Dominion Journey - your opinion

[Muratus del Mur]

As i am not very much online lately, i might be somewhat disconnected from the MD-reality of the events I organize. Therefore i created this topic to hear a honest opinion about the "Dominion Journey" event and maybe learn something from your remarks and use that for the next events.

I will also share a bit of the concept behind this event. A short dissection of this quest might help some of you to better organize their own quests on other occasions.




---- long read ahead, you can skip ---

The concept behind the event is simple. Here are the 'ingredients':

1) The Moment
A quest can't start just so or it won't get enough attention. The birthday event was a perfect moment to put in motion something i wanted for a long time

2) The Attractors
To put things in motion you need a powerful 'attractor'. My name guarantees the rewards will be 'awesome' and I realize not many quest makers afford such 'attractors', but on various occasions the rewards can and were officially sponsored. The attractor in this case was both powerful and unknown, mystery adds up to the value of an awesome reward, but careful not to disappoint. Attractors are the magnet, the motif that gives energy to an event. In this event there were three attractors: The dominion visit, the rewards in case of success and the event in itself. This last attractor is an advantage of any good quest maker, people learn their quests are entertaining and will participate also just for the fun, that is very important.

3) The Breaks
Leaving the attractors out in the open means everybody will storm in to get whatever they can grab ad there is no quest for that. You need some sort of breaks so to speak to slow down the rewards gaining. A single task/riddle would qualify this setup as a quest, but not as a full size event.. big difference! The breaks need to be suitable for the power of the attractors. If the attractors are not so powerful the breaks need to be fewer and less 'breaking'. If the attractor is powerful, you need progressive breaks, not just a big one, because its not a lottery. In this event the breaks were the 8 people in the organizing team.

4) The Flavor
This is where i experimented something new, from my point of view. As you know, the riddles and quests were not planned by me but by the organizing team, the 5 challengers and the 3 gate keepers. This means that each one will add to the event his own style and flavor. The overall setup (the deathwhisper tunnel) and the advancing system (fail you start over, win you move on - russian roulette style) were the glue to bring these challengers in a coherent form. This chain of questmakers, both experienced and totally unexperienced provided the variety needed to balance the boredom of the tunnel, in a way. There is a part of the flavor that i will not detail and that one will happen for the 10 that managed to pass the last gate keeper



Possible Mistakes:

1) One unavoidable issue is related to the timezones of the people in the organizing team. However i never intend to make things easy, so the only thing you could see as a real issue is if ALL challangers were on same timezone... but as long as they were not, it means all the participants were facing same timezone issue so the odds were equal.. or am i wrong?

2) I gave free hand to all challangers to do whatever riddles they could think of. I think things could have been better if the riddles were entirely non md related and even 'google-able' so to speak. md-related riddles could have been reserved for the gate keepers only.


Back doors

You might have noticed there was a ap requirement for the scenes. I said you should not jump over a gate keeper, but you could have walked by him if you could 'afford' the action points cost. I could have given the challangers a picke stoc to give to those that fail (or make it automated), ..that could have been very very interesting.. but i thought of it only too late.
Joining forces to solve a riddle is not cheating. The purpose of such an event is to entertain, to put things in motion, and doing _everything_ to solve the riddle is in general ok. In my opinion.
Trading the gatekeeper items is also ok, someone very skilled, able to pass a gatekeeper riddles repeatedly , could have 'earned' lots of silver for letting others in with the items he aquired.
All this might look as cheating for some, but remember md is a realm for both the "good" and the "bad".

Thats about it.


-----

Feedback is welcome

[Hedge Munos]

I'm enjoying this quest (both frustrating and fun).

Suggestion: An intersection of the roads would be interesting. Competitors could choose a path, one route a longer path to the finale than the other (to create more frustration, but more independence as well).

Hedge

[lightsage]

To start of: I really enjoyed this. There were some creative riddles and the likes but it was not mainly the assignments at the gates that caused this.

I do feel I should give a compliment to Kyphis for posing interesting questions for all.

What I enjoyed most was the feeling of coherence in a way, people being at the challenger unable to pass sharing probable online times, sharing experiences of what was to come if gates were passed. Quite frankly, the 'mood' reminded me of the good ol' days.

That being said, there are some points for improvement:

In my opinion the best riddles have but one solution. I encountered some riddles that had a multitude of possible solutions, the 'correct' one being arbitrary and not necessarily the one fitting best. This was slightly frustrated. If you make riddles that have alternate solutions you might want to consider counting them as correct if fitting as well or beter than the intended solution.

A much smaller issue was time zones, I think it was Windy whom was only able to log in for a few hours a day. On a few days these hours happened to be situated in the middle of the night CET, which was inconvenient. I can imagine different challengers had their online time in different time zone’s nightly hours.

I was surprised by the amount of online time quite a few of the challengers/gatekeepers put in. Thank you for investing so much of your time into an enjoyable event.

