brightknightie | How would you like to play FKFicFest in 2020?

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How would you like to play FKFicFest in 2020?

Now that my personal 2019 fanfic year-in-review is posted :-D let's talk about our 2020

fkficfest.

Before I post a more formal poll on the community, hopefully later this week, how are you feeling about it?

How to play?

Should we revert to exchange-match style, elect a shared challenge prompt for all of us, or try something else?

There is a participation threshold for some gameplay styles. And we had only 6 players in 2019, 8 in 2018, 10 in 2017, 9 in 2016... At this end of history, we're a small player-base. Yet we remain extremely -- even excruciatingly -- diverse in our preferences.

Direct exchange matching has become problematic. If most people who play prefer an exchange to a challenge, we need to agree to be more open and less specific in our requests (perhaps more like the HL exchange sign-ups, or with an understanding more like Yuletide) or we need to switch to some form of ranked-choice claiming (post requests publicly, submit privately a list of the order in which you'd like them, and I do my best to get everyone as high a choice as possible).

Last year, many of the people who voted for challenge-style play ended up not playing at all, while many of those who did play in our challenge-style game had voted for exchange-style play.

When to play?

My summer and fall are currently booked solid with overwork. So spring looks good for me. How about you?

How early could we have the stories due? Easter and Passover are in early April this year; how about coming due the following weekend, 18 April? If we work speedily, we could have the common prompt elected and announced, or the matches made and sent, on 17 February (Presidents Day (US), Family Day (CAN)).

Early May brings the anniversaries of both FK's premiere and finale. Those are weighty symbols and achors.

And of course there's always the possibility that we should skip a year instead of playing this year! Perhaps more people would play, if it were more rare?

What else?

What else should we do, consider, talk over to make the game happy and strong...?

♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Honestly, I will try to produce something for it no matter what, but, as last year proved, the muses are fickle.

I have no horse in this race, but do hope to see it go on.

Thank you for thinking about it!

We now have this year's pre-game poll.

Fingers crossed and all the lucky gestures that we hit it just right on all counts this time!

I will play, regardless of format, though I prefer the challenge of exchange. Spring is best for me, as well. Summer is booked.

As you like exchanges, would you prefer to continue having "secret" exchanges, where you don't know what other requests are in the pool, or would you like to have "open" exchanges, where the sign-ups are posted openly?

Many exchange games have their sign-ups public, so that other players know what is potentially available. This has advantages and disadvantages. It's possible that if people saw what others were requesting, they wouldn't sign-up at all -- "Nothing for me here, not gonna play!" On the other hand, if the players could tell me which requests they actually want to write, perhaps we could have more happiness in the matching.

(Every year we've played exchange style, there's been at least one hurt, discouraged, or angry player because of a bad match. Some people have stopped playing entirely because of bad matches.)

Speaking only for myself, I really like the “secret” exchanges. I enjoy the challenge of writing to the reader’s preferences, not my own. So, for me, there’s really no such thing as a “bad match,” only matches that challenge more than others.

That being said, I ended up enjoying the challenge format last year, despite not being thrilled with the prompt (my problem, not yours). Having multiple prompts to choose from would have made it more enjoyable for me. However that happens makes no difference from my perspective.

I’ve not written for an open exchange before, so I can’t speak to that process.

We now have this year's pre-game poll.

Here's hoping that we can bring the most possible fun and satisfaction this year! :-)

I know you have mentioned a few times that with such a small group it is becoming harder to do workable direct exchanges. Challenge-style would then seem to be better for such a group, or the ranked-choice claiming. Whatever format is chosen, I would want to participate. I think if this isn't offered each year it would be easy to forget about it and fewer people would be inclined to participate in the following years when it was offered. Anytime is the same for me this year. I've started a new job so all my days are booked and I would only get writing done on weekends, and its all the same to me which month I write in.

Thank you for pondering it! You're likely right about the importance of the consistency of annual play.

If we play exchange-style, I'm thinking seriously of having the sign-ups be public. There are advantages and disadvantages of this! But if we could shift the sign-up format to more of a "what are you into?" and rephrase some of the Will Not Writes and Do Not Wants into their positive opposites...?

We now have this year's pre-game poll.

I'm not asking whether we should play, this time, but only how and when.

Fingers crossed!

I definitely plan to participate.

My preference is for an exchange format; but I do appreciate that there are inherent problems when so few people participate nowadays.

