The Fellowship Run - Wednesday, July 11 at 9:30pm ST

[Aldekim]

having a person dedicated to registering race entrants so you can focus on managing the judges and other details is a good idea. Despite a lot of publicity about the race being a three person relay team race it was surprising how many people showed up to race solo. If they did not like who they were teamed up with in the end I have little sympathy for them as they should have noticed that it was a team relay race when they learned about the race in the first place. The format is also cost intensive as you need rewards for three people from each of the three winning teams, and that could be a problem in the future if Turbine is less generous with offering prizes. As for fashion show "special gimmicks", once in a while it is nice, but I would not do it very often. The problem is the same as the relay race format. Publicity mentioned the theme, but many entrants obviously didn't read the notices. Again I have little sympathy for people who wish to compete for prizes, but can't be bothered with reading the well publicised rules in advance. As for entertainment, there are so many creative types attending these events an open mic format is generally going to be enough, with a few staff musicians on hand should things get quiet with no volunteers taking the stage. A pre-set band for any after race functions/parties might be best, but that will not work on mid-week race dates if the event runs late as people have to go to work the next morning. This is problematic as much of the player base is either east coast or west coast (not to mention Eurpoean and Asian) so no time slot will be good for everyone. Establishing a Master of Ceremonies and Band Leader (and maybe even a stage manager)in advance might help as a "show" for immediately after the race could be firmed up in advance keeping the riders and spectaters entertained while race results are compiled.

All things considered this event went very well.

[Mellilot]

I have been involved in a couple of relay race events - although nothing quite like this one. One worked well, the other didn't. I would suggest that for another event such as this, with necessarily detailed rules, only pre-registered teams should be allowed to race. To make it more attractive as a spectator event (i.e.for the folk who turn up at the last minute, whether or not in response to regional advertising), it might be an idea to have a 'straight mile' leading to the finish, so that spectators would know where to be for a view of the finish? (Although when we ran a relay race from Michel Delving to Rivendell, perhaps 2/3rds of the spectators ran alongside the whole way!)

I really sympathise with the chaos Kira had to deal with, folk not having bothered to read the race requirements and rules beforehand. So well done Kira for actually getting the race run!

[Byrcha]

Yeah, someone(s) to help with the logistics/details would likely help. As above, someone to engage the crowd (e.g. bandleader) would also help.

I wonder if an entry fee would have weeded out the folks who were mostly there just to goof around? Some of it was due to it being summertime, but notice that the troublemakers were mostly all still there at the end. For events like this where delays affect everyone, a one-warning policy might be enough -- these are races for serious prizes (e.g. free horses), so if they can't play by the rules why risk it ruining everyone else's experience (organizer included)? No need to put up with anyone who harasses once a warning is given.

Personally, I would not have given any kind of prize to Teddy-dude, since he dropped from the race (twice, IIRC) and then held the baton hostage -- why reward such behavior at all. Tougher call for the two teammates who were affected by Teddy's behavior; consolation prize maybe, though one of them also was disruptive. It would have been reasonable to award prizes to the top-three finishers (teams), as in other races.

As for the relay format itself, I think it can work (the real trouble was with registration and crowd-control, not so much the race itself). It adds variety to the types of races across the year, which is good. Same for the fashion shows. We simply have to accept that someone might show up looking a bit like Gollum...

I thought the choice of the cemetery for a checkpoint was inspired, but it didn't come into play much -- people could jump off the cliff and get injured, but since they didn't have to ride any further (just exchange the baton) it didn't matter like it would have for a single-rider race.

Dunno how to get people clued-in in advance. We already do as much advertising as is reasonable, but if people don't actually read the info what more can we do? Requiring preregistration is likely to cut down on attendance to the point where not enough people are present to race (Bree Cup is an exception; the prizes are so large that the prequalifying is necessary).

Voice chat for pick-up races seems to be a luxury/risk which we can do without. Maybe use voice chat for judges/organizers only (i.e. vent)? Require racers to use /raid chat -- they will all get the same info at the same time in text form. If they are disruptive, everyone will see it.

[Beorbrand]

First off, many thanks for organizing such a huge event. It's very taxing to put so much effort into something where you know there will always be individuals happy to rain on the parade. Hats off to you!

