What happened to Gamedays?

Yrr

An Actual Deer
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Sep 20, 2015
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theyre in a weird limbo atm where they dont really serve any purpose so nobody is running them when they could just be running impromptus
 

MegapiemanPHD

Doctorate in Deliciousness
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Mar 31, 2012
1,937
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theyre in a weird limbo atm where they dont really serve any purpose so nobody is running them when they could just be running impromptus
Imp's are random though and unreliable. A lot of imps don't fallow the maps logged in the bot so if someone isn't able to participate in the imp then it's hard to get feedback. The good thing about gamedays is a set list of maps that get tested and a set time for that to happen.

Unless you happen to catch an imp when there's a lot of people it's been really difficult to get a good test in a timely fashion.
 

Yrr

An Actual Deer
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Sep 20, 2015
1,308
2,743
Imp's are random though and unreliable. A lot of imps don't fallow the maps logged in the bot so if someone isn't able to participate in the imp then it's hard to get feedback. The good thing about gamedays is a set list of maps that get tested and a set time for that to happen.

Unless you happen to catch an imp when there's a lot of people it's been really difficult to get a good test in a timely fashion.
voids trying to solve that by running a lot more list imps
 

Hyperion

L16: Grid Member
aa
Jun 8, 2015
840
659
Since gamedays are dead I could run one or two casual Highlanders soon, last (and first time) people seemed to have fun time
 

EArkham

Necromancer
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Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
To be honest, I feel like what the impromptus trade away in terms of accessibility, they gain in terms of general map quality. A lot of the gamedays were filled with 1st timer maps, or maps with very small changes from their last iteration (neither of which are necessarily bad but both get a little tedious to see over and over again).
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
aa
Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
I found gamedays way more useful because since gamedays were quite rare (about once a couple weeks) people were kind of excited to join them, and many people stayed til the end, which resulted in maps getting better playtime, while imps are taken for granted and the number of people tends to decrease sometimes at the 3rd map played. This point is very flawed but that's what I feel. I myself also enjoyed gamedays more.
 

Yrr

An Actual Deer
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Sep 20, 2015
1,308
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i want imps to fill all the accessibility quota so gamedays can be something special and harness that excitement to join in some other way (ie curated map list)

since rn they just feel like a regular test but just scheduled
 

Another Bad Pun

In the shadows, he saw four eyes lit by fire
aa
Jan 15, 2011
801
1,845
VBOT made the old reasons to have Gamedays void, which were:

1.) Tests had a concrete time and schedule.
2.) Tests were organized on the Forums, meaning they gained more community exposure.

This second one is an overlooked point, I think.
Newer members, or members who browsed the forums and avoided chat, were more likely to submit their maps into Gamedays than into Imps. As a result, Gamedays typically had more maps of lower quality compared to Imps. By their nature, old Imps drew from a smaller player base, were secretive, were spontaneous, unpredictable, sometimes hard to join - and as a result, more exclusive members took part in them, and players gave priority to maps that they wanted to play. (Or maps made by people in the small chat.)

Of course, scheduling Imps with VBOT completely changed how the tests were played, and this combined with a surge of new users changed the dynamics of TF2M playtests drastically.
First of all, Steam Chat was flooded with new users - they were no longer chained to the forums. Why? My guess is:

1.) During the Summer, during the surge, there were very few gamedays, as the 72 Hour Contest was running.
2.) Due to this, IMPS were the only way to get non-72h maps tested.
3.) IMPS required VBOT. Where was VBOT? Steam Chat.

So, in my mind, the majority of newer members were probably introduced to Steam Chat because of VBOT. Also, I think VBOT hosted 72H maps as well. So a chat that had been optional, and pretty quiet, was suddenly placed into the TF2MAPS streamline in a big way due to VBOT and 72h. The new members stayed, obviously.

In other words, now that the TF2M playerbase is almost completely homogenized by this point, there is no real incentive to host Gamedays.
 
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MegapiemanPHD

Doctorate in Deliciousness
aa
Mar 31, 2012
1,937
1,280
VBOT made the old reasons to have Gamedays void, which were:

1.) Tests had a concrete time and schedule.
2.) Tests were organized on the Forums, meaning they gained more community exposure.

This second one is an overlooked point, I think.
Newer members, or members who browsed the forums and avoided chat, were more likely to submit their maps into Gamedays than into Imps. As a result, Gamedays typically had more maps of lower quality compared to Imps. By their nature, old Imps drew from a smaller player base, were secretive, were spontaneous, unpredictable, sometimes hard to join - and as a result, more exclusive members took part in them, and players gave priority to maps that they wanted to play. (Or maps made by people in the small chat.)

Of course, scheduling Imps with VBOT completely changed how the tests were played, and this combined with a surge of new users changed the dynamics of TF2M playtests drastically.
First of all, Steam Chat was flooded with new users - they were no longer chained to the forums. Why? My guess is:

1.) During the Summer, during the surge, there were very few gamedays, as the 72 Hour Contest was running.
2.) Due to this, IMPS were the only way to get non-72h maps tested.
3.) IMPS required VBOT. Where was VBOT? Steam Chat.

So, in my mind, the majority of newer members were probably introduced to Steam Chat because of VBOT. Also, I think VBOT hosted 72H maps as well. So a chat that had been optional, and pretty quiet, was suddenly placed into the TF2MAPS streamline in a big way due to VBOT and 72h. The new members stayed, obviously.

In other words, now that the TF2M playerbase is almost completely homogenized by this point, there is no real incentive to host Gamedays.

The thing is that now the bot is stuffed full of those first time maps no one wants to test. instead, people only run the maps of whoever happens to be there during a test IF the playerbase holds up. During gamedays, every map got it's time and those that didn't where then put into the bot for testing later. Someone like myself doesn't use the chat often at all nor can participate in EVERY test as it's impossible to know when they are taking place. A gameday let someone like myself know when, where, and what so I could reliably help test other people's maps as well as getting feedback for my own.
 

Yrr

An Actual Deer
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Sep 20, 2015
1,308
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That's the thing, I'd like to see imps actually get through everything so that gamedays are no longer required and instead can be special.
 

nickybakes

You should've played Rumbleverse
aa
Jul 28, 2015
911
1,739
Keep in mind that if you think you can't make it to every test, you can always ask someone who usually hosts imps, like Muddy or Void, beforehand if they can test your map in the next imp.
 

Etasus

L420: High Member
Jul 24, 2016
463
251
Keep in mind that if you think you can't make it to every test, you can always ask someone who usually hosts imps, like Muddy or Void, beforehand if they can test your map in the next imp.
yeah, but there is no easy way to contact them... sure, you can easily go and ask them in a private message, or comment on their profile, but some newer users may feel like its a risk, with them being such big members, and may back down out of "fear"... it happens all the time, smaller users on many different sites being scared of the bigger users and their mass power!!! if you disagree, tell me, but you have to admit, this does happen alot...

so my question is would there be an easier way to do this that wouldnt turn into the steam chat bot? where people just go in and post their maps?
 

Tuaam

L6: Sharp Member
Jun 26, 2015
376
248
...They don't exist???

What have you guys done?
 

Simulacron

L-3: Simulated Member
aa
Feb 17, 2016
313
326
Maybe it would be possible to have some sort of scheduled imp every week? Where we play maps that are in the imp list at a specific time, like Saturday or Sunday evening. By doing this nobody would have to plan something in advanced. We would just need somebody to host the imp at a specific time. With this we could have one "bigger" event every one or two weeks, where more people could join, because they know when the imp will take place. With this System we could still have random imps, but also a replacement for the gameday.