IMPORTANT: Get-Together 2024 Feedback

[gimmepie]

Get-Together 2024 - Feedback

​

With that, another Get-Together has come to a close. As we do every year, we are now going to open the floor to everyone who participated in some capacity to provide feedback about how the GT went this year so that we can continue to improve upon it in the years to come.

There's a few specific questions we'd like people responding to fill out:

- How many events did you participate in?
- How close was this to what you planned on?
- Which event was your favourite?
- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
- For newcomers or people who haven't participated in a GT for a while, what drew you in?​

Additionally, please feel free to share any other relevant feedback you have about the Get-Together. Do be mindful about the type of feedback you are giving though. Make sure the feedback you are providing is constructive and useful. An event not fitting your specific schedule isn't helpful for Event Organisers. However, if an event isn't running enough for its popularity, that might be something to consider. Remember to keep things civil. Everyone involved in making the GT happen is a volunteer who invested a lot of time and effort into making something for the community to enjoy. You don't have to have loved everything, but you shouldn't use this as a place to be vitriolic.

If you would prefer to have your feedback posted anonymously, you can send it to either myself or Aquacorde and we will post it for you.

The feedback thread will remain open until August 10 so there's time for us to discuss everything. Thank you for your feedback and thank you for being a part of this year's GT.

edit by Aquacorde: there's also a public album for everyone to upload GT memes and memories to!
Click here to view or contribute :)​

 

[Celèste1]

Hello, really enjoyed the GT this year again and glad I could do a little more than the prior ones!
Also I really enjoyed my team's energy and hanging out with them! <3

Here are my answers:

How many events did you participate in?: I think it was 15, counted the 3 Trivias as one Event!

How close was this to what you planned on?: Quite a lot to be honest, didn't expect to do that much, even though I wanted to do more this year in general, so that checks out!

Which event was your favourite?: The Hideout, PMD&D (of course x'D), Pictionary too probably and I actually did enjoy Art Swap if only I joined in earlier! Those are my favourites, can't really choose between them. I also really enjoyed Egg Swap and Movie Nights, even if I couldn't make it to the last movie! Sorry if that is too vague of an answer :')

Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?: Small Writing Competition, didn't join it this year because the prompt was too straightforward for me personally, so I couldn't come up with a good idea.... Maybe next year I'll be able to join in again! Also maybe the Archipelago or the Baton Pass Challenge, just couldn't figure out how I was supposed to make them work...

Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?: Kinda yeah overall, just wish I would have had more time for things personally, like the Art Swap which I joined in pretty late (due to being intimidated and insecure about my drawing skills). But I'm glad I decided to take the second week off vacation from work, it really saved me a lot of time to participate in stuff!

Thank you for this enjoyable experience everyone!

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

How many events did you participate in?

Four; Writing Story, TCG, Arcade, and Pokémon Go.

How close was this to what you planned on?

The events were on the expected the lines, hence I chose them only.

Which event was your favourite?

Ideally None.

Because all these are things which I don't do normally or don't have much skills to make them possible.

But I liked TCG and story writing because those were the things which I did for first time.

Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?

I had not participated in any other event(s) except those which were listed in 1st question.

Maybe could have explored other zones to know about them.....

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?

Not at all.

I have busy schedules in the recent weeks, and also the very heavy rainfall alert made the things bit worse, considering Pokémon Go event.

- For newcomers or people who haven't participated in a GT for a while, what drew you in?

I am new member here, as I had joined in February earlier this year. Hence this was my first event.

I joined because all the veteran members were discussing out about this in Last one to post wins and count to infinity threads, hence thought to try it out to know what it is. Except it, no other reasons to join.








I have much else to say. The event was indeed great 👍 👌, as many people enjoyed it for sure 😀 !!

Though I felt that many events were monotonous and were based around same concept but with different names.

 

[Auticorn]

- How many events did you participate in? Two; Egg Swap and Art Swap
- How close was this to what you planned on? Uhhh... I'm not sure?
- Which event was your favourite? Both of the ones in the first question. :D
- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had? I can't think of any at the moment.
- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do? I would have if I joined art swap sooner... but that was on me. XD

With those answered, it was my first time doing art swap! I really enjoyed that event a lot too, and everyone did an amazing job. I seriously loved all of your art you did and what I got really surprised me too because I didn't know I would get that much! I'll definitely be doing it again next year, hopefully with a much better list and also giving people more time etc. :3

 

[Lapis_Laz95]

Want to start with massive thank you to all who worked on GT! No other forum community i been on does event tradition like this i really enjoyed GT!