- I really liked the theme and relay part of this event. I think it's good to incorporate variety, especially if there is to be a large amount of events through the

year. I thought that the fellowship theme of the fashion show jived well with the need to have a fellowship to win the horse race.

- Regarding the lack of sign-ups in advance - you certainly had this event well publicized. Do you have the e-mails of any of the leaders of any of the rp kins on the server or Laurelin? A sort of direct marketing to RP types and groups like the Bounders and Sons of Numenor might help?

- On the plus side, it is really great to see Turbine supporting your events with prizes and the 'game in progress' buff! Let's hope we get a 'forced-emote no-no' buff soon for the concerts! I don't expect it to happen, but one can hope!

- Many hands make light work, so to speak. Finding a wingman to help with organizing riders, answering questions, etc. could help lower the stress on you, I think.

Helps speed things up, too. When we shoot BBB videos, one person is directing while others are wrangling people into groups, helping give directions, and getting people to where they need to go. It is really maddening when you are one person getting so many tells and trying to organize so many people, let alone if you are trying to deal with any griefers!

- Regarding the batons, I'd use them for one race at a time. Knowing what was used this time, a group could conceivably copy the baton to save time in transfer for future races. I don't think anyone is that ambitious, but it's a thought. How about choosing four random silly things to use each race, ie. a fish trophy, an egg, an old boot (from fishing,) etc.? Then you don't have to worry about getting them back, either. Stopping at a mailbox to pick-up an item would lose you more time, I think, then legitimately handing an item off (regarding cheating.)

- Instead of trying to organize the riders, perhaps give a ten minute window to sign up on a Google document or something similar? The alt-tab process would likely weed out the kids and allows you to enforce a short deadline. People could type that they were looking for a third, etc. and see who was already cemented into groups. The same idea could be used to place bets, perhaps, as teams formed.

- Regarding griefers - you had more patience than I would have! I think the one private tell < one public appeal < disqualification, mass ignore is the best option for dealing with such cases. Having a wingman could help deal with such instances.

- I was happy to see the prizes go to Banders (and I certainly made out like a happy bandit!) However, I fear it can leave the wrong impression on other people/kinships of bias, even if it is perceived for the wrong reasons. (A Bander event is naturally going to have more Banders to vote at fashion shows, and people who follow your race courses to succeed at the horse races.) I am unsure whether or not anything can be done about it short of making seperate prize categories for in-kin vs. out-of-kin.

[Kiralynn]

I agree that weekday races do have the problem of time limitations. I was told that I shouldn't over-schedule some other group, especially our own groups and ones that we have had social/political friction with in the past. That locks up the weekend and most weekdays. Sadly, two events were scheduled at the same time as my race, even though they didn't announce their dates until weeks after I did. (Heck, I announced my entire year's schedule up front. It wasn't easy!)

It does hurt my feelings a bit when I get in trouble for scheduling over a raid or some such, but LMB members don't catch any heat for trying to wrangle everyone for a raid at the same time as a race, especially when the raid is spontaneous.

As for only accepting pre-registered teams - that makes a lot of sense from a logistical standpoint. People who pre-reg would be more organized. Unfortunately, NO ONE signed up ahead of time for the Fellowship Run, despite over a month of advertising on my part and two weeks of advertising help from Turbine. (Not to mention adverts from Casual Stroll to Mordor, Trek Radio, Landroval Times, etc.) In fact, even with solo races, less than 5% of racers sign up before post time. Sad, but true.

I don't actually have the emails of... well, anybody except CSTM. I'd love to have their emails, but I don't want to email folks out of the blue. (No horse-spam!)

I absolutely didn't say that Turbine is working on a solution to forced emotes. Nope.

The next race is a long-distance endurance run around Evendim. I'd love to hear checkpoint suggestions if anybody wants to design a course or just have input.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Keep 'em coming? :)

[Lennidhren]

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

Here are my thoughts on the Fellowship Run. I would sincerely appreciate any constructive comments you might make.

