Featured Events - A Proposal

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Buttmonkey, Feb 5, 2018.

  1. dndgeek

    dndgeek Troubadour

    That's a great point
    Yeah, I thought that was a great point. Maybe events under a certain % could be dropped, but isn't that what you folks do already?
     
  2. Blake Racich

    Blake Racich Level 0 Character

    So, being new to Garycon (coming to the party late..sorry about that) I just would like clarification on something.

    Are all of the events within the 'schedule' considered 'Feature' events?

    If so, aren't there still Feature Events, such as 'The Wheel of Blame (apologies to R. Jordan and T. Pratchett)' with Tim Kask still available?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  3. Tim Neppel

    Tim Neppel Level 0 Character

    Perhaps it needs to be clarified better, but on the bottom of the event list display page, there is a category called "Special." Turn that on, and you'll be able to see whether games are featured. Perhaps if there is a way to make this a default "ON" category, that will help a lot going forward.
     
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  4. tellion

    tellion Footpad

    Luke, players dropping current games for open seats at featured games may be inevitable whether or not you open those seats up now or let them remain open for walk ups. In fact, if there is a game-time rush for those open seats, there may be more disruption to all games involved as players no-show on their pre-registered events in an attempt to get into a featured game that has open seats. Then, if there are more walk up players than capacity at the featured event, undoubtedly some players will return to their original game, potentially to find it has started without them and/or someone filled their vacated seat. Opening the unfilled featured seats now seems a better option, as that gives players a chance to get into a game they might have preferred and provides more certainty for the GM and player come game time. A little chaos now is better than on the convention floor. I would only urge that if you decide to go that route, set the date/time ahead of time get the message out.

    That said, I can't help thinking back to when registration was a ranked list of preferred games, and you didn't find out what you got into until you picked up your registration packet at the con. A couple years of that, and then some very rough system issues during the early years of on-line registration. Not to down play this year's featured event situation, but that's a minor growth spurt in comparison to past registration woes.
     
  5. Handy Haversack

    Handy Haversack Chevalier

    As much as it pains me to say it, Buttmonkey is right.

    At least to an extent!

    I believe some games were also switching in and out of Featured status as registration approached -- and even between Gold and Silver, which makes planning pretty tricky. But yeah, there are some Featured things that are just hard to figure.

    I don't have anything more solid than that to add. Mostly, I just wanted to get to say that thing about Buttmonkey.
     
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  6. Scott M.

    Scott M. Footpad

    I had considered this, and you may be totally right. This is all very speculative, I admit. I suspect though that there are a significant number of people who like to have their schedule settled or who are unable or unwilling to scramble at the last minute. And those who are comfortable with winging it will scramble and cause some uncertainty regardless of the number of Featured vacancies, since GM's are often flexible even beyond listed seat counts.
     
  7. tellion

    tellion Footpad

    Scott, I agree. I lean toward having a settled schedule myself and have only done the game-time scramble (successfully and unsuccessfully) one or 2 times back in GC2 or GC3 before there was real-time visibility to open seats. Visibility to open seats may be a carrot for some, though I suspect (like you) not for the majority of players nor events. Still, it seems reasonable to open those seats up now and let some shuffling occur during pre-registration. I think that would be informative on how featured events are handled in the future as well. If those seats are opened up for general consumption and a major shift occurs, that would suggest a change might be necessary with respect to how featured events are handled in the future. If, on the other hand, no measurable shift occurs, that is telling in itself.
     
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  8. JediSoth

    JediSoth Troubadour

    My wife had a thought: while the number of Featured Events increased substantially, Silver Badge holders didn't get an increase in the number of Featured Events they could register for. I wonder what the number would look like if Silvers got bumped up to 2 F.E. and Gold, Platinum, and Diamond got bumped up by one also (or stayed the same if they already got a bump).
     
  9. ESpratt

    ESpratt Level 0 Character

    Are there any numbers/data from last year (when they did add the ability to sign up for additional featured events prior to closing registration)? Was there a lot of shuffling then?
     
  10. katsin

    katsin Level 0 Character


    I see many attendees in the forums and other media suggesting that Gary Con be more like other cons. I would like to say that my family attends regularly and we attend no other cons. We love Gary Con because Luke and company continue to keep the spirit and honor of Gary at the core of the convention. We still find Gary Con "a worthy celebration" and that's why we travel so far to attend when other conventions are much closer to our home. It is heartbreaking that there will be no Frankenparty this year as a pre-con highlight but we make our pilgrimage to Lake Geneva. Luke, Frank and others have continued to spotlight the real reason to celebrate Gary Con and as long as it does we will make our annual trek from Ohio. Thanks, from my family, to all who keep Gary's spirit at the forefront of this wonderful event. We're very happy it's not just another convention.
     
