Art of Knightmare competition

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pjmlfc05
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Art of Knightmare competition

Post by pjmlfc05 »

This looks cool. But do you have to be on Facebook to enter this? Would love to enter but not on Facebook.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Canadanne »

I think it's a shame these competitions are only open to Facebook users, too. Not that I can actually think of a caption that's better than the ones suggested so far!

I wish there was an option to get just the printed book as a perk on the campaign page. :( Not willing to pay £75 for it, especially as I don't have any use for stickers, badges, an art print or a mouse mat. (Don't think I have any use for the eBook either, if you need a special device to view it.) If it were something like £20-£40 for just the book, I would probably make a donation. Will be rather sad if I don't get to see the results of David's efforts, as the sneak previews look fascinating.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Mystara »

Yes, you need to be on Facebook to enter. It's free to create an account on Facebook though.

I don't think you need a special device to read the eBook, but I'll ask David. Most computers these days can download the kindle reader, for example.

Remember that the £75 book is not only printed but is a special edition that includes material that isn't included in the standard edition.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Canadanne »

Mystara wrote:It's free to create an account on Facebook though.
I signed up with Facebook once and immediately regretted it - privacy nightmare (and they've spammed me ever since)! Would be good if future competitions could be open to everyone, maybe via email or something.
Mystara wrote:Remember that the £75 book is not only printed but is a special edition that includes material that isn't included in the standard edition.
Yeah, even more reason why I'd like to buy it, but £75 is a bit steep IMHO, when I don't want the rest of that package. I saw David telling a few other people he would consider offering the book on its own for a lower price, but no sign of it happening so far.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by pjmlfc05 »

I know it's free to open a Facebook account. However, I'm not a fan of it and have no desire to be on it. I do think it's a shame the competition is only open to Facebook users. Is there no way we can enter via the forum?

With regards to the book, I would not shell out £75 for it. That's a lot of money for a book! I appreciate there is additional material that wouldn't be included in the standard edition. I also have always been a fan of David's artwork and I know it was a huge part of Knightmare, but does that justify the £75 price tag? I don't think so to be honest.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Mystara »

Canadanne wrote:I signed up with Facebook once and immediately regretted it - privacy nightmare (and they've spammed me ever since)!
I can't say I've ever had a problem with Facebook spamming me. Whenever I've unsubscribed, they've stopped emailing me.

As for privacy, I simply don't do or say anything on Facebook that I wouldn't want the entire world to know. You don't *have* to tell it anything except for your email address.
Canadanne wrote: Would be good if future competitions could be open to everyone, maybe via email or something.
That's unlikely to ever happen. Disregarding the logistical problems and the fact that a large percentage of people on Facebook wouldn't enter because the competition wouldn't be *on* Facebook (sigh), I'm sure you'll appreciate that part of the intent of the competition is to garner an audience ON Facebook - something that we wouldn't achieve by doing the competition by email.

In the same way that I push the main website for article posting to achieve audience numbers in the longer term, Facebook is the tool we use for getting a large audience in the short term.

There's also something to be said for people getting to see other peoples' entries, which are themselves quite amusing.
Canadanne wrote:
Mystara wrote:Remember that the £75 book is not only printed but is a special edition that includes material that isn't included in the standard edition.
Yeah, even more reason why I'd like to buy it, but £75 is a bit steep IMHO, when I don't want the rest of that package. I saw David telling a few other people he would consider offering the book on its own for a lower price, but no sign of it happening so far.
I understand that David was looking into adding an option for a print copy of the standard edition (alone) as a perk. However, I think this is complicated because it involves offering new options that weren't available in the past. People that have already pledged their support may feel cheated if a "better" package comes along after they've already donated.

Also, keep in mind that the bulk of the cost of these things is in the printing. A quick look at lulu.com indicates that the cost to print a single copy of a 100 page, colour, hardcover book is £27.55. Then add another £5 for postage and packing of your big heavy book.

Then consider the fact that there'll be product wastage and that, since you're getting a more expensive product, David is entitled to a bigger profit on that "sale", and £75 starts to look a little more reasonable for what you're getting.

Numbers are, of course, examples and clearly not entirely in keeping with what David is doing.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Mystara »

pjmlfc05 wrote:I know it's free to open a Facebook account. However, I'm not a fan of it and have no desire to be on it. I do think it's a shame the competition is only open to Facebook users. Is there no way we can enter via the forum?
No.

If Facebook bothers you that much and you're so keen to enter, you can always go and create a new gmail account and use that to create a blank Facebook profile with nothing but your name. Heck, I think you'd even get away with a fake name. Submit an entry using this profile, log in to see if you've won after the deadline and then ditch both the Facebook account and the gmail address.

It'd take 5 minutes, you'd never have to give up any personal information, and there'd be no risk of Facebook spamming you afterwards.
pjmlfc05 wrote: With regards to the book, I would not shell out £75 for it. That's a lot of money for a book! I appreciate there is additional material that wouldn't be included in the standard edition. I also have always been a fan of David's artwork and I know it was a huge part of Knightmare, but does that justify the £75 price tag? I don't think so to be honest.
Sure, I understand.
Other people (myself included) consider it worthwhile and have paid the full amount.
Still other people would find the price unreasonably high even if it was only £10. So this issue arises regardless of what the price actually is.

