Options for continuing TotW

[jaredmorgs]

This is where Frank Montana idea works. We know the tables a month in advance so if you want to discuss them you can do so.

And Chris just re-opens up the threads for the month.

I like this idea.

 

[jaredmorgs]

We talk more about formats and limitations in the next BlahCade.

 

[Nomorestalker]

I only ever remember these are going on when I catch the podcast. Now that the podcast is up weekly it's much easier to keep track of. Why not split it 2 TPA tables and 2 zen tables? It would give me a reason to open Zen again. But I'm fine with TPA tables now that we can be notified weekly. Maybe set up a newsletter to notify of weekly tables? For me personally it's harder to keep up with it weekly without a reminder.

 

[shutyertrap]

I only ever remember these are going on when I catch the podcast. Now that the podcast is up weekly it's much easier to keep track of. Why not split it 2 TPA tables and 2 zen tables? It would give me a reason to open Zen again. But I'm fine with TPA tables now that we can be notified weekly. Maybe set up a newsletter to notify of weekly tables? For me personally it's harder to keep up with it weekly without a reminder.

Every week a new thread gets created right here and is stickied to the top. Not the best system, but it's what we have. The goal of the BlahCade is to be able to purchase a domain and build a website for all things BlahCade related, a one stop shop if you will. That's why we are trying to sell the t-shirts. Speaking of, http://represent.com/blahcade-shirt available in many colors! In order to do a newsletter, we'd need email addresses and create a database. Good idea, but I'm not good at implementing that sort of thing.

I know there's a lot of resistance to people using Twitter, but that really is the best way of getting BlahCade announcements. Shoot, just sign up expressly for that! Follow [MENTION=5676]Blah[/MENTION]Cade and every week you'll get TotW announcements, links for sign ups of TotM as well as the link for posting scores. Plus we always post as soon as the podcast is made available, as well as posting the minute we go live on blab.im for our recording sessions every Sunday, which anyone can watch AND comment live on. Jared and I are really good at responding to direct questions on Twitter, plus we love it when you guys issue direct pinball challenges at us. I've done a few score battles that way.

So do yourselves a favor; sign up for Twitter, follow [MENTION=5676]Blah[/MENTION]Cade, [MENTION=134]shutyertrap[/MENTION]s, and [MENTION=459]jaredmorgs[/MENTION] and then you'll get mobile updates when anything happens. I'd recommend following [MENTION=687]Pinball[/MENTION]arcade too, as they do a lot of announcements that way. You won't get any other notifications in your feed, you don't have to bother learning about hashtags, your feed can be as simple or cluttered as you want based on who you follow.

 

[Nomorestalker]

I do enjoy the podcast btw. It's a lot easier ( i do follow on twitter but I only really ever check here when the table hint comes out) now that they are weekly instead of monthly podcasts. (great to listen to while you are at work) Just trying to figure out table fatigue. I know personally I put the pinball arcade down and took a nice long break from it until you guys announced the January tournament which got me right back into it. It's a great way to play some tables I might not otherwise play.

 

[shutyertrap]

Wanted to run an idea or two by you guys.

The first is that I too am a little burnt out on TPA, but not pinball. Despite it not polling well, I feel the urge to do something with Zen tables. What I'm thinking is picking 4 tables, announcing at start of month which ones, and then running the tourney like we do. I'd do this every other month.

TPA tables would be the other months, but with a twist. A few of you have ideas about how the tourney should run. Whether it be different rules, tournament styles, divisions, whatever. So how 'bout I let you have at it? Volunteer to run TotW/TotM for one 4 table period, where you pick the tables and run any kind of tourney you want at months end. BlahCade will promote and offer whatever data you'd need, but it'd be up to you to physically run the tournament. That means collecting scores and posting results by whatever means you'd like to use.

In this way, no long term commitments are needed, but new ideas can get exposure.

So, thoughts? More importantly, are there a handful of people who'd want to run a month? We're still a ways off from this, so just playing with ideas here.

 

[Xanija]

I think it's an interesting idea and I'm curious if we find others willing to organize a tournament. Actually I have an idea for a tournament. It's not 100% fleshed out yet and I need to make sure it's easy enough to understand.

 

[vikingerik]

Sure, I'd run a month, if I can match it up with an available last-Saturday.

 

[switch3flip]

Yeah why not, me too.
I was thinking since we will have played all pins, maybe we could do something with the data collected? Some sort of pingolf maybe. I have a loose idea where each player plays 4 tables that he has previously played, and tries to beat his previous best tourney score in as few balls as possible. Meaning this time you get to play the extra balls! Like regular pingolf (and golf) you get up to 6 balls and of course you'd want to finish in as few balls as possible. Maybe if game ends without having played extra balls, you just add the score to start of next game. So I think it's still fun and fair for everyone and everyone has a chance to win.

Problems are obviously that not everyone will have played all the pins, maybe there will be some completely new players, so not completely sure how to set it up. Maybe just randomly draw 4 pins for each person that he has previously played or if we all play the same pins, if someone hasn't played a pin maybe look at a players average placement in previous tourneys and take the score that was set at that level and use as target score. Lets say one of the 4 tables in the tourney is T2. But I didn't participate when T2 was in the tourney last time. But on average I placed 10:th in the tourneys, so my target score would be whatever score was the 10:th best score on T2 when it was in the tourney.
I don't know, maybe something like that. Maybe could just have a couple different target score levels depending on your current rank in the tourney, but it would be fun if everyone actually had to beat their own previous score.
Pingolf itself is a format used in many real tourneys, often as a little side tourney.

