Well, now that the whole event is over, and I've unwound and looked back on it, I realized I had a couple of thoughts on the whole event. I'd like to hear yours as well.

First - my thanks to staff. It had to have been rough to have just a few people judge over 2000 rooms (so I've heard), and even rougher to find the best of the best from that list. I'm sure some great ones will end up being overlooked just due to the lack of time to really dedicate to the effort, but I know staff are trying hard to be fair.
I know I'm incredibly fortunate - I had many good friends who not only came to visit me, but stayed. Their comments and the comments of people I've never met who clearly enjoyed the ride are worth a lot more to me than any prize I probably won't get anyway. :D
Like many others, I stayed in my room although we were told we didn't need to. Probably like many others, I felt that me being in there gave me a better chance with the judges, and that having others in there as well would greatly increase our chances as well. I don't know how to fix this in the future.
They need to improve the registration. The misleading information in the newsletter didn't help, and using the Black Hole for anything always seems to be a mistake. Perhaps something like this in the future?

To register, you would need to buy a red flag in the Emporium and put it in your start room. Only one red-flag sold per person. Non-tradeable.
Staff will search for red flagged rooms, judge them, and replace the flag with some other color, so you know you were judged.

They really need to improve communication (still). It was great that they sent a pop-up every hour to tell people judging was extended. It is sad that Monday's newsletter said nothing about this. Sad that newsletters contained misleading information that only contributed to problems. Sad that people had no idea when, or even if, they would be judged and felt like staff had completely forgotten them.
I'm a little frustrated that this ride event seems to have ended up as an after-thought themewise. Although November started out as "space month", by the time of the competition it was a mess between space, football, and the holidays. Seems like VMK is always more eager to get to the next theme before finishing out the current theme.
In short - I had more fun than I expected to. There are problems, and many of them are recurring problems, but hopefully one of these days they'll learn from their lessons.


So, what do you feel about the event before you thoughts are clouded by who did and didn't win?

Well... All I have to say is that I think they should try to judge ALL the rooms next time. NOT JUST THE US PEOPLE.
How would they like it if they spent time getting credits all year, make a good room, then everything go to waste by not getting a red ears visit. I DONT THINK THEY WOULD.

The whole reason for the extension was because they were judging every room. At least every room that registered correctly.


I stayed in my room alot but I had plenty of company. I thought it went quite well considering the task they took on (heh, I knew they were going to have a problem judging so many rooms). I met alot of people and got to see alot of cool rides when I wasnt in my room. I think it was really impressive for a first time at individual ride events. Think about all the other "first" runs they have had.

I agree with priz, they still need to improve communication however!!

Unfortunately VMK staff either missed people out who did register correctly or forgot to give flags out, because i know for a fact that i followed everything they said so i didnt get it wrong, and i didnt get judged.
But i thought the rides, whether they got judged or not, the quality was amazing there were some really good rides out there!
Jeena
xxxxxx

Unfortunately VMK staff either missed people out who did register correctly or forgot to give flags out, because i know for a fact that i followed everything they said so i didnt get it wrong, and i didnt get judged.
But i thought the rides, whether they got judged or not, the quality was amazing there were some really good rides out there!
Jeena
xxxxxx

I registered properly too, and my room didn't get judged either...

Thanks for starting this thread, Priz. I think its good to examine the ride event before the emotions of the judging results come out. :)

First, let me say that this has been my favorite ride competition to date and, despite some registration and judging problems, this went over pretty smoothly. Anyone who remembers the Everest competition and all the confusion we had then will appreciate how far we've come.

I enjoyed the individual ride competition vs. the team ride competition. Granted, it took a lot more credits to build this ride than any of my previous rooms, but it was nice to be able to realize a vision for a ride from start to finish. I know that, talking with others, that many teams in the past had "weak links" that dropped the ball on their rooms, unfairly affecting their other team members. The individual ride competition eliminated that.

I think everyone (including VMK staff) agrees that the registration for this competition could have been much better. Better instructions, confirmation of registration, and perhaps even a registration cap would greatly help in the future. I like your suggestion of the "red flag" registration. Does anyone know if the VMK game engine allows the staff to just say, "Show me all the rooms with a red flag in them"?

My biggest gripe of all with these ride competitions is how relatively few people actually ride or see them. I was fortunate to have many friends come by which boosted my ride's "Mickey Level" and encouraged others to visit. But I personally visited many rides that were on the bottom of the popularity list that were very well done but that few people would ever see. Meanwhile, the top of the popularity list is filled with the same old "Cute or Boot" games.

My suggestion would be to add a "ride-a-thon" component to the ride competition. If VMK could somehow make the last room of every ride automatically give every person who entered it a prize (one prize per room per player), all of VMK would be riding the rides, including those that were not as popular and have shorter lines. This would bring more non-ride-builders into the rides, make the ride builders sitting in their rooms all alone a little less lonely, and would bring a greater level of excitement to the whole event.