That said took me awhile as newbie to find out what GT is until i dug up last year's stage should add link to last year's stage in announcement next year

i felt left out at times when Discord was needed to chat and do some games maybe keep forum games and Discord games separate and need not each other to do.

Also got confused figuring timezones out would be nice if all threads did [TIME] BBCode (like Art Stream)


And here are my answers!

How many events did you participate in?: Dress to Impress + Pokèmon Bingo + Animal crossing fashion contest + Eevee's Arcade + Pokèmon Trivia + Mind Read the Room + QueUp

How close was this to what you planned on?: i'm not that organized

Which event was your favourite?: Tough will say bingo was my fav when i had time to make custom card.

Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?: Small Writing Competition (life happened i had to quit) + Baton Pass (only could play Red VC and Crystal VC) + PMD&D (too chicken to play on voice call) + Movie Night & Streams (Discord hates me) + Pictionary & Gartic Phone (timezones unfriendly for me)

Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?: At start was overwhelming took some time to settle. Did rush to get bingo cards in on time sometimes.

 

[Jbsundown]

- How many events did you participate in?
Hideout (GOBLIN ATTACK FORCE BABYYYYY), Bingo, Baton Pass, DnD, All the trivia, Mind Read the Room, PokeCommunity Stadium 2, Archipelago, Gartic Phone, Pictionary, Movies, Voted in all the DJ battles

- How close was this to what you planned on?
Pretty much spot on for what I'd hoped for. I was hoping to participate in the DJ battles as a contestant but just wasn't able to compile a list I was happy with in enough time. But that's a me thing given the time constraints the competition had anyway.

- Which event was your favourite?
Hideout. The team, the tasks, the rewards, everything about it was just perfect I think. I had fun in every single event but Hideout was just incredible!

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
Now, Art Swap. I've never properly drawn in my life so my goal for next year is to change this and attempt some next year. Drawing for bingo was great so hopefully I can take that energy into art swap for next time so Aquacorde can enjoy some more of my Pokémon drawings!
Also DJ Battles and VGM swap!

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
Mostly yes. The times all lined up nicely for me given my timezone and I was able to maintain a decent life schedule and participate pretty well for all the events I wanted to.

- For newcomers or people who haven't participated in a GT for a while, what drew you in?
Not a newcomer but the hanging out with other people and participating in events with team mates is what makes it so much fun. Supporting each other in their events and working together to accomplish other tasks is just the best.

 

[𒈟Lavemu𒐫]

- How many events did you participate in?
7!
- How close was this to what you planned on?
i planned on doing more but i ran outta time
- Which event was your favourite?
Art swap!
- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
probably SWC, it seemed fun!
- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
not really, but I was doing a lot of stuff irl so my time was cut in half :(

 

[SteCisGreendog]

- How many events did you participate in?
Four: Art Swap, Bingo, Dress to Impress, GO catch contest

- How close was this to what you planned on?
Not enough as I would have liked to.

- Which event was your favourite?
The Bingo as I was probably more involved in than any other event.

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
Movie Night, Mind Read, to name a couple.

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
Not really. The hot summer in my country has made it harder to concentrate online, plus I had been involved in an art swap for another online community at the same time as this event.

- For newcomers or people who haven't participated in a GT for a while, what drew you in?
This was my second GT but for old time's sake, it was doing the practical things that went beyond posting a simple message.

 

[Mewtwolover]

- How many events did you participate in?
Two: Baton Pass and Bingo.

- How close was this to what you planned on?
It was exactly what I planned on.

- Which event was your favourite?
Baton Pass

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
Yes, easily.

 

[Tsutarja]

i just wanted to say this but this has been the best get-together i have partaken in since we went to the competitive aspect of the event. i was so glad to see how little burnout there was between both teams and the overall competitive spirit just did not die down at all. there were some instances where burnout tried to show itself through, but in the end it did not and i am happy with how the event turned out to be.

