HomeCon Feedback

[Jazperz]

Hey guys, first of all I would really like to say thank you for doing another HomeCon. It is so appreciated and fun especially for those who can not attend conventions. I am already looking forward to the next!

I did some thinking after HomeCon 2015's last stream/clutch and I would like to share my thoughts. I hope I do not by any means come off as disrespectful, rude, or hurtful in any manner to anyone because that is sincerely not my intention. HomeCon 2015 is finished and what's done is done. What I am trying to do is give constructive feedback because I would love for HomeCon to be even better! With that said, here goes it:

I noticed that those who entered the clutch lists this year, and were lucky enough to be in the top, were sometimes fortunate enough to have that happen twice - meaning they were able to get two wyrms from different streams. Some handlers who also entered were not as lucky and did not obtain a wyrm. I know that this is usually the case at conventions and not everyone gets a chance to add to their squirm, but with HomeCon's stock being so short (and understandably so) I feel like it could have been much more fair to the community to limit one wyrm from HomeCon per person. The number of people entering for the RNG clutch list would have dissolved to a smaller amount after each stream of people and more people would have gotten a wyrm than not. I think this way, especially if HomeCon 2016's stock is small compared to all the attendees, would be a great solution and allow for less disappointed people. Also, if everyone did by chance get a wyrm the extras could be reentered for - or - the remaining people with no wyrms from HomeCon could be given priority in the next stream and then the rest is open to everyone.

For perspective, here are the totals of entries for each clutch. Keep in mind these numbers would probably reduce by 10 (the number of wyrms available per clutch) over each stream.

Clutch 1: 34
Clutch 2: 45
Clutch 3: 43
Clutch 4: 47

The average amount of entries is 42. If the rule of one-wyrm-per-person was in place only two people would have the risk of not getting a wyrm. I think that's a way bigger chance for everyone to have a shot at getting a new squirm addition.

Thank you in advance for reading and considering what I had to say. I hugely respect this community, it's staff and of course HopefulMonster herself.

Thoughts, critiques, other feedback and comments are all welcome! HomeCon is for our community so everyone's opinion matters. ( :

(Edit by Shadra: Changed title to feedback so everyone can chime in!)

[ShadraAvro]

I also suggest we have 'new handler' slots for people with fewer than a specified/announced number of wyrms. I know we had ones for completely new handlers but they were unannounced. This way people who have fewer/none are AWARE of their chance increase. (Helps people who want to bring in friends too.)

[Gardentoaster]

This is a really nice civilized thread! lovely words Jasper! I will add my two cents in on this because well, the entire community was apart of it!

Lets start with the positive of this convention, because we all need a bright ray of sun to start things off!!
The thing i really enjoyed about Homecon was the fact that this site exploded with handlers returning and interacting once again. (Catching up, talking about life etc,) Its really nice to see everyone here and it was so great to be surrounded by tons of amazing people. Another thing I enjoyed was how everything was set up and how the method for picking people to pick eggs was mostly fair/the fairest there was for all people. Everything flowed smoothly, other streamers worked in perfect harmony with everyone. I also loved how the picture of the eggs posted were very clear so a lot of time in the stream was cut down by people trying to decide on egg colors.

The negative (cause no matter what there has to be a negative with the positive) part I found was what Jazperz spoke of in their main post on some handlers securing 3 or 4 wyrms and some handlers getting none. Jazperz explained it perfectly, no need for me to linger!


Overall this was an amazing con, fun was had and thats all that matters!! 10/10 would recommend again xD This feedback is an amazing thing and I'm glad it can be discussed in this nice manor! Hopefully solutions and even ideas for next con arise out of posts like these!

Also a shout out to all you Homecon attendees and streamers (aka the whole forum), Great job everyone!! Keep being amazing!!!

[Ambaaargh]

I had to miss most of HomeCon this year, so I prolly don't have as much input to offer. What I did see though was a lot of fun and really nice to see folks about and having fun. c:

I do like the idea of always trying to find a way to spread the love around because on one hand I can definitely understand the hope of getting a few beebs and wanting a chance each go about. But I also figure the disappointment of not getting multiple wyrms is far less than the disappointment of not getting any wyrms. Cause yah, lets face it, there's prolly a good number of us that would gladly buy 5+ wyrms each given the opportunity. So finding that balance of not leaving anyone feeling too downtrodden is always a tricksy thing.


