|
|
|
He can make it happen.
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 6/22/2010 1:26:29 PM
Posts: 272,
Visits: 1,975
|
|
Here is what we are thinking moving forward for gamerscore events:
- Keep the team format
- February will be free to play with very minimal prizes, more of a recreational league
- March will be $10 per person to join and feature over 60,000 MS Points in prizes for top 2 teams and top 3 individuals
- Games will be any US retail or Xbox LIVE game released in the current and previous month
- February event will be 14 days from the 15th until the 28th.
- March event will be all 21 days of March 8th until March 28th
I need some feedback from all of you gamerscore people if this works or if you have other ideas?
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/2/2010 12:16:06 PM
Posts: 16,
Visits: 132
|
|
So the February challenge would include all games released in January and February? Are you going to allow games released DURING the challenge to be included? Are you going to publish a list of approved games? If so, release a January list and allow feedback from players, then set it in stone. If someone wants a January game included that was missed, they need to speak up before the list is final. I think it is important to keep the list of games static except for newly released games, if you allow them, which can be officially added to list as necessary once released.
The challenge should be who can play these games the quickest, not who can find an obscure game no one thought to put on the list.
My suggestion is to not include games released during the challenge but to set the final list in stone before the challenge begins.
You may also want to allow for limited corrections for unintentional offline achievements and leave it to the judge to determine if it is being abused. I know my connection is sporadic at times and I lost a few hundred points in the last challenge simply because I wasn't aware my connection was lost.
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/14/2010 2:22:14 AM
Posts: 29,
Visits: 437
|
|
I'd still like to know who won the last one. There is the leaderboard of course, but I can't tell who the individual winners were. I shouldn't have to go through the top teams and fish those people out of the leaderboard and see who's left. Also you guys need to get that time zone thing sorted out because what I looked at seemed like total bs to me.
 
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/20/2010 6:59:30 AM
Posts: 40,
Visits: 487
|
|
kaens (2/3/2010)
I'd still like to know who won the last one. There is the leaderboard of course, but I can't tell who the individual winners were. I shouldn't have to go through the top teams and fish those people out of the leaderboard and see who's left. Also you guys need to get that time zone thing sorted out because what I looked at seemed like total bs to me.
The individual scores are posted on the right side of the standings page.
Get-Well-Gamers Gamerscore Challenge Top Individuals
Construc - 16735
IndigoFerret - 16240
zack - 13840
zvoz - 13545
Speirs - 13515
Gameyard Mizz - 11445
HotTubMan - 10930
STB - 10715
SpidermanMTL - 10685
Bomber37 - 9805
Become a Facebook Fan 
|
|
|
|
|
He can make it happen.
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 6/22/2010 1:26:29 PM
Posts: 272,
Visits: 1,975
|
|
| I think what Kaens is looking for are the top individuals who are NOT on a top team, basically the current leaderboard for those prizes. This shouldn't be too hard to display.
|
|
|
|
|
He can make it happen.
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 6/22/2010 1:26:29 PM
Posts: 272,
Visits: 1,975
|
|
Indigo - That is a good idea/point about the games list. It doesn't make sense to have overlapping games. Then people could hold easy games from one month for the next month. I like the January released games counting for February idea.
The gamelist won't change from this point forward. For the Get Well Gamers event we wanted to make everyone happy since it was a charity event but for the regular monthly challenges it will be very strict. Using the previous month's releases should make this pretty straightforward also with no surprises.
What about a minimum of 3 or 5 corrected offline achievements for mistakes? I also had 2 achievements I got offline last month when I didn't realize I had been disconnected. A small number allowed should cover accidents and not allow for stockpiling.
We have the timezone thing figured out but it is a bit complicated. When all of us view XBox.com in our browsers they show the achievement dates as relative to our current time zone. However all achievements are time/date stamped with GMT it appears. So moving forward we will post the times that achievements are allowed in EST and PST formats that have nothing to do with the local time. If you get an achievement at 5 PM PST that is actually 3 AM GMT (I think that is the correct math) and it would count for the following day, not the current day.
If you view Kaen's account at XBox.com you can see his achievements marked 1/31 for the last two in Madagascar Karts and all of the 1/31 in Sonic UGC but if you look at the source code of that SAME page Microsoft has date stamped them as 2/1 or specifically 1 1 2010 (they start their months at 0, so month 0 = January, month 1 = February, etc.).
