Anonymity, definition of standard piecepack equipment, and my work is worth nothing!

[Porter235 <porter235@...>]

On Monday 04 September 2006 02:13, Ron Hale-Evans wrote:
> ### Anonymity ###
>
> As I've become familiar with the work of the designers in the
> piecepack community, I've learned to tell some people's games a
> light-year away because of their graphic design, clip art, writing
> style, and so on. Because of this phenomenon, true anonymity has been
> hard to achieve. I'd like to try some new procedures in this contest
> that I hope will help alleviate these problems.
>
> 4. **Ports Illustrated**: Illustrations are optional, but if you use
>    them, they _must_ be _photos of standard piecepack equipment_, such
>    as the Mesomorph editions or the printable versions of the same
>    available from [Piecepack.org][3]. In the contest version of your
>    game, you may not use line art or one of the several sets of
>    piecepack clip art available.  You _may_ replace the photos with
>    clip art in the final version.
>
> 6. Make sure your photos look good in black and white, since they will
>    probably be printed that way.
>

OK. I understand the spirit with which these rules were created but I am 
personally very hurt by their inclusion in the ruleset.

I am someone who has spent an unbelievable number of hours designing a 
complete set of piecepack graphics for 8 suits in a style that is 
specifically designed for black and white printing! I have made all of those 
files available to the community. I have made a font available to the 
community to make it easy to include said style in their game designs. (Not 
to mention that I am in the process of creating another 4 suits in the same 
style!)

I have spent HUGE numbers of hours building multiple real life sets using said 
style.

I have spent hours upon hours creating a VASSAL module for piecepack that 
makes it possible to play piecepack games ONLINE, and very easy to create 
screenshots of board positions.

I have spent hours makin' my games pretty, which, last time I checked, is a 
part of what makes games enjoyable and attractive, and now I am told I can't!

You have now defined Mesomorph as the "standard piecepack equipment" which I 
do not own, and I believe goes completely against the spirit of the original 
piecepack design, which was only a spec. (Not to mention that although I 
think the Mesomorph sets look extremly well produced, I do not like the style 
of them at all)

Also worth note is neither this nor any other contest in the past has 
mentioned that you can not submit a game that you have already released to 
piecepack.org... My game Triactor is a good match for this competition, and 
even if I do reformat the rules to meet your requirements you will still know 
it was mine, because you have seen it already!

Also you mention "writing-style" as one of the things that make someone 
identifiable. How are you dealing with this?

I understand that I may be sounding like a wounded puppy, but I take great 
pride in making my rulesets look GOOD, and I have spent tons of time trying 
to help everyone be able to make theirs look good too. I feel like it is 
vital in some cases to help create the theme and mood given that the 
piecepack is so abstract.

If I am going to compete in this competition, I will either have to spend $$$ 
to get a "standard" piecepack, or spend hours and hours more creating yet 
another set, which will not look right with the sets I already have spent 
tons of time creating.

AAAArrrg!