Avatar Competition: Rules and Terms of Participation

Heroes and Heroines,

Over the past few years, we've hosted an Avatar Competition for several server launches. Your feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we've had a blast bringing your custom requests to life every single time.

To make the conditions and processes of the Avatar more transparent, we've summarized all the rules of participation right here. To ensure the custom avatars feel right at home in the unique fantasy world of Shakes & Fidget, there are also a few rules for avatar creation.

Rules for Avatar Creation

To keep the world consistent and cohesive, the following guidelines apply:

No AI designs: In the past, we've noticed that AI-generated designs often lead to false expectations. Therefore, we'd like to ask you not to submit your requests this way in the future.
Photo references: To better capture the pose and "vibe" of your desired avatar, you can submit your own photo references.
Races and Classes: Your avatar must match one of the races and classes available in the game.
Portrait Style: The avatar will be created as a classic portrait (head and maybe shoulders). Full action poses or full-body artworks are not on the menu. Also, only solo portraits are allowed. To make sure reward backgrounds, like the Hellevator background, remain visible, we decided to skip the background.
Fantasy Setting: Modern clothing, sci-fi elements, or real-world symbols are not part of the Shakes & Fidget universe. Please stick to a classic fantasy style.
Pop Culture References: No problem, but we'll do it our way. If you want to be depicted as a famous character from a movie, game, or pop culture, we'll creatively adapt the concept to fit the Shakes & Fidget style.
Logos & Symbols: Brand and company logos are a no-go. This also applies to political and religious symbols.
Your Feedback Counts: At every step of production, you can actively provide feedback and have a say, ensuring the final result matches your vision.

Please note: Our artists are intentionally given creative freedom to ensure a lively and authentic game world. Feedback will be applied in cases of factual errors or inconsistencies with the character description rather than based on personal taste.

Terms of Participation

By participating in the Avatar Competition, you accept the following terms of participation.

Up for grabs is a custom avatar designed by our art team. The prize is tied to the respective account and is non-transferable. It's either set automatically for each of your characters, or applied individually just once.
Eligible to participate are all people aged 18 and over who have played a character on the respective game world during the event period. It doesn't matter whether the character was created during pre-registration or after the server launch.
Employees of Playa Games GmbH and their relatives as well as Content Creators are excluded from participation. Also excluded are persons from countries and regions where participation and/or the provision of digital services is restricted or prohibited due to legal sanctions.
Participation is free and happens automatically when you create a character in the participating game world. No in-game purchase is required to take part in the Avatar Competition.
Winning comes down to your total experience points on the official cutoff date of the event. The player with the most XP in each class will be selected. If the winning conditions for a future Avatar Competition ever change, we'll give you a heads-up in advance.
The winners will be notified via in-game message after the respective event ends. An email address may be required for further communication. The notification will also contain all information about the next steps, including explicit deadlines.
Once notified, you must get back to us with your wishes within a set deadline. If we don't hear from you in time, your prize goes poof and passes to the runner-up.
Once we receive your requests, we'll start crafting your avatar. You'll have two feedback loops (Outline and Coloring) to share any desired tweaks. Each feedback loop takes at least 10 days.
You can find the exact deadlines in the info sheet attached to your prize notification. Please send us your wishes and feedback as soon as possible. The sooner you get in touch, the more time we'll have for any follow-up questions.
People who have won in the past are welcome to participate in future Avatar Competitions again.
Cash payment, transfer, or exchange of the prize is excluded. This also applies in the event that after several feedback loops you’re still unhappy.

Miscellaneous

The organizer of the Avatar Competition is Playa Games GmbH, Alstertor 9, 20095 Hamburg, Germany, registered in the commercial register of the local court of Hamburg under HRB 109725.
Playa Games reserves the right to disqualify participants who violate these terms of participation or the general game rules (e.g., bot usage, account sitting, manipulation, or unauthorized multiple accounts), provide false information, or attempt to manipulate the contest. In such cases, prizes may be revoked and reclaimed.
Playa Games also reserves the right to modify, suspend, or terminate the Avatar Competition for important technical or legal reasons. In these cases, there is no entitlement to execution or compensation.
The decision is final and not subject to legal recourse.
This contest is subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. Should any provision of these terms of participation be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected.
If you have any questions, please contact us via the ticket system.