At the end of the day, David isn't out to rip people off. The prices aren't based on what he thinks he can get away with, but what it actually costs him to produce the perks, plus a small profit margin for himself, which is supposed to pay for several months of his time.

Your particular financial situation may dictate that the book is outwith your reach. I wish it was otherwise - either that you were richer or that David could make the book more cheaply (or both! :D). However, the situation is as it is. I'm not sure that there's anything to be done about it :(

....except by entering the competition!
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Canadanne »

Mystara wrote:As for privacy, I simply don't do or say anything on Facebook that I wouldn't want the entire world to know. You don't *have* to tell it anything except for your email address.
Trouble is, it already knew a frightening amount of detail about me, including everyone I'd ever spoken to via email (I can only presume it went through my address book without permission), and all my personal details were public by default, and trying to lock it all down was far from straightforward. (I don't know if they've changed it since then.)

Fair enough if the competition is specifically designed to attract Facebook users (which wasn't clear). It's still a shame if other fans won't ever be given a chance to win cool stuff, though, without having to set up fake email addresses and accounts.

I do see the problem with changing the campaign perks at this point, but if a lot of people aren't willing to pay quite that much to get their hands on the printed version, it's something of a lose-lose situation... we don't get the book and David doesn't get the donations. :( I'm sorry to hear that there's no way round it. The difference in price between the various packages seemed to imply that the book on its own would only cost something like £40, which I would have been prepared to pay for it if the option was there, and I get the impression other people would too.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

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Canadanne wrote:Trouble is, it already knew a frightening amount of detail about me, including everyone I'd ever spoken to via email (I can only presume it went through my address book without permission), and all my personal details were public by default, and trying to lock it all down was far from straightforward. (I don't know if they've changed it since then.)
There's simply no way that Facebook would get away with doing that without your permission. They'd be sued into oblivion and utterly destroyed by the European Commission, cf: Google hacking private wifi networks.

A more likely explanation is that your friends have provided Facebook with your email address (either manually or by volunteering access to their address books) and so when you sign up WITH that email address, it already knows who some of your friends are.
Fair enough if the competition is specifically designed to attract Facebook users (which wasn't clear). It's still a shame if other fans won't ever be given a chance to win cool stuff, though, without having to set up fake email addresses and accounts.
Well, you don't *have* to give it a fake address and account.
But I'm afraid none of us are rich enough to run these competitions purely for charity. There is, of course, a marketing/PR purpose behind each one and I'm afraid that the website/forum don't really offer much return on these kind of things.
I do see the problem with changing the campaign perks at this point, but if a lot of people aren't willing to pay quite that much to get their hands on the printed version, it's something of a lose-lose situation... we don't get the book and David doesn't get the donations. :( I'm sorry to hear that there's no way round it. The difference in price between the various packages seemed to imply that the book on its own would only cost something like £40, which I would have been prepared to pay for it if the option was there, and I get the impression other people would too.
Maybe David knows a better/cheaper way to print than I found. I only googled for 2 minutes to get some prices, after all.

Maybe he's willing to take a financial hit.

Either way, remember that a donation that only just covers his costs is not really a donation at all :)
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Canadanne »

Mystara wrote:A more likely explanation is that your friends have provided Facebook with your email address (either manually or by volunteering access to their address books) and so when you sign up WITH that email address, it already knows who some of your friends are.
Ugh, and probably alerted them all that I'd signed up, even though it was nobody's business. Not my idea of privacy. But anyway, I've made my point and you've made yours, so the conversation has probably run its course.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Mystara »

Well, David offered a "paperback book only" perk for £40 about two days ago, and not a single person has gone for it....
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Canadanne »

Ooh, thanks for letting us know! Will have to grab one of those. :)
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Mystara »

Only a few days left though!
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by Insider »

Canadanne wrote:I wish there was an option to get just the printed book as a perk on the campaign page. :( Not willing to pay £75 for it...If it were something like £20-£40 for just the book, I would probably make a donation.
I am not sure about the exact sizing of David’s proposed Knightmare book however I can tell you from experience that making a book of that quality isn’t cheap at all. I do a bit of photography and regularly produce photo books. Looking at the example shot of the book in his video, whether it’s something like 10x8 or 13x11, hardback, library binding, using top photo quality paper plus possibly a dust cover will set you back anything between £40-£65, maybe more depending on the number of pages. Plus, you can add on the postage for what will no doubt be very heavy book plus all your other perks (whether sent together or separately) and you’re looking at anything between £5-£10.
Anyway…I DID purchase the £75 offer and David has already sent me the signed A4 print (worth £20 inc P+P if bought separately on his .com), with postage at his expense.
The quality is stunning by the way.
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Re: Art of Knightmare competition

Post by HobGoblin »

Ah, really glad this perk has been offered. This campaign is really bad timing for me - I'm getting married on 8th Feb and am really rather skint!

Would have loved to contribute more but the paperback is a reasonable compromise. :)
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