Over the last few months several wargear mapmakers have been creating new maps all with a single theme (Old West/Westerns).  To make things even more exciting, Tom has put up $100 for the winners.  Everyone is invited to vote on these maps to help decide the winner.  The only requirement is that you must play at least one game on every map in the contest before voting.   Voting will be open until Midnight GMT March 31st. 

To keep the voting thread clean, this thread is for general discussion of the contest.  To vote, you must go to this thread:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/2088p1

The Contestants:

• Deadwood - http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/3171
• Frontierland Shootin' Arcade - http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Frontierland+Shootin%27+Arcade
• Gunslinger - http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Gunslinger
• Remember the Alamo - http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/3070
• There Will Be Blood - http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/There+Will+Be+Blood

are all these Turn-based!? Remember the Alamo doesn't identify which.

Remember the Alamo is Simulgear, as represented by the 4-green-arrows-clover-looking symbol.

Are Deadwood and Remember the Alamo set to be "live" anytime soon?  I know we can play them in DEV mode, but there might be changes made before they go live.

under the link above the simulgear doesn't show up. it's a blank cell; unless....nope that wasn't it, but it is now showing up...even weirder.

Cona Chris wrote:

Are Deadwood and Remember the Alamo set to be "live" anytime soon?  I know we can play them in DEV mode, but there might be changes made before they go live.

I would suspect that they will go live soon.  Hang on and play them when they are good to
go.

In the meantime come join the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade
tournament!

http://www.wargear.net/tournaments/view/659

Guaranteed three games and no threat to your global ranking.

Great looking boards all, well done!

Cona Chris wrote:

Are Deadwood and Remember the Alamo set to be "live" anytime soon?  I know we can play them in DEV mode, but there might be changes made before they go live.

Alamo is unlikely to change much, even if it turns out that it sucks. The weave and weft of the borders and modifiers is too complicated to pull out even a single thread and get it all put back together before the eventual heat death of the universe.

That said, I would like to do my due diligence in getting a few games played on it before sending it out into the world as approved.

Cramchakle wrote:

The weave and weft of the borders and modifiers is too complicated to pull out even a single thread and get it all put back together before the eventual heat death of the universe.

haha.  I've definitely felt that way about some of my maps.

Looking for some There Will Be Blood players:

http://www.wargear.net/games/join/122110

Just 3 weeks left until voting ends.  So you might want to start games on any boards you haven't played soon.  Speaking of which, I can't start a game on 'Remember the Alamo'.  Did Cramchakle remove it?

Is Remember the Alamo going to be included in the voting?

Kinda forgot about it. Just submitted to go live.

BlackDog wrote:

Is Remember the Alamo going to be included in the voting?

I don't know. In my opinion it is not fair to require everyone to have played it when it was not available for play during the whole judging period.  But I'm reluctant to remove one of the contestants without some sort of consensus from the community.

I'm indifferent as to its inclusion. It's simulgear and unlikely to be popular. I think it's well made and plays great. It should be fun to a certain subset of people, but I am not so clouded in my judgement to think that it's going to win over the hearts and minds of the majority. Unless we get a lot of people who are voting totally objectively, winning anything probably isn't in it's future; making it was more of a thematic thought exercise for me.

Cramchakle, I appreciate your candor and I think your assessment is pretty accurate.  I still plan on playing Remember the Alamo, but I think the chances of any simulgear board winning a mapmaking competition is extremely unlikely no matter how great the board is, so if it is ok with everyone, I think we should amend the rules to say that players can vote without having played Remember the Alamo (I don't think we need to forbid people from voting for it). 

I'll write up something to add to the official rules that states a map must be available to play (i.e. at least in beta) during the entire judging period to be eligible for voting (please give me feedback if you have an opinion on this proposed change).  That should help bring clarity to future similar situations.

So are you amending the rules for this one time or will SimulGear boards be excluded from "must play in order to vote" in future competitions?

Also, I want to confirm that private games count as having played a board.

Ozyman wrote:

I'll write up something to add to the official rules that states a map must be available to play (i.e. at least in beta) during the entire judging period to be eligible for voting (please give me feedback if you have an opinion on this proposed change).  That should help bring clarity to future similar situations.

Remember the Alamo was available as a Beta map. IIRC, the beta flag can expire. That's what I meant by I forgot about the board. I just never renewed the beta tag when it fell off. Actually, I never even noticed that it expired. Oh well.

So are you amending the rules for this one time or will SimulGear boards be excluded from "must play in order to vote" in future competitions?

Also, I want to confirm that private games count as having played a board.

My plan was not to treat simulgear maps separately.  I know some people don't like them, but you only have to play 1 game on it.   The rule change was just to clarify that a board has to be available to play during the entire judging period.  In the future I suggest that boards that are not available for play during the entire judging  period are removed from the ballet.  Since this rule was not in place yet, my suggestion for this competition is a compromise - leave Remember The Alamo on the ballet, but don't require voters to play it before voting (I will still be playing it - Cram please turn the beta flag back on so I can start a game before it gets out of review).

From previous discussions the consensus was that a board must be 'submitted for review' by the beginning of the judging period.  This contest I relaxed that rule a bit due to the holidays.  In the future, I suggest we adjust the schedule so that the board submission deadline does not fall on the Dec 31st.

My goal is to tighten up the rules enough that we don't have to make judgement calls, because I think that will lead to disagreement and strife and I want this to be a fun experience for everyone.

Yes private games count.  The 'play every map' requirement is on the honor system.

Remember the Alamo was available as a Beta map. IIRC, the beta flag can expire. That's what I meant by I forgot about the board. I just never renewed the beta tag when it fell off. Actually, I never even noticed that it expired. Oh well.

I figured that was what happened.  IIRC, beta flags expire after a month.  In my opinion, being in beta is kind of a grace period for the competition maps to help cover the period when they may be submitted for review, but haven't passed review yet.  I think it is up to the map maker to make sure they get the map promoted in that month (ideally), or at least renew the beta flag.

Finally, I want to say that even though I am basically in charge of keeping the competition orderly and on schedule, I don't like the idea of me making rules in a vacuum, so please speak up if you have an opinion on these rules, and I will try to find a consensus that makes most people happy.

Back in beta.

My opinion is that the rules should be tighter. It's all for fun and there aren't enough contestants to be draconian about it; but it's also not fair to you or anyone else that you have to make judgement calls about anything.

I said pretty much the same back when I asked for an extension (on a map that I squandered a bend in the rules by making something no one will like anyway).

It will be tough to find a balance between keeping things in line and keeping it fun. When there are only as many contestants as prizes, it doesn't make much sense to throw people out for deadlines.