Staffing Contests, Events and Such

[Rune 1,099]

As Staff: What sort of contests do you run? What kind of IC events do you run? Do you run OOC events? What type of event seems to be the most popular? What would you like to do but can't quite figure out how to make it work?

 

As members: What kind of contests do you enjoy? Do you like when sites have a lot of IC events to participate in? Would you rather they be a setting or occurrence based event? (Examples: Masquerade ball vs serial killer on the loose.) What sort of events/contests would you like to see more of?

[VirusZero 176]

In the past I tried a post contest (most posts wins). The prize was a copy of 20XX but no one even bothered to enter. Which, I have to admit, kinda hurt. I don't know whether it was that they didn't care about the prize, were too busy or what. 

 

I also used to hold an event called Deadliest Warrior (after the TV show) where people would nominate their favourite fictional characters and then they'd be randomly matched up and "fight". Though they'd be broken into classes like Godtier (Goku, Superman), Giant Robot (Gundams), Badass Normals (Chris Redfield, Solid Snake), etc... Just so that things weren't crazily one sided. (Cause as much fun as Superman vs Solid Snake might seem... it'd be very clear who would win.) 

To be a bit like the show, I'd give each nominated character a close, medium, long range and special power/weapon/ability to make comparisons easier. Also a main X-factor, something that they alone possessed that could tip the fight in their favour. (Like Darth Vader's Sith and Jedi training. )

 

It worked kinda well, but on the third iteration there was just not much interest. Few responded to anything. And of course one person got salty over how it was handled, I challenged them to do better and they fucked off for a whole year. So because of lack of interest I just left the event hanging. Why spend huge amounts of time working on something that people just ignore?

 

I've also tried In Character events too but like everything else they too got ignored.

One was a crack mission where we were set to go back in time and encounter characters from other eras.

Another was a tournament where we were building a team of heroes based on our characters from past RPs. With the premise being that Augmented Reality fighting has become a huge sport and there's a league based around team hero battles. And to make things interesting, players could open up their characters for others to use. This way others could get a chance to try them out without actually using them.

 

 

I'd like to try something else again, but I have no idea what.

 

[Elena 546]

I have run the following contests:

 

- Activity contest, going two ways: the traditional “the character who makes 40 posts in this period wins a prize” and “the highest posters (a.- character and b.- player with several characters adding up) win an additional prize”. For this, I counted in a list the number of posts each character had at the beginning of the contest. At the end of the contest, a new statistic was posted, and the results were displayed in the site’s Monthly Chronicles.

 

- Creativity challenges contest, which is a mix of prompts for writing challenges, with points for each, and various community challenges, which make people earn points (such as answering surveys, being more active in discussion threads, posting an introduction, etc.) The writing challenges are flexible enough to be able to be incorporated in the ongoing plots.

 

- Art contest, for those who aren’t only good writers, but also good with drawing and/or photomanipulation. All the submitted artwork was turned into a youtube movie for the board’s anniversary, with the due credit to their authors. The art meant, in various years, “Happy anniversary Before the Mast!” banners which were displayed on the board, drawings or photomanipulations describing characters from “Before the Mast” or quotes/ scenes from favourite threads. Sometimes it was a sort of funny posters, paraphrasing famous movies, and this was funny too. In the first year, the well known taverns in our story got signs too, useful for their description.

 

Recruiting contest – The idea is to recruit by word of mouth at least one new member to the site – one who will stay and post. (An advertising contest would count here too.) The winner will earn a prize and a mention in the site’s Monthly Chronicles.

 

Besides receiving public recognition in the monthly chronicles and a “contest winner” award in their signature, the winners receive concrete prizes too – e-books, CDs with custom cover and heartfelt dedication, graphics. The most cherished prize is a special anniversary CD (songs pertaining to the site theme, carefully chosen, and a custom cover with a dedication for each winner). We did them for the first 5-6 anniversaries, then I ran out of thematic songs

 

For those who had several characters winning prizes, other prizes involved themed e-books (ie swashbuckling adventures at sea, given that the site is Age of Sail themed – mostly Hornblower novels and Sabbatini’s) and graphics for their characters.

 

I recommend warmly to everyone these concrete and easy to make/ offer prizes which are cheap and can turn into cherished mementos. Other people would recommend mainly badges and coloured custom frills to display in the character’s profile, but… what to do with badges? How many people are fond of “shinies”? Besides, it contributes to slowing down the loading of the site. Having a concrete prize, to hold in your hand and to remain as a wonderful souvenir of the story you are writing together, counts a lot and it is more thoughtful.