OH JOY!! I used contact us.. and I got a reply:

"Hi,
We got your message, and its safe here.
If you have a problem with your child's account, please log on as it yourself. If you'd like to request your child to be a community leader, please use the other option.
Thanks, and don't forget to read the FAQ's!
-VMK Player Support"

YAY AND AUTOMATED MESSAGE!!! PLAYER SUPPORT? Wow, they helped me, LOADS!

Oh lucky you.... i didnt get a reply! :(

Jeena
xxxxx

:xmas5: Well... All I have to say is that I think they should try to judge ALL the rooms next time. NOT JUST THE US PEOPLE.
How would they like it if they spent time getting credits all year, make a good room, then everything go to waste by not getting a red ears visit. I DONT THINK THEY WOULD.

I must disagree. I got judged, along with many other NON-US people. Staff did their best, you must understand that they had 2000+ entries. I am sorry you never got judged but please show a little appreciation to the Staff for doing their best. :xmas5:

I though it was cool i saw no problems

StitchMad I honestly think that were you live had nothing to do with it...They don't even KNOW were you live. I'm glade I didn't join, to much drama.. :P

I thought this was one of the best big scale events yet. I was extremely lagged the whole weekend, but that's ok :) The staff did their best to judge everyone, and even extended the ride event another day to get everyone that entered correctly their chance to be judged. Thank you staff for creating fun events for us!

Please do not get angry and say hateful things about VMK and it's staff. They do their best to see that everyone is taken care of. And when they make a mistake, they try to correct it as soon as they can. We don't have to have hosted events, new furniture/pins all the time..I think it's great that they are constantly working to update the game!

Good luck on the final scoring to all who entered the competition!

Even if I don't get a top 10 pin, I'll just go back to what I was doing before the competition: going for Best Guest Room. :) Now that I've spent my credits on all of this new stuff and supports, it will make building an award winning room even easier!

My thoughts on the event?

I think that a lot of players put a lot of effort, time, and credits into building their rides, and the final results (I'm not talking about the judging) show that.

I have seen some brilliantly designed rooms, including beautiful sculptures and dioramas created by using existing furniture in new and creative ways.

I have seen unique themes beautifully realized in short spaces.

I have seen fun and faithful recreations of Disney theme park attractions.

I have seen exciting and challenging puzzles and mazes created by using the new switch and door pieces.

All-in-all, I have had a great weekend riding the rides and experiencing the fruits of others' imaginations.

Anyone who remembers the Everest competition and all the confusion we had then will appreciate how far we've come.


And anyone who remembers the first space competition and the first pin trading room event will realize how far we still have to go. Those competitions were over a year ago, and suffered from many of the same complaints - people waiting in their rooms (but they had to, then) and many people not getting judged. Despite all the improvements!


Does anyone know if the VMK game engine allows the staff to just say, "Show me all the rooms with a red flag in them"?


I don't know this for sure, admitedly. But it seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to implement. (Certainly easier than many other changes. But I'm sure they'd love to hear other ideas to help solve these problems.)


My suggestion would be to add a "ride-a-thon" component to the ride competition. If VMK could somehow make the last room of every ride automatically give every person who entered it a prize (one prize per room per player), all of VMK would be riding the rides, including those that were not as popular and have shorter lines. This would bring more non-ride-builders into the rides, make the ride builders sitting in their rooms all alone a little less lonely, and would bring a greater level of excitement to the whole event.

I'll speak for myself here, but thats exactly why I made mine a quest.

And this goes back to my traditional rant - people have come to expect to get something for riding a ride. The staff ride-a-thons have made people feel this way. And now it seems like its one of the best ways to get people in to a room - to bribe them.


Staff did their best, you must understand that they had 2000+ entries. I am sorry you never got judged but please show a little appreciation to the Staff for doing their best.

I think it is difficult to "appreciate" the staffs hard work when they didn't seem to "appreciate" yours. I don't know how many hours StitchMad or Jenna worked on their rides, nor how many hours the staff worked judging them. But based on how much time I spent on mine (between earning the credits and spending them), I wouldn't be too surprised if they were pretty close.

And I'm sure StitchMad and Jenna are dissapointed - but I'd really like to hear how to better assure that all rides were judged and all acknowledgements properly made in the future. It is both easy to blame staff, and easy to defend them - it is much much harder to figure out how to improve things.

I though it was cool i saw no problems

None? :) Everything went perfectly for you? Judged quickly, lots of people looking at your room, and an all-around great time? :) Love to hear more.

None? :) Everything went perfectly for you? Judged quickly, lots of people looking at your room, and an all-around great time? :) Love to hear more.
You know, this was my experience exactly, but I do realize that I was one of the lucky ones.