How many events did you participate in?

let's see... gt movie nights, pictionary, jackbox, gartic phone, trivia, dj battles, mind read the room, pokémon vgm ranking, bingo, sig & flair collab, arcade, egg swap, and queup. wow, 13 total events!

How close was this to what you planned on?

definitely a lot more than i expected to be in on!

Which event was your favourite?

this is a tough one for me to answer. i love the traditional events (like movie nights, egg swap, jackbox, gartic phone, pictionary) that i am glad those always come around. but if i had to pick a favorite, i would say getting to be old at the retirement hall with a bunch of bingo players takes the cake

Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?

the pokémon go event for sure, but with my limited availability outside of home, it was hard for me to have the ability to go out and actively seek the pokémon that we needed to look for.

i also wish i did hideout, pmd&d, and maybe the archipelago?

Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?

absolutely! maybe a few extra pings on events that i forgot to submit to could have done for my personal benefit, but i think i planned my days accordingly waking up and looking at the schedule :)

 

[apro]

The GT was awesome as always! Althoug Team Aqua seemed to have a higher participation throughout the event, I'm satisfied by just knowing I did my best to try and mitigate that difference! This was also the first time I organized an event on my own... Theres a lot I need to improve for next year, but I'm pleasantly surprised by seeing how high the participation was. The biggest letdown was the Pokemon Unite event as it was unfortunately discontinued before the first round. I do not know what specifically caused the issue that ended up shutting it down, but I'm really hoping it'll be fixed for next year, maybe I'll even help with organizing it myself if that helps.

- How many events did you participate in?
Hideout, Art Swap, Bingo, DJ Battles, PMD&D, Arcade, Pictionary, Gartic Phone, Stadium 2, Mindread the Room, TCG Card, Archipelago, Jackbox and a little bit of trivia but I think the only question I earned a point with was the one with recognizing TCG cards from an image.

- How close was this to what you planned on?
Wow, now that I lited them out it sure sounds a lot, but I definitely wanted to do even more, sometimes I wish I had 48 hours in a day...

- Which event was your favourite?
Ooh, its a tough question as I love so many of them! Stadium2 just because I won this year, but Archipelago and Hideout had a fantastic debut on their first year as well! This is the only occasion I can do DnD so I'm always looking forward to that, but I always let myself down with my lack of communication and roleplaying skills... Art is also something I only do during the GT, but I'm slowly improving my skills and may one day manage to put in the effort Art Swap truly deserves.

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
The GT Challenge I took part in previous years, but have now skipped to try Archipelago instead. If I tought about it earlier, I'd have been able to mix the two. Create a Pokemon as well, I didnt have a proper idea for it this year and so I skipped it in favour of other events. Also missing Forum Games and Daily Puzzles from previous years, hope they return again and most importantly hope Aldo is doing fine.

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
Not at all, I wanted to draw more Art Swaps, do more Hideouts and perhaps even watch an Art Stream or a Movie Night, unfortunately my schedule didnt really allow more than this.

 

[budube]

- How many events did you participate in?
Bingo, Trivia, One (1) Movie Night, Pictionary, Gartic Phone, Archipelago, Mind Read the Room. Only played the bear game on Arcade but it was removed in the end iirc so it didn't matter after all other than netting some participation points for Team Aqua.

- How close was this to what you planned on?
Less than I expected, but I got a bit busy myself so there's not much I could do about it.

- Which event was your favourite?
Bingo just like last year and Archipelago was pretty cool and awesome too and also a nice surprise for someone that's never tried it before! The flair and signature customization was also pretty fun to do even tho it was just a small thing. Mind Read the Room was fun too because I won the second round

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
Hideout and D&D. None of those events were really possible for me to participate in because of time. I could've participated in Hideout but the Aqua peeps were pretty quick on completing the thing so I wasn't really needed there by the time I woke up. With D&D just none of the timezones were possible for me to participate.

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
No. It could be because I was busy myself though, altho I'm ngl a third week of GT would be pretty fun too, but probably horrible to plan for events like Trivia. Just saying I would like 1 more week more bc GT is fun and I'm a fun woman that likes fun things like playing fun games.
_______________
Now for the more specific feedback.

