Gary Con has released a sneak peek of our upcoming event catalog. We have over 50 events in this pre-release, which includes all of our VIP events, Gary Con sponsored events, and events by the Dead Games Society. Feel free to check it out on our homepage under Event Catalog. Feel free to field any questions you have regarding it here. The full catalog will be posted Sunday, January 15th. Event Registration will begin at 4pm on Sunday, January 29th.
Cool! Thanks for all the effort that went into preparing this! The catalog looks great! Of course, this just stirs up a lot of thoughts: Is the whole catalog going to be produced in this same format? Is there still going to be an Excel catalog? Even though this is nice, a ss allows for deleting, color-coding, multi-criteria sorting and other helpful prep things. For GenCon, I always rely on the ss more than the online search. I love the pop-up for event description, instead of going to a new page. Sorting functionality is great, but has a glitch right now. If you sort a list of 50+ items, when you try to see page 2 or put it all on one page, it unsorts, thereby meaning you can never view all of a sorted list. I presume GP are 'refreshed' annually? For example, if I spend 25/30 or 12/30 registering this year, does it matter to next year's registration? Also, I was guessing I had 30 GPs from 3 yrs x 10 pts each. Or does everyone get 30 from pre-registering, no matter what? If so, what is the past attendance history tracking for - just the "experience points"? And are the xp/level just for fun, or do they do something?
Also a lot of systems are marked Other as their main system name even though on the detail the actual system is listed. Hopefully, this can be cleaned up for better searching. Pete
Thanks for your feedback. I am aware of the several issues mentioned ("Other" for game system and sorting), but given the delays in getting this released timely, I opted to release it with the minor issues still in place. GPs will be renewed annually with each badge purchase. Everyone who purchased a badge this year received 30 GPs. For some, it will seem to be more than enough, for others, not enough. I am definitely interested in any and all feedback regarding this system, as we are pioneering new territory in our efforts to avoid event fees but at the same time, allowing for a real time registration system that is balanced. Once the final catalog is released, I will make an Excel version available for download. Gary Con Experience Points will hopefully be more fully detailed in the near future. But for now, what I can tell you about them is: 1) You get them for attending each year (starting last year). 2) You get more of them for being a DM and/or volunteer. 3) There is a bonus for registering early. There is a bonus for submitting your DM events early. 4) They most definitely will have a purpose in the future. We're considering special events, souvenirs and swag for our higher level attendees.
Does attendance at GC 1,2,3 count toward anything experience related? Or did we start from scratch with GC 4? Assuming the latter.
We have really good attendance lists for GC3, so I'm planning on including that year as well. I'm hopeful I'll get able to get experience points updated before GC4, so you'll be able to see your total by then. But it's a little ways down the to-do list, so no promises (since there are no XP related special events this year, it's not that time sensitive yet). I did forget one other potential element of XP: 5) Forum participation/activity (basically, post count).
Maybe the forum needs a Karma/thumbs-up/star system to rate posts, lest it become cluttered with low-quality posts that don't enhance this community. I would rather see people rewarded for quality and effort first and foremost. Of course, as always, posts that seem to serve no purpose other than to increase one's post count will be deleted - like when people started going overboard trying to get to the next Title/Rank on the boards.
You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? You've beaten his non sequitur, which means you're intellectully flexible, so you could've posted excessively in the General Discussion Forum, trusting on the disconnectivity to increase your post count, and clearly Keeper would need to expand his range of content. But, you've also bested his expletives, which means you must be streetwise, and in being streetwise you must have learned that the Keeper is a gamer and no stranger to swearing, so you should have put additional posts in the Off-Topic Forum, so clearly the Keeper would need to address your specific posts cleanly and without foul language . . .
In my experience, the karma/exalt/thumbs up reward system degenerates into a) a circle of regulars playing the mutual appreciation game to inflate each other's status and b) brownnosers sucking up to mods and VIPs (by rewarding average or crappy posts) in an attempt to curry favor online or in real life or both (I know, I know, that would never happen here). There's no foolproof method, but a karma system seems more problematic than postwhoring. At least with postwhoring, the exploit is fairly obvious for what it is. Personally, I would go the opposite route and completely separate forum activity from GC "points/experience" or at least make the real-life benefit very very minor. Between travel, lodging, food and registration, many people are already shelling out hundreds of bucks to attend - why layer in online posting competitions as well? Most of us are adults with families, jobs and minimal free time. But it's not my show.
You could be right. Should problems become evident that need addressing, some solution will be devised whether it be public or behind the scenes (I know that some post "karma" forum mods allow for Mod/Admin use only) to take care of it. Also, perhaps an overreaction on my part to an annoying memory...
That's my feeling on the matter as well. It'd be like a penalty to those who don't have time to post often. Allow online participation to be its own reward.
yeah, although I only have 36 posts since joining these forums many months ago, I assure you I frequent the community daily. I only post when I have something relevant (or perhaps witty) to announce or respond with. So I would think a 'bonus point' system based on post count would be unfair to those who might lurk on the forums, but are bashful (i.e. prudent) about posting much. Adding a bonus point system for post count could be a prelude to madness for the forums moderators. hah hah. Trust me - I've been the Community Manager on gaming forums in the past. *shiver* :? ~Hoyt.
I appreciate all of the opinions on the matter. My feeling is that forum participation should count for something, albeit something small, as it does encourage community for the other 361 days of the year when we aren't at Gary Con. While I'm still playing with the formulas, attendance at Gary Con, first and foremost, will drive experience points. Being a DM and/or volunteer is the second biggest contributor. Everything else is mostly just gravy. While Keeper may have a huge post count, the main reason he'll be a high level attendee before he knows it, is due to his running quite a few well attended events. Of course, this thread has long run off its original course...
