Special Events?

[kirkh]

The face to face gamers have the Red Baron Fight and the Armistice Day tourney so I was wondering if maybe we should do the same thing for VDP, that is have a couple big yearly online get-togethers. Maybe pick a couple WWI significant dates such as a Frank Luke Tourney on or near 29 September or something along those lines.

It could either big one big game with lots of people or a few smaller games with a common theme all going on at the same time. To use the Frank Luke theme, it could be balloon busting/defense missions.

Just a thought.

[Stephen]

That's a great idea. I've been approached with several ideas in the past for special events at Indy but didn't do them because our plate was already full... maybe I should pull some of them out of the closet. I like the Luke theme, as you might guess.

www.THESTANDfrankluke.com

Whatever we do let's take our time and do it right.

[kirkh]

Definitely. There's no rush. At this point we're still in the brainstorming stage and trying to come up with ideas that might work. I do think having a couple special events during the year may attract players that might not ordinarily give it a whirl.

[Stephen]

I agree. Here's some things to consider:

March already has the society spring mini con
April is RBF
August is Gen Con
November is Armistice Day Tourney
December is the Wingman Tournament
There's also the Team Tournament but I can't remember what month its held.

We could, of course, just consider VDP completely different and not worry about overlapping society events but I think we do so at our own peril. I would really hate to see VDP grow into its own culture, totally separate from the society. Neither is big enough and both are stronger working together.

IMHO the VDP events should not just work with the overall DP calendar, but play off of it for added success. For instance, let's say that we hold VDP special events in Sept and Feb (just as an example).

We could heavily promote the September VDP event at Gen Con in August to bolster participation, get some ink in AERODROME and keep momentum going after the con.

We could also advertise the February event as the first major event of the new year and a way to warm up for the spring mini con (March) without leaving home. Then try to make the Feb VDP event "the talk" of the spring mini con.

You'll quickly find that in DP, there are "hot" times and "cold" times. Right now this forum and the web site hits are going crazy over RBF. In June everything will be fairly calmed down. Same with the whole society. There are times when events force DP to the front of people's minds. If we're smart we can use that to prevent our events from being overrun by other major events that are already established, and use them to promote VDP at the same time.

And VDP will be far stronger with more enthusiasm, more players and more gaming opportunities if we court the society rather than alienate it.

[kirkh]

That was my thinking. Schedule the major VDP events during the face-to-face DP down times. On the other hand, sometimes everybody getting together and playing in the Red Baron or other face-to-face tournament might generate momentum that would carry over for a week or two so maybe having VDP events close to face-to-face events might be the way to go. I can see the logic of doing it either way. Regardless of what method is chosen, I agree the face-to-face and online games need to be together. Each method of playing can do nothing but help with interest in the other. In fact, I'd be so bold as to say version 8 (whenever it comes out) should have info in it on playing VDP. We all know the largest drawback to playing any boardgame is finding people to play with. If the next version of DP can include information of how to get hooked up and play online it'll go a long way toward promoting interest in the game for new buyers. Lord knows whenever I buy a new game, the first thing I do is check online to see what's out there and if there's a "community" for it.

[Rex]

All great ideas. I Agree that the VDP community should work to gain support as well as lend its support to the Society. I like the Feb and Sept dates as well.


-Rex

[kirkh]

I think any VDP special dates should probably be in the winter, when there is less traveling and more people sitting in front of their computers. How about something quirky, like a New Years game where we play all night, starting sometime on New Years Eve? I'm married with children, so my days of going out on New Years Eve are long since past. A nice night of playing VDP would be great.

[Stephen]

Although I personally like the idea, competing with New Year's Eve for the establishment of a successful long-term is asking for trouble. The odds are against us before we start.

From a pragmatic standpoint I really believe the best chance for VDP's success is to play off the society calendar for our events. That means January, February, September, October, and maybe May and July.

[Stephen]

Okay, we don't have to do any of this, but I'm going to make specific recommendations in order to try and make some forward progress. IMHO VDP should hold two special events.

1) VDP World Championships

This event is especially for VDP players. Held on VDP's standard weekly gaming day (whatever day of the wk that turns out to be) on the second week of July, leading up to Gen Con and taking advantage of the Gen Con hoopla. All those people who have no local squadron championship to win will now have a chance to win a major DP title.

In order to compete for the current title you must have played in one VDP event in the previous calendar year. Players are asked to save one Game Log File from the previous year and submit it to the game coordinator to verify eligibility, or perhaps post it on a master eligibility list somewhere. This will also promote VDP because people must at least sample the online game in order to play for the VDP title. That encourages participation and rewards those who play regularly. And it can hardly be called restrictive... show up once in a whole year and anyone can play.

And it gives VDP is own championship and something to strive for.

2) VDP Invitational

Anyone who has won any Dawn Patrol tournament is invited to play in this champions-only event, held on the weekly VDP day in the second week of January.

This event will encourage FTF players to participate in VDP and ensure that most DP squadrons have some exposure to VDP. Any win in any society event or local tournament in the previous calendar year earns an invitation to the VDP Champion's Invitational.

Think for a moment what this will do for VDP... winners from the Gen Con Open, Masters, RBF, every local sqdn that holds a tourney, Armistice Day, VDP World Championships, all winning members of the Team Tourney, spring mini con, etc. all receive an invitation to compete. And every member of local squadrons will want to know how their local champion did at the Invitational.

That's a good advertisement for VDP, and it makes the Invitational a bit tantalizing.

So, for whatever they're worth, there's two ideas that will be fun, will act as incentives and good PR for VDP and will encourage involvement.

That should get the ball rolling here.

[Rex]

Both great Ideas. I would vote yes to both of these. It even leaves room for a Third event in the fall if we get enough interest. I like the cross pollination between FtF and On-line DP. It can only help both.


-Rex

[Stephen]

Okay, we need more opinions than we're getting here so I'm going to keep pressing forward...

I say we schedule the first VDP World Championship game for Thursday night, July 19, at 6pm central/7pm eastern. The entire scenario will be designed in advance and participants are asked to log in 1 hour early; anyone arriving after numbers are rolled for the first turn cannot play.

And the first VDP invitational should be scheduled on Thursday night, January 11, 2008, at 6pm central/7pm eastern. And that we should have someone at Gen Con with flyers to hand out to folks, and special guest invitations to hand to the winners of the World's Largest and Gen Con Open so they know they're invited.

It would be helpful if someone took over as VDP Events Manager or something... I can't do all this and the web site, too. In fact, if someone wanted to step in as ISD's VDP Editor that would be way cool... develop content, proof read the VDP section, see that all games are written up, post ads on other game forums, etc.

A lot of these things are already getting done (sort of) by committee, but specifying responsibilities might facilitate faster progress with less time spent sitting around waiting on each other. Something to consider anyway.

[Rex]

Stephen,
This may be premature, but what do you see as prizes for these events. I like the silver cup for RBF, and think something similar would be nice. Do you collect entry fees for your events to pay for prizes? Is that something we would want to do for VDP events? Anyone else have ideas? Obviously the better the prizes and the less people have to pay the more participation there will be. But If there is going to be money spent then there has to some way to raise money. I did notice that there were quite a few prizes donated. I'm sure that takes a lot of work to go out and find people and organizations that will donate to the prize pool.

-Rex

[Stephen]

I'm just getting back in town and will comment on awards later, but we need to press this conversation forward. We've got a special events page up that either needs content or deletion. It doesn't have to happen tomorrow, but we need to keep progressing and we need more input from other VDP'ers. So jump in. Someone needs to grab this ball and run with it.