New event ideas!

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Hi all! You've had some wonderful and interesting ideas about how WAR could be improved. But since we have decided we are most likely NOT going to be running WAR next year, we would really appreciate NEW ideas for a fun, weeks-long Summer competition next year! Let's make a true PXR tradition!

Keep in mind we are not going to be begin planning anything in earnest until next year, but we would love to hear your event ideas and suggestions on how they could work! They can involve any aspect of the forum, or all of them! Whatever you can think of that would be enjoyable!

We are also considering running smaller events over winter break and at other times of the year, so even if you only have an idea for something small, your input is very welcome!

Again, the only reason we run events is so that you guys have fun! We worked really hard to organise this year's competition, and if you didn't enjoy it, that's okay. But let's try and come up with something new and fun together so next year we can all have a good time! :D

[HKim]

I'm thinking the Olympics might be a good way to go. We could have the sections run separately from each other on their own time frame. Award people Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

To go along with this idea, we could also do this individually, without teams. This way people can participate based on their own interest.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Getting rid of teams altogether does seem like it would solve a lot of problems. Or how about people competing in pairs or threes or something, to add a bit of collaboration to it? I know one of the big things people enjoy is collaborating with their friends. :)

Another idea... I think having a simple RP being the main feature would be pretty cool. And then having people do things on the side to earn special items or perks in the RP. Like submitting artwork or writing. You wouldn't need to compete against anyone then, you would just need to meet a certain quality and/or effort threshold to "pass".

[Felly]

Alright, hi, going to jump on this and maybe help with creating a PXR tradition.

Going to open my post by commenting on something Lord Celebi said in the WAR II Discussion thread. You, or any other PXR staffer, are welcome to ask me next year if I can be a "WAR" Leader (WAR in quotes because idk what else to call the tentative idea, sorry), but I can make zero promises on committing to the role. I'm also one of the admins on PWN, and I run the Birthday Extravaganza event there with sign ups in July and the actual event in August; the event coincides with the opening date of PWN in August, and it's similar to WAR with the teams and whatnot. That too takes up some of my time, and I don't want to say I'll commit to something when I may have to fall back.

That said, if I'm still around on PXR, I'm willing to help out with things, though I can't promise I'll be a leader or anything important. (I'll probably still be around because URPG, but I can't tell ya what'll happen in a year.)

I threw a lot of my feels in the WAR II Discussion thread, so I'm not sure if we want me to reiterate those here or not. I think a lot of them were bad (and I personally liked Nekomata's stuff on the scoring!! and just that whole post in general), but if anyone wanted me to reiterate some of those here so they're all in one place, I'd be happy to do so. For now, I'm just going to abstain from saying any of it since I don't want to repeat myself a hundred thousand times. y'all probs tired of me anyways, let's be real I'll just toss in some new stuff. ;3

I feel like teams are great for larger events like this. You guys got a lot of newer people because of WAR, and I feel like this new event could be a draw as well. The teams help them get to know people here on the forums and make friends. That plus the events would probably encourage them to stay, and then yay, more new members that stick around!

One thing I did notice with WAR though was that there was really nothing you did with your team besides the WAR RP, but even then, you could still do that with people of other teams. I never really saw much of a purpose for the teams in WAR, to be honest. I saw teams working together in the RP, but you could do that without being on the same team too. Maybe I just missed something here, but the teams just felt like gatherings for friends and a way for new people to get to know each other, but that was about it. There's nothing wrong with those things, of course, but I'm sort of piggybacking off of Sarah's idea with the collaborative stuff. Maybe have the teams and also have collaborative events? That way you get more of a team feel since you're working together on stuff too.

Also going to comment on this as well. I feel like PXR is a mostly art oriented forum with the comics and the pixel art and all that. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this, but that's what I'm feeling from being here; I'm not super active here, so I might actually be wrong on this. Regardless of what the main focus here on PXR is, maybe make the main focus of this new event similar to the main focus on PXR? Don't scrap other events though! Still have something for everyone, but have the main focus be similar to the main focus of the forums. I feel like RP was maybe the big thing on PE2K (and again, I may be wrong with this too since I was never really on PE2K), where WAR originated, but PXR is a whole new forum with a whole new world of opportunities and loads of potential for creating a new event totally unique to PXR.

I think the last suggestion I'm going to make here is one that's been puttering around on my mind for a while now, but I've never really been able to put it into action. I don't know how many people are aware of this, but Harry's actually the owner of three forums: PXR, PWN, and SPC (Slateport City). I've always wanted to do some sort of collaborative event with the three forums. I'm not sure if everyone would be open to it, but I've wanted to try it for some time. I don't think it should replace WAR, I just think it'd be a fun little way to bring the three forums together some more since Harry owns all of the forums, but we don't really have any sort of bonding, if that makes sense.