[Fang Archbane]

1) i dont know whether to stab or hug you right about now, making me read all that >.>

2) meh. bring me back to your throne room. i miss home :]

3) feedback so you dont get all "this is SOOOOOOOO random fang, gtfo my interwebz noob" on me o-o

i loved the event, and (even though i didnt win since im apparently stupid :3) i had fun, twas great, hope we do it again next year, and i cant wait ;33333

[Maebius]

I would agree, it was very interesting to choose an interesting New Thing (the Attractor), to spur us into action.

I also really liked how the gatekeepers/guards were free to make up their own challenges. That sort of cooperation and creativity is probably what klightsage means by "the good old days" (though I argue these are pretty awesome days too). It added a nice flavor to the entire Challenge, having to get through the individual Riddles on our own, with a pretty difficult-yet-acceptable Penalty for failure. Challenge fit the Rewards, I'm sure.

I'll admit being somewhat selfishly frustrated by the timing, as I wasn't online as much as I could have been, but that does nothing to diminish the effort of the Guards themselves and the added Challenge of getting through all of them at the times they were available. It's a volunteer effort after all, and I commend those who gave their time to sit and ask the same sorts of questions over and over to those struggling through the Dominion. Well done.

My only thought was to have extended it one more day or so. (but that more a selfish thought). With the timezone differences I simply did not have enough days to shift around my work schedule and be awake for each of the guards at the appropriate time. So I left. Again, though, that is more -my- issue than any proper complaint against the Challenge itself overall. Waiting for the next Guard was a nice opportunity to talk to those who had gotten forced back, and were waiting to move onward again, so share ideas and chat together, on myriad random topics.

[Junior]

first off this was how it went for me in emoticon world

[Eagle Eye]

pretty much good idea, i vote

hoping to gain access this place

[Espartano]

to solve the time zone trouble with the challengers, I think is easy, just select 2 in diferent time zone =D

edit, I was happy to be a semi-finalist at Brulant riddles, never goes so far in any quest.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Espartano

[Pipstickz]

Well, as the person who was sent back the most (or at least I'm sure I was at some point), I can say this was an entirely satisfying quest. The diversity and challenge in the riddles and the new environment was rewarding in and of itself. I want to extend my thanks to the challengers and gatekeepers for their record-keeping and riddle-coming-up-with. So thanks.

[Mallos]

I had fun being a challenger, it was interesting for me to do something like this.

[Isabella Finch]

[color=#a52a2a][size=3][font=georgia,serif]I had a lot of fun with this and I am happy to have been part of the organizing team. Thank you to Mur for asking me to do this, especially since I am still so new to the game.[/font][/size][/color]

[color=#a52a2a][size=3][font=georgia,serif]I would like to apologize though to those who became frustrated. There were a few people that really stood out to me in general because of how much time they took to really think through the riddles they were given. I do hope you all had fun. I tried to be fair to everyone and I tried to be on as much as humanly possible to not make anyone wait longer than they had to, though there was a couple I seen that didn't easily catch me on, so I am sorry for that as well. Hopefully with a little tweaking this can be done again, and with even better success.[/font][/size][/color]

[Dragual]

Time zone problem solution. Have more than one of the same event, you can only try your hand at one. Each of the same events will have a different time zone set up. Make lists of those who try what events.

[ZenTao]

[color=#808080][quote name='lightsage' timestamp='1335218937' post='109516'][/color]
[color=#808080]To start of: I really enjoyed this. There were some creative riddles and the likes but it was not mainly the assignments at the gates that caused this.

I do feel I should give a compliment to Kyphis for posing interesting questions for all.

That being said, there are some points for improvement:

In my opinion the best riddles have but one solution. I encountered some riddles that had a multitude of possible solutions, the 'correct' one being arbitrary and not necessarily the one fitting best. This was slightly frustrated. If you make riddles that have alternate solutions you might want to consider counting them as correct if fitting as well or beter than the intended solution.

[/quote][/color]

[font="georgia, serif"][color="#000000"] When I read this post, I realized you said it all for many of us Lightsage. I had a really interesting thought provoking time with this quest of endless riddles. I did not even mind waiting hours because it was a new place to explore and it was nice being stuck with others you may not converse with so much and get to know them better. It would have been nice if the riddles had only but one answer indefinitely OR were open ended and the person asking them would consider the answer as fitting or not. Kyphis was my favorite because his questions made you do your calculations and show your work, just like in long division.... Overall it was fun. [/color][/font]

[Azull]

I really enjoyed myself the past couple of days with this.

I have to agree with Lightsage's remark on riddles. The best riddles have but one solution. Still, it's not easy to create good riddles.
All in all well done. And some tasks/riddles/questions were truly awesome.

As for the timezone "problem". If seen as a "break" as Mur calls it, this was one of the more frustrating ones. There might be some room for improvement here.

Thanks to all who made this possible and fun.

