Tournament Successes and Failures

[Andromeda]

Well I meant to do this a while back but I was waiting to hear back from the final member. Sadly that never happened. Either way, the tournament is dead. So I am going to open the floor for discussion on how to make it better. There was a lot of new things that were done that have never been done before for a RP. Overall, it probably feels more like this was a failure than anything, but I would like to at least get some things aired out so that the next tournament can be better.

The way this will work is I will provide a list of questions on what I would like feedback on. And you may answer all or none of them, preferrably some. And you can also leave your own thoughts. Just remember it needs to be helpful and constructive, because I want to do this again. However, I need to figure out what needs to be done to make better. Useless points like it was terrible, or people were too inactive is not going to help me and will probably see deletion.

• How did you feel the bracket system worked out for the tournament? Would have preferred a larger group and eliminations from the group rather than a systematic approach?
• How did the sizes of the groups feel? Too small, too large? Would you have preferred to RP with only one other or a large group?
• Do you think that the quests worked for a RP Tournament or would have preferred a larger more freeform venue?
• The activity bonus was added in the second round, do you feel that it was useful or just pointless? If it was pointless what do you think would work to increase activity?
• Do you think that the month deadline that was set is too short for the rounds to be completed in? What would be a better time if so?

One other thing that I wanted to bring up was an idea to try to correct one issue that I saw in the second round. During the second round people went back to making an introduction post and putting everyone together ignoring the fact that the start location was the town and that everyone was already together. Introductions eat up a lot of time. My idea to remedy the repeating introductions was having a larger group at the start and knock out people at milestones or deadlines and just have the RP continue as though they got left behind or departed to do something. That was the story is still going and not interrupted and there is no need to re-introduce yourself and get used to the group.

If the bracket system is kept, it would mean having a couple larger groups probably, or three, and after a couple rounds they might be reorganized if too many dropped out. Eventually when numbers became small enough they would come together.

However the largest problem the tournament faced was that people just stopped posting. The second round started off well and people were posting frequently in the first week, then nothing at all. I don't know what happened, but it just died for seemingly no reason. The first round saw a lot of people missing that never even posted.

I almost feel like it would be necessary to have people sign up and then a week before it starts sign in again saying that they are still around. Because I don't know what happened to half of them and not posting. I only put in people that posted a profile. So they had an interest at the start and then nothing.

Well please give me your thoughts as much as you can. The more you give me the better. And be as brutally honest as you want, since I want this to work out.

[Musicmuse]

How did you feel the bracket system worked out for the tournament? Would have preferred a larger group and eliminations from the group rather than a systematic approach?

I liked the groups because the three seperate scenarios played off of each other and were continued into the next round. It gave a good feeling of continuity. On the other hand, I think one of the reasons people went back to introductions was because they were now interacting with new people and unless you read through every thread you were probably less familiar with new party members.

How did the sizes of the groups feel? Too small, too large? Would you have preferred to RP with only one other or a large group?

I'd just rather RP with an active group. The size of the group is far less important to me. Whether it's 2 people or ten, the life of the RP is always dependant on the overall activity. Basically I guess I feel the groups were fine. Size was on-point.

Do you think that the quests worked for a RP Tournament or would have preferred a larger more freeform venue?

The quests were perfect. I can't imagine a more freeform venue because look how slowly we got things going WITH direction -- without a set goal it would have most likely been chaos. Too many seperate people thinking seperate things. The ONLY way I could see a more freeform style working is if there were an extremely utilized OOC thread for the RP.

The activity bonus was added in the second round, do you feel that it was useful or just pointless? If it was pointless what do you think would work to increase activity?

I felt like the activity bonus was an okay idea in concept, but really the bonus is already the fact that if you write well and frequently you move on in the tournament. A set "activity bonus" shouldn't be neccessary. I think a more strict time limit would solve activity issues.

Do you think that the month deadline that was set is too short for the rounds to be completed in? What would be a better time if so?

