How leveling works

[Reed]

As mentioned here, the leveling system has been revamped. Everyone is now more spread out, you'll level more often and more things contribute to it.

How does it work? Well, it's actually RPG-like. But it's boxes AND resources that earn you xp. The better they are, the more xp you get, the faster you'll level up!

The absolute best way to gain level is to post good boxes that high level designers favorite. But there are lots of things that contribute to xp and level. Overall, the more diverse and complete you are with posting boxes and resources, the faster you'll level up. Read on.

Tips for maximizing your level

• Add a printable version to all of your boxes. This will help earn xp and people will be more likely to fave your box.
• Post high quality resources (transparent PNGs at high resolution)
• Work toward unlocking achievements, some of them give bonus xp
• Name your boxes and resources CORRECTLY (it means more people will find them!)
  
  • Use official names and correct spelling and capitalization. No excuse, do a quick check on Google if you're not sure
• Add thoughtful tags to your boxes. Good tags result in more exposure and potential faves. Think acronyms (bf3, CoD, GoW), genre (shooter, strategy, horror), characters (zelda, mario, batman), companies (blizzard, popcap, EA).
  
  • Examples:
  • A Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 box -> mw3, shooter, call of duty
  • A minimalistic sonic box -> sonic, sega, minimalism
  • Resident Evil 5 box -> horror, re5, capcom
• Post new boxes regularly. This will help you become known and gain followers, which means more users who see and fave your work. But remember, quality over quantity! You will earn a lot more xp (and respect) from 1 good box than 20 poor ones.
• Use the Critiques forum. This can help you catch issues and improve your box before posting it to the main site.
• Aim for the Hall of Fame. It earns you bonus xp.

Note: Deleting a box or resource means you will lose all xp associated with it and could drop your level. Don't delete them unless you really have to (generally if you made a mistake when first posting it).

[Magical]

Good to know this stuff. Going to give any hints about how many points need for Hall?

[deiviuxs]

Nice revamp. I'm glad that other things, such as resources, will now contribute to leveling.

Are you thinking of doing any revamping to HOF or not? When I look back in the site's history, I see that there are boxes in the HOF that have 25-30 favorites. Nowadays, it seems that the box needs at least 37 favorites to get into HOF.

[Magical]

Are you thinking of doing any revamping to HOF or not? When I look back in the site's history, I see that there are boxes in the HOF that have 25-30 favorites. Nowadays, it seems that the box needs at least 37 favorites to get into HOF.

One of my boxes got in with only 33.

[Throavium]

According to the older system, if 13 rank 10 people fav your box, it would get into hall.

If 33 rank 1s fav your box, it would not get hall.

[stevencho]

This new VGBA is just getting better and better.

[Throavium]

It all depend(ed) on the amount of points (Rank points) each user that favorited a box had. If the amount of points added up to 200 it would get the Hall of Fame. Of course it may have been changed some time after, but when I first joined that's how it was. Obviously now it will be much different. I don't think Reed should tell us though, as it would get people bumping their boxes and advertising more because they are "Close to a Hall of Fame".

I agree.

[Reed]

Are you thinking of doing any revamping to HOF or not? When I look back in the site's history, I see that there are boxes in the HOF that have 25-30 favorites. Nowadays, it seems that the box needs at least 37 favorites to get into HOF.

Revamping it in what way?

If you mean raising the bar for the old ones, I don't think so, because the bar forever moving. What's considered Hall of Fame worthy today may not be in a few years. The stuff that hit the HoF in the past was worthy of it at the time. If you mouse over the HoF ribbon on boxes, it indicates what year it made it in. At some point it will be separated and browse-able by year. I think that's ultimately the best solution.

Or do you mean it's too hard now? That may be... though I actually lowered it a couple times the past few months.

Also, as a couple others mentioned, what gets in is based on the level of the people who fave it. Favorites are worth a lot more from high level designers. 10,000 level 1's could fave a box and it still wouldn't get into the Hall.

[deiviuxs]

Or do you mean it's too hard now? That may be... though I actually lowered it a couple times the past few months.

Correct. I feel that it is a bit too hard for a box nowadays to get a Hall of Fame. I think that back in the past, there were more higher level active members on the site and they were more open to favoriting the box then they some members on the site are now. When you look at the active Designers right now, there is a much lower number of higher rank active designers now and even a smaller number that are willing to favorite a box thus making many great boxes fall short of receiving a Hall of Fame.

I feel that the site is much active now than it was in the past year or two and thus I think that there should be a new HOF entry every other day or so. Unfortunately, it does not happen because like mentioned before the expectation of a HOF box has risen from both the members and the system.

On a bit of a side note, I think it would be really awesome if you made it a random box feature on the main site that shows a box that is close to the HOF without giving away a specific number of favorites left for the box to earn in order to make it to HOF. There are tons of great boxes on the site that are really close to making into HOF but most of them will not make it because designers on the site rarely go back and view boxes from the past year or so.

[JoeyTheHedgehog]

Correct. I feel that it is a bit too hard for a box nowadays to get a Hall of Fame. I think that back in the past, there were more higher level active members on the site and they were more open to favoriting the box then they some members on the site are now. When you look at the active Designers right now, there is a much lower number of higher rank active designers now and even a smaller number that are willing to favorite a box thus making many great boxes fall short of receiving a Hall of Fame.

This!

[Deividas]

On a bit of a side note, I think it would be really awesome if you made it a random box feature on the main site that shows a box that is close to the HOF without giving away a specific number of favorites left for the box to earn in order to make it to HOF. There are tons of great boxes on the site that are really close to making into HOF but most of them will not make it because designers on the site rarely go back and view boxes from the past year or so.

that is a very neat idea!

[Reed]

Yeah, it's a tricky balance. It needs to feel exclusive, yet not be too restrictive... But it's looking like the change yesterday has loosened it up a bit. There are actually two HoF boxes in the queue right now. Both of which are very recent boxes and definitely HoF worthy.

Only one is awarded per day now though so every winner gets some time in the sun.

[stevencho]

Only one is awarded per day now though so every winner gets some time in the sun.

I've wanted that for a long time.

[deiviuxs]

Only one is awarded per day now though so every winner gets some time in the sun.

Damn, this comes right after my Guild Wars 2 box gets into HOF and I don't even have a chance to see it on the front page. :/

Good idea though, I believe each box deserves at least a full 24 hours exposure on the front page.

[Magical]

There are actually two HoF boxes in the queue right now.

Oh, there's a queue? That explains why sometimes a box will just go into the Hall without being faved right before or anything.

[Mariolee]

Only one is awarded per day now though so every winner gets some time in the sun.

Holy dang. I don't know why, but this is the most impressive thing I've heard about this update.

[stevencho]

While I think it's good to keep the Hall of Fame's coming in, there can't be too many, which is why I think the MasterWorks category was created (If I remember correctly). To prevent the need for two distinct systems, it has to be somewhat restrictive. Basically you don't want the Hall of Fame to be the usual or expected.

I liked the Masterworks category because it showed the best of the best. But now that we can organize the HoF by favorites, the Masterworks has become unnecessary.

[ProBenji]

Is it possible say, to upload a crappy box, but then update it and make it amazing, and gain exp? Because I just did that.

[Ronthis the Werewolf]

Is it possible say, to upload a crappy box, but then update it and make it amazing, and gain exp? Because I just did that.

It depends on how many people favorite it.

[Raentyr]

I know this might be a really bad bump, but I figured it's kind of on topic.
Is there any thread or place that tells you what all the ranks are? Cause I went from Rookie to Designer+ without doing anything ahaha.