I was judged early on Friday, I have had many visitors to my ride, and I got to enjoy a lot of other people's rides, as well.

I only wish things had gone as smoothly for everyone else!

I was one of the lucky one that got judge on Friday like Neoteny. In my opinion the event when pretty well, my hat of to the staff. With everything that was going on, it could have been worse. Like prisoner wrote lots off thing where going on this month, new quest, ebay, football, thanksgiving, wow, now we are so spoil that we are going to expect new thing every month from now own. Great job VMK. Keep it up

The staff did their best to judge everyone, and even extended the ride event another day to get everyone that entered correctly their chance to be judged.


Yes, extending it was very good, but they still missed people who did everything right, and those people have the right to be upset. Anyone in their place would be.
It is very frustrating to know you did enter correctly and not get judged. Since there is no proof, every questions you. Like you don't feel bad enough already, people question your ability to follow simple instructions. So I would have to say the one thing I would change is they really should send confirmation of your entry. That way if there is a problem with the entry or it wasn't received, a person not entered won't spend 50k for nothing.


I don't blame the staff though. I think quite simply they bit off more than they could chew. But they rose admirably to the challenge! Nothing but kudos for staff.

TigS

It's kinda like the stuff with handling reports and junk, there are only so many staff to do the job. Such as it was, it was carried off well, in my opinion. One thought to help staff along in judging and people in finding ride rooms is perhaps to implement a hidden tab in the guest rooms window that would show all of the correctly named start rooms. This could be changed for each ride competition and hidden in between. Staff could possibly implement a "judged" checkbox on their end of things that would allow them to check off rooms as they are judged...maybe with a score?

If they could set up a system on their end to compare the registered list wih the named list, they could notify people who had not registered right and those that had. It could be largely automated depending on the back end of their servers.

These few things, if they can be done, could help cut the frustration in registering and judging.


I agree that it's sad that people seem to go to rooms more that give stuff, but if the ride competition rooms were a bit easier to locate, it might rase their mickey score by making it easier to find the "competition" and scout out their rides. ;8)


On another note, I learned something form this ride contest. I made my start room so that as you enter, you are on the ride and cannot get off to stay and chat. That kept me off the mickey radar and I didn't get alot of visitors. Mainy people yelling to be let off..lol!

If anyone is interested in seeing my creation, stop in...I will have it open some in the evenings for a while.

Space Race AdventureTrixee

Hope to see you there!

Thanx for listening.:rudolf:

What a great thread. I truly think and open and honest discussion on this topic - before we are clouded by results and the inevitable "mine was better than that" mindset - is going to be a great benefit to all of us.

My ride did get judged - but not until just before 8PM VMK time on Sunday. I wasn't even in the room, but a friend was (but happened to be afk when it happened).

I think over all, this event was good. I have not participated in any ride competitions until now due to the team aspect. I always felt that I would not have the time nor the creativity to adequately contribute to a team. The individual aspect allowed me to create my own concept and build it at my own pace. I really enjoyed it.

I agree that communications is the next MAIN area VMK needs to conquer. First ware all the little bugs. Next was the whole DC Monster thing. Now needs to be communications. The communications need to be timed so that everything is ready when the message is sent. The fact that the newsletter was updated to include registration instructions 3 days before they had the technology ready to accept them is unacceptable. And then to have it be wrong (no spaces on second line) and incomplete (no mention of separate drop down item) just complicated it. This really could have been as easy as a drop down that said "Enter the Space Race Competition" with a confirmation page after. No need for the whole VMK name & Room Name - they know who you are when you use Contact Us & the room name was standard. I don't know how many people kept asking me (since I'm a CL) about when they would be judged or if I could contact Lily (since she's on my friends list) for them. I did contact Lily a few times over the weekend to ask questions and she was WONDERFUL! I tried to spread that communication both here and in game as I could. But enough of the complaints on communication & registration...

This event was wonderful. I made a few new friends and reconnected with a few old ones. People just seemed to want to hang around a lot more than normal. And Staff - as rushed and pestered as they were - were great (see my comments on Lily above). Ignore the communication issues, and this was a great VMK Community building event. Kudos to all and Good Luck!

And now time for the awards...

I hope, for those that do not have a flag, that they have been judged, just the Staff forgot to drop the flag.

Well, maybe they could combine a few of your ideas.

When you register CORRECTLY, you are given the red flag as a confirmation.

If they sell it, many people will buy it, that dont build a ride.( just to have a rare item)


That way, they know who wants to be judged, and we will KNOW that we did it right.:xmas35:

And now time for the awards...
Now? Or sometime next month?