I feel like I've had lots of thoughts, but I've forgotten them all, so we'll leave it at that for now. ;3

[Ganyu]

If we remove teams, it's nothing special anymore. It's just a regular contest. It would solve most of the problems, but it no longer makes it a community event. It just makes it a bunch of contests running at the same time.

[Morzone]

Well I like the sound of designing the new thing more like the Olympics like HKim said,and I also really really like Felly's idea of team events.

As for the teams,I agree with Ghostwriter that we can't get rid of them. I wouldn't be here on PXR if the prism league never existed. That said, I have my own idea for teams. Instead of teams there should be regions. In the real Olympics, countries face against each other, so if this is a Pokemon Olympics wouldn't it make sense to have the Pokemon regions face off against each other? This would also mean that the same teams (not necessarily the same people) would be competing each year.

[Ganyu]

Well I like the sound of designing the new thing more like the Olympics like HKim said,and I also really really like Felly's idea of team events.

As for the teams,I agree with Ghostwriter that we can't get rid of them. I wouldn't be here on PXR if the prism league never existed. That said, I have my own idea for teams. Instead of teams there should be regions. In the real Olympics, countries face against each other, so if this is a Pokemon Olympics wouldn't it make sense to have the Pokemon regions face off against each other? This would also mean that the same teams (not necessarily the same people) would be competing each year.
The fact that you mentioned this coincides with the fact that Pokecommunity's Get-Together (essentially a community event, like WAR) theme this year is the Olympics between pokemon regions.

There is a strong flaw though. People would choose the regions they prefer. As it is now for PC, Johto and Hoenn are the largest teams -- clearly being the more popular regions. It's still the same issue as what people brought up this War.

[monkeybard]

While there isn't much of a sense of team cooperation in the WAR, I'd argue that the importance of being in a team comes from the feeling of being relied on and also indirectly helping a group of people while you compete for yourself; basically what I tried to get across in my contribution to the Discussion thread. Without teams, we could probably just run competitions all the time and there'd be no difference. There's no sense of festivity that comes from hosting a gauntlet of contests at one specific time of the year, in my opinion.

While typing this and on the topic of festivity, I did think of Japanese sport festivals (as portrayed by anime because I'm a no good anime watching man), which divides the entire school into two opposing teams (semi-randomly, with no say from the individuals) and they try to earn points for their side through a bunch of events across a day or two. Individuals draft themselves into events they're comfortable with, but there are also lots of group events that require more teamwork and such. It's actually a little similar to WAR now that I think about it, and I'm certainly not saying that this is the way to go, but it is a way to go. You lose some freedom in team choice, but the team spirit and self-satisfaction (that I get from WAR) would still exist to about the same extent, and we may get a more tight competition for points.

And while I love the idea of collaborative challenges, I'm not sure how feasible it is to coordinate cooperation over the forum format with people from all over the world to produce something amazing within a week. I don't think there should be challenges aimed for anything more than trios, though pairwork would be most preferable.

Also Felly, from what I've seen during WAR and in my time here so far the pixel art community is perhaps more skilled and a little more active than many other forums, but I don't think it's active quite enough to call it the focal point of PXR. I could totally be wrong though.

[Noblejanobii]

As I mentioned to Neo earlier this week, I thought it would be fun to run smaller events in celebration of certain holidays from different parts of the world. So we could do 4th of July for America and then a holiday only celebrated in Australia, etc. Then the theme could be based around that holiday and we could rotate events. So, for example, one holiday we do creative writing, some form of art, and then an event in one of the RPG games.

[Caite-chan]

Nothing is ever going to be even when it comes to this...ever. The Olympics are never "even" because you have big countries like the USA and Canada and then you have countries who have a handful of people and sometimes just one person. And it's never how big your country is it's how many medals you can win because you are really good.

I'm not quit sure if anyone has said anything like this because I know we were talking about the judges but: I think we could have a panel of judges that judge everything. (Cept for maybe things like URPG, Showdown that kind of thing) You still have a judge for each section that comes up with the topic for the week but have everyone judge.

Example: Speed is the judge for Pixel Art so she comes up with the theme for the week and can also help out as much as she wants but when it comes time to judge she judges but also so does the judge for Drawn Art, Writing, Role Play, Graphic Art, Humor, and any others I may forgot. And then do that for each section. You essentially have one expert in each section who knows what hell is suppose to happen and others who may see it from a different angle.

[Corey]

I actually really like the idea of participating in partners/teams of three!! The WFL three could make a comeback if Kaoru stops being relatively nocturnal and if Eti ever logged in! The Valentine's Day Event (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?5611-VDay-2015-Valentine-s-Team-Battle-Event!) seemed really, really fun, but there weren't enough people interested. But that's the kind of event I'd like to see more of. Since there's practically zero interest in battling, intra-forum puzzles in groups seems to be the next best thing, imo.

