Still sure you want to be Roc? The Fandom contest is over. Time for an ego check. It went poorly for many reasons I’ll explain and own up to now. Integrity isn’t just about claiming your victories, but also acknowledging your failures.

Before I get into it I do want to thank everyone that did help me get this contest rolling, did show an interest, did enter or help promote it. Thank you for always believing. I do my best to serve our community and I am appreciative that you see that and continue to support my efforts.

You are what keeps me going when I stumble.

THE FAIL

• MARKETING – I didn’t market this contest nearly enough. That’s on me. I should’ve made the time to create web banners, maybe a radio ad, something more than the few Tweets I did and blog header image I had up for a while. I should’ve reached out and asked you for help. Word of mouth, help with said banner ads, other ideas we could’ve come up with together. I’m sorry.
• CCP – CCP had originally agreed to promote this contest through their social media and help me judge the final entries as selected by the community. That got derailed somehow. I’m still unsure. I didn’t follow up enough with my contact there. I didn’t harass them for answers once I announced the contest. I sent them an email and all relevant links and promotion artwork, but let it slide. Again, I’m sorry.
• CONTEST – I received quite a few tweets and emails about how I expected entrants to audition. It was confusing, convulted, and apparently not worth the effort. Next time I should include a background track and a separate version of the track with vocals for reference. I’m going to chalk this up to a learning experience. These were great ideas. Thank you for contacting me and offering me valuable feedback. I appreciate it.

THE CONSEQUENCES

• ENTRANTS – Only a few entrants auditioned – far fewer than I had hoped. I’m confident in hindsight it’s for the reasons outlined above. There were so few entrants, in fact, that there was no need to post links for the Eve community to vote on, nor for CCP to help select the final winner from that list.
• TIMING – This album is meant to be released for Fanfest. I cannot move Fanfest so have had to make quick decisions based on what I have in order to meet my deadline. My digital publisher requires thirty days to produce my albums.
• EXPOSURE – sadly, without CCP’s social media push, few people are even aware there was a Fanfest contest. Typically, my blog gets hammered with over 30k views per day when CCP posts something on their Facebook page and Twitter account. The total views for the Fanfest page since the announcement is 87. Not good.

THE WINNER

I am a man of my word – always have been, always will be. There were only two outstanding vocal auditions, one male, one female. Again, I’m sure part of it was because of the method for auditioning. I had to lay a lot of the music down before knowing who the winner would be in order to meet the Fanfest release date. Unfortunately, the style of the top male vocalist didn’t match the style of the music I have already spent months working on, but the top female vocalist matched perfectly.

I have contacted her and she wishes to remain anonymous. Reluctantly, I’m going to respect that.

Having said that, I still need to meet my end of the deal so the 1 billion isk I promised from myself is going to Sindel Pellion. The roleplayer in me cringes a little, as I know that some Amarr may benefit from my isk as she will more than likely use this for her Angel Project. The community lover in me thinks it’s fitting, given that her project is an ingame charity and this project is for out of game charity.

Because of my marketing fail, there are no player prizes. Because of my marketing fail, there are no CCP prizes. I wish I could give more. I can’t.

WHAT NOW?

• AUDIO ENGINEERING – Now I do whatever it takes to get this album done and done to my standards. I’ve made a commitment to Child’s Play, to the children, and I will not let them down.
• MARKETING – I need your help. I won’t make the same mistake twice. I want this album to be a success. I want to be able to write a big cheque to Child’s Play. I want us all to feel good about doing so. Help me. Create web banners. Promote it on your blog when it’s released. Promote it on your podcast. Tell me what you need. Tell me what you can do to help. I’m asking sincerely.
• BELIEVE – Despite my failures, I will not be stayed in self-pity. There are always setbacks but we will continue to move forward together, as always.