What would you like to see in DoM or on Twilight Isle?

[Claire Gallows]

Has the Tuesday/Wednesday DoF/DoM merger improved DoM numbers, or did it just end up giving people an additional opportunity to do DoF? If it's the latter, and DoF outpaced DoM on Tuesdays, how would adding DoS improve DoM's numbers?

DoF was already on Tuesdays so it's not a matter of "giving people an additional opportunity to do DoF". It was there, it just changed "where" it was.

[DUEL Jesse]

DoF was already on Tuesdays so it's not a matter of "giving people an additional opportunity to do DoF". It was there, it just changed "where" it was.

Plus it saw some DOF fighters doing magic. I traded DoF duels for DoM duels on an alt while trying to grind for the Ring of Klytus and some more DoF fighters were willing to trade.

[Claire Gallows]

Updated

April 2014 = 21 DoM Duels / 14 DoF Duels
May 2014 = 15 DoM Duels / 27 DoF DUels
June 2014 = 16 DoM Duels / 32 DoF Duels
July 2014 = 17 DoM Duels / 70 DoF Duels ( Gold Apple + FireStar and IceDancer tournaments that required participation duel to join. )
August 2014 = 26 DoM Duels / 70 DoF Duels ( Golden Apple )
September 2014 = 15 DoM Duels / 23 DoF Duels
October 2014 = 14 DoM Duels / 8 DoF Duels
November 2014 = 32 DoM Duels ( DoM had a no-loss night ) / 7 DoF Duels
December2014 = 16 DoM Duels / 10 DoF Duels
January 2015 = 18 DoM Duels / 21 DoF Duels
February 2015 = 13 DoM Duels / 33 DoF Duels
March 2015 = 13 DoM Duels / 24 DoF Duels
April 2015 = 8 DoM Duels / 22 DoF Duels
May 2015 = 8 DoM Duels ( Dueling event happened one Tuesday this month ) / 15 DoF Duels
June 2015 = Currently none on Tuesday / None currently on Tuesday

I might be off by a number or two at times, but this is the jist. DoF / DoM Wednesday started in June 2014.

Also for a few months of perspective pre-merger:

January 2014:
Magic Tuesdays: 20
DoF Tuesday/Wednesdays: 58

February 2014:
Magic: 19
Fists: 33

March 2014:
Magic: 6
Fists: 34


While it wasn't a solo night, magic did gain a night out of this merger by adding Wednesdays. So if anything we added an additional opportunity to do magic and it doesn't really seem like anyone took advantage of it. That begs the following questions;

Do we force people into doing a sport they may not want to or don't like solely for the sake of making it solo?

While taking away a night that others use for a sport they prefer?

Do people avoid nights with solo sports for any reason, like above, because they don't like the sport offered so they just don't duel at all?

If we take away DoF completely on Tuesdays to give DoM a solo night, do we take away DoM on Wednesdays to give DoF their solo night back?

Does decreasing opportunities in multiple sports help and at what cost?


It's just a few that come to mind when I think about all of it. I have my thoughts on the above that I'll reserve for now. I'm interested in hearing what others think about any or all of them.

[LadyAjaBird]

Fair split-
DoF - 2 nights Mon & Wed
DoS - 2 nights - Thus & Sat
DoM - 1 night - Tues

Solves caller issue. Makes it fair. No one has to "choose".

[Claire Gallows]

Summary of suggestions so far:

--New tower (Life/Death/Light/Dark)
---Can activity support a new tower

--Permanent guardian/pet/thing for the towers

--Revised map

--Temporary change of the Tuesday combo night in effect until August 25th
---Previous dueling activity statistics pre/post merger

--DoM Solo Night
---Importance of separate settings

--Lower ranked Keepers ability to use EF against higher ranked duelists

--Tournaments & events, moar plz




Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. We greatly appreciate it and hope you'll keep it coming.

[Blue]

More events, especially boss/team types of events, or the no loss/double win/etc types to encourage new players to come out or old players on new characters. The last no loss night was massive and thoroughly enjoyable.