Exactly the opposite, actually. I think the month was FAR too long. I found that for myself it seemed like there was not a lot of posting going on because mentally I felt "well, I have a whole month". I think such a long time limit was actually one of the more detrimental aspects of this tournament. If people aren't constantly posting and kept involved and interested in the story then they tend to forget or stop caring about the tournament.

I can understand wanting time to properly develop a post, but frankly if you can't contribute to the tournament a few days a week then you shouldn't be signed up in the first place.

[Victoria]

I can't really answer the questions since I didn't participate, but I did notice some things that were wrong.

For one thing, I agree with Musicmuse's response to the last question. And also, because I think you had a small expectation of people posting as much as you would normally do, Andro. Although that's an expectation you've always had of other people all your TFF RP life.

A month really was way too long. A tournament like this shouldn't concentrate on length, but more on creativity, flow, and probably detail would be the last one. Spelling/Grammar would be a gimme, so that wasn't even included.

And I actually didn't really think the activity bonus would do anything. If people are naturally not interested, then that's not going to do anything. Because I remember how DH told me that she was going to concentrate on this more often since it had that activity bonus, but she ended up not doing so. (I think probably due to RL duties that came first.)

But yeah.. you need to work on a smaller deadline, and as he said, a stricter time limit.

[DragonHeart]

* How did you feel the bracket system worked out for the tournament? Would have preferred a larger group and eliminations from the group rather than a systematic approach?

The brackets were fine, I didn't have any problems with those.

* How did the sizes of the groups feel? Too small, too large? Would you have preferred to RP with only one other or a large group?

The groups worked fine - when everyone posted. I think having smaller groups might have helped activity since the story would be moved along faster.

* Do you think that the quests worked for a RP Tournament or would have preferred a larger more freeform venue?

By nature I think the tournament runs best on a quest basis. An open storyline would have made it nearly impossible to finish in any reasonable timeframe and have any degree of continuity with the other groups.

* The activity bonus was added in the second round, do you feel that it was useful or just pointless? If it was pointless what do you think would work to increase activity?

It was useful for the first few days it was added, but then as an incentive it kind of fizzled out.

* Do you think that the month deadline that was set is too short for the rounds to be completed in? What would be a better time if so?

It was too long, in my opinion. Part of the reason why I ended up losing interest in the tournament was from waiting for other people to post. I'd get my post up and then anxiously wait for the next reply...but then the wait starts turning into days and weeks and the excitement fades. By the time I stopped posting it felt like a real chore to write new posts up because all the fun had bled out of it.

I'd also like to mention that the OoC threads you provided were completely overlooked. I feel that, had they been utilized by all group members, it would have gone a long way in keeping the tournament going. I posted in my group's OoC a couple times only to be met with silence. This was particularly frustrating when I was asking someone a question that factored into my next post, but not having an answer meant I had to work it out on my own. So basically, we were in groups but there was no existing group dynamic. Very little cooperation among members. That's one of the main issues that put me off from wanting to post - I felt like no one really cared about the outcome anyways.

~DragonHeart~

[Mike Piatza]

I have a suggestiuon here for something. I was considering opening a RPG-like tournament based role play.

There would be maybe two members who would actually write the battles for everyone's characters. Everyone's characters are set with defined stats that can be changed along the courses of the tournament. They level up with each battle one and they can further improve their stats by purchasing weapons, armor, and items. Only HP and MP are increased on lvl up. You also can add one new ability per lvl up.

The money for these is gained through a betting system where you place a bet on two fighters and you gain or lose money depending on the outcome. Everyone should start out with about 1000. This becomes a strategic role playing game as you have to watch out for what players are buying what so you can make an effective bet and you also have to decide what to buy yourself to prepare for your battles.

The hosts would have to be in charge of everyone's bank accounts, purchases and bets though so that could be overwhelming for me, well I guess it all depends on how many participate. So what do you think?