First, I must say that I really enjoyed this event! Granted that I haven't made it to very many of the races but I think I liked this one best of the races & horse shows I've been to so far, delays and logistical issues notwithstanding. It seemed like people were generally having a good time (and most people seemed to be taking the annoying folks in stride and not really letting all that emote-spam and such interfere with their enjoyment of the event, as far as I could tell).

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

* Someone suggested the idea of themed fashion shows. This added a little more fuss to setting up the show, as many contestants arrived but didn't have an outfit of the proper theme. The event was advertised for a long time, as far and wide as possible. I think that everyone who saw the event on a calendar or post knew what to expect. However, the folks who arrived due to advertising in Regional were unprepared. I'm not sure what can be done about this, since the ad is already fairly long with just key information. There are more themed shows on the Windy Acres calendar, perhaps half are "open" and without a theme. -- What do you think of the idea of a themed fashion show? Shall we keep the ones we have scheduled or switch to an open format for all of them?

I liked it! I think a themed fashion show is both more challenging for the entrants and more interesting for the audience than a standard fashion show. It's also more challenging for the organizers! But I think it's worth the extra effort. Interesting that most of the fashion show entrants *did* plan ahead enough to know the theme they needed to dress for, whereas none of the race entrants managed to pre-register in teams of three. Probably just because stopping by a vault to make up a costume is less complicated than coordinating schedules with two friends to get them to join your relay team.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

* Someone requested a relay horse race. This sounded like a fantastic idea. Someone else recommended using named objects for batons as a way to deter cheaters. That was brilliant! Unfortunately, I don't think the race went well at all. First, NO ONE pre-registered as a team. Almost everyone had to be wrangled into teams. Not everyone was happy with their assignment of partners. Serious competitors ended up in teams with kids who were just goofing around. 80% of participants seemed to understand what to do, but the remaining confused 20% asked a lot more questions than I normally get. Also, we had stragglers without partners, and tried to wait until we could find someone to ride with them. Instead of taking 15 minutes to organize a race, it took over an hour. -- What do you think of relay races? Is there a way to organize teams faster and more fairly, or shall we scrap the idea?

Don't scrap it! Certainly there's room for refinement, but I liked this twist on the usual sort of race. I really, really liked the thematic connection between the fellowship costume theme and racing with a fellowship too...

Yes, it took a long time to organize, but how many relay races have we seen on this server before? It's a new concept to most participants, I'm sure, as well as to organizers. Next time we do a relay, it'll be a little easier as more people will remember how it worked last time - and the relay after that, even easier - and so on. Relays certainly are more challenging than standard races though. Maybe if we schedule them during the school year instead of summer? It's probably unfair of me to assume that the confused ones were the kids on summer break, though.

Getting the teams sorted out is definitely the most time consuming aspect of the relay, so that's where we can focus on streamlining things. I like Beorbrand's suggestion about a Google sign-up sheet. It's possible you'd have some entrants run into technical difficulties with alt-tabbing or editing it, but I suppose one of the judges could be designated to take tells and add people to the sign up list if they can't do it for themselves.

Another idea: Could we have a judge assigned to gather each team during the registration phase? Start by naming Judge A, Judge B, Judge C, and so on for as many teams as we're prepared to accept. Stand each judge (dressed in distinctive colors perhaps? Judge A = the red team, Judge B = the green team, etc...Have all the judges wearing a particular hauberk but each one in a different color) in a particular spot and direct entrants, after they have individually joined the race raid, to pick a judge and stand by them. Once a judge has three people in their group, that team is full. So if three people (or two) already know they want to be on the same team, they pick a judge together rather than telling Kiralynn that they are forming a team. They just go stand by their judge and form the team that way. Each judge lets Kiralynn know when they have a full team of three. (Maybe even have a cosmetic hauberk or something in each judge's distinctive color to pass around to the three racers on that team to put in their outfit slots?)

