance to win these has kept us all in the competition, regardless of our personal feelings. As long as that chance exists, we want to stay in and struggle to the last moment, even if it destroys our dignity as competitors, and as human beings. For building community, this challenge netted many people, but the number of new people that are here to stay will likely number less than 10. 

Were there ever any concrete rules? Never. This competition has been all about Solidbatman and whatever he has been feeling like. Am I just a bitter loser? Of course, but that is a byproduct of what has been a failed system. Will I be returning to Fuwanovel? Never. I enjoyed competing with you all, but if you get pulled in so easily and accept this with a grain of salt, then as a gamer, competitor, and human being, I have no business staying in this community, and I certainly have no need to return for any reason. After all, if the salt must flow, then I would rather not get involved. I feel sorry for the people who still believe in a sense of honor and fairness in the competition because I can tell that their expectations are going to betrayed time and time again. After all, this community won't change. Solidbatman won't even be able to read this far because he will stop reading the moment that he learns that this is writing criticizing him, dismissing it at the whining of a loser, once again citing his authority to dispense prizes. However, I can say this much with confidence. As a community building challenge, this event was a failure.

I offer my gratitude to Vibrantblade, who I considered to be a powerful and worthy competitor, Zodai, who in spite of acting mighty was in fact on the side of the competitors, SuperOreman, who was probably my best friend during this competition, and to Stray Cat, who in addition to being a powerful competitor, was a reasonable and helpful moderator who I would recommend for private messaging because he will actually respond. With that, this weary soul has no words left because I have exhausted them all. Farewell, Fuwanovel community.