Team Magma & Aqua: I would honestly like to congratulate both teams this year. Even when Aqua had the lead during the entire event, the final score gap wasn't as big as previous years, and I think that speaks volumes of how strong of a contender Team Magma was. I do think it kinda sucks how the strongest players ended up in the same team again, and I think that might have to do with the whole personality quiz system and I wouldn't mind if it got removed for next year to see how things go, there's just a certain amount of rebalancing possible to do with this system, after all.

Participation: This one goes for the new faces of this community that decided to participate this year. It's always nice seeing new people integrate themselves and participate + enjoy GT. Quite frankly I think this is the best time of the year to join PC.

Arcade: I really think there must be some strong testing done with these games before GT starts by more than one or two people. It happens every year that someone finds a game breaking exploit halfway through the event and it ends up being a huge waste of time for everyone involved, Event Organizer and players alike. Not gonna pretend that I know how the planning for this event goes every year, but this happening all the time with at least two games gives me the idea that there's barely any testing done when selecting the games.

Bingo: Bingo was just as cool as it was last year. Seeing the custom cards (and making my own for that matter) has been one of the funniest experiences during this and last GT. Inky really popped off in that regard this year and it sorta inspired me to making something cool myself for the final Fire type card. I think the blackout round didn't work as it should have though, but it was more because Fairy type doesn't really have that many pokemon and it was pretty much improvised. I think it can be done next year though, maybe by putting two different types in the mix if it's a type that has less than 100 pokemon. It could lead to some nice strategizing. Still, despite all that it was still my favorite event this year.

Amiibo Casino: There was no Amiibo Casino in PokéCommunity Get Together 2024, and I'm not happy about it as a Genshin Impact player. I wonder if the awesome EO for that event hosted another equally awesome one this year, however; maybe in the form of an area that contains a chain or group of islands scattered in lakes, rivers, or the ocean.

Archipelago: Archipelago was pretty fun and a really nice experience for someone like myself that's never tried it before. It was a pretty interesting cooperative lil' event with pretty fun moments, and I would love to look forward to it next year if user TwentyExEx or someone else were to host it again. I do think the thread could've used a bit more of a step by step guide for installing the thing though, although I can understand why that could've been too much, which is why I appreciate that James did that initial test run.

Trivia: I think the event went as smooth as always, but I think that at times it is too hard. I think every quiz should have a balance between hard and not that hard, but where I'm really going with this is suggesting a small hint system for each trivia, maybe up to 3 or 5 hints for each one and for each team during the entirety of GT, just slightly vague hints that don't really give away the answer. And of course, this same system would apply for the bonus round for the sake of fairness. Speaking of which, I also think the bonus round quizzes should've been answered by both hosts either collectively or separately. Even if both teams did pretty well there, it would've been more fair knowing how Arcaneum and Coolkid would've done in both the Aqua and Magma quizzes instead of just one each, since I assume both hosts would've been stronger in the different areas of either quiz. This is of course, just set-up for the Genshin Impact lore quiz I'm tossing at Arcaneum next year.

 

[DrYellow]

* How many events did you participate in?

5. I participated in Battle Bash, Trivia, Pictionary, Movie Night, and Art Swap if that counts. They were all very fun events, with Trivia, Move Night, and Pictionary being my most favorite of the five.

* How close was this to what you planned on?

Very close. I chose to participate only in events that I knew I could fill timeslots for.

* Which event was your favorite?

If I were to vote my most favorite event, it would ironically be Trivia. As much I hate it, I like the fact that it challenges our knowledge about what we know about our favorite shows, games, movies, music and other media, while involving cooperation from many other members in the team. My only gripe with it is the way that some questions were worded, particularly question 8 of Round 6 and question 9 of VG Trivia respectively. They're trivia questions, so it is understandable that they should not be obvious but it would help if they were a little less vague or misleading in a way (Don't make them too obvious, just have some kind of hint that makes it easier to understand.)

* Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?

I wish I had participated in Egg Swap, Art Stream, Baton Pass, Create-a-Pokemon, and POKÉMON BINGO, but did not, either due to a lack of time or the fact that I was already doing five events at a time.

* Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted?

Yes, I felt like I did everything I wanted as I spent a good chunk of my time on each of the events to complete their respective tasks.