I think your comment interesting: "Last year, many of the people who voted for challenge-style play ended up not playing at all, while many of those who did play in our challenge-style game had voted for exchange-style play." To me, it suggests that the more ardent participants prefer gift exchanges, but will write in FK Fic Fest however you run it. Those who are less committed think a challenge will offer more scope, but are easily daunted if they don't quickly come up with an idea.

I'm with

nicholas_lucien in the matter of skipping a year. I remember the implosion of Fic Corner when the mod decided to shift one year from fanfic based on children's books to ones based on children's TV shows. It's been run since with the original scope, but with far fewer sign-ups. I don't think FK Fic Fest can afford to risk fewer sign-ups!

I'm clearly not the only one to see participation as an annual pleasure. I mentally pencil in a rough schedule for my exchange commitments well in advance; and I think others do the same. I feel any regular exchange needs to become habitual if it has a chance of continuing. Out of sight, out of mind—that's what I fear. So please don't skip a year. I don't think it will help at all. Quite the contrary.

Spring, summer—whatever people want. I plan to do the Worldbuilding Exchange again this year. It's deadline is 13 March, with the collection opening on the 20th; but your suggested timetable poses no conflict.

:-) I, myself, have voted for challenge-style play every year. So, as always, we have diversity of preferences even among the our most ardent. :-) That's FK! :-)

Yes, you're right: skipping a year would be risky, if only because it would break an established pattern and create confused expectations. The break in style last year may have been risky in the same way.

What do you think of the mechanism of posting exchange sign-ups publicly, for other players to see what requests are in the pool, as many other games do?

Follow-up: What would you think of "ranked-choice claiming" of such public sign-ups, where each player would privately give me a list of the order in which she'd like to write the available requests, and I'd try to give everyone as high-ranked a request as possible? (More likely to increase or decrease satisfaction...? Someone could end up with a low-ranked choice, no matter how hard I try.)

Regardless, I feel that we must rework our sign-ups and/or our shared expectations. (I can't deal anymore with people listing other people's identities as Do Not Wants; it's rude and it's painful to match.) Maybe the thing to do is make the sign-ups public, and/or maybe adopt a structure more like the HL exchange sign ups or expectations more like Yuletide.

The HL exchange sign-up template structure encourages emphasizing the positively liked over the negatively disliked:

Request:
1. Preferred characters: [names]
2. Preferred types of relationships: [gen, m/f, f/f, m/m, canonical relationships, non-canonical relationships, etc.]
3. Preferred themes, tropes & elements: [whatever]
4. Dislikes: [whatever]
5. Optional: Scenarios/Dear Author Letter: [link]
Offer:
1. Characters I won't write: [names]
2. Themes, tropes & elements I won't write: [whatever]
Crossovers:
1. Happy to read: [series/work titles or Not Applicable]
2. Happy to write: [series/work titles or Not Applicable]

What would you think of "ranked-choice claiming" of such public sign-ups, where each player would privately give me a list of the order in which she'd like to write the available requests, and I'd try to give everyone as high-ranked a request as possible?

That sounds like an interesting plan that might be worth trying.

"(I can't deal anymore with people listing other people's identities as Do Not Wants; it's rude and it's painful to match.)"

Yeesh! Rude, indeed.

That HL template looks quite sensible, if we do an exchange. So does the idea of posting sign-ups publicly. (Quite a number of exchanges do that, though not for actual claiming purposes.) Or, if we play challenge-style, multiple prompts for people to pick from.

I'm pretty easy on all the options. Um ... not so keen on bingo, I guess. Not sure how it would work, for one thing.

We now have this year's pre-game poll.

Hopefully, we can get closer to a happier, more satisfying game for everyone this year!

How to play
I agree that we will most likely end up with too few players to do exchange style. Why I had unexpected trouble with the challenge style last year, your weekly training made me confident that it will be less troubling this year.
Still, I would suggest to provide maybe 3 prompts, perhaps rank them. One key prompt and 2 rescue prompts in case the key prompt doesn't hit.

Last year someone suggested some sort of bingo rooster to pick from. We might consider that although I have not really an idea how that would work.

When to play
Spring would be fine by me.

We now have this year's pre-game poll.

I plan that we should definitely hold the game. The open questions are precisely how and when.

Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How would you like to play FKFicFest in 2020?

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