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Hey guys,

So we're a week into the Summer Festival and the big water balloon fight is nearing a close. It's been an insane couple of weeks, and this one was craziest (even though I didn't spend as much time in the office).

I'm spending this Labor Day weekend trying to rapidly decompress from the stress of running events.

Slippery When Wet
This event had a few hitches, but all in all I consider it a success. We tried to take some of the best parts of past events, and then spent a lot more time focused on what is actually fun in terms of gameplay.

It's looks like I kicked a lot of the glitches in the butt, except for the glitch where items occasionally don't grant (although, that's tied to other issues on the site - not the event specifically).

The burden now falls upon our event team to make Halloween even better. Aieee, that's a really tall order gonk We have some cool ideas, though, and we're going to start development ASAP!

And Justice For All
One of the toughest parts of this event has been managing user personalities, mentalities, and speculation. After a number of glitches (and being one of the sole keepers of the secrets behind pumping, team size, and active members) I've had to act as referee for the event and make decisions which not everyone liked, but that was necessary to get on with the game.

During the run of this event, especially in the patchy parts, I found myself getting hundreds of PMs from users who decided that the more they PMed me with complaints, the more likely I was to give points to their team rofl There was even a thread on one of the teams' home forums called "EVERYONE PM FLEEP!"

The funniest thing, for me, is how many users thought other teams' users were hacking Gaia to increase their score. I had to make a sticky thread in the event forum saying that nobody was cheating, that the event was proceeding as intended, etc. etc.

The Score
One decision I made at the very last minute (because I thought it was important for users to have fun with this event) was to allow users to see a score breakdown, and to track their launch times.

Generally, I think that an understanding of how their actions affected their teams' score was a good thing and a necessary change. Users knew where to focus their efforts, they were able to organize their teams to work towards common goals, and they became more aware of the potential negative repercussions of hitting a particular team, or throwing water balloons instead of pumping.

I couldn't let them know EVERYTHING about the mechanics of the event -- like how "Active Members" are calculated or how pumping times are adjusted for each time. Too much of an understanding of these specifics would open this event far too wide for cheating and exploitation.

Even with the limited information we gave them, users have found ways to get the upper hand in a negative fashion. It also gave them a reason to complain to me with mountains of math based on nothing at all. A very popular example of this was users who calculated the "pumps per person" average on each team and complaining that Durem's was higher than everyone else's. Two things on the matter:

1) I got, without a doubt, the most # of complaints from team Durem, which wouldn't bother me so much except that they were so far ahead of everyone else most of the event.

2) The average pumps-per-person doesn't really have any relevance with regards to pumping times or launches. The event may indirectly change this value, but there are so many other factors involved that focusing on this will get you nowhere.

Rage Against With The Machine
One of the unfortunate aspects of this event (and something we'll hopefully have a better solution for in future events) is the amount of unacceptable hostility that's cropped up during the event.

On the one side, it's really cool that users are getting SO into the event. Some have taken it so seriously that when they thought the game was unfair, they were prepared to quit Gaia. All that tells me is that they take Gaia more seriously than anyone (I wonder if this type of user is actually less likely to quit than other users?)

On the much more obvious side, some of the behavior breaks Gaia's rules, is hurtful, and is just plain stupid. I'm upset that certain mean-spirited users decided to bring down the tone of the event in this way, and I'm apologetic to our moderation team who had to deal with the fallout from flaming in the event forums.

No Rest for the Weary
I usually don't like to include Gaia in my time off (well, mostly after 3 weeks of almost literally doing nothing but Gaia), but I decided that after this crazy week and last-week's half-written journal entry, I owed you guys my thoughts on the event so far.

That in mind, even though the event's not over yet, I'd like some feedback on a couple of things. You can either include it in your journal response, or PM it directly to me:

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Fleep's Summer Festival 2007 Feedback Questions

1. Do you like that there was a competitive aspect in this event?

2. Did you like the media pack? Should we release things like this for future events?

3. Did you feel that the event lasted too long?

4. Did you feel as though there was enough new content during the first week to keep you interested (release, media pack, manga)

5. How do you feel about this event as compared to past events?

6. Would you like to see this event again next year?

7. What was your favorite thing about this event?

8. What would you have changed about the event?