* For newcomers or people who haven't participated in a GT for a while, what drew you in?

What drew me into the GT the most was the community. I wanted to take this chance to interact with other people and have fun working together in the events as I have not been in an experience like GT in another community before. The events that really drew me in were Pictionary and Movie Night, mostly because I like drawing and to revisit some old Pokemon films that I seen during my childhood.

 

[Mewtwolover]

Arcade: I really think there must be some strong testing done with these games before GT starts by more than one or two people. It happens every year that someone finds a game breaking exploit halfway through the event and it ends up being a huge waste of time for everyone involved, Event Organizer and players alike. Not gonna pretend that I know how the planning for this event goes every year, but this happening all the time with at least two games gives me the idea that there's barely any testing done when selecting the games.

I tested the games and checked comment sections in itch.io for exploit findings. The problem with that kind of strong testing by more than one or two people is that the testers would be ineligible for points and therefore there would be less participants in the event.

 

[wolf]

- How many events did you participate in?
Archipelago, Baton Pass, Battle Bash, Bingo, Eevee's Arcade, Mind Read the Room, Movie Night, Stadium 2, and VGM Sharing.

- How close was this to what you planned on?
I was hoping to participate more, but GT had unfortunate timing for me.

- Which event was your favourite?
I really enjoyed Archipelago and Baton Pass! They both had fun teamwork elements.

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
Trivia and Hideout. I contributed a little bit to trivia, but I could've done more.

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
Not really, but that's on me.


I have one idea that might be worth considering. Instead of having GT for 2 weeks and all events occurring at the same time, it could be lengthened to ~4 weeks, and events are designated to specific weeks. E.g., Pokemon trivia and Baton Pass happens on week 1, VG trivia and Archipelago on week 2, Pokemon trivia and Eevee's Arcade on week 3, and so on. The reason I'm suggesting this is because some people seemed overwhelmed with all the events and how much there is to do, so scheduling GT like this could allow them to focus on each event more. The downside is that people could get bored due to GT lasting longer, and it'd probably be more work to manage a longer GT.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I have one idea that might be worth considering. Instead of having GT for 2 weeks and all events occurring at the same time, it could be lengthened to ~4 weeks, and events are designated to specific weeks. E.g., Pokemon trivia and Baton Pass happens on week 1, VG trivia and Archipelago on week 2, Pokemon trivia and Eevee's Arcade on week 3, and so on. The reason I'm suggesting this is because some people seemed overwhelmed with all the events and how much there is to do, so scheduling GT like this could allow them to focus on each event more. The downside is that people could get bored due to GT lasting longer, and it'd probably be more work to manage a longer GT.

I strongly agree with this, as someone who was not only busy with playing Baton Pass (one of our most time-consuming events), but also busy running it. I didn't get to do much aside from Baton Pass, whereas I could've done more had this GT gone on longer than two weeks.

EDIT: As for my own feedback:

- How many events did you participate in?

• Just Baton Pass, Mind Read the Room, VGM identification, and changing my flair, if I remember correctly.

- How close was this to what you planned on?

• This is more or less what I planned and expected going in, but more time would have been preferable.

- Which event was your favourite?

• Baton Pass, easily.

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?

• I would've liked to do Archipelago and Showdown battling, but I was too busy organizing and playing Baton Pass to figure out how to technically configure either event before they concluded. I also would've liked to see the extended editions of Mewtwo Strikes Back and Pokemon Heroes since I've only ever seen the regular versions, but I had prior commitments those days. (If anyone can tell me where to buy or stream either of them, that'd be helpful.) I also haven't even had the chance to look at every event, so there's probably something I missed that I would've enjoyed, too.

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?

• Definitely not. I echo Wolf's suggestion of spreading out the next GT over a whole month.