This is starting to sound complicated as I think through the keyboard. How about a summary:
- Entrants /tell Kiralynn (or a designated raid assist) for an invite to the race raid.
- Each time an entrant is added to the raid, someone (could be Kira, or could be a designated assistant) sends that person a tell with instructions to do the following:
* Look for one of the judges wearing X hauberk (could be linked in the /tell for viewing) in one of the following colors, and standing up over in this particular area...
* Find a judge who doesn't have three riders with them yet (a judge who has 3 riders already will be sitting, so look for a standing judge) and go line up with that judge and /tell him/her you are joining that team.
* If you already have a friend or two you want to team up with, all of you should join up with the same judge.
* The judge will give you a team uniform. Slot it in one of your cosmetic outfit slots to identify what team you're on.
- As soon as a judge has 3 entrants, they /sit down and /tell Kiralynn that team [Color] is full. Once all the teams are full, each judge can call off in /ra or in tells to Kira, the list of riders on their team.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

* The biggest detriment to the event was the number of immature players in attendance. I know that at least a few were IRL children, probably allowed to stay up late since it's summer. I encountered literally ten times more problems at this event than at any other event I have hosted. Here's a run down...

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

- Two people were disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior during an event - one of these was for a spam-tantrum. I gave two warnings, one private and then one public, before DQing anyone.

Handled well, I thought.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

- The number of "harassing" questions was insane yesterday. Superdangerman was the worst offender. I consider a question harassing after the information has been given in raid chat and the question has been privately asked and answered twice. - One of the racers, Midevilteddybear, tried to hold the baton hostage and told me to give him gold before he would return it. I couldn't convince him otherwise. Finally, I told Whopperjr (his troublemaker partner) that his team was going to be awarded prizes, but instead was getting DQed because Teddy wouldn't turn in his baton. He harassed Teddy into bringing it back, even though Teddy kept demanding to know "what prize". I had been intending to give that team a prize, as an apology for the long wait and difficulties getting the race started. I ended up resenting giving them anything. At least I got the baton back. I have now developed an instinctive mistrust of anyone with a silly name.

Yeah...someone mentioned, after this happened, hoping these people would never join our kin - happily, with our naming policy, they never could. I think Teddy and Whopper have demonstrated perfectly why we have that naming policy.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

-- Also on the plus side, Beorbrand won 1000 TP and 20 gold. Most of the prizes went to LMB members.

I noted that and chalked it up to the fact that kin members are the most regular attendees of Windy Acres events. Experience pays off! Also, kin members are getting pre-race info here on our forums as well as all the other outlets that non-kin members get it from. Banders should be well informed if they're making any effort at all!

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

I feel like the show was a moderate success but that the relay race was an overall failure. I simply couldn't manage that much chaos in my chat window. Perhaps in future events, I should ask for a volunteer to either take sign-ups or handle questions, so that these duties (and thus the volume of text) is divided across two people?

I'd volunteer for such a role. Heh, by the end of the show I'd started advertising the Windy Acres URL to everyone who asked about future events, seeing as you were busy trying to get prizes handed out. And given the difficulties I have judging races because of lag messing with my screenshots, handling chat traffic is something I'm much better equipped to help with.

I think you are being too hard on yourself in this assessment of the event. I thought the fashion show was a lot of fun - OK, I love themed contests in general! - and that the race was one of the most fun I've watched precisely because of the relay aspect of it. Yes, there was a lot of delay but I didn't feel that detracted as much from the race as it seemed to you, being inundated with all the tells and problems and logistics of organizing it. From an audience/judge perspective, it was no failure!

I'd propose delegating organizer duties as follows:
- A raid assist who can add judges & contestants to the raid. Instead of telling those who ask how to sign up to send a tell to Kiralynn, we tell them to send a tell to this assistant. Probably some will still /tell Kira out of habit, but announcing someone else's name should at least decrease the number of "Add me" tells she has to deal with.
- A help desk assist to handle questions. This person could be in the raid watching for questions and answering them, and also fielding questions in /regional and /say and wherever else they show up. This person could also periodically broadcast "Send me a /tell if you have any questions about how the race works!" in the same channels. Then, Kira can just ignore any questions she's getting (except any that the help desk person forwards to her, in case one comes up that that person can't answer!) and focus on the overall organizing.