*hasn't read many replies cos lazy and isn't creative so just stating my thoughts*

[Winter]

I kind of like the idea of trying a lack of teams or working in twos/threes. Honestly, I don't feel like teams are super necessary, and from what I saw this year, they were the source of waaaaay too much controversy.

Anyway, regardless, I spent some time thinking about the goals WAR aimed to accomplish--mainly to be fun and boost activity, and I was wondering...what if we tried an event centered around trying new things? We would have veterans in various sections volunteer to mentor/keep an eye on/critique work in their respective sections, and pair them with users who either feel that their work in the section could be improved, or are new to the section and want to give it a shot. I would suggest we limit actual competition (but maybe not prompts for stuff like writing/art?), though awards based on improvement and participation could be issued based on mentor recommendation and how many different sections they tried out/tried to improve in. While this event could span weeks, people would not have to participate every week, only as much as they'd like. Is that something people might be interested in?

[ninjaskarmory]

The twos/threes idea would be amazing! I'd enjoy working with any of you c:

[Morzone]

Teams of twos and threes seem a little small too me, though I like the idea. I think something closer to five per team would be best. It could be in a small range too. 3 minimum, 6 maximum. Or something similar.

Also, instead of doing a whole bunch of separate areas to compete in, how about only one per judging period? So for week one it could be drawn art, the next for writing, then the third for ASB and so on. This would help the judging too because there would only be one panel of all the judges. If only one area is used per judging period, it makes it easier to accommodate for difference in needed time per section. The only problem with this system that I can see so far is the RP section, since RP is done over a larger period of time. This is what I suggest:

RP creation competition. At the end of the new WAR, the final competition would be for each team to create a RP. One entry per team. Great team building, and can actually be done in good time because the parameters for the RP (assuming there would be, but you never know) could be given out at the beginning of new WAR and the RPs presented at the end. Kind of like the big finally of the event.

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

RP creation competition. At the end of the new WAR, the final competition would be for each team to create a RP. One entry per team. Great team building, and can actually be done in good time because the parameters for the RP (assuming there would be, but you never know) could be given out at the beginning of new WAR and the RPs presented at the end. Kind of like the big finally of the event.

I'm afraid that I have to chip in and say that I really like the idea of different teams (or "groups of cooperators" if team is a touchy word) working to create an RP for everyone to enjoy.

[XaiakuX]

Let's take this one step further with this "Olympics" idea. The Olympics hold Winter and Summer events every 4 years. Now lets drop that 4 years to every year.

"There would be a Winter event, and a Summer event every year." This would probably draw a different crowd every time, because truthfully, some people are more active on this forum in the Winter than in Summer, and vice versa.

Now add in the Teams of 2 or 3. Another idea I enjoy. Picking between 2 or 3, I'd pick 3. Just to keep that variety in play. But, I would also consider teams of 5. Purely for the sake of not flooding the Group boards with as many threads, unless deciding on an entirely separate Sub-Forum exclusively for these events.

I would consider doing a Good vs Evil scenario, but I feel it would be too one-sided. Maybe as a theme once or twice, but as a constant, it seems unnecessary.

Let's talk duration. How long should these events be? 5-6 like WAR? Drawn out from the start of season to the end of season (roughly 12-13 weeks)? or maybe shorter, like 3-4 weeks, looking at a single month of activities and contests? I prefer the latter of these things, but I will leave it open to discussion.

Also, maybe, a single Host to these events every season. Each time having someone different, after holding applications a couple months in advance. Then that Host can pick a team, and use the time before the start of the next event to help develop and structure said event..

I enjoy the idea of a Judge Panel as well, this also fits in with HKim's 'Olympics' idea. So having a panel of 3 judges, potentially recurring from season to season would be a wonderful idea. Maybe said Host's development team could also be the panel of 3?

All together, it looks like there's something in the making here which may turn out better than WAR in the long run. However, I want to throw this out there. Doing away with WAR entirely probably shouldn't be a thing. But to do as I did with Team Awesome, and put it on the back burner to use again if things get too stale. It's always good to have that fall back if things go south, you know what I'm saying.

Anyways, I don't really have any original ideas of my own here, except for maybe Summer and Winter events as opposed to just Summer. But, if you mush everything I just listed here, you'd probably have your answer somewhere in there.

[Neo Emolga]

I'd be totally fine with scrapping the WAR in exchange for a summer and winter Olympics idea (I agree that having no events at all is just going to make this place dead, lonely, and quiet). I tried to come up with a PMD-themed idea to replace the WAR, but it's been iffy and I think it's getting overly complicated. There's also a LOT more work that needs to be done with it and I just haven't had very much time lately. But I also don't think PXR has the activity level needed to make it work.