 

[DragonEye]

How many events did you participate in?: 7, counting trivia as one event. Would be 8 if the Pokemon United tournament wasn't cancelled.
How close was this to what you planned on?: It was better than what I expected! there were so many events to choose from, plus I loved the competitive nature of the event! This really helped me get to know other members of the community as a new member.
Which event was your favorite?: Baton Pass
Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?: Create your own Fakemon and Create Your Own Pokemon Card. I joined the event late and didn't have time to do those along with the other events I signed up for.
Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?: No, but that was my own fault for forgetting about the event and joining halfway through. Had I been present for the full length of the event I likely would have had enough time.
For newcomers or people who haven't participated in a GT for a while, what drew you in?: The idea of participating in a big, pokemon related event sounded so fun! No way I was missing out on that

 

[Meganium]

I got lucky that I came back from a long absence just in time for the GT. Since my first years of PC it's always a tradition to get together and enjoy some games, activities, and simply catch up with friends. I did just that. However, this year was a bit bittersweet because I wasn't able to participate in as much events as I'd like to, mainly because either I didn't have the game (no Scarlet or Violet for egg swap), didn't understand it (Gartic Phone) or just didn't have the time or energy to participate (Small Writing Competition). No hate whatsoever on any of the events I mentioned -- I know they were a success as always.

The only events I participated were movie nights and the Mind Read The Room activity -- the latter gave my brain a workout! That was a great event. Would love to see it next year. Kip as host of movie nights -- STELLAR as per usual. Kip should host movie nights every year.

I probably said this in the past -- I wasn't a fan of teams for GTs. I thought the effort of taking a quiz and being placed in a team and "fight to the death" was not the spirit I was looking for, because the point of a Get-Together was to...get together, as friends. As I participated in this year's GT, I actually liked the concept of Team Magma vs. Team Aqua, and the fact that we are in an Olympic year, so it makes total sense. I think the theme was executed very well. While I wish for a non-team get-together, I don't mind seeing a similar concept like this year's. Maybe a starter battle? Bulbasaur vs. Charmander vs. Squirtle??????

 

[Aquacorde]

How many events did you participate in? uhhhhhhh 17 by my count, which is about half!
How close was this to what you planned on? I thought I'd do more honestly. But it turns out that GT start was exactly two weeks before my summer classes closed and I had to do about half of each one REALLY FAST so the first week was mostly me doing that. And then the last four days I was on family vacation lolll where was I when we decided on this timeframe? Luckily I uh ditched work for a month. Don't worry about it.
Which event was your favourite? KAREN'S HIDEOUT GOAT
Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had? I wanted to go to more than one movie night, I wanted to Create a Pokémon, I wanted to Pictionary and Jackbox and Gartic and Art Stream but i get scared in live events and also didn't really have time, Archipelago looked really interesting but too complicated for me to figure out at this time, I missed QueUp 2 but that's okay I guess I'm there all the time, I wish I could have done more of Go catch contest?
Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do? NO!!!!!! But again I had a lot going on in life lmao

ok here comes my big ole train of thoughts for 2024 choo choo

Overall
SO MANY PEOPLE THIS YEAR YAY! I really am interested in the answers to "what drew you in" coming through <3 It was so busy and so fun and I loved to see everyone having a blast! Thank you to all the EOs and the rest of the management team and everyone else who came together to make our first year hosting GT on xF a success; even with some hiccups and a bit of a rush we really pulled it together! We had so many events and there was always something to do if you wanted to be doing something, which is great! I think it's not a problem then there's more stuff than can feasibly be done by one person; if everyone did everything I think it would be super crazy. I know that some events can get grindy and need a lot of focus, leaving little room for other things, but I'm not sure how to solve that without diminishing those events. I guess people just have to choose their level of intensity! Sometimes you can't do everything and that's okay. Let's overcome FOMO together lmao.

The Villain Olympics as a theme I thought was great but I wanted to do much more with them, especially Flare as the hosts. And maybe scare you all into thinking I might let a fake team beat you! But I simply did not have the time. I should have come up with a lot more fake events from the outset and not worried so much about matching point values to our real events if I wanted y'all to see them more and care. And their tallies were mostly hidden away in a thread too, which didn't help. Oh well! Most of what I do ends up being for me and that's okay. I hope some people smiled at them anyway :) I love writing lore and blurbs and flavoring the event- I love the flavor that everyone brought in Discord, too, what with changing nicknames and doing bits and really getting behind the teams! Do we think that Aqua and Magma being a known quantity really helped with embracing that aspect? I feel like prior years didn't have nearly the amount of spirit behind the team themes. I hope we can carry this year's energy forward into next year's concept!