[Mya Celestia]

[color=#008080][font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]It was fun sitting in the dark tunnel torturing people...[/font][/color]

[color=#008080][font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Kidding *giggles* I did have fun giving people the riddles I made. I wish I'd had more, but sadly I got strep throat and couldn't sort riddle thinking and ignoring the pain. I heard a few of the riddles from the ones further down the tunnel and they made my brain melt [/font][/color]

[color=#008080][font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]For the record, it was 11 times at me Pip. You have the record at my station. I commend your determination.[/font][/color]

[color=#008080][font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Timing was the one issue that people kept mentioning. When it comes to this sort of event, I looked at it as all parts of it being part of the task. There should always be a difficulty aspect that goes beyond our tiny little cubes. Schedules are likely to be the biggest challenge regardless of the timezones. It's a round world [/font][/color]

[color=#008080][font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]I had lots of fun, Mur. Thank you for allowing me to be one of the Challengers in this event *hugs*[/font][/color]

*edit* I had 76 different characters come to me for a riddle. I say characters because I can't be sure they weren't alts, but 76 is pretty awesome!

Edited April 24, 2012 by Mya Celestia

[Fyrd Argentus]

Great idea.

Personally, my experience is/was that with very short time to be in-game, the odds of meeting an awake guardian were very slim. It was almost a non-event for me.

And everybody I talked with generally agreed that you had ruled out pickle use - taking "jump over" to mean "bypass".... so we didn't.

[Paracelsus]

I think its been great, and even if you would have managed to get all time zones covered, then you'd have the problem that players on less populated timezones would get the "advantage" to have less competition around. (some of the challenges were personal,on some others the first person to answer right advanced/got a point)

[Udgard]

It seemed to me like a very entertaining quest in idea, though I can't say much more from experience because the timezone problem made me unable to pass even through the first gate. I think if people are allowed to PM the gatekeeper to ask for the riddle and solve it via PM if the gatekeeper was not online at the time, that would solve a lot of the timezone issues. (I dunno, it might have actually been allowed, but I was under the impression that we need to actually be online at the same time).

[Dragual]

[quote name='Udgard' timestamp='1335240065' post='109540']
I think if people are allowed to PM the gatekeeper to ask for the riddle and solve it via PM if the gatekeeper was not online at the time, that would solve a lot of the timezone issues. (I dunno, it might have actually been allowed, but I was under the impression that we need to actually be online at the same time).
[/quote]

What about with people who have to cast a spell on you? Yes, when handing over a key, I agree. However, when spells are involved, you just have to be lucky enough to at least leave a trail that the caster can hit so you wake up in the next scene?

[Shadowseeker]

Timezones were indeed one problem since I slept less than 5h per day partially just to make sure not to miss any challenger/gatekeepers.

That aside, clarity in the puzzles were what I missed in few cases, since some of the riddles I saw were ambiguous and thus harder to solve. It's a good thing it started over the weekend, since most people have time there, however.

Alternative means of "smuggling" yourself past the challengers, but not the gatekeepers could have been interesting as well- not forking off in the passages, but just a way to silently sneak past them to get to the reward without having to solve or wait for the pesky guard.

[Chewett]

Tom Pounce was attempted to Sue Isabella due to her unfairness but we removed his post and directed him to council as he was posting the riddle she asked. He would have an intresting viewpoint i guess. I shall forward him the topic.

I didnt have time to participate in this or anything else

[Tom Pouce]

Chewett post is right info so i feel that i should post about it

I have vote in the pool, so my feedback is recorded

I see that the magority of players liked or loved this competion, I am happy for them.

My perception was different, and i had to act according to it.

To explain ill only say that at the start most questions or riddle, me failing or getting it was allright. It was percive as just (maybe hard but feasible)

(And i agree with one comment "I should give a compliment to Kyphis for posing interesting questions". It was really out of what i was expecting and interesting , but feasible.)

So when i got to what i perceived as illogical to fullfill or impossible for me ...

[Burns]

The riddles and tasks were nice, imo. Lots of diversity on the way

What i don't like that much is being locked up in one place. Almost everybody was hanging out in that darn tunnel for the past few days, making rest of the realm even less crowded. Viscosity keeps piling up all over the map, newbies have nobody to talk to except for each other... If something like that comes again, i'd prefer if it was done in a way so that people can get out and then back to where they left off.

Might just be the LHO shining through there, and i definitely didn't dislike being stuck with all those nice people who usually just run by, but it does get on my nerves.

[tankfans]

I enjoyed this competition out of all birthday event partially because this is the longest one and that caught my interest (riddles).
The tasks and riddles are not hard (not including Liberty's because I was in school when the 10th player reached the goal so his part ended before I started), I haven't been sent back for the record ^.^

I spent more than 90% of my total online time waiting for some guards to be online (the only downside I experienced). Regarding this time zone issue I could only say... well, life is unfair, it's not possible for each one of us to have the same opportunities.

I really take the opportunity to get to the place of the event, I got 3 additional research journals unlocked in the end ^.^

Nevertheless, to all the guards and organizers of this journey, thank you very much

[DarkRaptor]

Thank you to all that organized this event, i'm sure it was needed great effort and dedication, again, Thank you all!

Only frustrating thing was the guardians schedule.. for working people at timezones around GMT-0 it was a nightmare.. for 2 days i spent 14 hours online waiting for some of the first guardians... by the time i reached the last guardian i had very little time to think on the riddles because the competition ended.

Anyway it was a very nice journey and i enjoyed it, i hope there will be another chance to visit the throne room :-)

darkraptor