IIIlusionist [253384] —
Original article
The beginning of 2014 was quite a quiet time for the City of Torn. There were no major updates or overhauls, just minor tweaks and bug fixes to ensure that the city ran smoothly. In contrast; the second half of 2014 represented a much busier period - many new implementations - and the blueprints used to upgrade the City's dating infrastructure with new and improved capabilities.
These archetypes are known as the RESPO development program.
The Mayor of Torn mentioned that a large-scale rework was aimed at improving the quality of life for the criminals looting the City. Some skeptics claimed that the updates would never arrive, but those naysayers were proven wrong when RESPO showed up on the 23rd of June. Great improvements were undertaken to build the City - streets were cleaner, buildings were higher and the intangible "feel" of Torn had truly been changed - even the air was different somehow.
One obvious change to the City was that of the closing of Halloween and Christmas Towns - whether doing so was permanent or temporary has yet to be seen. Popping up to fill the void of those tiny villages were "Community Events." posted by the City's council members and staff. Various board participants could be found lurking around the more populous areas of the City, with their seasonal competitions ranging from guessing games to mysterious adventures in unknown places.
This reporter took part in a couple of those tournaments, and can provide a few insights into how the events concluded. The following lists of competitions may not be exhaustive:
Halloween events
- Pumpkin Carving
- Spooky Cooking
- Pet Costume
- Paint Picture
- Best Dressed
- Guess the number candy
- Poem
- Short Story
- Halloween adventure
- Private Island Giveaway
2014 was the first time, if my memory is correct, that these kinds of events were hosted. These competitions were likely put in place to stop civil unrest amongst the citizens due to the closing of the celebratory towns. The games worked to some extent - there were a few protesters that gathered outside Halloween Town - but they either left of their own accord or were taken out by members of the City's law enforcement team.
By the time Christmas rolled around, the competitions were a lot more organized. The council members were given a whole area in which to hold their events, made possible by the improvements incorporated into the community area. For these occasions, 21 competitions were available for citizens to enter. Some were original ideas, and some were brought back from Halloween with new appearances and altered themes.
Opinions on the events, again, were varied. Some players were outspoken relative to their preference for the immersive experience of wandering blissfully (and sometimes terrifyingly) around the Towns. Others enjoyed sharing their experience in real time with other players.
One litmus test for the acceptance of the change from "holiday hamlets" to events is participation information. Determining definitively how the numbers compare for Halloween Town 2013 visitors and vs. Community Event participants is difficult. At the time of bringing this article to press, the official data had yet to be released - though it would appear that approximately 150 citizens took part in the Halloween events and 250 in the Christmas activities. On reflection, these numbers seem low. Despite the fact that there were almost twice the number of events held in the Christmas period than there were in the Halloween period, the number of participants did not increase proportionately. There could be any number of possible explanations for the result, perhaps centered upon the fact that many citizens were busy preparing for the festive season. there are, of course, those that do not celebrate Christmas, and some associated events may have proven too time consuming for some. Of course, the result could have come down to the fact that many were just not that interested in the holiday events.
Personally, I enjoyed wandering the streets and taking a peek at what people had entered in the various competitions- and I'm confident that I'm not the only one. There were many creative and funny entries - some citizens went to great lengths in order to grab a chance at winning.
Credit, in particular, should be given to DrZed [237786], whose Halloween and Christmas town adventures had many of us enthralled and impressed; his games may just have been the most interactively successful events held over the two festive periods. The time and effort put into creating such complex, yet accessible, enticing, and fun adventures deserves applause and thanks - they represented fine and innovative ideas. The popularity of Zed's game increased from Halloween to Christmas, and the second trek had over 40 pages detailing the records of citizens' journeys through his vast empire. Madmiketyson [979994] also put an impressive amount of effort into organizing and running his Super Six competition, which also proved to be a popular event.
The results and winners were made available by the mayors office.