I really liked that we had a lot of points constantly being tallied; I think there's a lot to be said about the motivating nature of seeing those points roll in with frequency! The form for points worked really well (thank you so much James!) and I don't mind updating the banner all the time- I think I did it 3x a day usually, except that day where no points came in- but I also made a lot of extra work for myself by trying to update in four places (banner, forum update, forum post edit, discord announcements) and trying to incorporate the other Villainous Teams into the mix.

My role in management tends to be "graphics" and "chasing people down", but I was late to both of those as I was uhhh swamped. So I'm sorry about things that were rushed, and things that didn't quite work, and for not being on the ball! The scheduling was also a little messy; we could get a little tighter on that. I want to do a lot more in terms of theming and graphics next year but I have to get on that! I also want to host a few more events, and do more in terms of technical work. Someone teach me to code and/or use this forum that I've been on for twenty years idk.

I think two weeks is still the perfect amount of time for GT- maybe 16 days or so, if we go ahead and start on a Friday morning and end on a Sunday night to get two weekends in there? That would be fine. But any longer, we lose the magic and drive. It would be great to do smaller scale events, though- mini-GTs, if you will, for things like Discord server birthday and PC's birthday or holidays or just kinda at random depending on if people wanna host a few things at the same time :) Of course, mods have always been encouraged to do section-based events and other users have always been encouraged to bring things to the table if they want to make something happen as well! We don't have to do things on such a grand scale to make it fun! If there's interest, we can make stuff happen! But we also don't want people to be over it / not excited about it when GT comes around.

Jackbox and Pictionary and Gartic Phone
Gosh, did we run them enough even with the extra non-points sessions? Everyone loves Pictionary so much- for good reason! Maybe we can net a few more dedicated hosts for these next year for even more fun :)

Archipelago
This looked like so much fun! I agree that it could use a little more in terms of tutorial for people who don't know what they're doing (me) but James you were so responsive and helpful that I would probably have been fine if I'd had time to try :) Please bring this back again next year!

QueUp
I think I would enforce the theme next year for the length of the official GT session. It's two sessions, it can be a requirement. If some of the regulars are upset, well. Again. two sessions, maybe three. People can step aside and allow others their fun sometimes. I was getting a little annoyed that there were a lot of breaks in theme, especially as time went on- like, sometimes it's a challenge to come up with themed songs, and that's part of the fun!

Mind Read the Room
I did bad this year ahaha I was not tuned in. That's okay! I love the event as always, love stats and breakdowns and stuff <3

Create a TCG Card
I've never done this before and it was really fun! I mean, I didn't have to think at all because I just did art in my teamup with 5qwerty, but that was a good way to do it! I think if you're worried about art being valued too high though, ReKoil, you could change it so you score solely on the card details & you don't require people to create art– but give points via achievement for original art. Like how Bingo gives an achievement for drawing all your own cards, y'know?

PokéCommunity Stadium 2
This was another cool event that I'd never done! I don't know nothin' bout gen 2 but the battle breakdowns were fun! Thank you Deva for organizing and running all the battles!

Trivias
E&M - too much anime not enough music. I'm only kind of kidding; I really missed name that tune style rounds and I don't know any anime whatsoever. The bassline round was my favorite and I like that isolated track concept!
Poké - that crossword fmita >:( you know I like it but I still haven't finished it haha. I still think there's too much for technical questions as opposed to more like, uhhhh trivia. Fun facts. Y'know. I'm trash at music but it's not all about me lmao
VG - ask me about minecraft or stardew damn like what even are these games (this is not for me but I try)

I liked that E&M Trivia went with points per question answered; I kind of think all trivia should follow that format. It's important to have events that award points progressively and being able to format these tried and true events in that way is so nice! I liked having everything due at the same time and that y'all took an hour between to sort things out. I do think though that one year we just had all our answers for all trivias in one sheet and organizers looked at that for answers. Having to hit up a different spreadsheet for PTriv and also send off E&M was kind of messy. I liked that PTriv was formatted for us but I don't know if it was super necessary? Maybe if y'all format crosswords that's be nice, having them in the sheet was really helpful!

Movie Night
I love the classics and wish I could have made it to more but I'd also be excited to watch further down the franchise! Or some of the anime arcs that are like 3-4 episodes long. I think we've all said so much about the first three movies especially; it'd be fun to get more chatter about different things!

