Fifth Quest Planning and Discussion

[Glenn the Great]

If the time restraints on the 4th contest weren't so tight we would've seen 8 entries for that, and even with the 6 that made it, real life issues crept up on half of those responsible for judging the thing, with a few dropping out entirely. This led to the longest "waiting for a result" period only trumped by Duke Nukem Forever.

I want to remind everybody about what happened with the judging situation during the 3rd Quest Contest.

For that contest there were 3 or 4 judges, and all of them dropped out for one reason or another several months after judging had started.

The Silent Assassin (aka TSA), wanting to salvage the contest, disqualified his own personal entry and then took it upon himself to be the sole judge of the quests himself.
The administration decided to roll with it because without a judge there would be no contest. TSA picked a winner, AlphaDawg, fairly quickly.

There were accusations of favoritism (AlphaDawg was TSA's best friend on the forums), accusations that TSA didn't play all the quests (TSA somehow managed to beat 7 or 8 quests in a matter of maybe a couple weeks).
Then you had the whole back-and-forth with the people accusing the accusers of sour grapes... what do you expect when you only have 1 judge? The whole point of multiple judges is to avoid that sort of controversy.

The point I'm trying to make is that judging these things is an enormous effort, and you want to make sure you have people who understand what they are getting into and will commit to the job, and yes, judging will probably be a several month-long affair.

[Gleeok]

Thread updated: The poll is now anonymous.

I want to remind everybody about what happened with the judging situation during the 3rd Quest Contest.

For that contest there were 3 or 4 judges, and all of them dropped out for one reason or another several months after judging had started.

The Silent Assassin (aka TSA), wanting to salvage the contest, disqualified his own personal entry and then took it upon himself to be the sole judge of the quests himself.
The administration decided to roll with it because without a judge there would be no contest. TSA picked a winner, AlphaDawg, fairly quickly.

There were accusations of favoritism (AlphaDawg was TSA's best friend on the forums), accusations that TSA didn't play all the quests (TSA somehow managed to beat 7 or 8 quests in a matter of maybe a couple weeks).
Then you had the whole back-and-forth with the people accusing the accusers of sour grapes... what do you expect when you only have 1 judge? The whole point of multiple judges is to avoid that sort of controversy.

The point I'm trying to make is that judging these things is an enormous effort, and you want to make sure you have people who understand what they are getting into and will commit to the job, and yes, judging will probably be a several month-long affair.

Yes, this was actually my main concern. I realize what happened in the 3rd and 4th contests (I was also part of the 4th), so fixing that is a must. What we've decided, and also seems to be the best option, is to have open 5th reviews and judging by the entire community to narrow it down to the top 3 or 4 quests.

What's that, you say!? A popularity contest? How can many people play all those quests when a few cannot? That's crazy!
Not exactly. There won't be any polls and peer reviews will require a full post. Reviews from people that didn't play a quest will not hurt that quests overall rating, provided people are honest (some math may be involved). The goal here is too narrow it down to the top tier contenders where they can be judged fairly. Also, we know if a 5th entry is a strong candidate without having to play it beginning to end, so the developers and final judges reserve the right to save any really good candidates from elimination. In short: If you make a really strong 5th quest, we will know it is good.
Also, from past experience, the majority may not always be right but they get it pretty close most of the time.

Another thing is the possibility of streaming or LP's of many of the quests. New technology is sometimes cool. Ya?

So we're going to see how well this works. :)

[erm2003]

I'm on the fence myself. I don't have a ton of time normally but I will have a couple weeks that I can devote to this soon and I can probably crank quite a bit of it out and make a decent entry. I will have a better idea in a week or so.

[CJC]

Wouldn't it be okay for participants to also serve as judges if they:

1.) Were disallowed from voting for their own project

2.) Were REQUIRED to vote for one of the projects they played

3.) Were REQUIRED to give point-by-point explanations for their vote decision, to show they didn't just pick an opponent out of a hat because it was part of the rules.



FYI, I am participating and my quest is going to have [redacted] and [redacted] as well as a [redacted] that will [redacted].

(I've decided to be more secretive about my plans, since announcing them just results in more contest rules. )

[Orithan]

I will join in. Even when I don't have access to ZC, I can rough out the room layouts. The dungeom layouts will be themed after [THAT'S CLASSIFIED!] and will contain custom enemies like [THAT'S CLASSIFIED!] and [THAT'S CLASSIFIED!] to make the quest more challenging.

[Glenn the Great]

I'd like to make a quest for this contest, but having made one for the 3rd quest contest back when I was in High School, and now with my full time job plus other activities on the side, I know I don't have that kind of time anymore.

On the other hand, I figure I could save a lot of time if I start with my old 3rd quest entry, make some tweaks and put on some polish, and enter that in.
Not a whole lot of people have played it so it would still be a new experience for most people, and under the new set of rules I might get to do some things with it that I didn't get to do last time.

[Imzogelmo]

On the other hand, I figure I could save a lot of time if I start with my old 3rd quest entry, make some tweaks and put on some polish, and enter that in.
Not a whole lot of people have played it so it would still be a new experience for most people, and under the new set of rules I might get to do some things with it that I didn't get to do last time.

That-- sounds like a great idea.

I'd love to play through some of the old entries to 3rd and 4th quest contests... Just to see what works and what doesn't. Is that possible?

All this discussion makes me really want to throw my hat into the ring. :)

[Goriya]

I have decided to say "fuck it" and am entering this contest. Prepare yourself, because it's time for Super Omega 5th Quest Fun-Time!

[Chris Miller]

I too shall enter.

[Goriya]

Soooo...when do we have to start? Can we start now? Or do we have to wait for the announcement?