[PMC] Addressing the most popular forum question next week.

[MasterCommaThe]

Whenever we have a CTF, the most popular question is...well: "Are the servers up yet?"...

 

But aside from that, the next most popular question is, for various reasons, "When is the next CTF?"

 

I understand we don't want burn-out on events since they're a revenue generator, but I personally think 6 months is too long between events. Note: They don't all have to be CTF. <Glances over at 3 separate forum posts about some form of Zombie Survival.>

 

So I'd like to ask the Admins, and Techs to put their heads together, look at your calendars and declare at least a month, within the next 6, when we'll have the next event so we have something to tell our players at the end of CTF this weekend. We don't have to announce the exact day, or what the event will be, this is hype and it thrives on ambiguous details.

 

Why is this important to do now? CTF is our largest advertising opportunity to reach a huge number of players from all different servers simultaneously and really make them excited about their community.

 

I volunteer (Oh hell, what am I getting myself into.) to preside over a month long contest on C to build the starting base and LZ of a Zombie Survival event if the Tech's think they can pull that off as their next event. Ideally this contest will kick off following CTF, and if you will, announced at the end of CTF. Players will build anywhere on C, and mail me the coords of their build, built to certain specifications (i.e. less than 150x150x150 cube), I will select the top 5 builds (ensuring they meet the specifications that will work for the event) and put them up for a community poll as to which is best. The poll will close a week later. Giving the community the final decision I think will give our players a much stronger feeling of involvement in their events. There will still be plenty of room for surprises and secrets.  I'd like you guys (Tech's and Admin's) to give me a Go/Delay decision on this potential contest by Thursday at 4pm EST. I really do think we can go for this and there is enough community interest in some form of Zombie/Mob Survival to be worthwhile.

 

This idea makes CTF not just one big thing for our community, but several. S and P, can you offer some similar ideas to announce at the end of CTF? Perhaps the next arena tournament or pig races or whatever it is you do with blocks?

[TheRandomnatrix]

I was discussing with totemo the other day on IRC about looking to other servers and bukkit plugins for minigames on the servers, particularly for use on S. Many of these minigame plugins are already made, and do not require additional work beyond a search through the source code for malicious intent. The implementation of things like these is entirely up to the discretion of the server admins and techs, but I just thought I'd bring it up.

 

Granted, your ulterior motive is obviously seeing your zombie survival map become a thing, but upon lamenting the increased frequency of official events where all 3 servers go down, the notion that it would present a drain to staff came into play. When you look into the constant updating of usually in-house plugins, the sheer organizing it requires from a multitude of mods and admins, many of which have their respective servers to attend to, I can see it quickly becoming a chore for some.

 

I'm all for seeing more events on the servers, but recognize that that increase comes at a cost, and one person's willingness to throw themselves at 1 or 2 events is not enough to make that happen.