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  11. Buttmonkey

    Buttmonkey Troubadour

    The Frankenparty is confirmed. Frank posted on Facebook that he is hosting the Frankenparty on March 7th.
     
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  12. Melf

    Melf Administrator Staff Member

    That is for sure! I think we have a system in place that is largely running very well. Thanks to JT Smith and his crew at TTE for developing such a user friendly system. It was really a huge time soak and a major bummer to have those registration SNAFUs. No one wants to be part of a debacle that disappointed so many people. Its still a lot of work, but it is much more manageable and the customer experience is 100 times better.
     
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  13. Melf

    Melf Administrator Staff Member


    Thank you kindly, the staff, my family and I sincerely appreciate the amazing support we get year after year. And Gary Con is a unique event- I love it warts and all. The good news is Frank is coming and there will be a Frankenparty on Wednesday. He was a little late in posting about it this year. So please plan on attending.
     
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  14. dndgeek

    dndgeek Troubadour

    Hey, everyone got another featured event and the sky didn’t fall down! I personally didn’t use my extra featured event and as a DM lost only one non-featured event player, but gained one featured event player. Giving an extra featured event at the end might be the way to go in the future. If everyone had that ticket at the beginning, things would likely shake out very differently, to the detriment of non-featured events, but this way, those pre-registered folks wanting that extra featured seat that’s just sitting there open were able to do so. Nice work, staff.
     
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  15. gmbarry

    gmbarry Footpad

    I will second that, it was much smoother to release the one bump after all had been scheduled, then people could decide on what open FE they could get into. I still did not get my third choice, but I got an equally great game. I have no complaints at all with how this was done and I am thrilled to be a part of GaryCon this year... and to go to Frankenparty
     
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  16. Poindexter

    Poindexter Chevalier

    i too like the level up concept. it might be something to continue in the years ahead.
     
  17. gizmomathboy

    gizmomathboy Spellbinder

    Another vote for the level up concept. It's something that doesn't have to happen every year, but it's simple enough to understand why it might be done.
     
  18. Scott M.

    Scott M. Footpad

    It seems from gizmomathboy's numbers that about 160 people grabbed featured seats after the "level up." Most people didn't use their extra featured event. I didn't use mine. Any concerns I had about a big shuffle seem to have been misplaced. I hope people got into some stuff they're excited about.
     
  19. Buttmonkey

    Buttmonkey Troubadour

    I still see the level up approach as less than ideal (but far better than not doing anything). Here's an example of what I see to be the problem with just doing a level up:

    Jason Vey wrote Amazing Adventures. It's a game I own, but haven't had a chance to play yet. Jason is running 3 sessions of Amazing Adventures this year. All of them are designated as featured events. I was interested in playing in the Saturday morning session, but couldn't/didn't sign up initially because I prioritized a different featured event. As it turns out, no one signed up for the Saturday morning session before the level up and no one has signed up for it since the level up. When I got my extra featured event ticket last weekend, I thought hard about what to use it for (or even whether to use it at all since I had already gone through registration prep the first time and didn't feel like shuffling my entire schedule). I ultimately decided not to sign up for the Saturday Amazing Adventures session because I was afraid it might be canceled for insufficient players. I then decided to back out of the event I originally scheduled for Saturday morning and took my 2nd featured event. The event I bailed on is popular and should not have any problems filling the seat I vacated.

    What I don't know is whether Jason's Saturday morning slot didn't fill because it was "inappropriately" designated as a featured event (i.e., people want to play, but couldn't get it because they prioritized other events) or because there just isn't much interest in that event (which is another way of saying it shouldn't have been designated as a featured event). It sucks for him that an interested player like me won't sign up for the event after the level up because I'm afraid the event won't fill now. Maybe it would have filled if it had not been designated a featured event in the first place. There's no way to really know that, but I think it's pretty clear it should never have been a featured event.

    I think we still have a problem of too many events being designated as featured. The level up helps, but it doesn't fix the fundamental problem.
     
  20. Poindexter

    Poindexter Chevalier

    my brother and i did not use our level up feature event bonus either. our schedules were already looking good and the shuffling required would not have been fun.
     
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