Post/Author/DateTime	Post
WizO_Autumn 09-20-04, 09:59 PM	Alright! While it is all fresh in your minds... Gimme feedback! 1) What did you think about the contests this year? 2) What would you have liked to have seen? 3) What are your brilliant ideas for games for next year? Let's hear it!
WizO_Autumn 09-20-04, 10:04 PM	In the winner thread, Galahad Knight expressed that the word count should be 'uped. I agree. But, let me just explain why I tried to keep it so short: There are 7 thinktanks and 4 other d20 boards. Then there are 3 mature boards and a boards game I mod. That's a lot of boards. Not counting the other 2 games I tried to run as well that aren't on any of those boards. Most of those contests had entries to read. That's a LOT for me to go through. A LOT lot. Remember, we WizO's work about 4 hours a week... I could've VERY easily spent 4 hours on just 1 of the contests. I thought 300 would've been enough- brief, yet enough. I was wrong, I see, I get it. SO! Let's hear some ideas for contests where we can make as many people as possible happy- Maybe there's some sort of other game where the word count wouldn't be an issue? Or a way to keep the work load down on me? Ideas?
Galahad_Knight 09-20-04, 10:48 PM	Maybe do a series of qualifying rounds on polls? The person running the contest only has to skim the entries to make sure they follow the rules before posting them.Let the boards members weed them down through a couple of rounds until the judges only have to thuroughly read two or three entries. Say, 8 people enter. Have a poll, pick the best four. Have another poll, pick the bet two, judge those two. This way the entries could be longer since rather than 8 300 word entries, the judges only have to read 2 600 word entries (reading 1200 words vurses 2400) Maybe add to the entry with each round. Round one is a basic sketchy idea. People vote on which concepts they like best. "slave to oppressive viking frost giants, adventuring bards find a flying cloud giant city, frost giants take it, character bands together with the bards to destroy the city." Then the next round it gets fully fleshed out and then voted on again. This way the entries are different each time so, presumably, the results could be different. The favorite concept could fail to qualify the next round if it's not fleshed out right. Then the judges vote on the ones that qualify. The community is more involved, the judges have less work and the contestants have more words to play with AND more involvement since they have to first post the idea and then flesh it out. Of coruse the contest has to be longer
Morka 09-21-04, 10:11 AM	Since english is not my first language, I must admit that I like the idea about a first round voting only the concept. :bow: Also, it could be cool to have more suggested random facts and the possibility to choose amongst those facts. Let's say, instead of 5 random facts, there could be 8 random facts, but we have to use 5 of them. That could make more original entries.
Trydan 09-21-04, 12:15 PM	1) What did you think about the contests this year? 2) What would you have liked to have seen? 3) What are your brilliant ideas for games for next year?Unfortunately, I missed the entire event, so I'm not qualified to comment on the contests as such, but here are a few other points that may be helpful. On the UnCon events page (http://wizo.wizards.com/uncon/pages/events.php), only some of the contests were announced (e.g. the 1st level character creation). I remember scanning the list looking for Character Development contests, but seeing nothing, I gave it no further thought. If there are events planned for a given board (not just this one), then an announcement stating that fact could be made a s sticky thread a few weeks in advance. While not necessarily advertising the exact nature of the contest, it would at least indicate that it was a board to make a point of checking. UnCon may have been a bit influenced by the recent board upgrades. I don't know about others, but I'm still reeling from all the changes. If times are being specified, then they should indicate the time zone. I found a sentence somewhere on the UnCon website about PST (which I guess is GMT-7), but still, it would be helpful to have these things right there, rather than making people go off looking for them. The idea of developing a character to a specific theme is a good one. Feel free to run something similar next year. I certainly don't object to tight word limits. It forces contestants to be concise, and spares the readers hours of trawling through reams of descriptions. There seemed to have been some misunderstandings on the posts. Perhaps getting some other WizOs to review the contests prior to posting them might help. However, having said all that, it looked like it all went very well, and that everyone who actually participated had a great time. The amount of effort that the WizOs must have put in would be great indeed, and I'm sure that I speak for most of us when I say that we appreciate all your hard work. Thanks. Looking forward to next year (when hopefully I'll be slightly more alert!).
