Redwood Valley Equestrian Centre || Discussion

[SydneyandStorm]

What is Mustang Million?

That's a former event put on by RVEC that had users adopt Mustangs and enter them in a writing- or art-based competition for a big prize ^^ We're definitely going to have more events in the future, though!

[xi'rika]

b^^

[iStarz & Everly]

I think c would be a better fit, thought b would work too, maybe combining them? I have a lot of horses, putting them all into invitationals, while I want to, just isn’t practical. The time I would have to spend, writing prompts out-weighs the gain, it it’s just money that we are earning (and points to excel; but then the prompts would get harder and longer too)

So, C or B or combine them.

[OutFoxed]

My two cents for the Invitational Writing Prompts:

As one of those that entered the current Invitational Round, a couple things I noted.

• With having multiple entries into the same class -
  Having to write one response for each horse means that it's not too difficult for origniality in answers.
  Going for the bonus of writing two or more responses for each horse means that there is overlapping in prompt questions.
  With questions that specifically ask after that horse - it's easier for new material. With the questions that are broader - not so much.
• The Word Count Requirement
  The questions that asked for in depth look into the specific horse helped to generate creativity which made it easier to reach and go beyond the minimal limit.
  
  I enjoyed the experience. I felt like I got to understand my RVEC horses better - give them my own personal insight to them; helped make them less 2D images and more defined as characters. I viewed it slightly similar to the Mustang Makeover.
  
  The invitational level classes should require a bit more from the members - it should take an effort to participate, with the expectation to take 10 minutes per entry - but an hour or more is too much. The 'stakes' are higher for the competition, so there should be motivated members behind it.
  
  If person A put in a four hundred word entry with details that went above and beyond what was required; person B put in a three hundred word entry with the writing prompt entered exactly, no more/no less; and person C put in a 150 word entry that barely skimmed over the prompt - shouldn't A be rewarded over the person who didn't even complete the requirements? With B being fairly awarded?
  
  What if Person A put in a 400 word, while person C did two prompts at 150 words each? Would they be similarly compensated? Or would C be averaged out at 1 prompt correctly done - therefore be fairly awarded for a single prompt instead of a double/bonus of 2 completed prompts?
  
  If the word count was lowered to 150 or 200 words - that might be a little more fair. Still a challenge, but if someone wants to enter multiple horses, they're not spending hours on one prompt after another. (although no one is forcing or demanding multiple horses be entered, entirely a free choice deal) Also, there will probably be times when muse goes out the door and it's a struggle to reach the limit - so having a lower limit might be appreciated.
  
  The invitationals should be a challenge, an above-and-beyond experience, an immersive activity.
  For the most part RVEC is super easy to participate in; there's not a lot of interactive necessities, like some other online horse SIM type games ( e.g. daily feeding, grooming, training, required otherwise the horse dies or becomes weaker; daily care required to participate in the daily comps). So having something that is pretty simple to 'take care' of the entered horse, is rather a nice element. Again, it gives the user the ability to flesh out the individual horse and make the picture more of a character.
  
  If time is a sensitive issue (and trust me, I completely understand) then I think that having the competitions spread out to every two weeks or once a month, definitely helps to allow members to take their time with the entries - to wait until that one moment a week or month when life sits still for just long enough to type out a couple of prompt responses; or to type up one in the spare moments between.
  Maybe a different thread could be invoked for the Invitationals - so that the entries don't clog up with the regular shows?
  (I understand the whole 'a million separate threads' but just a thought. If only it was possible to take it to its own site - then there could be tabs catered to the many facets of RVEC.)

What am I up to, a dollar and some? Anyways, feel free to message me - and I can explain or go over whichever in more detail. I apologize for the random turns in my rambling :o

I think what caf. and Sydney have done for RVEC is stupendous - creating the spreadsheets/formulas for the show system as well as coming up with the awesome writing prompts (so many great ones! very creative!). You two deserve a much deserved round of applause. Your hard work truly shows through.

[caf.]

great input, all of you - i greatly appreciate it! i'll try my best to address all of your points here.

first off, as a small note, game currency may not be the only prize offered for invitationals. in the past, Sydney has hinted at semi-customs or customs being offered to winners (if you'd like to jump in here, Syd, and correct me or update us, please do!), and i'm sure we'll both be doing our best to make the competitions very exciting and rewarding.

so there's the problem, then - in order for an invitational to run, six horses from at least two different users need to enter. this is relatively easy for semi-popular disciplines like hunters and eventing, but more difficult for very popular disciplines like jumpers due to their high level of difficulty and for unpopular disciplines like cutting and marathon driving. as such, my goal is to make the invitationals easy to enter to encourage owners to dive in, while still keeping the challenge and whimsy that made them exciting in the first place. the question, then, is after entering their horses in several competitions until they achieved a qualifying score, then shelling out as much as 1,000c for an entry, how much more will owners do before feeling like the prize doesn't justify the work?