If there is another critique or suggestion for next Homecon, it would actually be maybe doing some events that are a bit more for funsies or random. It sort of felt this year it was "show up for wyrm draw" "show up for art stream" "show up for another wyrm draw" and while I realize the sales are prolly the main feature... it did sort of just have the feel of a series of sales. It'd be neat if there was something like a drunken stream (just sculpting a thing for fun), or some panel games like the scavenger hunt where someone names a theme and folks have to scramble around their house within an hour and snap a picture of one of their wyrms. (like say "Hats" so folks trying to take a pic of their wyrm on a hat, or wearing a hat, or draw a picture of a hat and put it on their wyrm or...you get the idea). Or a panel like "Better squirms and Gardens" where someone can go through and talk about various decorations that go along with wyrm personalities.

Then again I realize that perhaps this is the point where someone is gonna go "Well Amber, you know -you- could have volunteered to try to do stuff like that." but truth be I didn't really think too much of it at the time since all that was really mentioned was a little Dealer Table registration and not much mention for just non-dealing events. I dunno, just random idea really.

I find one of the reasons most conventions have themes each year is that it helps inspire folks to make things or gimmicks based on the themes. So it may be neat to have something like that. Just things to make it seem more con-like and less like an online sales weekend.

But overall, I do find the homecon thing nice and fun and a great way to get folks together. And I really do enjoy the aspect of Homecon being a way to get folks who are interested in the game and likely to register their beebs.

Overall it is good times and I hope next year will be super fun. c:

[Yearofdragon]

I always really enjoy homecon, and I mean who wouldn't want to attend a con in their pajamas? xD
It's a great way to get all our handlers together and to allow those who usually don't get a chance to go to actual conventions a chance at picking their own eggs. Jasper pretty much covered all the things I was going to mention, and I do really like Ambaar's idea of extra activities (I'd totally be down for setting some of those up next year!!)

My only other comment would be on the way the list of people who were chosen to draw eggs in the stream was distributed. I was without sound on the first stream when the list was read aloud and I missed the entire thing, the second stream the names were posted in the stream chat but a handful of handler names were missing from it. The third and fourth streams were much better, with the names copied and pasted into a forum post. But to further remedy this, perhaps a screenshot of the generated list or even have the list generated during the livestream then pasted onto the forums?

[Arazia]

Just a couple of quick responses...

Unfortunately, due to personal problems, I wasn't available for Stream #1 or Stream #2 to run/post the randomized list of names. That is why you see the change of posting them for Stream #3 and Stream #4. I really couldn't have foreseen the poop that went down that kept me away from the computer. But I will certainly make sure my 'back-ups' are aware to post the list to the thread in the future.

In regards to the number of items vs. people receiving them... This year, due to time constraints, we had less than half the stock of the previous Homecon. Last year, I do not believe there was anyone who got zero Wyrms who showed up to all/most of the streams. Partially, this was because we tracked things and if we saw someone who hadn't gotten a chance, we gave them a bump up the randomized list. Again, due to not being available part of this year, I couldn't really juggle names, and there were not a ton of Wyrms to allow for lots of adjustment. We did /try/ to cover people in the last stream who did not have a chance previously.

That said, even last year, there were complaints that some people got one Wyrm and others got three, etc. Unfortunately, try as we might, it will likely never be 100% fair across the board, as some people can attend more streams than others, or put their names into the hat more than others, etc. I Believe there is every intention of having more Wyrms available for next year's Homecon, and hopefully real life bullpoop won't show up to keep me from doing my tracking/posting/etc.

P.s. People who attended at least 3 streams and didn't get a chance to draw ANY wyrms, feel free to PM me. I will make a list of anyone who missed out and pass it along. We may see what we can do, there, but I can't make promises.

[quoting_mungo]

I found it super fun and exciting just to show up in the stream and find out what was in the eggs, even when I didn't get a slot. There were so many gorgeous wyrmy babies and D was delightfully silly revealing them. Yay camera-slurping shenanigans!

Personally I'm of two minds when it comes to limiting the number of wyrms a handler can get from Homecon. I understand why you'd want to limit it to a single one, but I also know the reason I signed up for slots in the second and third stream (I unfortunately ended up sleeping through the last one) was for the chance to combine shipping (counting on international shipping to be about half again the cost of a common wyrm). Setting a max of two wyrms might not have reduced the length of the lists nearly as much, but to me it seems like a possible decent compromise if there were to be a cap at all. I'm absolutely happy with my single wyrm, and will be excited to have her in my hands.