There were a few differences and improvements from Halloween to Christmas events. Firstly, the prizes. At the celebration ceremony for Halloween activities, the difference in value of some of the prizes was huge. Many participants were awarded a staff collectible item worth somewhere between $3-5 billion; in other situations, the winners received a pair of Sports Sneakers ($14 billion) and another lucky soul received a Gold laptop ($8 billion). However, these disparities were addressed for the Christmas events. Standard prizes were given out; new honor bars for those that came first, ribbons for those in the top three for each competition, points and a gift (skateboard - gold, FHC - Bronze/Silver).
Secondly, during the Christmas events, the community participation areas were heavily moderated - not the case for Halloween activities. Participants were discouraged and actively prevented from engaging in discussion and frivolities outside of direct relevance to the competitions at hand. One can appreciate the intention of the restrictions as they allowed everyone to view the entries in peace, without having to wade through a host of blabbering fools' commentary. On the other hand, those rules also limited the involvement of the community as a whole. People were not able to comment and discuss entries, which could have added some incremental fire and excitement for the holiday events. One citizen was hit with a 30 day ban from all communal areas for placing what he called "place-holders" - and this was his side of the story.
"Only entered all Christmas competitions with a placeholder for entry and was banned for 30 days by staff- UNFAIR power grab locking me out of ALL ITEMS in COMPETITIONS!" - jamesbond [1337797]
All things can be improved, and hopefully, future events will present us with new and interesting competitions to get involved with.
Of the 17,000ish citizens that are resident in Torn, only 250 took part in the "Community" events. Do we believe that the effort expended for something that less than 2% of Torn's community participated in is worth it? How could these exercises be modified in order to include more citizens? Perhaps there a need for heavier advertising - though, at this time of year, do you believe that there are people overwhelmed by "holiday cheer" in a place that they visit in order to escape such frivolities? Should Halloween and Christmas Town be reopened? As always, this reporter believes that it will be interesting to see what becomes established as the holiday traditions in Torn continue to unfold under RESPO. As always, though, whatever happens - we will grow as a City.
**Editors: madbuns [1811936] and UrgentAlibi [1608246]
These archetypes are known as the RESPO development program.
The Mayor of Torn mentioned that a large-scale rework was aimed at improving the quality of life for the criminals looting the City. Some skeptics claimed that the updates would never arrive, but those naysayers were proven wrong when RESPO showed up on the 23rd of June. Great improvements were undertaken to build the City - streets were cleaner, buildings were higher and the intangible "feel" of Torn had truly been changed - even the air was different somehow.
One obvious change to the City was that of the closing of Halloween and Christmas Towns - whether doing so was permanent or temporary has yet to be seen. Popping up to fill the void of those tiny villages were "Community Events." posted by the City's council members and staff. Various board participants could be found lurking around the more populous areas of the City, with their seasonal competitions ranging from guessing games to mysterious adventures in unknown places.
This reporter took part in a couple of those tournaments, and can provide a few insights into how the events concluded. The following lists of competitions may not be exhaustive:
Halloween events
- Pumpkin Carving
- Spooky Cooking
- Pet Costume
- Paint Picture
- Best Dressed
- Guess the number candy
- Poem
- Short Story
- Halloween adventure
- Private Island Giveaway
2014 was the first time, if my memory is correct, that these kinds of events were hosted. These competitions were likely put in place to stop civil unrest amongst the citizens due to the closing of the celebratory towns. The games worked to some extent - there were a few protesters that gathered outside Halloween Town - but they either left of their own accord or were taken out by members of the City's law enforcement team.
By the time Christmas rolled around, the competitions were a lot more organized. The council members were given a whole area in which to hold their events, made possible by the improvements incorporated into the community area. For these occasions, 21 competitions were available for citizens to enter. Some were original ideas, and some were brought back from Halloween with new appearances and altered themes.
