Last Goodbye - Halloween Results and Feedback

[Blake]

That and if the monster portrayals are for fun instead of for prizes, it would have less of an influence on whom participates and as what, which is better in the long run.

While monsters are not incentivized, beyond YOU GET TO RP D00D, I do agree.

 

I had planned to pilot a monster in addition to Flowey, but the issue was the overlap of things people knew I liked (thus would guess) with characters I would choose.

 

It's why I would have been Bojack Horseman, had I gotten caught up on the series in time.

 

It feels restrictive to not choose franchises you're known to love, and for fun does enable that.

 

Also, out of curiosity, what would've happened had we not figured it out?

An anti-climactic ending that no one would be happy with.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I have long expressed that I don't give a sheet about if people figure out which monster I am. And, to be quite honest, it has made the events far more enjoyable for me. Both Bill and Riddler were insanely obvious, but since I didn't have to try to be something people wouldn't guess, it allowed me to do something I truly wanted to.

 

As for problems with this year: The event was too long. Gonna be totally honest with that one. I am all but certain that the sweet spot lies at two weeks. Additionally, many monsters threw curveballs in just the first few days, making it confusing for people trying to get to know the group.

 

Another major issue was that so many challenges, as well as the final mystery, revolved around having deep knowledge of the sources for characters. For someone unversed in the material, it pushes them away. To win Simon's trial, pretty intensive Undertale spoilers were needed. Now, I mysel didn't mind having it spoiled, but if I was uncomfortable with spoilers, I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to proceed with the event. From what I gathered, this is an issue many others mirror my concern with.

 

Finally, and this is 100% a personal grievance, DON'T funking PRETEND YOU KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS WHEN YOU DON'T. I worked damn hard on my challenge, and whenever someone (mostly a specific someone) said something about having already solved it, and how easy it was, it kinda set me off. If you actually had figured it out, or at least made progress on it, that's one thing, but to sit back and say my riddles were easy when you can't do sheet to solve them is just trash sportsmanship.

[Tesability Black]

Finally, and this is 100% a personal grievance, DON'T F*CKING PRETEND YOU KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS WHEN YOU DON'T. I worked damn hard on my challenge, and whenever someone (mostly a specific someone) said something about having already solved it, and how easy it was, it kinda set me off. If you actually had figured it out, or at least made progress on it, that's one thing, but to sit back and say my riddles were easy when you can't do sh!t to solve them is just trash sportsmanship.

I can amen to this, actually. Unless you're willing to prove it, don't bother opening your mouth on it, that's what I think.

[Blake]

I have long expressed that I don't give a sheet about if people figure out which monster I am. And, to be quite honest, it has made the events far more enjoyable for me. Both Bill and Riddler were insanely obvious, but since I didn't have to try to be something people wouldn't guess, it allowed me to do something I truly wanted to.

 

As for problems with this year: The event was too long. Gonna be totally honest with that one. I am all but certain that the sweet spot lies at two weeks. Additionally, many monsters threw curveballs in just the first few days, making it confusing for people trying to get to know the group.

 

Another major issue was that so many challenges, as well as the final mystery, revolved around having deep knowledge of the sources for characters. For someone unversed in the material, it pushes them away. To win Simon's trial, pretty intensive Undertale spoilers were needed. Now, I mysel didn't mind having it spoiled, but if I was uncomfortable with spoilers, I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to proceed with the event. From what I gathered, this is an issue many others mirror my concern with.

 

Finally, and this is 100% a personal grievance, DON'T funking PRETEND YOU KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS WHEN YOU DON'T. I worked damn hard on my challenge, and whenever someone (mostly a specific someone) said something about having already solved it, and how easy it was, it kinda set me off. If you actually had figured it out, or at least made progress on it, that's one thing, but to sit back and say my riddles were easy when you can't do sheet to solve them is just trash sportsmanship.

Yeah, idk why they all went BTW HERE'S MY TRUE FORM so soon. Broken told me he was going to do Toot just a few days in, but then Cat suddenly went evil!Smile, and Broken waited.

 

Even so, it caused a gap in the middle of the event where nothing happened, and the fact that a number of the monsters did very little hurt even more. I really want to see better in this department, because I got a good amount of "Wow the monsters are duds this year" comments, especially early on. Achmed, Sans, Chara, Pepsi Man, and Riddler largely dodged this, even early on.

 

This year just had a number of monsters who people felt were either throwaway, annoying, or plain not even acting. While I'm glad people got to have fun as those monsters, I wish that there would be more effort on the monster front to entertain people. And I was guilty of being one of these with Baalmon, because in my pursuit of trying to find something people would not expect, I lost track of knowing the monster's niche.