The only possible improvement I could think of for the streams themselves would be to attach number tags to the eggs, just to make it easier for D/the prospective handlers to differentiate between eggs of similar colors. But that's a pretty small thing.

Oh, and maybe posting up the verbal instructions D gave during the stream regarding tokens/communicating information to Arazia as written info somewhere prominent. Just to be on the safe side. Minor thing, though! Overall I found Homecon to be a nice relaxed experience and all the handlers to be lovely fellow "congoers". It's super awesome to see people get so happy for someone else getting nice things!

[Ponygirl]

Yes, unfortunately the RNG can be tough, but that's sort of what happens with a totally random draw each time. I will say, I did appreciate the ability to draw for more than one wyrm, because my experience with 'drawing' the first one I got at Homecon was more like AAAAH KAI THE TEXTS WHAT and it was quite confusing because I didn't think I was going to get to pull so I wasn't prepared (as I wasn't in the top ten), and I couldn't actually see the egg due to Flash not working on my iPad. <XD So second time around, I actually got to have the whole egg-pulling experience, which I think is part of the fun. :>

I don't know about anyone else's thoughts but I have run a 'newbie draw' in the past specifically for new handlers to give them a chance, and I'm planning to do another one sometime when I get home from all this convention travel. I have a small cache of wyrms that don't fit but I've been saving them towards that (the pile is growing too big for the confines of the area that I'm keeping them in <XD). I like the wyrms but aside from trying to find wyrms towards breeding goals, part of why I buy when I can is that new handlers don't know all the tricks and whatnot to getting wyrms. I got my first one at the MFF art show (before this thing /really/ blew up big) so it was easy enough of a thing to bid on it there and take it home, but now with so many "pro-level" handlers competing for wyrms it's a lot tougher for folks to get new ones. But, it's fun to pick! I'm much more a fan of the pick up to two, rather than the pick only one option.

Or hey, here's a thought if limiting one egg per person per stream, max 1-2 wyrms per person. As a modifier, could do what was done during that one limited egg draw and put your name in the hat but ONLY for your top 5-6 egg picks per clutch of 10, max. That should be a big enough range that most folks who get drawn would be able to pick from their list of choices, but if someone is near the end of the 1-10 line and all their listed picks were already chosen (or they opt to pass) then that person could be given higher priority in the next stream's draws as a reward for letting the next person have their chance in that stream for an egg that they listed. If the next person didn't have the remaining eggs listed, move to the next person until someone actually does have that egg listed as one of their choices. Then all the folks who get passed over in this stream can get randomly pulled for higher priority picking in the next stream. The final stream of the event could then be anything-goes for the people who didn't yet get an egg in the previous streams and it would be close to being able to have everyone get one or two that they really wanted to pull.

[Moongara]

I had a lot of fun this HomeCon. My biggest complaint was the time of the streams but that is because I work night shift and being up at 9:30am CST was a bit strange. That and a fair number of computer glitches but all things considered the technology problems were a drop in the bucket as compared to last year.

On the matter of RNG, it still beats the "first come, first serve" method of making up the order. The RNG method allows people who have slower internet connections to get a shot. Making it fair is nearly impossible since some people just have better luck than others. For what it is worth, since there were so few wyrms for HomeCon this year, perhaps asking people who already got wyrms to sit out the next stream might make it fairer. Not requiring but asking. We have a lot of really great people who, I imagine, wouldn't have any problem with such a suggestion to let others have a chance. I did like the way the tokens were done so that people who didn't get draw slots weren't penalized for tokens. I also really liked the changes to the Gender Bender token. It gives people a better shot at getting a charge of Gender Bender.

Overall, HomeCon went really well this year. It was a lot of fun and the wyrms that were pulled were amazing. Other than a few glitches with LiveStream, the technology was much more cooperative too.

Can't wait till HomeCon 2016.

[KaiNimura]

Yes, unfortunately the RNG can be tough, but that's sort of what happens with a totally random draw each time. I will say, I did appreciate the ability to draw for more than one wyrm, because my experience with 'drawing' the first one I got at Homecon was more like AAAAH KAI THE TEXTS WHAT and it was quite confusing because I didn't think I was going to get to pull so I wasn't prepared (as I wasn't in the top ten), and I couldn't actually see the egg due to Flash not working on my iPad. <XD So second time around, I actually got to have the whole egg-pulling experience, which I think is part of the fun. :>.

XD dude that was funny, I didn't want you to miss out so I just thought..

Why don't I just text her? That maybe faster...