User talk:2020

school competition
Ok, is it possible to run a competition for schools? Out of a standard school of 1,000 students, I suspect it is possible to create a team or two supported by the maths department. There are I suspect, five stages:
 * stage 1: coming up with the idea, formalising it, and updating it
 * stage 2: contacting schools, finding some maths teachers who enjoy the game so much, they want to set up a school team
 * stage 3: promoting the competition to other maths teachers, councils, educational authorities, etc
 * stage 4: setting up the first competition
 * stage 5: developing a regular perhaps weekly competition run along similar lines to tronic, with big competitions annually

Ok, if I go ahead and complete stage 1 provisionally here, I suppose I can carry on with stage 2 and contact maths teachers...

Hm... what's it called? Tron School... armagetroned hehe... um...


 * I'll talk to my math teacher. :)  --Lucifer 05:12, 8 November 2006 (CST)
 * Ah... so... you've found me out eh? that didn't take long, did it? --07:39, 8 November 2006 (CST)
 * I do watch the recent changes page, even if I don't make many changes. --Lucifer 20:31, 8 November 2006 (CST)

kings of the grid
Going to start another thing, to see if it works. Runs along lines that gar originally suggested. Basketball, winning team stays on. Van called it, King of the Hill. So, we have Kings of the Grid.

re-organising my gameplay
This is more for me than for anyone else, however everything I do is transparent so I don't mind if you read.

I have done a stupid thing. I have just spent money on a server to host standard fortress settings. Not so stupid actually, but it is since I don't really have the money. And there are plenty of unused servers as it is... what we lack are players.

I am a little bored with the way ladle has turned out. The original idea, inspirational even, was to get 1,000,000 players in year... .by next march. To do so required a team effort... that team hasn't materialised.. the Tronic progression is no longer viable. SO, why should I spend so much of my time trying to set up the bloody thing? You see... I am bored with it. I like the games, but I am bored with the lack of pick up, I just don't understand why many good players are not joining in. So, I am thinking about resigning from the whole thing and devoting myself to just playing the game, like most people.

However, since I have paid for the server, I might as well float another idea... to test the waters once again. Not so much a titanic this time. I shall split my efforts in two: 2020 is responsible for admin, and one_tm is responsible for nothing.

As one-tm, I will play on the grid as much as possible, enlist players for the team, admin the wiki page, challenge other teams, clans and so on. That is, grid level gaming. Also produce some play_er vids for advertising to join the Tronic Monkeys.

As 2020, I will admin the server. Each day will have a different theme. Sounds a bit odd, and will probably not work, but fuck it, I think we need to experiment and some players will like certain things and turn up on specific nights if they really want to.

As 2020, I might play the odd game, come out of retirement, as it were, perhaps with anarchic wanderers. The various events presented at the Team Challenge server have to admined, but at low input level. Also, I will still promote the Tronic Progression, but not so much with players in the game, but in the wider public, producing some re_play tron vids, and generating a team of people who are committed to promoting the game: team amaze_d. More like a social experiment, along the lines of source forge and open source, but rather than producing computer programs, it is more like producing a social programme. I will pursue getting the backing of Steven Lisberger, and perhaps the idea of pitching investors.

That's about it. It means a change to various pages here, and how I engage with players.

The game is not just the one on the grid. I will leave that for one_tm.

other ideas
Thoughts on ping... got completely bamboozled...

Thoughts on points... really tricky problem which is being discussed on the forums in may 2007... i wanted to write a post but there are so many factors... the chat level afforded by forums doesn't penetrate deeply enough... probably going to get stuffed trying to chat about this, but... here's my attempt... contributions obviously wlecomed... let's put this wiki and the mode of discussion it suggests to the test!

talk
The "Stages" really were obsolete. Stage 1 talked about Team Captains decided on the brackets and their respective teams' position in the bracket. Well, the brackets are made randomly, so Stage 1 doesn't even apply anymore. Stage 2 talked about Team Captains meeting in IRC at 7pm GMT to discuss last minute changes and/or adjustments. Well first of all that time is wrong since the first round of matches started at 6pm GMT. Also, there's no need for the captains to meet since everything has been worked out beforehand by either Concord or myself. Stage 3 talked about playing the games and having fun. Well that's a given, no? All the "Stages" really did were confuse newer players about which rules are correct, especially since they would see the "Stages" at the top of every Ladle wiki page. --Durka 16:23, 5 July 2009 (PDT)

Ok. There are definitely stages to this.
 * Stage 1, therefore, is to stick names down on the team list.
 * The transition to stage two, is the random allocation of teams to servers.
 * It is wise to get captains to meet up, and you are right about the start time, since it has to be changed to account for the number of rounds preceding the final. at 9pm gmt. Originally, this meeting was to follow along the lines of self-selection of teams in the brackets. It also allows for certain contingent factors to be dealt with. And for certain individuals to emerge as better organisers than others. Which led to people who are naturally better at getting things run smoothly, that is you and concs most recently. In the same we leaders emerge in teams, so leaders emerge amoungst captains. The tendency is for strong-willed individuals to take control, to form teams and then dictate what should happen and how. Purely a willful, and often a ego-based, system. This leads to a certain hierarchical system which persists in time.
 * The danger of eradicating stage 2 and leaving it to the few exceptional organisers is that this becomes a weak point. What if you are ill? And the community has relied on you guys to do all the extra work? How can a new captain learn to take more responsibility, to earn respect, and thus fulfil a role like you or concs? And, how does this scale up to 1000000 players? And please do not answer this with a technical solution. One of the principles of this self-organising system is that we develop trust amoungst team-captains just in the same we develop trust of our team mates on the grid. Even with 1m players, the challenge is to ensure that it relies on people, on our self-discipline and trust and mutual alignment.

I'm giving up with bullets since this is an important issue. Please consider it.

The notion of the stages was based on time-parameters. The first stage being preparation before the day. The second stage being the preparation on the day. And the third stage being the actual experience of the game. This is quite simple since it is all related to timing. Originally, I had the current stage in bold so that it would be clear what stage we were at. Your restructuring has validity, but there are inconsistencies which could be ironed out. Your blurb mention team captain lists second when that's what needs to be completed first, and the brackets are emphasised first even though we don't know how many teams are actually going to appear. I would also only put one link in the sentence, with optional links provided in the menu bar of the blurb.

How would you like to proceed? We have had enough experience, and you more than I regarding the actual running of the day, and the guideline page could do with a proper rewriting so that it is consistent with the blurb.

--2020 04:48, 7 July 2009 (PDT)

I think you misunderstood my intentions of editing the blurb in the first place. I totally agree with everything you said and I totally agree that there really are stages for the Ladle, but the ones that used to be on the blurb just didn't make sense and all they did was cause confusion. My ultimate goal was to rewrite the stages so they made sense, but seeing as I only edited the blurb just before the Ladle, it was only a quick-fix, which I hope to come back to later so as to polish it up and have them (the stages) actually coordinate with what's really going on. --Durka 10:01, 7 July 2009 (PDT)