 

You or any skilled member of your site can make the graphics used as a prize, or the YouTube movie with the graphics you have received as contest submissions. For the e-books, Project Gutenberg is the best source, and you can find lots of free books there you haven’t heard of because they hadn’t been republished recently, but which are interesting and pertinent to the site’s theme.

 

And for the custom CD, it takes songs you have already, either in your computer or on CD’s, to copy in your computer and to give them a custom cover, then to email them to the winner. No money involved, just your patience and love. It takes 10-12 e-mails (each one with 2-3 songs) and the personalised CD cover the last. Then they burn the CD, print the cover and this is it. It is important that something remains to remind them of the achievements and of the community. The CDs comprised, during the years, the site’s theme songs, some plot theme songs (Alestorm’s pirate-themed worked well, for example.), some of the characters theme songs and place-related songs (Sun of Jamaica, Haiti cherie, Springtime in Nassau, Kingston Town, etc.).

[Uaithne 543]

Staff Viewpoint

 

When deciding on an event, I consider what would be manageable to run as well as what I can realistically expect from the members.  People don't do post count or activity contests, at least not in my experience.  I imagine that if you have a large site of people who are motivated and have a lot of time, those sorts of contests would go over well.  But when you have working adults or a small group or people who are focused on quality and want to take their time with posts, it's not going to be as successful.

 

Event Type

• Events are better off if they're something out of the ordinary but not unrealistic.  Many sites start with events that are parties or balls or something social such as this - which isn't bad, but in my opinion they're not unusual enough.  You need to do something that will really grab in the attention of the members and make them want to participate.  It's hard to create events in which every single character is going to be present, but huge social events may scare away the characters who are less social.  Unless, of course, it's mandatory IC for all characters to be involved, which is one way I'd suggest mixing up the norm.
  
   
  
  The other thing is that events should serve some IC purpose.  Advancing the storyline, or allowing for development would be the reasons I most often use.  Though sometimes you just have to do something to get people's attention and encourage activity.
  
   
  
  One of the most successful events I've ever run involves a historical re-enactment.  It was back on my high school site.  Once a year, the characters would be grouped in "families" made of the students (normally older students would be parents or uncles/aunts and younger ones would be children) and they were forced to live with each other in tents on the school field as they were supposed to be living out the Oregon Trail.  It was so silly and fun that it became an annual tradition, and it allowed us to explore our characters and their relationships with others in a different and unusual environment.

 

Timing and Posting

• Despite the fact that everybody seems to like organized posting and posting order and whatnot, I personally find that events that allow for free-for-all posting to be better.  Or, at minimum, not one giant group thread.  One also has to take into consideration that sometimes people eagerly sign up for events but don't follow through, so the event has to be set up in a way so that people aren't held up if one person doesn't post.  This is one of the most critical features of an event.

 

On-Going Challenges

• One of the things I currently have on my site are on-going challenges.  People can participate as they see fit and as time allows.  The challenges can be started at any time, and they don't have a specific time frame to be completed.  (You can check it out here if you need an example.)  These are more for character development and bragging rights than they are for actually "winning" and being in first place.

 

The most popular events I've run are ones in which people have something to do.  Either the characters are given a role or there is some physical activity that pulls them out of their norm.  Parties, school dances, meetings, etc. don't really provide this opportunity.  They have their use, but if one is looking for an event that will really engage members, one has to consider more than just what is right in front of them.

 

Member Viewpoint

 

I want an event that involves me.  I don't mean that it has to center around me, but I need to feel like I'm important in some way.

 

Have you ever played a sport and found yourself being a benchwarmer or not getting much time on the field?  It's like that.  Yeah, you're part of the team and you practice with the team and you cheer your teammates on.  But you don't feel like you really matter.  The game would be the same even if you weren't there because your presence didn't make a difference.

 

It's the same with events.  I want to feel like my characters are involved or impacted in a significant manner.  So if there is an event about a serial killer . . . how does that really involve my character?  In most of these types of events I've seen, it doesn't.  It's more like a subplot that is there and may impact various aspects of RP site, but it doesn't really involve most of the members' characters.  This idea might be great for a site-wide on-going subplot, but it's not good for a sitewide event unless the staff finds a way to get everybody involved.

 

Members need to feel like they're making an impact on the storyline and on the site.  I like the events that provide this feeling.  This doesn't have to be in some large, grandiose manner.  If you take my example about the Oregon Trail days above, you'll notice that the idea doesn't revolve around my character (or anybody's character).  But the character still interacts with other people in a significant way, and he feels important within his little "family" group.  There's meaningful interactions between characters and character development and whatnot.  But if the event had been focused ten characters were going to be chosen at random to participate in Oregon Trail days, if my character wasn't chosen, it would have been a let down and I wouldn't have anything to do.  I'd see other people having fun, but I couldn't be involved.  It doesn't matter how fun and how much excitement was around the choosing process (because that in and of itself could be an "event"); if not all the members have the opportunity to participate in the event itself, it isn't fun for those members.