I'm not so sure about the teams of 2 or 3 idea. The pressure is going to be brutal on everyone to be as crazily active as possible, because if someone needs to take time off for whatever reason, that cuts the team's activity pretty much in half. With a larger team, if a person needs to take a week off for vacation, it won't have as significant of an effect. I think a member ceiling might be a better idea, and to have the max number of members be 10 or 15 members or so. Also, a draft could work, but only if the team theme is made AFTER people are recruited, so they can discuss it first so everyone is happy with it. This worked great for Season 9 on PE2K and there weren't too many complaints about how it ended up then.

Also, some events, like RP, probably would be best to let them keep going for the whole event duration. Things like art, writing, and URPG battles could be rotated out with each other, so maybe week 1 and 2 will be graphic art and URPG battles, week 3 and 4 will be drawn art and creative writing, and so on.

With a judging panel, it would have to allow for anyone to be a judge, even if they're not a specialist in that area. Which means even if you're not an artist, you could still judge those sections. We would need to do this because those judges would not be able to participate themselves. But it might help in conjunction with the rotation system, so a person judging graphic art one week could also judge creative writing during the next rotation. And for that, I think a panel of 3 judges would be fine. Either they can communicate the final scoring, or each of them comes up with their own scoring for all entries and the average ends up being the final scores.

[SassySnivy]

If we stick with that Olympics concept, though, planning and prepping for a big ol' competition two times in one year I feel will put a lot of strain on staff. It took quite a while for us to all plan out this past WAR.

So maybe one year it can be during the summer, and then the next year it can be during the winter? Though then that begs the question: which half of winter? At the end of the year or at the beginning of the next year?

[Morzone]

personally, I'm still leaning toward only doing it once a year like WAR, but if we switched its season, in winter I'd imagine It'd be in January or late January to early February.

From re-reading through this thread, most people like agree on at least two things: that we should base it more off the Olympics, and that sections should be judged by a panel of a few Judges. Is there anyone who doesn't agree to those two? I know I'm certainly not allowed to make any decisions, I'm just trying to see how much progress has actually been made in designing this new Event.

[SassySnivy]

A panel of a few judges per competition, or just a measley few judges altogether? I can't really see the latter working very well. Maybe have at least one person to judge that represents each section of the competition.

So you'd have all these people, but you'd have at least ONE person that specializes in one area for each area. So the panel would consist of someone that specializes in art, literatutre, RPGs, etc etc

But they would ALL be in charge of judging everything, perhaps. Maybe if we're afraid on using too many judges altogether because not everyone will pull their weight, we could just have a minimum of judges judge. However, the "specialty" judge that specializes in that area would HAVE to judge the area they specialize in. For everyone else, maybe there could be a minimum of having 3 people judge per contest / area. A MINIMUM. This means that if it reaches the quota, more people could still judge if they so wished to.
This might take a lot of stress off of judges.

I am so sorry if that sounded unclear as ****

[Neo Emolga]

I am so sorry if that sounded unclear as ****

Nah, you're fine, I got what you're saying.

I was thinking it would definitely be a few judges per competition. Having the one that best represents each section is possible, but they still have to give up the chance to take part in it themselves. We do award judge points in light of this, because giving that up means lost opportunity to take part in it yourself, and judges need some kind of reward for their work.

3 people as a minimum sounds fine. I also think this would be easier to run if we only have a few sections going on at a time rather than everything all at once. I would say three or four sections at a time would make it reasonable. One could be battling (URPG, Showdown), one could be creative (art, writing), and the last would probably be misc (humor, debate). RP judging could be done during the whole thing, or the judging period would only be for certain weeks, but the RP would keep going on for storyline's sake.

I think this would also push more people to participate. If you didn't have time to take part in drawn art because you were too busy with graphic art or creative writing, well, now you can because not everything is happening all at once. Judging would also be more balanced with multiple people doing it. I would also try to keep judging simple without too many crazy and hard to understand rubrics.

I still think we should try doing it in the winter and summer, same year. As a WAR Leader, they're not that hard to organize, really, and the boosted activity really helps. Otherwise, we don't really have any events to look forward to from now until summer 2016, and that's a long ways off. So let's try it in winter. We can do it.

[Chakramaster]

I feel like at least to make sure there's no complications there should e at least one main judge per event, but another judge that would discuss their own thoughts on it. Another way I should explain it is a judge should have a set amount of events to judge, while also having a certain number to oversee. It's just one way I think. While there might not be complaints to events really, but it's just thoughts I had.

I do feel like the Olympics time based events sound great! Of course it would just need work over time with what the best way to run it would be, but it'll just take some time.

[Morzone]

I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment. I remember, vaguely, this year's WAR had trouble getting enough judges to judge all of the sections. And the was with ONE judge per area. If we go with a panel of judges per section, will we be able to get enough people to do it? We may come to the point where we might not have a choice how skilled in the section the judges are as long as we can get them.