VGM Sharing
Much better formatting this year, not overwhelming! I don't know the backend, but I felt like a 1-100 numerical system is not the most helpful way to rank overall? Everything's gonna be high, isn't it? I wonder if we could do a themed version next year- only legendary themes, only trainer themes, only route themes, like that. I think narrowing it down might actually help people think more deeply about this stuff but that's just me.

Animal Crossing Fashion Contest
I helped out a bit here this year and I think this format is better- posting anonymously and letting the people vote is good. And lookbooks are fun! I think the form could be formatted better and we could be more on top of reminding people that this exists haha I saw a few people say they didn't realize it was going.

DJ Battles
My time was so blocked up that I found this overwhelming but I don't think I would if I had more time to listen properly. I think I'd like to see a format change tho- I'd like to have a theme for which you pick five songs that play nice together, and then the sets are played back to back and judged on their merit as a set rather than just individual song choices. Just thinkin'. I liked doing so much stuff with music though!

BINGO
YEAAAAA BINGO literally why is bingo so fun lmao I do agree with expanding out to not just types- generations would be a long round (probably), Pokémon that start with the same letter, single-stage Pokémon, idk. Items? There's a bunch of weird stuff that could be done I think. :) We also talked abt that one achievement that I think would be rlly funny.

Dress to Impress!
Y'all were so cute in this omg! I really pulled this out of my ass like a day before GT kicked off so I'm glad it went alright :) I think I'll provide a more rigid structure in terms of formatting- I'll still allow a lot of freedom, but I think I can get y'all to be more uniform without sacrificing much! I hope you all liked dressing up <3

GO Catch Contest
I think the idea here is sound but there were some issues with the 'mon selection mostly! I wonder if that can be circumvented by keeping in line with the spotlight hours/community days and also maybe extending the amount of catch time to 2 or 3 days to account for weather and life?

The Hideout
GOAT!!!!! Literally this was so fun Karen omg you did such a good job! I think you've entirely got a handle on how to improve next year so I not need to say anything here. But the variety of tasks was excellent and it was such a fun scramble :D And it was an honor to be a minion in the Goblin Attack Force!

SWC
Same ol' staple, still mad respect for all the judges and entrants. CoolKid, you did great as a first-time judge- thank you for all your thoughtful commentary! I think I talked about this last year and then completely forgot to mention it again, but I don't love that the only achievement that we can accomplish through our writing is the alliteration one. I had a few ideas for a replacement but I um don't remember them. I also would like to see a concept as a prompt more than like, one word? idk I've felt like the one-word prompts have been uninspiring for me.

Art Swap
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
We blew last year completely UP y'all that is SO crazy. I love all the art given and received and I'm so happy to see how creative and skilled everyone is and how much fun we have giving each other presents! What a great way to finalize GT honestly! I do think Chura is right in saying the scoring system could be tweaked but there's always room for improvement and you all put on an amazing event! Thank you to all the artists who showed up!


that's all for now thank you for reading thanks to all the EOs and other management thanks to everyone who chose to spend their time playing together as a community please keep responding i'll come back and chat about what y'all are sayin too <3

 

[Megan]

- How many events did you participate in?
3, that being Art Swap, Create A custom Pokemon TCG Card and Mind Read the Room

- How close was this to what you planned on?
I planned two but then decided to do the TCG one, as well.

- Which event was your favourite?
Art Swap

- Which events did you not participate in, but wish you had?
The Bingo one looked pretty good. If I had remembered that it was a thing I would have probably planned it in, as well. Granted, my schedule is very limited so I wasn't even sure at the beginning if I had enough time for the two events I participated in...

I also looked occasionally at the Art Stream thread. Though, that's another can of worms for me. Especially with it being a Discord event ^^"

- Did you feel like you had enough time to do everything you wanted to do?
I guess so. I had already scaled down the amount of events I participated in in contrast to last year; just to make sure I actually could finish every event properly.


I guess one silver lining is that certain events from previous years didn't make a comeback. There was one in particular which I always felt obligated to join that always ended up just being a boring spam fest that basically punished you for not getting a certain quota every day. Things were a lot less stressful this year because of that. xD