Topic: New years PD Bash?

[Kaiaatzl]

Pyrax, Pyrax, and Pyrax will be joining after X and K finish their MTG game.

[Matthew]

Are people interested in playing today, since nobody showed up yesterday?

[Kaiaatzl]

We tried, but the servers were gone...

[-<WillyP>-]

I am playing today. Now.

[Matthew]

I will put them up again today in case anybody is interested.

[Matthew]

I probably won't be doing something like this again. The attendance is just consistently low when I do things like this, and it kind of feels like a waste of time.

[PyroJockey]

I know it's a little short notice, but would anybody be interested in playing some Descent on new years eve?

I probably won't be doing something like this again. The attendance is just consistently low when I do things like this, and it kind of feels like a waste of time.

Don't give up so easily.

The success of your event had several factors working against from the start.

• You admittedly gave short notice. You only posted 4 days in advance. Not everybody checks the forums on a daily basis. You need to give them enough time to find the post but not too far ahead that they will forget about the event.  I would recommend 30 days notice. Also "bump" the post a day or 2 before the event with a reminder.
  
  
• The event was scheduled on a holiday. People had other plans. Since New Years day fell on a Sunday, most people have off the following Monday. That would have made a better choice.
  
  
• You limited you posting to one site. Unless you wanted this to be an exclusive PD only event, you need to advertize, advertize, advertize. You should have tried posting on multiple Descent themed boards. Such as but not limited to:
  
  descentbb.com
  descetnbb.net
  dxx-rebirth.com
  descent2.de
  interplay.com
  dtaskforce.forumotion.com
  
  Also, if this is to be a PD sanctioned event, ask the site admins if they would be willing to send out a mass email to all registered members announcing the event.
  
  
• The scope of the event was unclear. The initial posting had no set time or agenda. Several suggestions were made in the subsequent postings but the event was never clearly defined. People need to know what to expect and they will more likely attend. Update the initial posting to note any changes. Potential attendees do not want to search through multiple pages of postings searching for details (times, maps, versions of Descent, etc...).
  
  

I'm sure a successful event can be held if properly planned. I have been away from Descent for about a year and a half while I am hosting Several Star Wars Battlefront II servers for the PS2 version of the game. This version of the 2005 game is all but dead. There are only about a dozen servers left worldwide (I run 4 of them) and most sit empty the majority of the time. To compound the problem Sony and GameSpy have prevented PS2 players from other regions playing against each other by segregating the tracker/server lists.

Since I am a sucker for lost causes and being a programmer/modder I found a way to circumvent the region limitation imposed by Sony and GameSpy. I decided to host an international event. I pre-planned the event, picking the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It wasn't a holiday but most people had off. I had to pick a time slot that would be plausible for all regions. I posted the information a month in advance in a dozen Star Wars Battlefront PS2 related forums around the world (Japan was tough since I didn't know any Japanese and had to post in Kanji) and sent out a mass emailing for all my site members. I followed up with another mass email and bumped all the postings the day before the event.

SWBFII International Glitching Event

The event was a huge success. The server was maxed out to it's 24 player capacity with more players in the chat waiting to join. It stayed that way for the 3 hour duration of the event and still had players in there 3 hours afterward when I finally pulled the plug. In the end over 70 players from all regions of the globe (including Japan) attended the event.

My point is that if I can do this with an outdated ground pounder from 2005,  I strongly believe we can have successful Descent events if they are better planned.

Give it another shot.

[Scyphi]

TechPro and I probably would've joined for New Years if it wasn't for the fact that we already had plans for that evening.