That leaves what tasks for Kiralynn? Announcing the shows and race - posting the rules and instructions into /ra and/or /regional when it's time for them to be announced - watching for questions forwarded to her by the help desk assist - occasionally adding someone to the raid if a person just didn't see the directions for sending a /tell to the raid assist for that - handing out prizes at the end (well, you could always delegate that too) - leading the pace lap of the race - what else? Of course, even more of that list could be delegated but I would assume some of those things are what you *want* to do yourself, so my raid assist/help desk assist suggestion focuses on freeing you up from the /tell spam and /ra spam that was making it harder for you to do the parts of organizing a race you really enjoy at this event.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

Infinite kudos to the judges and musicians. I think the crowd would have rioted if not for the music. The event would never have happened without the judges. I apologize to everyone for the event running so long. No event ever took that long in the past.

As someone (Aldekim I think?) mentioned a few posts back, we ended up just having open mic format for the music and that worked brilliantly. Couldn't do much to organize group music since most of the musicians were being organized as judges or entrants at the same time, but the solo music was enough to occupy those not involved in setting up for the race. Adding a MC to keep the music coming - perhaps not as formally as the stage manager for A&T does but just someone to call for the next act and provide filler music if no one else is stepping up - could help, as there were some down times in between musicians when no one seemed to know what to do next. An MC who could focus on keeping the stage active, who wouldn't be distracted by any other aspects of the event by being a judge or participant, could help.

[Kiralynn]

In addition to the "Game In Progress" speed lock and looking into forced emotes, Turbine is also working on a longer race track that goes far afield from Hengstacer Farms. It was hard to find one's way between such far-flung flags, but paving stones have been added to assist with that. I expect to see more upgrades on it, soon.

If they add an actual mini-game to it, I'll faint, then cheer, then faint again.

We did have a GM on hand for the first half hour... hour or so? That was nice.

I'm glad the event was less boring from delays than I thought it must have been!

[Aldekim]

Having made the suggestion about entertainment it is only reasonable that I volunteer to act as MC unless someone else really wants to do it for future races. Fortunately Wednesdays is one of the days I am most consistently avaiable.

[Dannigan]

Heya folks! Heya Kira!

I will try to keep my answers short-ish and concise here.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

-- What do you think of the idea of a themed fashion show? Shall we keep the ones we have scheduled or switch to an open format for all of them?

I recommend taking this with a "one day at a time" approach and see how they go. It is clear that some folks really had a good time and it would be a shame to just shut the shows down. Keep the scheduled shows and take notes with every show to further improve future events.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

-- What do you think of relay races? Is there a way to organize teams faster and more fairly, or shall we scrap the idea?

I think the relay races are a fun idea, though I have mixed feelings concerning the notion for an entry fee. Some folks who have paid to enter might expect more, yet others might take the race more seriously. It seems worth trying.

As for allowing only teams that pre-registered, well, shoot! If that were a pre-req of this race, the race would not have happened as no one pre-registered. Too many folks are not reading the directions here (and I believe there is nothing those holding the event can do about folks who cannot bother to read and understand). I think it is best to have participants who read and understand if you get my meaning. =)

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

-- On the plus side, Turbine applied a "Game In Progress" buff to most of our riders (all but the late-comers) that locked them to 100% movement, regardless of other factors.

This is wonderful! How many other MMORPGs out there get support like this for their events?

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

Perhaps in future events, I should ask for a volunteer to either take sign-ups or handle questions, so that these duties (and thus the volume of text) is divided across two people?

Definitely.

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

I apologize to everyone for the event running so long. No event ever took that long in the past.

I apologize for having to go to bed instead of helping out! I wanted to be in on the fun. =)

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

I'm glad the event was less boring from delays than I thought it must have been!

You were busy! Organizing the event while deep in /tell-land and having to deal with a few knuckleheads makes for a busy Kira. I also recommend a second person to help organize these races; it is too much for one person alone to reasonably handle.

Honor and fun,
Mithrilfist a.k.a. Dannigan

[Kiralynn]

I read this in Massively's article: "You actually upshift and downshift your mount between five different speeds: dead stop, walk, trot, canter, and gallop."

I can only pray that they include this will ALL horses, not just warhorses. This would be so incredibly awesome for formation riding, racing and roleplay!

If you have a moment, please go over to the Turbine forums and ask for this in a post. They obviously already have the code to do it. It's not too late to add, as they are still working on the expansion. Thank you!