A big problem I have with VMK exists every day, this competition just made it more obvious.
Disney clearly underestimates the popularity of VMK. This was made clear by such things as the pin debacle at WDW. Whereas VMK is free, it is obvious that VMKers spend a great deal of money on Disney products, and are motivated to spend even more if they can get VMK things as a bonus(ie:Stitch set).

With this in mind, I really wish Disney would pony up some cash to hire more staff and hosts for VMK. It would improve communication, and give VMK the people they need to make events run smooth and available to more players. (ie: double the amount of host game rooms to accomodate twice the players).

Ok so it's a dream..but it would help to fix a lot of the problems VMK has. I know staff cares, and I know they try very hard to please everyone. There simply aren't enough of them to accomodate the VMK population. And 400 rooms per judge in 4 days...that's just too much!

TigS

Confirmation confirmation confirmation confirmation confirmation.....that is the ONLY thing I thought this competition needed. I don't care what form or the number of hoops to jump through to get it, but VMK needed it. An extreme and easy solution would've been to post a master list of EVERY successful registrant on the VMK site. We know they have the list, they should just copied and pasted it!

I ended up getting judged near closing on Sunday night (I wasn't actually there for it), but I was getting peeved every hour (since Friday) up till I saw my flag in my room. I knew I registered correctly, but there is always a chance of error on either end. It's a simple courtesy that VMK should've put together to avoid frustrating waits and making us wonder if we're on the official list. Nevermind the time and credits put into building the ride.

Besides that, I think I would've preferred a team competition. Partly, because my teams did well the last 2 times and because I prefer the manpower for building, creativity, and hosting rooms 24/7.

There were confirmation messages sent out on the previous competitions, weren't there?

OH JOY!! I used contact us.. and I got a reply:

"Hi,
We got your message, and its safe here.
If you have a problem with your child's account, please log on as it yourself. If you'd like to request your child to be a community leader, please use the other option.
Thanks, and don't forget to read the FAQ's!
-VMK Player Support"

YAY AND AUTOMATED MESSAGE!!! PLAYER SUPPORT? Wow, they helped me, LOADS!
At leat you got a reply in the Black Hole...
But what can we do?
~Chaelle

When you register CORRECTLY, you are given the red flag as a confirmation.

If they sell it, many people will buy it, that dont build a ride.( just to have a rare item)


That way, they know who wants to be judged, and we will KNOW that we did it right.:xmas35:

To eliminate this loophole, all they would have to do is make the flag have an expiration date like the 1 time use magic pins. If staff didn't take your flag because you didn't make a ride, it would just disappear a few days after the competition.

My thoughts:
- The directions for registration were awful. I know I am not saying anything new, but why didn't they have the registration option in place when they opened registration? If I hadn't seen a random thread about a new contact us option late in the week, my room would likely not have been judged.
- The bottom line for registration is that they need to let people know that they have registered correctly. Whether it is an email or an in game message, there has to be some kind of feedback that will ease people's minds.
As for the actual competition:
- My ride was judged early Saturday morning before I was on the game. I was disappointed that I missed it, but happy that my ride got judged.
- I feel very badly for those people who registered and did not get judged. I almost feel like VMK owes them something. There are no guarantees that they would have won the contest, but they relied on the promise of being judged when they spent massive amounts of time and credits on their rides. I think a participation flag is the very least VMK should deliver to them. Possibly some bonus item because they got no chance to win the contest. This problem could have been avoided if everyone received a confirmation after they registered.
- I took the opportunity to ride as many rides as possible all weekend. I started with my friends' rides and then just searched for space race and started at the bottom of the list. I was trying to visit the rides that I figured got very few riders all weekend.
- I even went so far as to attempt to create a Riding group both in game and through the forums to try to get some exposure to the rides at the bottom of the list. I managed a modest group in game and we did bump a few rides up to 2 mickey heads briefly as we visited. The response here on the forums was non-existent. I was disappointed, and it is something I would like to try again at the next ride event. I know many players were waiting for their own rides to be judged, but by late Saturday, many had also already been judged. Admittedly, I started my organization way too late and that was a major flaw. If anyone is interested in participating in a riding group for the next event, whenever it may be, please contact me. I will try to start a thread a few days in advance so we can be more organized and have some clear ideas for movement and communication.
- In my riding, I saw many exceptionally creative rides for all three categories. My ride was very short, but if I had made a larger ride, I had certain concepts already in my head. I was excited to see many players create rides that were unlike anything I would have ever thought of. Both the use of color and theme by many players was terrific. I am glad I am not a judge who has to pick the winners from so many great rides.
- I hope that many players will try to keep their rides open in the next few days and weeks, so that those who didn't get a chance to see them because they were waiting to be judged can still experience all the great rides.

Just thought I would add this pic to show the cool red space outfit of the staff and the new flag ;)

Good Luck To All!

lol, I had to edit it alot until it stopped going diagonal!

