Wizarding Universe - Design Contest

It seems that the jury had a preference for Harry Potter models, which led to a biased and possibly unfair evaluation. This contradicts the original goal of the contest, which was to celebrate a variety of magical and enchanting 3D designs. If the contest is indeed so heavily focused on Harry Potter, it should honestly be called the ‘Harry Potter Cosplay Contest’ and not ‘Wizarding Universe,’ to accurately communicate the expectations to the participants.

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“selective perception” . Selective perception refers to the process by which individuals perceive what they want in media messages while ignoring opposing viewpoints. It is a form of cognitive bias where people tend to favor information that aligns with their preconceptions and beliefs, often leading to a skewed or biased understanding of information or events. So bc Harry Potter is a popular character in the wizard fandom, naturally the voters consist more of his fans but I totally get what you mean

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Be that as it may, the winners had no originality. Things seen and already reviewed and honestly there were much more beautiful and elaborate, as well as original, projects and models. This is why I don’t take part in competitions, I find that there is little logic in the evaluation, it almost seems like a random draw

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I completely agree. Some models that won do not fit the “cosplay” and “props” theme at all, in my opinion. It’s really disappointing that only HP models won, especially since I and others put a lot of effort and hard work into creating different models. It’s a shame.

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I agree, i worked my butt off on my model.

My quetzalcoatl flying snake model was a 50mb Fusion360 stl file all by itself. I created new pieces for chain links. I was expecting at least a $40 gift card. Way too many HP winners. This is the last contest I submit anything to,

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The contest was very poorly named. “Wizarding Universe” is way too close to Wizarding World. “Wizarding World” was created by J.K. Rowling to kind of envelope her Harry Potter series and it’s also the term Universal uses for Harry Potter themed exhibits. I believe it’s a full on trade mark for Harry Potter themed everything.

Anyone familiar with the Harry Potter series immediately goes to Harry Potter when they hear “Wizarding World”. If Bambu wanted a general magic theme kind of contest they should have called it “World of Magic” or something not so strongly tied to Harry Potter.

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I like the Harry Potter movies and also read the first book during my school years. That’s about it, I didn’t even know that J.K. Rowling calls her Potter universe “Wizarding World.” When I read through the competition rules, I couldn’t tell that it was solely about the Potter universe. The rules even explicitly state, “Whether you draw inspiration from a young wizard named Harry and his captivating tales or from other sorcerers and magicians, we want to see your most mesmerizing creations.” This makes it easy to think that any wizard and magical stuff is meant. MW should have named the competition differently or communicated more clearly in the description that it only pertains to the Potter universe.

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It was actually pretty clear if people read the contest information. But just going by name I certainly see where there could be confusion.

I understand your frustration because we’re in the same boat. But I can’t completely give up. Competitions always provide a good opportunity to give your models more visibility. However, I wouldn’t create models specifically just for a competition. I only make something if I hope it will do well outside of the competition and promise good download numbers. If the download numbers don’t promise a good future, I only put in the effort if I really want the model for myself. Creating something just to win the competition is too risky. I also once planned to create a chain and kept postponing it because I can imagine it being a time-consuming and tedious task.

That model is excellent. You should be very proud of how it turned out.

I do not expect to win any contest I enter, but then, I can’t design things this nice.

Thank you for your kind words!

I had created a model which also cost me a lot in terms of printing as I had to modify it twice to get the desired result. It was an object for sorcerers and cosplay, it wasn’t even taken into consideration. And I thought I was one of the few on the topic, because when I saw so many identical things about Harry Potter, I thought that no one had originality. I would also have a criticism about third place, a nice idea but nothing original or new, that hat has been online forever, a simple hole was made and the bottom was adjusted, it would be more of a remix.
I also don’t understand how the models are chosen, I see people who deserve much more

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But have you seen the models from the latest Sandbox contest? Almost half have nothing to do with the topic and just as many don’t even have an image of the actual printed model! Horrible Computer Screenshots! Reported but they remain there even without a real image. So in theory I can put anything into contests without printing it. We need more moderation in contests, because even if reported, many remain

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When they pre-announced this contest I was confused as we only just had a beach theme contest and now we have a children’s sandbox.

Surely the models would be the same.

Turns out I was waaaay off!

I think sandbox games refer to games like Minecraft, Terraria, etc.

Yeah, I realised that after I I saw some entries and figured these aren’t for little kids and then googled the phrase.