What do you think, does it seem like a fun or interesting format? Opinions, suggestions etc are most welcome.

 

[shutyertrap]

Xanija emailed me with an idea, and it got me thinking I should expand on the possibilities of what someone can do with a tourney if they volunteer to run it.

First off, I have said it should run on the last Saturday of the month. However, if you were interested in doing something that takes multiple days, like a bracket, use the entire week leading up to it! Just because I couldn't make the time commitment to run something of that nature doesn't mean you can't. Just be aware this might affect your sign ups.

Second thing, you could do sign ups well in advance to build whatever kind of tourney you need. When it is your month, it'll be YOUR MONTH. It just needs to conclude on that final Saturday.

Xanija, Vikingerik, and switch3flip all show interest. It won't be until May that any of this even happens, so plenty of time to go.

 

[HOW]

I voted continue.

With the upcoming Head2Head there might be some opertunity to do some fun tourny stuff with that.

Is the Head2Head a feature FS are gonna build in to app? Any news on it?

 

[HOW]

Oh, as I didn't get a vote in..

1. Not a Zen fan/player
2. Missed ALOT of the TotW tables. I have Std. Goals uncollected, let alone The Wizards, :/
3. Appreciate that PinGolf's not doable within TotM - but think FS could/should implement within the App's 'Challenges'. When's the last time THEY were updated anyhow?

4. Hope we can still have TotM tourneys- Themed sounds good

Andy

 

[Snorzel]

I have an idea for a tourney if anyone would be interested. The grand prize could be a code for Zaccaria Pinball on PC (pre ordered an extra code for just such a prize) anyone who wants to win that code could sign up before hand. Any one could play but the code should go to the highest rank person who wants it.

Then we could do an 8 table tournament, limit 2 tries per table like totw. We could score it the way totw is or use some kind of bracket system. I would be open to allowing extra balls if you guys agree. The tables I was thinking of for the tourney are:
Pinbot
Big Shot
Space Shuttle
El Dorado EM
Haunted House
Gorgar
Xenon
Genie

I picked these tables because they are all from the same era as Zaccaria. Hope you guys like the idea

 

[shutyertrap]

Hey [MENTION=2707]Xanija[/MENTION] [MENTION=3745]vikingerik[/MENTION] [MENTION=2036]switch3flip[/MENTION] and [MENTION=4407]Snorzel[/MENTION], who wants to take May and run TotW / TotM? PM me and each other, figure out what coming months you guys would like to run something.

 

[vikingerik]

I can't do May, traveling away on Memorial Day weekend. June might be the same thing, not sure yet.

 

[Xanija]

At the moment I'm lacking of any energy to run a tournament, I'm sorry.

 

[Snorzel]

I will do it if anyone is interested. Unless Switch3flip wants this one, he posted his ideas first.

I was thinking 2 tries each table, post your highest score. List the players in order of highest to lowest score. The person who comes in 1st gets as many "points" as people who played the game, each player gets their points in decending order last place getting 1 point. Add up each players "point" total for all 8 tables at the end, highest points is the overall winner. Not sure if this could work at all with what you already have set up to enter scores [MENTION=134]shutyertrap[/MENTION]?

Also we could use different tables if you guys hate some or all the ones I chose. Other Zaccaria era machines in tpa are Victory
City of Gold
Goin Nits
F2K
Black Hole
Centaur
Black Knight
Fire Power
High Speed
F14

I chose what I did because I feel some comparison can be drawn to my choices and the Zac collection. So what do you guys think? Anyone intersted in playing? Anyone want to win a dl code for Zaccaria?

 

[shutyertrap]

I will do it if anyone is interested. Unless Switch3flip wants this one, he posted his ideas first.

I was thinking 2 tries each table, post your highest score. List the players in order of highest to lowest score. The person who comes in 1st gets as many "points" as people who played the game, each player gets their points in decending order last place getting 1 point. Add up each players "point" total for all 8 tables at the end, highest points is the overall winner. Not sure if this could work at all with what you already have set up to enter scores [MENTION=134]shutyertrap[/MENTION]?

Also we could use different tables if you guys hate some or all the ones I chose. Other Zaccaria era machines in tpa are Victory
City of Gold
Goin Nits
F2K
Black Hole
Centaur
Black Knight
Fire Power
High Speed
F14

I chose what I did because I feel some comparison can be drawn to my choices and the Zac collection. So what do you guys think? Anyone intersted in playing? Anyone want to win a dl code for Zaccaria?

[MENTION=4407]Snorzel[/MENTION], May is yours. Post your rules and thread in a separate post of the tourney forum, I'll sticky it. My score software is set up only for the TotM tourneys, so you'll have to collect scores and compute them yourself. Whether you have people post here to the forum or setup something like we did on Google Forms, that's up to you.

 

[Snorzel]

[MENTION=4407]Snorzel[/MENTION], May is yours. Post your rules and thread in a separate post of the tourney forum, I'll sticky it. My score software is set up only for the TotM tourneys, so you'll have to collect scores and compute them yourself. Whether you have people post here to the forum or setup something like we did on Google Forms, that's up to you.

SYT I am down but I get the feeling no one is interested?

 

[shutyertrap]

Don't think that. Our group has become rather silent as of late, but still shows up to play the tournaments each month.