Wheeeeeee!!! I got my flag *does happy dance*

Wonder what made them bring me it? hehe!! :D:D

Wheeeeeee!!! I got my flag *does happy dance*

Wonder what made them bring me it? hehe!! :D:D
Yay!

We knew it would happen eventually!

Well, we hoped, anyway.

If anyone is interested in participating in a riding group for the next event, whenever it may be, please contact me. I will try to start a thread a few days in advance so we can be more organized and have some clear ideas for movement and communication.This is a wonderful idea. I had a similar one; unfortunately also thought of too late to be of use this time around. What if we created a huge ride lobby or two, similar to the fan site teleporter lobbies we have now? That way there's a chance of many more individual rides being open for people to see, even when the room owners aren't on. I would be happy to donate a room for this purpose, and put a picture with the name of the ride above each teleporter.

I like the idea of the Lobby as well, but I see 2 potential problems:
1. While not very likely, it is possible, especially in a competition like this one where the space you can use is limited, that a teleporter linked to this lobby could be a problem for designers in their start room. Unlikely, but still a consideration. Maybe I am the only one, but I know such a teleporter would have been a distraction in my ride.
2. The lobby would only reach those players who are also members of VMK forums. While this is a tremendous number of players, it seems like anyone who is a member here has a pretty good opportunity to advertise their ride here and get plenty of riders. Meanwhile, a player who isn't a member of the forums would not receive any benefit from the lobby.

Aside from this, I think it is a great idea. Perhaps we could do both and simply use the lobby as a meeting place for the Ride Group.

None? :) Everything went perfectly for you? Judged quickly, lots of people looking at your room, and an all-around great time? :) Love to hear more.

I was judged friday, i always had about 5 in my room almost always, and i had fun making it

Hmm! I was not even aware a new pull down option was created. I registered the first day following the directions on line at that time. The only option under contact us that remotely fit was the others option. I was one of those who did not get judged. I am more than capable of following directions and know I followed the directions as written at the time i entered. I know I did not have a winning room but I would have liked to have received credit for at least trying. A confirmation method and the creation of a pulldown option with a templated entry format would have prevented any oversites and frustration on the part of those who obviously put way more effort into their entries than I did and did not get judged.The rooms I did visit this weekend were awesome. Hopefully they were all judged. Many I saw did not have flags.

I like the idea of the Lobby as well, but I see 2 potential problems:
1. While not very likely, it is possible, especially in a competition like this one where the space you can use is limited, that a teleporter linked to this lobby could be a problem for designers in their start room. Unlikely, but still a consideration. Maybe I am the only one, but I know such a teleporter would have been a distraction in my ride.I did think of that also. Ride creators who wanted to have a teleporter to the lobby would need to design their rooms with this in mind.2. The lobby would only reach those players who are also members of VMK forums. While this is a tremendous number of players, it seems like anyone who is a member here has a pretty good opportunity to advertise their ride here and get plenty of riders. Meanwhile, a player who isn't a member of the forums would not receive any benefit from the lobby.Well, obviously those who are forum members would be able to add their teleporter most easily. However, they can let others in the game know about the lobby so that they can participate too. (Heck, we could even advertise it in the room title!) I know that during the other ride competitions, not all team members were forum members, but many of them still managed to create a teleporter lobby for their team. (I'ts just a little trickier to communicate.)

Advertising that a room is open on the forums is great, but it will only reach those who happen to be reading the forums and can get on when the owner is there. A teleporter lobby extends the opportunity for all of the rooms to be open, as long as at least one participant is in their room, or in the lobby.Aside from this, I think it is a great idea. Perhaps we could do both and simply use the lobby as a meeting place for the Ride Group.Yup! Both methods could certainly help.

A friend just told me that Hula came to his room, and she said that the judges are taking a look at the top rides again to decide clearer winners.

I don't know if this is true, but he sounded all excited when he said it (said being a relative term here)...

A friend just told me that Hula came to his room, and she said that the judges are taking a look at the top rides again to decide clearer winners.

I don't know if this is true, but he sounded all excited when he said it (said being a relative term here)...
I was hoping they would do this. It's hard to remember, even from screenshots, every ride you saw in the past four days!

I certainly hope nobody dismantled their ride after it was judged.

I was hoping they would do this. It's hard to remember, even from screenshots, every ride you saw in the past four days!

if they're really doing that, now i dont want to log on vmk and go into my room, lol. If i do so, i'm going to find no staff entering my room, automatically thinking i lost.

I certainly hope nobody dismantled their ride after it was judged.

Actually, my friend said Hula was sad about people already taking their rides down.

