I've read everyone's posts; I am using Avri only as a jumping-off point (not calling him on the carpet or anything!) > From: "Avri Klemer" <avri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Looking at the history, this contest is as valid as earlier ones, although > the turnout is disappointing. As for extending the deadline again, if you > think we'll get more ballots you should do it, but I'm skeptical. I concur. There's a potential for the competition to lose credibility if we all go to the various promotional sites we've pinged, yet again, to extend it more. It's bad to have few respondents; it's worst to lead folks to believe it's a vanity fair. > The issue going forward seems to me to be publicity / buzz. ... > How do we get the word out? This looks like a good thread-split: On what sites should we advertise IGDCs? If we put together a comprehensive list, I could make "IGDC Coordinator" IDs at the various sites, to use only for promotion. Then, of course, folks could "chime in" to, say, let folks know they are planning to submit a game or to get folks fired up for judging or to put together a cabal to design a "sponsored game" for the community site. Basically, shill a bit. Yes, I said shill. As with the IGDC Coordinator ID at Gmail, it could be transferred to whomever elects to run it, should I need a break some day. (Could you start that thread split while I sort through the rankings, Avri?) > From: miyu <xmiyux@xxxxxxxxx> > response for what you will. I found these games to be a little more > confusing and require more extras I didn't have for a whole class of kids > (even simple things like chessboards - having enough for a whole class can > be tough to scrounge together). Extras are ever a problem--I even say as much in the IGDC rules (or, rather, warn folks that a game which requires a ton of extras could suffer for want of players). Not a problem... just unavoidable... hmmm, unless the next restriction is "may only use pyramids, the TH die, any playing surface, and NOTHING else." > The other factor is the focus on giving feedback on the talkback pages of > the wiki and such. It is most likely just me but I absolutely hate trying > to have discussions on wikis. I think it is a cumbersome process that is Well, we could do such feedback on this list--what the heck else are we gonna talk about on it, during/post IGDC? I am not quite able to imagine the distinction between sending email to a list versus posting a new subsection on a Talk page and indenting to indicate responses... but, hey, I've been calling for all these lists to move to a web forum for a while now, so I can't say much about personal preferences. > After the last time I also wasn't sure if some were uncomfortable with my > class having such a large % of the votes so I thought it might be better for > me to leave the judging to the professionals. :D And THAT is disappointing. We got folks who think they aren't allowed to judge, and we got one of our best pools of judges--kids actually thinking about Good Design--curtailed for want of equipment and out of concern that others don't want these kids' opinions. If anyone wants to chime in to say they didn't want Ryan's kids to vote, I'm gonna give you the Serious Verbal Slapdown. Seriously. As long as I'm IGDC Coordinator, we don't reject ANYONE'S opinion, ESPECIALLY a huge target demographic: school kids who are gonna rope in friends to play and who are eventually gonna go to college and rope in more, new friends. (Let's take the BGG-listing talk a new thread, if any remains--I am still wanting to hear from folks about frequency of competitions and timing and such! And I think that's been lost in the tangents, so...) Q4) Should I begin to run the IGDC annually ONLY? Q4a) If so, what would be the best time of year to run it? Q4b) If not, should I shift the twice-annual schedule around somehow? Keep in mind that this is the general schedule: Announce to Submission Deadline: 4 to 6 weeks (depending upon design restriction, if any) Submission to Judging Deadline: 4 to 6 weeks (depending upon participation and promotion) Total from Announce to Final Ranking: 8 to 13 weeks (allowing for tallying delays) = 2 to 2.5 months. Also keep in mind things like traditional school calendar and college schedules (breaks and exams, in particular), major conventions (conflict or opportunity?), consumer spending cycles, whatever you think would help or hinder participation. Thank, all; David