Does the Tournament have a Future?

[Sir Bugsy]

Disclaimer: I am in no way casting stones at anyone, especially our hard working, all-volunteer GOTM Staff. Please don't take offense.

Does the tournament have a future? We haven't seen any proposals or games for a new season. And we really haven't seen any results from the past season.

Has this concept died a slow death due to lack of interest or is it just preparing its Phoenix-like return?

How does the community feel about the tournament? Should it die? Has the advent of C3C have everyone so distracted that hardly anyone would play?

I for one, enjoyed the challenge of playing towards a specific victory condition that changed from month to month. It forced me to explore new ways of playing, new tactics, new strategies.

Perhaps I should post a poll, but I will leave such a decision to the GOTM Staff.

 

[Txurce]

Sir Bugsy, my unofficial understanding is that January was a scheduled month off, due to GOTM 26 having been extended to January 7, and the effect of the holidays. I look forward to the next season, but personally don't expect a game until any sooner than February 15, which would keep us on the present schedule.

Scoring has indeed fallen behind, and an effort is being made to catch up on all fronts. The GOTM is just about there, but the Tourney, Hall of Fame, and Global Rankings are still outstanding. I know that every effort is being made to catch up there as well.

 

[Email10]

Personally I liked the Tournament style, since it "forced" me to pursuit goals that I never tried before the tournament, like 20K or Domination, but when the season 5 results never showed up (with exception for the first 2 games) I lost interest.

I believe that to keep interest in the game, results have to be produced in a decent time. This goes for the QSC also, which I think, like the tournament, had a big impact on the amount of players who started to play GOTM:s. The GOTM already have a nice and fast result feedback.

No stone-casting from me either, just trying to reflect my opinion on Tournament and QSC. QSC being the main reason I started playing GOTM again, and Tournament adding to the fun.

 

[Tech Step]

I personally don't play in the tournament games (I don't have enough time) I personally think that the GOTM games are enough of a challenge and certainly quench my thirst for gaming.

The GOTM games usually take me somewhere between 25 -> 35 hours, I am not sure that it is reasonable to expect people to play more than 40 hours a month. (GOTM and Medal play series)

I think that the CIV fanatics team should perhaps merge the GOTM games into the medal play series. I think that for one of the medal play games in series 5 that it was also the GOTM game. I liked this because it let me play in both competitions with out having to dedicate too much of my life.
The merging of the 2 tournaments would give the civb fanatics team time to concentrate on making the GOTM games the _ultimate_ Civ competition. (not that it already isn't)

Well, thats my 2 cents worth.

 

[Tech Step]

I hope that the lack of responses to this thread is not an indication as to the status of the Tournament games

 

[ainwood]

Sorry - I didn't see it!

Txurce is spot-on. We need some staff discussions on how it will be handled, but we're gasping for air a bit at the moment....

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I agree Tech Step. I'm disappointed in the lack of response. I was hoping for a strong outcry against losing the tournament. I personally loved the tournament games and really want it to continue. Unfortunately, there may not be that many of us.

 

[EsatP]

I think tournament is very useful and interesting. However, time of processing of results is too great. Game appears forgotten. It would be desirable to have the open table of preliminary results. It is not important, if a part of results it will be defective after the analysis.

 

[Justus II]

I had never played in the old tournament, but did play Game 6-2, and hoped that that game, plus GOTM24 and GOTM25 would count as my tournament submission, as I hit the required victory conditions. It seemed like a neat idea, and the specified victory condition made it more of a challenge, which I liked. However, given the choices and limited staff time available, I would have to hope that GOTM would take priority, and that unless/until the results can be updated on a regular basis, setting up and releasing future tournament games seems somewhat futile. Not a knock on anyone, I realize that the staff is doing a lot of work for little pay. OK, well, no pay, unless they are getting some gpt deals from the AI! so maybe one "event" per month is all we can expect for now.

 

[denyd]

Might as well toss my 2 cents in on this.

I'd like to see the tournament continue, with the directed victory conditions, but mabye only on standard/small/tiny maps. There just isn't enough time to complete GOTM + Tournament games when both are on the larger maps.

Maybe each game could be tailored to the Civ we're playing, allowing us to use the UU to it's strength. Possibly even have the game start at 10AD for those with later game UU's. Have an average start of 10 cities with normal infrastructure.

Example: Play as the Iroquois with 5 opponents on a single continent. Use conquest/domination as the goal to get a good feel for the power of the Mounted Warrior.

This is also a good venue for OCC & 5CC type games.

 

[Tech Step]

I still think that the best way to do this is to use the GOTM games as the tournament games but have a specified victory condition if you want to hand in the GOTm game for the tournament.

Playing 1 game a month is enough for me. I work full time and go to uni part time, so spending 50+ hours a month on Civ is not feesable. I also like to venture outside every once in a while!

 

[CdB]

Like many, I appreciated tournaments because it forces you to go after specific victory conditions you may not have considered before.
And like Tech Step, It is difficult to spend that much time on Civ3 ... We sometimes have a real life .

So a Quick Game with some specific set-up OCC / 5 OCC / TimeBound (Score at 1AD) / Working on a specific target (like Halloween Treat) are all good ideas .... But this offer has to come with the results put together in a "timely manner" as a global package.