Actually, my friend said Hula was sad about people already taking their rides down.

i didnt take my ride down, i'm glad i didnt. Actually, i was only going to take it down after prizes and winners were announced (if i won top 10, i was going to open it for players. If i didnt, i was gunna take it down or make it better for fun). Anyway, staff weren't able to do my quest that goes along with my ride, so having it inactive right now is ok.

Yeah, you didn't need to know all of that ......

I have no plans of dismantling my ride, anyway. Whatever would I do with all those support posts?

Open a support center for obsessive ride builders. I'll be first in line for it. ;-)

I plan on leaving my ride open (Crazy Zooks Space Ship Emporium). I had a blast building it, and as it was an individual event, I don't have to rework the links.

I say that for my part, the space race went fairly well. I waited out the space/no space confusion, figuring VMK would fix it. They did. I waited out the "where to register" confusion. They fixed that too. Just as they had for the slide event. I was judged very early on Friday evening, so the rest of the contest was split between manning my room, and riding all the others I could. There were some awesome designs out there. I do not envy the judges' tasks.

So after the prizes are handed out, stop on by Crazy Zooks! We have the best deals in space!

my thought of the event...is it doesn't matter we lose or we win because we have great fun building it :)

I didn't enter the competition but I had great fun riding some of your rides. They were all very good. However if i hadn't been a member of these forums and got the information that ride-builders actually wanted people to come I wouldn't have gone on any rides. I tried to spread the message in vmk but I think many vmk people don't like just dropping in on competition rooms??

Great idea Grayman about joining up as a group, count me in for next time.

I certainly hope nobody dismantled their ride after it was judged.

I'm dismantling my ride right now. I don't expect to be top 500, yet alone needing to be revisited (and I need the room).

But, this isn't really fair. If the rules say you will be judged over the weekend it isn't right that you can still lose a top spot for taking your ride apart after judging is supposed to be over. And although I understand why they are doing it, and I agree it is a good idea (they must have been dazed by Monday!) it's not an even playing field if an announcement isn't made so all entrants are aware that rides may need to be revisited later.

If it's even true.

TigS

my thought of the event...is it doesn't matter we lose or we win because we have great fun building it :)

I say WOOT to this. I am looking through so many posts and seeing bad things when I am thinking back on all the good parts. If you joined this competition just to win and not have any fun building it then of course it would be a bad experience for you. Way to point this out it's a very good piece of information :)

I had a lot of fun not only building my ride, but also watching others enjoy it. :)

Of course I hope I get an award, but I enjoyed this event regardless.

Neoteny if you dont win ill be mad.
I really dont care it i win because i had fun and it was my first competition so i don't expect to win anything.

Neoteny if you dont win ill be mad.
I really dont care it i win because i had fun and it was my first competition so i don't expect to win anything.
Haha, thanks, jsmall, but I've seen several rides more creative and better themed than mine!

I actually really had fun last weekend. Despite my constructive criticism, I thought it went well.
I rode a lot, every time I recognized a forum members name on the room list I rode it. And it was very enjoyable!


TigS

And you have hundreds if not thousands of support posts Neoteny. That was crazy cool.

:)

I have no plans of dismantling my ride, anyway. Whatever would I do with all those support posts?

And you have hundreds if not thousands of support posts Neoteny. That was crazy cool.

:)
I haven't counted, but I'm guessing I have at least a thousand. 100 credits may not seem like a lot to spend for an item, but they sure do add up!

I am guessing we will have the results Friday.

I am guessing we will have the results Friday.
As the newsletter is (usually) only updated on Mondays, I'm guessing we'll have to wait until Monday.

Would VMK really make us wait till Monday? :(

Actually, my friend said Hula was sad about people already taking their rides down.

Why would people take their rides down? After spending all that time and credits..?!?!? I bought three new rooms for the competition, so my ride is permanently installed. It would too much trouble to rebuild anyway....

Maybe slightly off-topic: Now that the competition is over, what is everyone doing with extra ride pieces? They probably don't have much trade value anymore, so are you just selling them?

Why would people take their rides down? After spending all that time and credits..?!?!? I bought three new rooms for the competition, so my ride is permanently installed. It would too much trouble to rebuild anyway....

Maybe slightly off-topic: Now that the competition is over, what is everyone doing with extra ride pieces? They probably don't have much trade value anymore, so are you just selling them?

I, for one will be keeping any and all ride pieces I have.
As much as I would love to keep my ride up permanently It is using most of my resources. With the ride in place I don't have very good materials for making other rooms.

After the winners are announced I will keep my ride up for a few months and then it will have to be dismantled (sadly), I really shouldn't have used so many of my main items on it. I would really love to keep it up.

My VMK rooms are set up like a house (credit to papersouls for the idea, but her's is still way the best!). So I just added on the ride as an extension. And I used stuff that I wasn't using anywhere else yet - I did buy some new furniture if I didn't have exactly what I wanted. So I can leave mine up indefinitely and not worry about it! :) Besides, I tend to forget what items I put in a room - I'm always replacing some piece if I get something I like better!!

