[tcaudilllg]

What is a challenge, really? As in, in terms of this site, and this community?

What is its purpose?

I consider a challenge an opportunity to present new content towards a specific, useful aim as a part of a larger community participation process. Fulfillment of the challenge is important in itself. The linking factor between participants is that each participant is meeting the challenge in their own way, thereby revealing themselves through their work, and creating new relevant content that meets needs as they see them.

In contrast, a competition appears to be akin to a race. Fulfillment of a challenge in the spirit of sport, like a game in itself. Competitions rarely produce code nor product that reaches beyond the span of the competition itself. Competition product is usually left in an "infantile" state of unreadiness and momentary consumption. It is usually unstable, and although it it feels meaningful to packrat deep in one's HDD, it remains a reminder, but rarely used. Certainly not useful.

I would like to note, however, that Ren's music competition has produced some very good work that reaches beyond the span of the competition. (my own work notwithstanding) Perhaps the "Iron Man" approach is best restrained to content creation. Certainly our record towards creating larger systems in the framework of competition has been -very- lacking. Who can blame us? IT'S HARD. New ideas may be things of the moment, but new good ideas are things of the week. And, one can seldom hope for more than one new good idea a week, the nature of which may not be where we would think to direct it.

In conclusion, it seems to me evident that design efforts are best reserved for challenges, and content efforts may be better served by competitions.

[Oberon_Command]

My definition of a challenege: writing an adventure game in DEBUG. I really must do this someday, maybe I'll even make it graphical. Of course, I'll have to finish my current project first...
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"Exercise is wonderful... I could watch it all day." - Louis Wu, Ringworld

[tcaudilllg]

Well... that's pointless. It's an adventure game, no less. Not an RPG. There's a difference. Debug is best left by the wayside anyhow... it's horribly obsolete.

[Terry]

I've always loved taking part in challenges, purely because I've always viewed them as a temporary, acceptable break from my larger, full time project (whatever it may be at the time). Technically, I don't really need the excuse of a contest to do that - I just like knowing that there are at least a couple of people out there doing the same thing as you, people who are usually up for sharing ideas and talking about their experiences.

Also, I like the competitive element of a contest. It's nice to know how I rate against other coders, mostly in that I just like to know where my skill level stands from an objective point of view. When I'm beaten, I try to learn something from the winners.

That's my answer, to it's purpose, anyhow. As to what it is, in terms of this site, and this community? I'd hope that the answer to that is undefined. Though we do tend to see a lot of the same rules coming up (no pre-made content, pre-made engines OK, theme restrictions, etc...).
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[RuneLancer]

To me, a challenge is something that'll push one area of my knowhow (hopefully) to its limit. Be it writing a game in 24 hours, drawing a complete high resolution sprite set, or even giving composing something a shot (LOL! Not likely...) it's all a challenge if it's something I would consider difficuly given my own level of skills.

I'm mostly into low-level stuff, so writing a game in Debug sounds VERY thrilling to me. I've done it with a hex editor, though it was just a .com (ie, pretty much straight assembly, no header like the exe format) and it was actually some eye candy thing, not a game. :P

My non-programming hobby is ROM hacking, so this sort of stuff (assembly via hex) is something I've gotten mostly used to anyhow. It's a good challenge because even though I'm not learning anything "useful," I'm doing something that involves quite a bit of effort to pull off. :)
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[Gooseman]

To me, a challenge is a fun little task to get everyone involved, even if they happen to be supremely bad at the area of expertise required in the challenge.

Challenges are awesome.

[white_door]

Most great challanges are for the most part: simple in concept, but unique and different. Shouldn't take too long, so people feel like they can take part without pausing their other projects or getting overly involved. Challanges are all about seeing what you can come up with, and maybe improving your skills on the way.

A contest or competition on the other hand is a little deeper. You should expect to spend some time on it, might even be under a tight deadline.. and you expect something in return! If some it might be about talking part in the community. But really its about learning and ego (or self-esteem). You often get good feedback on your work, that can really help out in other projects. And of course its always nice if you get good reviews or get a high score.