WizO_Autumn 09-24-04, 12:05 AM	Galahad- I LOVE the idea of having polls for finalists... really seems to be a very happy medium. For advertising- not sure why some events didn't show up on the board. I had to submit descriptions of my events a couple of weeks before uncon, but then they didn't show up to the public. As far as getting other wizos to read events beforehand- we're all VERY busy. I probably spent about 20 hours on the boards the week of uncon. I'm only supposed to be on for 4. (Plus my 50+ hours of a day job). The idea is to get selected patrons to help more- do something like help design a contest, read it beforehand, help judge etc. But getting anyone to actually volunteer is tough. I had a few people volunteer this year- and a couple helped a LOT. I'd like to thank Zherog especially for help with this board. Since he won last year I asked him to help this year in judging. A couple of other people helped too with some other events. But then some didn't "show up" at all. Any ideas for a type of contest to run?
Trydan 09-24-04, 03:16 AM	Any ideas for a type of contest to run?Hmm... how about something based on these: The Job Advertisement - Imagine some noble/priest/guildmaster/etc. putting out an advertisement at the local tavern. It would look like a modern job advertisement, with terms and conditions, payment, etc., but all transposed into a fantasy setting. Then, the contestants (us!) would put forward candidates for the job, complete with mini-curriculum-vitae. The job may suit some character classes more than others, but should be exclusively so - such that it permits some lateral thinking. Additionally, the candidates would not be allowed to specify stats, thus making the winner achieve it through power of description, rather than simply quoting 6x18 stats. The relay - Imagine an extremely unusual object that needs to be transported somewhere. The object itself may not be unusual, but the context would make it so. For example, it might be taking the fresh blood of a sacrificed elf deep into the temple complex of Pelor. The competition would then be to describe a character that would do such a thing, and to give possible motivations as to why he may want to do so. As per usual, some sort of votig system for the winner. The Child - Pick two famous characters - one male and the other female. They could be well known from established settings or they could be the winners of previous contests. Then imagine that they had a child. The competition would be to describe the child at the point when they come of age, including some of their childhood experiences. A tight word limit would prevent this from becoming an epic. Judging would be not only for the development of the child-character, but also for adherence to the traits of the parents. Note that the parents would need to be well described somewhere on the Web, so that those not familiar with the setting/character/etc. would be able to research their background material. The Enemy - There are lots of heroes about, which receive publicity. However, what about some of their arch-enemies. This contest would be to write a description of a nemesis to a famous character. This enemy would be out to get the the latter, whether it be to bring them down politically, smear them or simply kill them. Examples might be the drow chosen by Lolth to hunt down Drizzt Duorden (add apostrophes where appropriate!) or the assassin assigned the task of slaying Mordekainen. As a final point, I like the idea of a tight word limit. It forces the writer to choose their words carefully, rather than streaming pages of drivel. When the writing is good, length is a blessing, but not everyone submits good submissions, and for those who must wade through them all to judge them (along with all those other competitions for the WizOs) then a restricted entry would be good. "Brevity is the soul of wit", or however the quote goes.
Galahad_Knight 09-24-04, 10:11 PM	I'm not sure how much I like the idea of contests requiring familiarity with other characters. I, for exaple, have never picked up a D&D novel in my life. I'm familiar with certain characters from their NPC stats and firends telling me about them, but I couldn't come up with a convincing childhood for Elminster or an enemy for Drizzt. As to tight word limits, while I agree that nobody wants to see monstrously huge entries, I do think 300 words is just too tight. Or at least it was for this contest. I mean, 300 words split between 5 key points is 60 words per point. That's barely enough to introduce them and explain how they impact the character, let alone smoothng them together. Another reason why I think that constructive elemination rounds might be best. Start with a concept outline and maybe a character description and perosnality (with a tight limit). People vote on what they like the best. This narrows the field and means that those who remain will most likely be fun to read. Then the finalists post the whole thing with, say, around 5-600 words and are weeded through and voted on. Now the judges are left with a small handful of obviously well-writen entries. Less junk to filter through, less overall wordage to read, more community involvement and more for the contestants to do.
WizO_Autumn 09-25-04, 02:16 PM	I really like the Want Ad process... and I think it fits well in with Galahad's suggestion too... I put up a Want Ad. First round is people sending their "cover letters" i.e. a brief vitae and description. Then there are polls, votes, etc. Next round is the iterview. Chance for longer descriptions. If there's time, there could even be 2nd interviews. Even longer, etc. What do you think?
Galahad_Knight 09-30-04, 03:17 AM	Sounds fun!