i debate on the requirement. it seems to me that, if owners that completed prompts if they weren't required were given a large bonus in competition, it'd be enough incentive to at least most owners to go ahead and try them. however, i can also see that not working if enough owners decide not to bother with the prompts.

it seems that most everyone is in agreement with the low word limit, so it's likely that will be implemented in the not too far future. you bring up a good point, OutFoxed, about effort being rewarded, but unfortunately i'm not sure if that's possible the way it stands. being the show steward myself, i don't think it would be fair at all for me to judge the entries, and the entire point of my taking over the shows was to give Sydney more time for other matters, so i don't think it'd be fair to delegate it to her either. of course, a good compromise would be a 'special bonus' offered to truly exceptional entrants, while the rest receives the standard bonus provided they met the requirements. that'd still have to be on a case-by-case basis, but is it perhaps more acceptable?

you're very right on the prompts - i found that a challenge myself with my entries. perhaps i can delete the prompts relating to riders and try to come up with more that are specific to the horse?

the great thing about invitationals is that they do not run alongside regular shows - if the show fills in the middle of the week, so be it, the show runs (provided i'm around to do it, of course). of course, if it happens to fill close to the entry closing date of the schooling shows, i'll just run it with them, no big deal. does that make sense? currently, i don't feel like invitationals are terribly time-sensitive - with so few qualifications, there's no great rush to enter. this could change, of course, but for now does that seem fair? i have an incredibly busy show schedule this season, so i'm trying to run shows as often as humanly possible while i still have the time, but they will start slowing down as i start my spring season.

edit: as for the separate threads, i very much invite players to create their own threads/google docs/etc. in which to store entries to avoid clogging the thread, but i'd rather keep all show material in the same place. if a new thread is highly in favor, though, i'll certainly consider it!

i hope everything i've said makes sense! my apologies for any typos, i'm thinking out loud and typing on my phone, aha. let me know what y'all think!

[landofmakebelieve]

Hey Syd, I was just thinking, what if you made another thread for the store so that tack orders don't flood the main thread?

[SydneyandStorm]

first off, as a small note, game currency may not be the only prize offered for invitationals. in the past, Sydney has hinted at semi-customs or customs being offered to winners (if you'd like to jump in here, Syd, and correct me or update us, please do!), and i'm sure we'll both be doing our best to make the competitions very exciting and rewarding.

Eheheh, excellent memory, caf. c; Yes, I fully intend to include customs as prizes for invitationals... maybe more. We'll have to see c; I'm currently trying to work it all out in my head and right now I think I'm at about 98% for finalizing everything, so I'll be updating prizes and any other relevant information very soon ^^ The reason I've been so quiet on here recently is because I've been swamped with schoolwork and also with working on a new... thing... not event, but a thing, for RVEC. I don't want to hype it up because I don't think many people will be super excited about it, maybe just relieved, but I've also been spending so much time on it that I want to have a nice big reveal when it's done cx So... no big changes for RVEC... but this should help. Eh, who knows. Maybe a few medium changes. We'll see ^^ So yes, in short, prizes for invitationals including customs: yes c:

Terribly sorry that I'm super busy and won't have time to respond to everyone's responses, but I want to thank everyone for responding as well <3 Reading your responses is super helpful and I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful community so willing to help at RVEC! You guys are great! <33

Hey Syd, I was just thinking, what if you made another thread for the store so that tack orders don't flood the main thread?

Hm, excellent suggestion, landofmakebelieve. I'd certainly be open to a separate tack store, but want to make sure other users won't be overwhelmed by having so many threads to keep track of... Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? ^^ I certainly think it'd be a great idea if it's not the thread that breaks the camel's back! c:

[iStarz & Everly]

I like the idea of a seperate thread for tack.

[iStarz & Everly]

With the whole stud book thing, i know breeders can collect straws, but what about pulling eggs too?

[SydneyandStorm]

With the whole stud book thing, i know breeders can collect straws, but what about pulling eggs too?

You know, I've wavered on whether or not to include pulling eggs in RVEC. My current understanding is that "pulling eggs" or anything that basically involves taking eggs from a mare and holding on to it until the user is ready to use it through another horse is more or less the result of online horse sims trying to come up with an equivalent for mares if they allow straws to be collected from stallions, hahaha. In real life, as far as I've read, eggs from mares do not store well ^^'

However, embryonic transfer is definitely a thing, so I may see about including that in the future. The only thing would be that it would be quite expensive (probably around 1,000c) and have a relatively low success rate unless transferred to another mare pretty much immediately, which negates the point of storing them like straws. However, it would mean that one mare could have multiple foals around the same time, since that mare wouldn't actually be pregnant. It's definitely something worth considering... Thoughts?