2006 GUI Championships (sic)

Rather than giving the ubiquitous shout-outs that all the other skinning sites are providing regarding the 2006 GUI Championships, I think it fair to make this less than exuberant assessment. Read on, noble skinners.

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Got the automated announcement from Stardock the other day announcing the 2006 GUI Championships in which supposedly $12,000-$15,000 of prizes will be awarded to skinning contestants submitting to one of three “GUI” categories:

1. IconPackager package
2. Wallpaper
3. WindowBlinds skin

And this is where my beef begins…

• Understandably, because of the abundance of skinnable softwares out there, only a select few could be selected for a contest of this magnitude. There’s just no way that 20 or more categories could exist and expect prizes of any meaningful value beyond sentimentality. However, the fact that the categories herein are limited to three very tight categories, two of which are specific StarDock products seems slanted to begin with. Embellishments of this contest indicate “VisualStyles” for the third category, but an inspection of the rules specifically states that the only acceptable skins in that category are WBAs for WindowBlinds 5.0. The conclusion? This is not a general skinning or GUI championship, this is principally a StarDock skinning competition.
• Wallpapers apparently are now considered GUI design, despite the fact that they dramatically lack the “U” and “I” parameters (the User Interface portion of Graphic User Interface).
• The criteria for Wallpaper submissions are apparently based entirely off WinCustomize’s philosophy: Bryce and Terragen 3D renders are not permitted. Although I do not use either of these tools, I find it outright discriminatory to eliminate submissions based on what type of software was used to generate them. Art is about combining many different elements of design, and some of those could logically be derived from 3D rendering software like Bryce and Terragen. There are myriad exemplary wallpapers made using these software programs. Just because the admins at WinCustomize don’t like reviewing Bryce-made walls shouldn’t mean people can’t submit them for purposes of a contest.

In short, take the contest for what it is: a StarDock publicity stunt.