Okay, so, an idea or ten.

[Azure Haights]

Originally Posted by Juub005

*OSC Pacific - a fancy title for the theme that chaos (meaning 16ths, 12ths, 24ths etc.) is forbidden in all entries; only 4ths and 8ths are allowed.

I must be missing something here. Why Pacific?

EDIT: nevermind, I think I got it.

*Jolly Roger Mix - stupid title for the theme that only 4th and 12th notes are allowed.

You mean like Tepples' TM5+ suggestion?

HINOSC TEAM

HellOSC Project: Every team (of 3+ people) must enter between two and as many songs as there are members. Responsibilities rotate between songs.

(If I take Light/Heavy, you take Standard/Challenge and someone else takes Graphics/Lyrics/Extras, then on the next song I'd have to take SC, you'd take Graphics and someone'd take LH.)

[alphabet55]

Originally Posted by TakeWalker

Also, to the rest of you, some of us do have better things to do than creating and judging simfiles constantly. I think quarterly might be too much, but it'd be better than even bi-monthly. I mean, look at how much time this is taking. Y'need a bit of a cool-down between contests. Plus, the more often you do it, the less special it becomes.

I think the idea was to streamline the whole process so each competition takes less time to complete.

Also, these are in addition to the main OSC, so that one would still be special. And besides, wouldn't it be just as fun to say something like "Yeah, I've won 3 mini-osc's so far."

[Zounder]

Originally Posted by discovolante

I could go for monthly or bi-monthly honestly. Quarterly is definitely too infrequent.

If contests were monthly or bi-monthly, they'd have to be decided on public vote only because there's no way you can find people who have the time to judge full contests that frequently, even if the contests are smaller.

Ideas:

InstruMix- All songs must have no lyrics (or minimal, like a shout of "yeah!" here and there)
Vocal mix- Songs must have lyrics
90s, 80s, 70s Mix- Self explanatory (DDRExtreme.co.uk has already done 80s though)
DDR Mix- Take songs that are already in DDR and make better steps (This hasn't been done before in a contest, right?)

Those are just random things to pop inside my head, I personally am more partial to some of the other suggestions.

Anime Mix and Video Games Mix sound like cool ideas but they've already been done so much in the past... we'd have to play through even more Two-Mix and FF7 music. I'd be up for it as long as I can see some new material.

[Eggman]

Just figure out a good list of overused songs/artists (like the aforementioned Two-Mix) and disallow music from Final Fantasy.

[sanchny]

Originally Posted by Azure Haights

HellOSC! Project

[discovolante]

Originally Posted by Zounder

If contests were monthly or bi-monthly, they'd have to be decided on public vote only because there's no way you can find people who have the time to judge full contests that frequently, even if the contests are smaller.

Ohhh yes you could. I know a handful of people in ITGfreak who would be willing to do it, and I'd be more than able as long as I can compete as well.

[alphabet55]

And maybe instead of having the same group of judges for every competition, you could have a few groups that would rotate?

[Zounder]

You'd need qualified people... and there aren't that many to go around, sadly (At least, there aren't many who have the time to judge monthly or bimonthly competitions, even on rotation). And I don't want strangers from ITGFreak who've never judged before, judging OSC stuff. And I'm assuming this would be DDR based, and if they're from ITGFreak, that sounds contradictory...

[Xythar]

BTW, in terms of themes I'm very much in favour of themes that restrict song selection based on a criteria with room for interpretation but very much against themes that restrict step styles. I don't want to play a mix entirely of songs that only use 8ths, or songs with no air, or whatever - the obvious side effect of forcing everyone to follow only one style is that everyone indeed follows only one style and an entire mix of steps that are all one style is boring. Variety is the spice of life.

[Zounder]

I agree with Xythar. Step restriction doesn't sound too good. Also, genre restriction is something I don't think should be done. Just like restricting the steps, it reduces the variety in the mix, and it could also lead to similar step styles since some genres lean toward specific step patterns/rhythms.

[Xythar]

Yeah... DDRExtreme.co.uk's have been pretty good so far since they have general themes (TV & Movie, Videogames, Cheese, Foreign etc) that usually allow for a wide variety of genres.

[Aeronautical Vigilante]

Thanks for the idea discussion, everyone. Nice to get the old juices thinking, and this idea seems at least somewhat popular. I'll definately be chatting with BlueSS on it.

[PlatinumHawke]

Originally Posted by Zounder

Anime Mix and Video Games Mix sound like cool ideas but they've already been done so much in the past... we'd have to play through even more Two-Mix and FF7 music. I'd be up for it as long as I can see some new material.

Speaking of Two-Mix, I have a torrent of all their songs, minus a few scattered remixes and their Mix*Two/Delta Mix stuff. Wouldn't that be a flood of [s]epic[/s] annoying proportions?

Then again, I haven't seen many files floating around... but, even coming from me, anime and video game themed contests are over-done. Zounder and Xythar are pretty much saying what I'd like to see. A loose theme that will allow a fair degree of variation in steps and song.

An idea that just came to mine...Have a team based competition (2-4 people) where the goal is to put together a 4 song non-stop, and judge it based on the actual steps and the theme put into the course.

Only thing I can see against it, is that the amount of files could balloon, but with the commitment required (and the amount of people needed), it shouldn't get too out of hand.

And... it's hard enough to get 4 or 5 people to come together and not expect them to flake out on you for one reason or another... a dozen? Ugh. Logistics nightmare.

[Xythar]

Videogame themed contests might be overdone but I haven't had a chance to participate in one yet :/

That's why I'm hoping that either DDREX will sequelise a few of their previous themed contests or OSC will run them.

[alphabet55]

Yeah, I haven't participated in anything video game or anime themed yet, either.

If you were really worried about it being overdone, you colud limit the song choice to "anime from 2005" or "video games involving female lead characters", ect. That would be interesting.