We only grab the date right now, not the time. We will try to switch to grab the time also and then adjust for a more US based time zone instead of being forced to use GMT.
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/14/2010 2:22:14 AM
Posts: 29,
Visits: 437
|
|
re: timezone - exactly, all of the major internet sites use GMT and then translate it. So going forward, I suggest they specify in the rules midnight pacific then left the rest of us do the math. Like 360voice, they go by midnight so I know it's 3am my time.
re: leaderboard - again Zak has it correct. The site just gave out over $500 in prizes for charity and there is nothing on the front page? I can go to the leaderboard and see the teams, but from there I can't even see who was in the teams I have to go back to the registration page, pop multiple windows, then go back to the individual leaderboard and compare that list vs my three popups from the winning teams.
re: going forward - Using only games that are from the past month or two months means I wont be participating at all. I can't afford to buy the games that quickly, gamefly isn't fast enough, so people who utilize the gaming centers will always win. How many games came out this month? Given access to the games I'm sure I could max out any given months games, cept year end obviously. Which means you might very well end up with ties so I suggest planning something for that.
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/2/2010 12:16:06 PM
Posts: 16,
Visits: 132
|
|
arCtiC (2/3/2010)
The individual scores are posted on the right side of the standings page.
Get-Well-Gamers Gamerscore Challenge Top Individuals
Construc - 16735
IndigoFerret - 16240
zack - 13840
zvoz - 13545
Speirs - 13515
Gameyard Mizz - 11445
HotTubMan - 10930
STB - 10715
SpidermanMTL - 10685
Bomber37 - 9805
The original rules stated that ALL achievements earned until 11:59pm 1/31 would be included. Because of the time zone issue there are quite a few achievements not included in the scoreboard that many people earned in the last few hours before the real and stated end time for the competition and not the artificial end time created by the methodology used by your reporting tool. I can specifically state that this would change the final individual results and might possibly change the 3rd place team.
I think it is important to account for the shortfall in the reporting tool and ensure that all points are included. I know that I worked my @$$ off in the last few hours to ensure I had the top score and I wouldn't be happy if that were taken away.
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/2/2010 12:16:06 PM
Posts: 16,
Visits: 132
|
|
| BTW, if time zone is going to be an issue going forward, make sure to add a countdown timer on the standings page so people are sure when the challenge is actually over.
|
|
|
|
|
He can make it happen.
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 6/22/2010 1:26:29 PM
Posts: 272,
Visits: 1,975
|
|
Alright, you guys sound a bit worked up so I want to bring it down a notch. I don't think you intend to have such a brash tone in your posts but they are coming across pretty forceful.
For the January Get Well Gamer Challenge we are still adding up the points, we have to now add all of the last 5 hours of achievements manually to everyone's scores before we post the results. This was the first challenge that we had come down to the last day and was the first time we became aware of the problem with the way Xbox.com shows you a date in your browser that is DIFFERENT than the date in the source code of the same page.
So let us get the challenge finished up and we will make sure and put all of the results up and get the prizes sent out to everyone.
Moving forward.....
- Of course we will get the time stamps ironed out, defined and published before the next challenge.
- Kaens I agree with you about the limited game selection for one month. However do you have any ideas on how to achieve (pun intended) the controls I am looking for? I want to make a league that is more professional and gives no advantage to lower scored accounts to plow through hundreds of easy games to win a month's challenge. The guys with 100k points already should never consider starting a new account for a challenge if we set this up correctly.
- Kaens what do you think about using the weighted system we created earlier that was used in May's competition last year? This would take away the allure of playing easy games as the points would be worth less.
- Keep in mind that through all of this all of us are doing this because of our love for competition. None of us are paid for this and even my game centers lose money through our various tournaments and challenges. We do this because it is fun and gives everyone something to do in the world of gaming which we all share the passion.
I put together a scenario today for a prize pool of over 60,000 MS Points. I am thinking of doing this as a March challenge. The breakdown would go like this:
1st place team - 32,000 points (8000 each)
2nd place team - 22,400 points (5600 each)
1st place individual - 4000 points
2nd place individual - 3200 points
3rd place individual - 1600 points
My questions for this scenario are:
- What do you think we could charge per person to join the challenge to help cover the cost?
- How many players/teams do you think we can drum up if we announce this soon and get a good 3 weeks to promote it?
|
|
|
|