D&D 5E D&D Beyond Cancels Competition

D&D Beyond has been running an art contest which asked creators to enter D&D-themed portrait frame. DDB got to use any or all of the entries, while the winner and some runners up received some digital content as a prize.

There was a backlash -- and DDB has cancelled the contest.

Thank you to all of our community for sharing your comments and concerns regarding our anniversary Frame Design Contest.

While we wanted to celebrate fan art as a part of our upcoming anniversary, it's clear that our community disagrees with the way we approached it. We've heard your feedback, and will be pulling the contest.

We will also strive to do better as we continue to look for ways to showcase the passion and creativity of our fellow D&D players and fans in the future. Our team will be taking this as a learning moment, and as encouragement to further educate ourselves in this pursuit.

Your feedback is absolutely instrumental to us, and we are always happy to listen and grow in response to our community's needs and concerns. Thank you all again for giving us the opportunity to review this event, and take the appropriate action.

The company went on to say:

Members of our community raised concerns about the contest’s impact on artists and designers, and the implications of running a contest to create art where only some entrants would receive a prize, and that the prize was exclusively digital material on D&D Beyond. Issues were similarly raised with regards to the contest terms and conditions. Though the entrants would all retain ownership of their design to use in any way they saw fit, including selling, printing, or reproducing, it also granted D&D Beyond rights to use submitted designs in the future. We have listened to these concerns, and in response closed the competition. We’ll be looking at ways we can better uplift our community, while also doing fun community events, in the future.

Competitions where the company in question acquires rights to all entries are generally frowned upon (unless you're WotC).

 

[HomegrownHydra]

There are easy, commonly used, ethical workarounds.

Can you give some examples of these and which companies/organizations utilize them?

 

[BookTenTiger]

If you don't like it.... don't enter! Goodness, the complaints these days...so pro artists don't enter, it's good for the newer guys...

Maybe give everyone a participation award and they will be happy?

Here are some articles on why DDB probably received negative feedback:

ArtistryFound.com

MakingArtMakingMoney.com

Portland.AIGI.org

Do you have any quotes from people who complained?

 

[GuyBoy]

Predatory is way too strong a word to use about this; it carries an inference that is out of all proportion to this issue.
I think it’s a shame that some players who like to create art now can’t have a crack at this, win or lose. I have 0 artistic ability, but I was a pretty decent rugby player; I played for my teams and worked hard to be as good as I could be, but I don’t think I was ever undermining the chances of players who were trying to make a living from the game. I know you can’t argue everything from analogy, but I’d have felt it unfair if competitions I played in had been cancelled.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

So about community contests, and to give an example of a contest that is somewhat less exploitative:

I play a mobile gacha game called Project Sekai: Colorful Stage feat. Hatsune Miku. Gameplay wise, it's pretty similar to other mobile rhythm games such as Ensemble Stars Music, The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage, Bang Dream: Girls Band Party, Idolish7, Hypnosis Microphone: A.R.B. etc. Now, there is the argument to be made that gacha as a monetization system is bad from the jump, as it's encouraging people to gamble for anime girl PNGs, but that's an argument for another thread.

What sets Project Sekai apart from its competitors is that all of its songs are community created. Colorful Palette, the developers of the game, don't have an in-house team of musicians to make their songs. Most of the game is built on the back of covers of existing Vocaloid songs that fans already know and love. As well, they commission existing artists in the Japanese music scene to make them. Artists that have contributed to Project Sekai include DECO*27, Mitchie M, Giga, Pinocchio P, Mafumafu, Jin, Nayutalien, R Sound Design, Neru, Syudou; people who are already creating music and are known independently.

However, Project Sekai also regularly hosts contests for lesser known or even new artists to contribute their work for a shot at getting their song in the game. So far, there have six contests; five that have ended, and one that is currently in the judging phase. Each of the winners of the first four contests has had their song added to the game, and the fifth will be added this coming month:

Alive by Ichinose LUPO

Brand New Day by irucaice

Hana wo Utau by Shino

Utakata Mirai by Kaga/NegiShowerP

Sou Datta! by Takenoto Shounen

Now, what makes Project Sekai's contests more fair than what DNDBeyond tried to pull is that the artists that submitted their songs to the Sekai contest still own those songs. They're publicly available, the creators' names are attached to them, and if the songs get into the game the creators get credited in-game. Hana wo Utau is Shino's song, and everybody knows it's Shino's song; that it was made for the game doesn't change that. And even the songs that don't win are still available to listen to on YouTube; for example, the song Nh-Uh-Uh by SLAVE.V-V-R was wildly popular and basically everybody thought it was a shoe-in for Contest 3 until Utakata Mirai won instead. But Nh-Uh-Uh is still on YouTube, is still a good song in its own right, and most importantly is still a song that SLAVE.V-V-R owns.

I hope everybody was able to follow along my infodump on Vocaloid here. My main point is that despite creating these songs for a contest and submitting them, all of the creators of those songs still own their work and are recognized for it. And if in the future Colorful Palette wants to add some of the losing songs to the game, they'd go through the same process as they would for a normal cover song. From start to finish, the creators own their work.

 

[Lanefan]

And they should continue to do so while staying away from contests that are aimed at layman and not at (semi)professional artists.

This "layman" business seems like a windmill you're tilting at.

Where does anything here say or imply this contest was "aimed" at any specific segment of the amateur-professional scale?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’m not a dog, but I can hear certain whistles, like that “participation trophy” stuff.

Can it.

 

[Mirtek]

This "layman" business seems like a windmill you're tilting at.

Where does anything here say or imply this contest was "aimed" at any specific segment of the amateur-professional scale?

It was open for anybody. I anybody above a certain "level of professionalism" deems this to be detrimental to his chose profession, she's free to refrain from entering it. Let those amateurs who don't do this as any kind of profession have their fun.

 

[Mirtek]

So about community contests, and to give an example of a contest that is somewhat less exploitative:

I play a mobile gacha game

Naming a gacha game in combination with "less exploitative" is pure comedy

These games exist solely to lay out the flypaper for those weak willed to get stuck and all those who manage to land and take off again are just served as a means to get those poor whales.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Naming a gacha game in combination with "less exploitative" is pure comedy

These games exist solely to lay out the flypaper for those weak willed to get stuck and all those who manage to land and take off again are just served as a means to get those poor whales.

I was talking about the songs themselves, but sure, go off. At least read the rest of the post.

 

[Greg Benage]

My main point is that despite creating these songs for a contest and submitting them, all of the creators of those songs still own their work and are recognized for it.

The creators in the DDB contest would have also retained ownership.