Not a fan of adding more rewards to the Spotlight either and agree with a lot of the comments already especially the news post, trophy, and achievements/title being more than enough.

Okay so, no to the extra prizes but everyone seems to agree with a bit, it's too easy to win with just flashy graphics that you commission (which really is not a horrible thing) and a few sentences. So maybe the pet spotlight needs standards to be raised? But what could you change about those standards that would actually just add to the creative submissions?

I'd disagree with that - the majority of spotlight winners I've seen (certainly recently) have had a fantastic story, and definitely not just "flashy graphics.... and a few sentences". (and it's definitely not "easy to win" as I know of multiple pets that look incredible, but still get booted from the nomination queue)

That's quite a cynical view of something that actually takes a lot of creativity and skill to complete. Ok, not everyone can draw a pet overlay (I certainly can't get them to the required standard), but then not everyone is able to code, so commissioning some of a profile is only natural. Unless I've just been missing all the pets you've spotted, the majority have had the story or profile (or something) created by the owner, rather than it all "essentially be[ing] purchased".

But then maybe that's just me, given that I code most of my pet profiles (ok, some are commissions), and that I stink at graphics most of the time :P

Sometimes it's refreshing for part of a profile to be commissioned (like the story for 11 for instance - I just couldn't get it to sound right, and was considering just abandoning the whole idea), but it doesn't mean that I put no effort into getting the rest of it finished.

shrugs Seeing as there's obviously opposition against any other "perks" of a spotlight win, maybe the achievement could just have more tiers please?

I don't think this needs to happen. It's not like the standard is low and winning is that easy. Even with commissioning things, the money to commission art/writing/code also takes effort to earn.

And changing the standard, it won't change that people commission it all, because it's possible to buy high class art, high class writing and perfect profile code.

Changing the standarts might actually punish the people who do it all themselves and who work hard to get it all done themselves without being professional artists/writers/coders.

I think it is good as it is. Sorry if this post is all messy.

It's fine, your opinions are valid. I'm just bringing together discussion and ideas from other posters on this topic.

I myself can't help but feel like the spotlight is missing something. I don't know what it is really that could be added/taken away or whatever but I'm not quite happy with what it is now.

I do like the idea of adding more tiers to the achievement. Instead of there being just 10, maybe have one at 5, 10 and 15. 15 would be the most difficult to obtain.

i think getting a trophy, a news announcement, and an achievement is enough. yes, getting things is nice, but i feel like getting something exclusive as an additional reward for winning would be too much and, like others have said, some people would be more interested in the item than in fostering their creativity and developing an interesting pet.