Opinions on the events, again, were varied. Some players were outspoken relative to their preference for the immersive experience of wandering blissfully (and sometimes terrifyingly) around the Towns. Others enjoyed sharing their experience in real time with other players.
One litmus test for the acceptance of the change from "holiday hamlets" to events is participation information. Determining definitively how the numbers compare for Halloween Town 2013 visitors and vs. Community Event participants is difficult. At the time of bringing this article to press, the official data had yet to be released - though it would appear that approximately 150 citizens took part in the Halloween events and 250 in the Christmas activities. On reflection, these numbers seem low. Despite the fact that there were almost twice the number of events held in the Christmas period than there were in the Halloween period, the number of participants did not increase proportionately. There could be any number of possible explanations for the result, perhaps centered upon the fact that many citizens were busy preparing for the festive season. there are, of course, those that do not celebrate Christmas, and some associated events may have proven too time consuming for some. Of course, the result could have come down to the fact that many were just not that interested in the holiday events.
Personally, I enjoyed wandering the streets and taking a peek at what people had entered in the various competitions- and I'm confident that I'm not the only one. There were many creative and funny entries - some citizens went to great lengths in order to grab a chance at winning.
Credit, in particular, should be given to DrZed [237786], whose Halloween and Christmas town adventures had many of us enthralled and impressed; his games may just have been the most interactively successful events held over the two festive periods. The time and effort put into creating such complex, yet accessible, enticing, and fun adventures deserves applause and thanks - they represented fine and innovative ideas. The popularity of Zed's game increased from Halloween to Christmas, and the second trek had over 40 pages detailing the records of citizens' journeys through his vast empire. Madmiketyson [979994] also put an impressive amount of effort into organizing and running his Super Six competition, which also proved to be a popular event.
The results and winners were made available by the mayors office.
There were a few differences and improvements from Halloween to Christmas events. Firstly, the prizes. At the celebration ceremony for Halloween activities, the difference in value of some of the prizes was huge. Many participants were awarded a staff collectible item worth somewhere between $3-5 billion; in other situations, the winners received a pair of Sports Sneakers ($14 billion) and another lucky soul received a Gold laptop ($8 billion). However, these disparities were addressed for the Christmas events. Standard prizes were given out; new honor bars for those that came first, ribbons for those in the top three for each competition, points and a gift (skateboard - gold, FHC - Bronze/Silver).
Secondly, during the Christmas events, the community participation areas were heavily moderated - not the case for Halloween activities. Participants were discouraged and actively prevented from engaging in discussion and frivolities outside of direct relevance to the competitions at hand. One can appreciate the intention of the restrictions as they allowed everyone to view the entries in peace, without having to wade through a host of blabbering fools' commentary. On the other hand, those rules also limited the involvement of the community as a whole. People were not able to comment and discuss entries, which could have added some incremental fire and excitement for the holiday events. One citizen was hit with a 30 day ban from all communal areas for placing what he called "place-holders" - and this was his side of the story.
"Only entered all Christmas competitions with a placeholder for entry and was banned for 30 days by staff- UNFAIR power grab locking me out of ALL ITEMS in COMPETITIONS!" - jamesbond [1337797]
All things can be improved, and hopefully, future events will present us with new and interesting competitions to get involved with.
Of the 17,000ish citizens that are resident in Torn, only 250 took part in the "Community" events. Do we believe that the effort expended for something that less than 2% of Torn's community participated in is worth it? How could these exercises be modified in order to include more citizens? Perhaps there a need for heavier advertising - though, at this time of year, do you believe that there are people overwhelmed by "holiday cheer" in a place that they visit in order to escape such frivolities? Should Halloween and Christmas Town be reopened? As always, this reporter believes that it will be interesting to see what becomes established as the holiday traditions in Torn continue to unfold under RESPO. As always, though, whatever happens - we will grow as a City.
**Editors: madbuns [1811936] and UrgentAlibi [1608246]
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