 

Again, I'm sorry about the spoilers in the final event. You didn't really need to know anything about Simon, other than that he was a shady and clever mother funker, but the Undertale thing was me trying to ground Simon in manipulating or working with the other monster(s).

 

It would have ended up being any monster, but Chara stood out as the greatest force of evil. I tried to work with Frank, at first, but that ended in a screenshot much the same as the Riddler did, which made me feel like it would cost the event to work with them/be obvious they were being manipulated, even though I really wanted Simon to manage a network. This was not explained, however, to preserve Simon's 'innocence', so I'm not blaming either of you. Just stating how it came to be that Chara was most important.

 

The final event was intentionally winged, beyond a basic idea, as to keep it tied to the monsters who appeared/had a true showing. And, as I said, it wasn't even meant to be a true murder mystery. Just to prove Simon was an absolute monster who had no good intentions, and to link strange happenings to him (though the comment he placed on Flowey's profile gave away the connection to Chara, but next to no one seemed to realize that?). Chara/Yui had come forward asking to be the final boss, though, so I decided to let them ride shotgun. We also began planning a "Duel Chara" boss battle, but issues arose between Chara's "rage quit" and how hard it was to plan a duel where you could SPARE someone.

 

I'm a bit notorious for winging things, though, so I could have probably taken a better route with proving Simon's guilt.

 

Finally... I have to kinda agree, too.

 

I was greatly amused that people fell for you and Cow bullshitting them, and with how accurate you were at first, but later into the event it was ridiculous.

 

I was asked to have you or Cow give hints, which was the point where I finally said "they aren't involved, when did I ever say they were".

 

It's not exactly the same, and I'm certainly not mad at the entertainment, but it did impede people trying to finish the event, because they were so hung up on their hint sources.

 

When the only hint source was Kay. And Pepsi Man playing the role of "Detective Dick Gumshoe" at the end, hence 'Gummy'.

 

I had no control over Dane's actions, surprisingly, and I fed him no info.

[Kazooie]

I had no control over Dane's actions, surprisingly, and I fed him no info.

 

Whenever you see Dane doing something in relation to Josh, it's safe to assume there was no communication there. Dane is a wild card and he just does whatever he feels like at any given time.

 

Sometimes he feels like messing with Josh.

[The Warden]

Honestly, I kinda regret going Toot since I was so much harder to guess as Betty. And, I dunno, I don't think I was giving my all as Toot a little ways in.

[~British Soul~]

@Broke: Not gonna lie, I managed to get you before you became Toot.

[The Warden]

How~?

 

And truth be told, I worked more for difficulty than entertainment, a bad call on my part since I had nothing to really show for it.

[Blake]

How~?

 

And truth be told, I worked more for difficulty than entertainment, a bad call on my part since I had nothing to really show for it.

This was the mistake I made as Baalmon, as opposed to Dantalion.

 

The former was difficulty over execution, latter was a generic shapeshifter, loosely based on a CFV's interpretation, but female. Masks and all. Much more satisfied with the latter, as well.

[~British Soul~]

How~?

I'd say it was a lucky guess. I saw Betty post in the MLP thread and I looked through the pages to see if any of the people who semi-frequent the thread were in the halloween event, and I noticed you have posted in said thread.

[The Warden]

Yeah, I'd say lucky guess too. I mean, even if I was a poster in the thread, it would be in Betty's character to be enamoured by cute horses. So yeah, that's a win gamble right there.

 

Honestly I didn't think things through enough, though people did enjoy Toot decking Simon at least. *Shrugs* At least I can try harder next year.

[~British Soul~]

I'm also gonna try harder next year as well (as I felt I should've done more, but I stayed true to who I was playing in the event), and I do like the idea of there potentially being no monster hunt. It'd be fun to masquerade as a monster for the fun of it.

[The Nyx Avatar]

I'm also gonna try harder next year as well (as I felt I should've done more, but I stayed true to who I was playing in the event)

Same.

 

Also, a monster hunt isn't intended for next year. But we'll still be able to do challenges, right?

[The Warden]

Since the masquerade is for entertainment, then yeah, you should still be able to do challenges just for the hell of it.

[~British Soul~]

Same.

 

Also, a monster hunt isn't intended for next year. But we'll still be able to do challenges, right?

For the hell of it? Yeah. Having prizes of reps/points seems a bit... meh.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Running under the blind assumption my pitched idea ends up happening (far too early to determine TBH) there WILL be an equivalent of challenges, with a sort of reward, but it will be implemented quite differently.

[TF2_The_Scout]

Running under the blind assumption my pitched idea ends up happening (far too early to determine TBH) there WILL be an equivalent of challenges, with a sort of reward, but it will be implemented quite differently.