Besides that, I think I would've preferred a team competition. Partly, because my teams did well the last 2 times and because I prefer the manpower for building, creativity, and hosting rooms 24/7.

I can appreciate the team competition - but only from a distance. I knew there was no way I'd be able to work well with a team, so I didn't even try those. But I see it as an important thing and hope they do more team and individual ones again in the future.

I also hope they decide to do something besides ride competitions.

There were confirmation messages sent out on the previous competitions, weren't there?

Yes, there were. I suspect they decided not to try and do the confirmation because of the problems they've had in the past emailing AOL and other accounts. But posting the list, as Wendot suggested, is a good one.

I still think that the flag is a better solution, personally. I distrust anything that requires use of the Black Hole.

This is a wonderful idea. I had a similar one; unfortunately also thought of too late to be of use this time around. What if we created a huge ride lobby or two, similar to the fan site teleporter lobbies we have now? That way there's a chance of many more individual rides being open for people to see, even when the room owners aren't on. I would be happy to donate a room for this purpose, and put a picture with the name of the ride above each teleporter.

Here is another way I think VMK can help things out.

We know that they can make passages that go to certain types of rooms (see the area in Splash Mountain that gives a list of Splash rooms). Is there a way they can make a list of ride entries? How about unjudged ride entries (to go along with the flag)? :)

What other things can be done to get people to visit these rooms?

A friend just told me that Hula came to his room, and she said that the judges are taking a look at the top rides again to decide clearer winners.


I'm mixed about this. On one hand, this seems very fair, since it lets all the judges see the best rooms and share their opinions about which is truly at the top.

On the other hand - I'm sure some people have started taking their rooms apart because they need the items for other projects... or people who had quests that were integral parts of the ride wouldn't be running the quest, and this would put them at a disadvantage.

Would VMK really make us wait till Monday? :(

Why would they tell us anything quickly? We're lucky they tell us anything at all!

I have to say, in the end, now everything has been sorted, im really happy with the ride event, i really did enjoy it apart from the little problem at the end, but yea it was good, and i think VMK staff did an even better job of going back and sorting the rides they missed out. I thought i would just end up with an apology, or an excuse, but VMK staff really pulled through this time.

Jeena
xxxxxxx

I noticed yesterday that I had a new picture in my room. It was from Staff thanking me for creating my ride and saying they were sorry to have missed me. All that and I had a flag already on Sunday night. It was a very nice and appreciated touch.

Why would they tell us anything quickly? We're lucky they tell us anything at all!

I appreciate that. I am just so anxious to see Neoteny take one of the top prizes!

You are right. Thanks VMK!

I appreciate that. I am just so anxious to see Neoteny take one of the top prizes!
Haha. Thanks. I hope you're not disappointed! ;)


(Is one of the prize categories "Most credits spent on a ride"?)

Haha. Thanks. I hope you're not disappointed! ;)

Well put it this way, someone has to win the 'Overall ride experience' category! :xmas5:

I didn't join, the budget for my ride got overblown as ideas kept flowing in and out of my mind, and rooms kept getting to filled up. I have a feeling my rides going to take home the award of most delayed ride opening.

i didnt like the event cause i never got judged

With all the hours of host chatting events yesterday, did anybody ask when we can expect results from the competition?

This may have been said already but I think that one of the difficulties that the judges had was all the players following them around all day asking questions and being a general pain in the rump! I am sure that some of the judges judged on their alternate accounts but when not they are usually bombarded with a barrage of questions all day!

I really really enjoyed the event. I wish that maybe credits could have been changed (increased) in the games, like they did during the Everest Yeti competition. Boy, are those supports expensive or what?? LOL I was not able to keep my room open as much as I would have liked because I wanted to check out as many other Space Race rooms as I could VMK Staff kudo's to yu for all your hard work, in setting up this individual event and judging it. I think it all went really well. Thank You VMK for being there :)

This may have been said already but I think that one of the difficulties that the judges had was all the players following them around all day asking questions and being a general pain in the rump! I am sure that some of the judges judged on their alternate accounts but when not they are usually bombarded with a barrage of questions all day!
I totally Agree, when I was being judge, ppl keep asking the Host "when is my ride being judge" and she was so nice that she would look at her list , this type of questions took away from the judging time.

I totally Agree, when I was being judge, ppl keep asking the Host "when is my ride being judge" and she was so nice that she would look at her list , this type of questions took away from the judging time.

yeah, a friend of mine did that after HOST_Phinny judged my room. Anyway, somebody said something to HOST_Lily last night about when will we get to find out the winners, and she said "We don't even know yet."