 

I'd also like the event to be fun and to give me the opportunity to explore a different or not-often-used side of my character.  A site-wide gala ball, for example, may fall under the category in which all members are involved and make an impact, but if I don't get to do something "unusual," I'm not really going to take anything away from it.  (Most RPs have a "meet and greet" feel to them since people RP with new characters on the regular, so a gala ball isn't too different.)  It really helps if there is something at stake.  This doesn't have to be life-or-death, but it should be meaningful to the character.  For example, the gala ball could come with a rule that everybody needs to do some specific task or they will be punched in the face when they leave.  (I'm a bit dry on ideas right now, so just go with it.)  This gives the characters incentive to complete the task - or not.  Some might just be like "Bring it on."  Either way, it allows members to explore their characters and how/why they make the decisions that they do.

 

Finally, the event needs to be somewhat fast paced.  Not like 100 posts per day fast paced, but I'd like to make significant progress within 1-2 weeks.  Otherwise members (including myself) start to get bored and you can't really rekindle the life back into an even that starts to dwindle.  Threads get abandoned and the event is left half-completed.  I like to be able to finish stuff, or at least come to a reasonable conclusion.

 

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That got a bit longer than anticipated.

[Rune 1,099]

Cry Wolf usually does four IC events a year.

 

1. Holiday event. Usually just a setting for people to play in, this event changes the most dramatically from year to year. Usually themed with whatever season it falls into.

2. Setting event. Usually a masquerade. Again: Just a setting for people to play in.

3. Danger! event. Characters are in life or death situations for one reason or another. 

4. Misc. Event. Whatever we decide to fill in that missing quarter.

 

Our usual OOC events include:

1. Anniversary shenanigans.

2. Advertising contest.

3. Post Push.

4. Graphics contest.

5. Raffley thing.

 

Graphics is usually lumped in with anniversary shenanigans. And anniversary shenanigans are usually made up of several events so options are available. We frequently change how the events are handled, just to keep people on their toes.

 

For the shenanigans and push, there are no winners unless everyone wins. The push has proven to be a forum favorite, mostly because we all like seeing numbers go up. xD

 

This year we're also doing an event I'm affectionately calling And Chaos. Different activities reward points towards a raffle. These activities range from recruiting someone, to doing a thread with the newbie, to putting your wanted ad on The Initiative, etc. At the end, we'll shove everyone entered into a drawing and they can win copies of the books our board is based off of, comics from the same series, shop stuff, goofy crap and stuff along those lines.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

I’ve used Events that tie into the premise and advance the game- if people joined and finished what they started. In other games, the staff did the same thing, some worked, some didn’t; someone raided the weapon cache, poisoned the water supply, organised a scout party to find resources outside the settlement, someone killed the leader, etc!

 

I don’t feel motivated when there’s a common event like a Halloween party, because it rarely lasts more than a few posts from people acting silly.

[Sadrienne 242]

On 11/20/2017 at 1:24 PM, Rune said:

As Staff: What sort of contests do you run? What kind of IC events do you run? Do you run OOC events? What type of event seems to be the most popular? What would you like to do but can't quite figure out how to make it work?

 

I am a sucker for IC events, both as an admin and a member. We're planning on holding a whole-school paintball match to celebrate the beginning of the new school year in January, and I am incredibly hyped. We generally hold events like that in a new category dedicated to all threads that belong to that situation, and go from there. It can get crazy, but it's always been fun. Once, we had a situation where a heap of pigmy-puffs loose on the school and how all the characters reacted to that. Some of the threads were downright hilarious.

 

I basically like to create a situation that is easy to react/respond to, and then see what happens. Occasionally I drop a few game-changing occurrences (and this is where short plot summary/update topics are crucial to ensure that all members know what's happening so they can respond to it) in just to see what happens. I keep a close eye on what the characters are doing and let that inform me of the direction to take. I never create very rigid plans, because... that never works out! You need to be super flexible in this approach.

 

I also enjoy OOC events, I feel they bring a community together. Often it's something amusing to mark a board milestone. For instance, we currently have a race on to get the board to 1000 posts before Christmas. If we do, one of our very loyal members will decorate his beard with glitter. Small things like that I find go a long way to fostering a deeper sense of community and fun.