Tower 'pets' would be neat. Anything that acts as some sort of permanent, constant RP option would be neat. The opals talk to their owners and grant minor powers. The towers obviously shouldn't do that, but they could provide… something. Likewise, the squires of the barons get unique weapons they can use. Etc etc etc. I'd suggest not making it any 'specific' pet, but perhaps the tower provides some kind of unique pet to the person who owns it, one which both reflects the tower and the holder. Jesse's pet in the Tower of Fire would not be the same pet in Claire's, but they'd both have a fire theme.

[Spell]

Let it be known that the greatest prizes ever handed out in DoM History are as followed

ELDER GOD TIER

Patches the Kitten
Penguin ( Renamed Cloud Chae, CC for short ) - This pet was so popular that a duelist demanded a winter-themed pet for their prize after they could not gain the Penguin. Looking at you, Myria Graziano.

GOD TIER

Pet Rock
Unhatched Dragon Egg - Many tears were wept when the first place winner of the last ART disregarded all other prizes ( which included EF gems, Spirit staff, etc ) for this prize. Some can still hear the anguished cries echoing in the night of those who wanted the dragon egg for themselves.

DEMI-GOD TIER

Singing Sunflower
Baby Kiwi
Other Kittens

IMMORTAL TIER

Archmage / Keeper Powers

LEGENDS TIER

Spirit Staff

IF ALL ELSE FAILS TIER

EF Gems

GOING HOME ALONE TIER

WoLs

Don't even try to debate me because I know I'm right.

In other words. Moar pet / rp prizes.

[JewellRavenlock]

To be honest, I'm of a mind that the more availability for all three sports, the better. Ideally fight night all the time would allow people to do the sport they want, when they want rather than be forced into a sport just because there's nothing else to do. That said, I'm always open to suggestions and input.

This. Why not have every night be a fight night? There's nothing fair about DoM having 1 night to itself while the rest have multiples, and there's nothing fair about one sport having a night to itself while the others are passed over.

If dueling interest and numbers for regulation is important, the option of having all three sports going on daily throughout the week could raise them. Then there wouldn't need to be split days having DoM on RDI side and DoF on ROH. Everyone would get what they want in their preferred sport.

Settings are an important issue too, I know, which is why with the fight night every night idea that they can be cycled through. 2 Days in the Arena, 2 Days in the Outback, 2 Days on Twilight Isle, and 1 Day in the Annex.

I'd love DoM to have it's own day, truly, but dropping DoF all together ( even if split to ROH side and DoM going to RDI ) and possible regulation duels gained from it on Tuesday just to give focus to DoM's lacking numbers seems an odd concept when the focus should be on raising numbers instead of cutting them down.

This

This might be more fitting for a community-wide discussion (rather than one meant to focus on DoM), but if there shouldn't be just a concern about DoM numbers (not that there is). What is good for the community as a whole should trickle down to be what is good for each sport. What is good at promoting regulation dueling numbers (which we NEED to support), should be something that is good for DoM.

I understand Harris' points about setting and what he says here:

I said it when DoF and DoM merged on Tuesday and I'll say it again: Setting integrity is, at the very least, important to me and several others voiced a similar opinion. I actually enjoy showing up to The Outback and having nothing but DoF matches. I also enjoy the unique crowds each type of venue draws. There's nothing in my opinion more homogenizing than to have Fight Night across the board, simply rotating through the venues.

I kind of agree/disagree with that. Does it kind of kill the uniqueness of each individual sport? Maybe. Will the sports survive on their own long-term without combining? I don't know.

[JewellRavenlock]

Also, LOVE the schedule with the dates for future tournaments, Claire. Awesome idea.

[Ahni]

I'd suggest not making it any 'specific' pet, but perhaps the tower provides some kind of unique pet to the person who owns it, one which both reflects the tower and the holder. Jesse's pet in the Tower of Fire would not be the same pet in Claire's, but they'd both have a fire theme.