Apparantly they just began trying to figure out the winners.

yeah, a friend of mine did that after HOST_Phinny judged my room. Anyway, somebody said something to HOST_Lily last night about when will we get to find out the winners, and she said "We don't even know yet."

Apparantly they just began trying to figure out the winners.
It's not an easy task. There were a lot of good rides.

I had much fun, I kind of had to rush because I was helping with Thanksgiving Plans. I'm relieved, a load of stress gone!

I didn't participate - I thought it would cost too much credits, and I wanted to save up my credits for holiday items that might be coming out. I also wanted to make a Christmas Quest to hopefully get best quest, so I didn't join :)
But, to those who DID participate, good jobs!

I'm mixed about this. On one hand, this seems very fair, since it lets all the judges see the best rooms and share their opinions about which is truly at the top.

On the other hand - I'm sure some people have started taking their rooms apart because they need the items for other projects... or people who had quests that were integral parts of the ride wouldn't be running the quest, and this would put them at a disadvantage.


Update on that: I asked hula at the game the other day about this, and she said she was just going around checking to make sure that there were flags in every room. She denied any comments made about a 'second judging.'

Do you think it would be ok if I took down some of my ride decorations. Since the judging is over?...

Do you think it would be ok if I took down some of my ride decorations. Since the judging is over?...I would wait, If you win they might want to show your room.

I would wait, If you win they might want to show your room.
They probably already have screenshots. But if you win, you might want to show off your room.

They probably already have screenshots. But if you win, you might want to show off your room.

If I do win, I could just take the items and put them back were they were. I didn't take the ride down though.

i cannot belive vmk didnt check my room grr

I am replying to this post without reading any other responses so if I am repeating anything to the point of annoyance, I apologize.

Prisoner, this is a good thread and you bring up good points.


First - my thanks to staff. It had to have been rough to have just a few people judge over 2000 rooms (so I've heard), and even rougher to find the best of the best from that list. I'm sure some great ones will end up being overlooked just due to the lack of time to really dedicate to the effort, but I know staff are trying hard to be fair.

I couldn't have said this better. I was judged toward the end (late Sunday night.) I was in my room a ridiculous amount of time - almost all weekend, and of course I let loose for an hour or so late Sunday, check back and my room had a flag. I was thrilled that I was judged, but then the worries began to set in - were they so tired they didn't care? Did they make it to my second room? (I had a kind of puzzle thing going where only one teleporter led to the second room). I feel sure that they are doing their best, but after putting so much time and effort and credits in to a room, I know we all want to be judged the same as the people on day 1.

I spent a lot more time sitting in my room than I wanted to, and didn't get as much traffic as I would have liked, but I did make a lot of friends during this event. A few new friends sat vigil with me Sunday night waiting for the judge to show. That was so generous of them and I won't forget it.

Overall, I think it was a good event and I know staff did their best. I really do sympathize with everyone who registered and was not judged. I cannot imagine the feeling of putting all the time and effort into your ride just to not get judged. I never entered any team events because I didn't have many friends on vmk at the time. It is nice to have complete control over your destiny. I can see how a team event would create a lot more problems.

I am glad they extended the judging. That shows that they are at least trying. Good luck to everyone who entered!

I was judged toward the end (late Sunday night.) I was in my room a ridiculous amount of time - almost all weekend, and of course I let loose for an hour or so late Sunday, check back and my room had a flag. I was thrilled that I was judged, but then the worries began to set in - were they so tired they didn't care? Did they make it to my second room? (I had a kind of puzzle thing going where only one teleporter led to the second room). I feel sure that they are doing their best, but after putting so much time and effort and credits in to a room, I know we all want to be judged the same as the people on day 1.
I agree with your sentiments. The last day (or two) of judging seemed to be rushed, and brought about concern over whether rides would be seen fairly or whether the judges were just going through the motions.

As one whose ride was judged early on the first day, let me assure you that you are not the only one worrying whether he or she has gotten a fair shake. After having seen hundreds or thousands of rides, who knows if the judges even remember the entries they saw on day one?

We can only hope that the judges have been responsible and professional in their judging, and that every ride has gotten reviewed fairly.

I have seen many great and deserving rides out there this past week, though not nearly as many as the judges have. Good luck to all who entered the competition!

My VMK rooms are set up like a house (credit to papersouls for the idea, but her's is still way the best!). So I just added on the ride as an extension. And I used stuff that I wasn't using anywhere else yet - I did buy some new furniture if I didn't have exactly what I wanted. So I can leave mine up indefinitely and not worry about it! :) Besides, I tend to forget what items I put in a room - I'm always replacing some piece if I get something I like better!!

hey i just saw this, thanks ;)
i'm definitly not the only house idea out there so i can't take all the credit, but glad you like it all the same ;)