By reward, what do you mean?

[Βyakuya]

I was never really in it for the Hunting thing anyway. The monster event for me was a way to interact in a new Persona and just have plain fun. Korosensei and Elizabeth were kind of throwaways, but like Giga, I really didn't care if you pinned me down; I just want to have fun interacting with you all in this way before the surprise in the end. Isn't that the concept of a masquerade ball anyway?

 

There also wasn't incentive in me to try to guess who anyone else was either. I tried guessing this year but I gave up after only a few guesses, and after I had guessed right and known who some people were, it just made me lose the surprise and from there I could have predicted whatever they would act, so it ruined the excitement of roleplay without knowing the capabilities of other members.

 

Though I think that we are going in a brighter direction seeing now the quality of most monster acts have been pretty good. Maybe, if only there was an ample amount of time to commit to these, as well as making them more suitable and doable by most members, we would have stronger incentives. Another thing I thought of was rewarding based on popularity from a final poll and being awarded, but that still has the same kind of problems as the current issue, or maybe worse. Regardless, I think that if we are to move to this new step, even with monster challenges, there might be some people who have little incentives anyway. Maybe increase the number of participants to 25-30?

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I've noticed the most obvious monsters tend to be the ones that have most fun so I totally can say "no monster hunt" is okay despite me having done so well these past couple years with it.

I keep saying each year I'd love to be a FE monster but it'd be soooo obvious

Ironically my idea for next year is a lot different this time

[bury the year]

Here's my $0.03. I didn't participate this year (nor have I other years), but I do at least have structural feedback.

 

Suggestion for new (well, not "new") event: In 2009, the monsters had pinned threads in each section where they'd "trick or treat" people. Maybe you'd have to fulfill some errand in order to get the treat (like a stamp or such): otherwise, you'd get tricked. Or it could be completely arbitrary, idk. I forget exactly how it worked.

 

What I do agree with is that the execution of the event this year seemed way too complex for too little reward. Simplifying it may help to increase participation, particularly if the reward isn't so big and is easier to distribute over a larger group of people. I'd also suggest cutting down on the time this takes - however long it was this year (didn't track), it was way too long. I agree with the sentiment that people were getting fatigued.

 

Third, no autoplay of hidden music, please. I (and others) listen to music on iTunes or YouTube when on YCM, and to have random other music pop up when browsing and not to have an easily accessible off switch is a pain in the ass. If you're gonna have music, at least embed the player in the first post using doHTML so that we can turn it off easily.

[Blake]

Here's my $0.03. I didn't participate this year (nor have I other years), but I do at least have structural feedback.

 

Suggestion for new (well, not "new") event: In 2009, the monsters had pinned threads in each section where they'd "trick or treat" people. Maybe you'd have to fulfill some errand in order to get the treat (like a stamp or such): otherwise, you'd get tricked. Or it could be completely arbitrary, idk. I forget exactly how it worked.

 

What I do agree with is that the execution of the event this year seemed way too complex for too little reward. Simplifying it may help to increase participation, particularly if the reward isn't so big and is easier to distribute over a larger group of people. I'd also suggest cutting down on the time this takes - however long it was this year (didn't track), it was way too long. I agree with the sentiment that people were getting fatigued.

 

Third, no autoplay of hidden music, please. I (and others) listen to music on iTunes or YouTube when on YCM, and to have random other music pop up when browsing and not to have an easily accessible off switch is a pain in the ass. If you're gonna have music, at least embed the player in the first post using doHTML so that we can turn it off easily.

The first point has already been discussed, and such is the basis for the pitch we were given for next year. That seems more or less agreed, though stamps have proven to be arbitrary.

 

The reward was actually decently large, but there was meant to be an additional reward for actually finishing the event. People just had to band together to do it all, so it was harder to distribute.

 

That said, I admit that it was a bit harder than I realized it was.

 

While I understand concerns, I also found a lot of people enjoyed that. I got thanks for the special effects and the like, and it gave atmosphere.

 

Barring cases of spoilers to a character, the embedded player could easily be there, but... Again, spoilers. If there's a way to turn it off without revealign the song (the way I did it means it doesn't even show up in YT history feeds), then I'd be fine with that.

[bury the year]

While I understand concerns, I also found a lot of people enjoyed that. I got thanks for the special effects and the like, and it gave atmosphere.

 

Barring cases of spoilers to a character, the embedded player could easily be there, but... Again, spoilers. If there's a way to turn it off without revealign the song (the way I did it means it doesn't even show up in YT history feeds), then I'd be fine with that.

There are a number of free embed-ables (sic?) such as Billy that would serve these requirements: you just need to know where to look. Only things to do would be to rename the filename/URL such that it doesn't relate to the character.