Like an elemental essence that takes the form of whatever creature the new Keeper decides, if any? That would be neat. Alternatively, the Keeper could just decide to keep the perma-pet (THAT'S THE NAME NOW GUYS CAUSE BEST NAME) as an essence / ghosty thing.

[Jake]

I understand Harris' points about setting and what he says here:

I said it when DoF and DoM merged on Tuesday and I'll say it again: Setting integrity is, at the very least, important to me and several others voiced a similar opinion. I actually enjoy showing up to The Outback and having nothing but DoF matches. I also enjoy the unique crowds each type of venue draws. There's nothing in my opinion more homogenizing than to have Fight Night across the board, simply rotating through the venues.

I kind of agree/disagree with that. Does it kind of kill the uniqueness of each individual sport? Maybe. Will the sports survive on their own long-term without combining? I don't know.

This is pretty much the dilemma.

[JewellRavenlock]

I understand Harris' points about setting and what he says here:

I said it when DoF and DoM merged on Tuesday and I'll say it again: Setting integrity is, at the very least, important to me and several others voiced a similar opinion. I actually enjoy showing up to The Outback and having nothing but DoF matches. I also enjoy the unique crowds each type of venue draws. There's nothing in my opinion more homogenizing than to have Fight Night across the board, simply rotating through the venues.

I kind of agree/disagree with that. Does it kind of kill the uniqueness of each individual sport? Maybe. Will the sports survive on their own long-term without combining? I don't know.

This is pretty much the dilemma.

And I didn't even offer a solution! Bad me.

What about the possibility of every sport only having one solo night a week and the other four nights being Fight Nights? Just to see?

Also, maybe the Annex needs a serious facelift. Like Property Brothers, let's knock down some walls and give the Annex different sections for different types of duels.

Oh no, Jewell is talking crazy talk.

[Spell]

What about the possibility of every sport only having one solo night a week and the other four nights being Fight Nights? Just to see?

Honestly that would be the most fair and balanced idea. You'd have each sport having the opportunity to be played 5 times a week with 3 ( 1 sport getting a solo night each ) and added fight nights.

The whole situation with setting integrity shouldn't be an issue since each setting would get their time to shine once a week, and then everyone will have an opportunity to play their choice of sport more with the new fight nights introduced.

[LadyAjaBird]

Jewell has a nice idea about each sport having one night. But. It leads back to Harris's point about staffing.

Off the top of my head, staffing is an issue. Can every caller call every sport? No. Does every caller *want* to call every sport? No. Unless it becomes mandatory that every caller learn every sport and be willing to call them, you're probably going to have issues with every night being a Fight Night. Perhaps it's a minor quibble, but staffing tends to get overlooked in these types of scenarios.

Magic has always had up and down numbers since AOL days.
Number of duels is not the all being deciding factor. So is community participation. "Spectators" as it were.
So. "Numbers" is NOT the important deciding factor.

Just set the schedule. Once and for all. No more test runs. No more back and forth and confusing people. It makes it solid, fair and solves the caller issue.

DoF - 2 nights Mon & Wed
DoS - 2 nights - Thus & Sat
DoM - 1 night - Tues

Solves caller issue. Makes it fair. No one has to "choose".

[Claire Gallows]

If we're looking at it strictly from a "fairness" standpoint, 2/2/1 is not fair. 1/1/1/4-fight-nights is fair.

The "caller issue" is best addressed by the callers that are in the trenches every week making these duels happen for us

Additionally;

Roleplaying is important and will be considered.
Participation is important and very much so will be considered.
The numbers are important too and will be considered while we look into all available options.


But as the community changes and the needs of the players and volunteers change, so too do scheduling needs and that's why we need to look at every aspect that contributes to this and do our best to address as many as possible all at once instead of putting a band aid over one item while something else is bleeding out. Things like test runs are a great way to see what is working and what isn't, so long as there is open communication around it which is why I am working toward making sure I'm as transparent as possible in this discussion.