The Indigo League (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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the_plateau2018-01-25 10:15 pm
indigo_league) wrote in the_plateau2018-01-25 10:15 pm
Entry tags:
Contest Feedback
Is there anything you particularly liked about the way the Contest functioned, or anything you thought needed work (for instance, we’ll definitely be looking at working out a better system for avoiding the tie situation we wound up with this time where multiple winners for second and third place in the best in show ties would have cascaded into the rest of the categories and caused even more ties), please let us know here! We plan to continue running semi-regular contests like these if people are receptive, and are also looking for feedback on how often people would like that to happen.
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So, I've made no secret of wanting an event exactly like this literally since I applied, and I think for a trial run you guys did a great job designing it! Making it a writing contest in a writing hobby made a lot of sense and meant that anyone could enter, which is exactly how an event like this should go. I also liked letting other players vote on the results and I think that was the fairest way to handle deciding who won. On an IC scale, I like how it got everyone together in one place (sometimes hard to do in this game) while also being an event that it was easy to opt out of while not really missing anything.
In terms of the issue of tie breaking, which obviously was something that concerned me directly, I think it's a hard thing to head off. I was personally happy to willingly step down to third of my own accord, but in cases like the Cute contest where someone stepping back would mean they had to go away empty-handed it gets trickier. I think for this go-around you handled it the best way possible: everyone who qualified to win something won something, which I can't see anyone having any problems with. I know one of the suggestions for how to handle the ties was another day of rapid-fire tiebreak voting for Cute and Best in Show, and I think objectively that is probably the fairest way to settle ties in the future even if it would mean waiting even longer for results. Again that does mean in cases like the Cute contest someone would walk away empty-handed, which stinks and is why I wasn't super jazzed about that idea this time.
I think ultimately doing what you did this time and conferring with winners about how to break the ties might be your best bet, if only because this playerbase is pretty easy-going and I can't imagine anyone getting legitimately fussed about finding a solution that everyone involved considers acceptable. In my view this is a game for having fun, and two people going home with a TM and a scarf is vastly preferable to one person losing out because it's 'more fair'. Particularly if this is going to be a regular event, and I dearly hope it is, everyone will have many chances in future to win their TM and scarf, or even their best in show reusable TM or ability candy or shiny.
Related, I think the choice of prizes was good! I liked how the scarves played in to actual contests in the games, and I liked how the tiers of best in show worked with first getting all three prizes and second getting to choose two and so on. It felt like it was worth striving to produce a good entry but also like even if you didn't win overall you had a good chance of earning something cool. One of the reasons I had no trouble stepping down to third for best in show was because even just an infinite Toxic TM was such a good prize I didn't feel like I needed anything else. No complaints there at all, though maybe next time instead of TMs for the Categories the prizes could be held items -- we don't often get a lot of chances to obtain them, and a trainer has more chance of having a use for a held item than a TM their team might not be able to make use of. Something like an Assault Vest for Tough, or Wise Glasses for Clever, or Mystic Water for Beauty.
In terms of how often if you do wind up running more of these events, I definitely think at least twice or three times a year is a good sweet spot. That way it's not a constant thing you as mods have to deal with, but it is a regular staple and people can participate in one and sit the next out without having to worry that means it'll be two years until they get another chance. I also like the idea of doing it fairly often meaning you get to try out other configurations, like a contest where an act features two Pokémon or a contest where every act has to make use of a specific prop or theme.
I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING I might add more later who knows.
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I really enjoyed you introducing the contest mechanic. Making it writing based really helps to get the creativity flowing and evens the playing field for everyone. I'm glad to hear you'll be making it a more regular thing, because I feel it introduces something new to get involved in for people who aren't drawn towards battling or breeding. It actually gives me something new to consider when considering what other characters I might app here.
About the ties thing. I think that is going to be inevitable to a certain degree. I see two solutions really:
+ The other option will be a second quick-fire voting round for every contest in which there is a tie. So, for example, if Ash and Elsa tied for the beauty contest, a second vote is called where people *only* vote between Ash and Elsa. It doesn't matter who you voted for the first time around. This one will be less work for you guys, but depending on how long you want to make the quick-fire voting rounds (you'd want as many people to have a chance to vote, after all), it might lead to a situation where it takes longer to get the results in. And well, if you are really unlucky, there could still be a tie after a second round.
Again, I am really looking forward to this becoming a regular thing. I think probably having it happen two/three times a year would make for the best distribution. It isn't *so* often that it completely muscles out other events, but is frequent enough that characters could really make it a focus in their lives. Plus having them happen often enough can also encourage other things to spring up too. Maybe a character isn't particularly interested in entering in the contests themselves, but they might want to give other characters and their Pokemon dancing or singing lessons, or help create outfits. I think that sort of character idea works best if the contests are a semi-frequent occurrence.
And I'm sure like quidditch matches, the contest could be cancelled/rescheduled whenever that best fits the other plots going on. If you do have a crazy vulcanic eruption event happening, obviously people aren't going to be contesting and it is cancelled this time. (though such a thing could create an opportunity for people who missed out to hold a smaller unofficial contest once the event is over)
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(I've done some work in the past designing surveys, so I might be able to look into that for you guys. I think once you have a template, it shouldn't be that hard to edit it for each contest)
Edit: playing with it a bit now, and you can create drop-down questions, which would work well for a ranked contest. There is also an option to close responses (so you wouldn't have to worry about new responses coming in after you've already started calculating) and you can automatically export the data to a spreadsheet, which would make calculating the points relatively easy afterwards.
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I realized that I'm a dingus who can't do math and it'd actually be 18 sections. This isn't relevant to anything really beyond me wanting to assure you all I can do math, usually, sometimes.
It's really cool that those are options, though! If that's doable then I'm throwing my vote in for Eurovision style voting, particularly because one of the things I saw over and over was people lamenting how hard it was to choose. Being able to pick three in each category would mean people could show appreciation to more acts, especially since let's be honest, they were all good. And as we saw in Cute especially, people's opinions were very divided and being able to give points to more than one act might have made it easier to choose alongside making it more difficult to tie. I like this solution.
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I definitely think more contests would be fantastic to see as well as more small events like this in general. Just fun things to get everyone doing stuff! (I personally think a photo competition where you can create silly photos like in Ultra SuMo would be hilariously fun! Or even something based off Pokemon Snap where participants have to go through the National Park or some other location and get the best picture they can of every single Pokemon on a list. Also clearly we need a Magikarp Jump style event! ;P It could also be fun to set up something like the carnival games in Pokemon Stadium and have different contests within a small set up that are just fun, silly things for Pokemon and their trainers to do.)
But seriously, kuddos to you guys and in terms of the voting process, I like Armin-mun's idea of a point system where you can rank all of the performances and they get points based off the ranks they receive. EUROVISION VR STYLE!