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Topic: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later  (Read 5015 times) previous topic - next topic

LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later


Hi

Please see Ed's comments below further down is the dialog that lead to this proposal


Citizen Star News - Operation Pitchfork Join Operation: Pitchfork Challenge eSports Tournament

Citizen Star News is interested in sponsoring a variety of eSports events, starting with a physical event in Palo Alto CA in late Aug in conjunction with a LAN party already planned by the local org BART (San Francisco Bay Area Ready Team). (Planned online and local events beyond the first of course.)

Given the unpredictable state of things we thought the most reliable part of the game would be the solo play Vanduul Swarm, which immediately brought up the idea of working with Operation Pitchfork, for at minimum cobranding, and helping Operation Pitchfork raise awareness and show activity for growing momentum and recruiting. In this sense it is an outreach program.

So the proposal before you today is to authorize co-branding. Allow Citizen Star News to use Operation Pitchfork brand and logos for promotion of the event and for design of tournament awards (probably a posters). Citizen Ed had approached Sailor67 several days ago and we've been discussing the preliminaries for a couple of days with a widening circle of parties, but now it's time for the org at large to comment.

Participation in the planning, execution and even entry into this and future events by forkers is quite welcome.

We may do PvP later too, but this idea of the Vanduul Swarm challenge strikes me as a unique opportunity to work with one of our favorite community project/orgs, OPPF. I think its a great tie in and we can even do some in-fiction reporting of it as well, "Original Systems Arena Commander used by Operation Pitchfork for training and competition...".

We are looking to close in on a decision (on cobranding) by Wed, July 9th, in order to give adequate, prep time for the event.

- Citizen Ed (-itor in Chief of the Citizen Star News)

Just putting this together as a reply to highlight the proposal, which got a little lost in the full conversation.

Thanks for posting Sailor67!
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flashback, Kartr_Kana, JackDaniels, Xeriar, Supremacy, Renegade-Shank, RunningToken, ssthehunter, Andy_H, John_Shepard, GreyDemon, Lyt, arbitrarysketch, Transhumanitarian, shadowma, Jonais, kaochat and you

    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian June 30
    Hey! Hope things are going well.

    I had an idea for some eSports. We were going to try a LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA.

    What I wanted to do was, fastest to run through the Vanduul Swarm wins, or the latest stage, tie breakers being the fastest to get to that round. (Considering best of two heats but not sure.) May twitch broadcast the competition.

    Highlighting the PVE side (also safest bet considering who knows what we can do with

    Anyway, interesting in co-branding and/or sponsorship? Can call it the "Pitchfork Challenge"!

    After I get a few things nailed down will be hitting up folks for additional sponsorship. The Base and CIG at least.

    What do you think? Could be the start of something.

    - Ed.
    sailor67
    sailor67 June 30
    I guess my question would be what sort of sponsorship are you looking for?

    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian June 30
    Well co-branding, you could help get the word out.

    Any help with prizes would be great. This first one is going to be a bit modest so we don't need to go big.

    Did I read something about Pitchfork t-shirts?

    Or maybe ship donations or RSI gift cards?

    Do you have members in the SF Bay Area, besides myself? I think I recall a few attendees mentioning it.

    Follow ups probably won't be location based, I want to apply what we do to online happenings.

    - Ed.
    sailor67
    sailor67 June 30
    Let me talk it over with the team.
    sailor67
    sailor67 June 30
    Hi

    I am asking you all to join it this tiger team discussion, Ed had a proposition for us. Per our Standard operating procedure (SOP) and a promise of no mushroom management. I have pulled staff, long time Forkers and some newer members as well . Please feel free to express your honest thoughts and comments. The full context of the discussion between Ed and I is below.

    Ed, just some background, we pull together tiger teams from Pitchfork membership when a focused discussion is needed then a recommendation is published for general discussion. You are a forker as well, so feel free to join in the dialog.

    Big Note in 10FTC, CR stated racing will be showcased in Germany , a racing map/game added to a later rev of AC V1


    Transhumanitarian 1:55PM
    Hey! Hope things are going well.

    I had an idea for some eSports. We were going to try a LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA.

    What I wanted to do was, fastest to run through the Vanduul Swarm wins, or the latest stage, tie breakers being the fastest to get to that round. (Considering best of two heats but not sure.) May twitch broadcast the competition.

    Highlighting the PVE side (also safest bet considering who knows what we can do with

    Anyway, interesting in co-branding and/or sponsorship? Can call it the "Pitchfork Challenge"!

    After I get a few things nailed down will be hitting up folks for additional sponsorship. The Base and CIG at least.

    What do you think? Could be the start of something.

    - Ed.
    sailor67
    sailor67 9:53PM
    I guess my question would be what sort of sponsorship are you looking for?

    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian 9:59PM
    Well co-branding, you could help get the word out.

    Any help with prizes would be great. This first one is going to be a bit modest so we don't need to go big.

    Did I read something about Pitchfork t-shirts?

    Or maybe ship donations or RSI gift cards?

    Do you have members in the SF Bay Area, besides myself? I think I recall a few attendees mentioning it.

    Follow ups probably won't be location based, I want to apply what we do to online happenings.

    - Ed.
    sailor67
    sailor67 10:05PM
    Let me talk it over with the team.
    sailor67
    sailor67 June 30
    Hi

    Edit hit send too soon darn it ☺

    I am asking you all to join it this tiger team discussion, Ed had a proposition for us. Per our Standard operating procedure (SOP) and a promise of no mushroom management. I have pulled staff, long time Forkers and some newer members as well . Please feel free to express your honest thoughts and comments. The full context of the discussion between Ed and I is below.

    Ed, just some background, we pull together tiger teams from Pitchfork membership when a focused discussion is needed then a recommendation is published for general discussion. You are a forker as well, so feel free to join in the dialog.

    Big Note in 10FTC, CR stated racing will be showcased in Germany , a racing map/game added to a later rev of AC V1


    Transhumanitarian 1:55PM
    Hey! Hope things are going well.

    I had an idea for some eSports. We were going to try a LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA.

    What I wanted to do was, fastest to run through the Vanduul Swarm wins, or the latest stage, tie breakers being the fastest to get to that round. (Considering best of two heats but not sure.) May twitch broadcast the competition.

    Highlighting the PVE side (also safest bet considering who knows what we can do with

    Anyway, interesting in co-branding and/or sponsorship? Can call it the "Pitchfork Challenge"!

    After I get a few things nailed down will be hitting up folks for additional sponsorship. The Base and CIG at least.

    What do you think? Could be the start of something.

    - Ed.
    sailor67
    sailor67 9:53PM
    I guess my question would be what sort of sponsorship are you looking for?

    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian 9:59PM
    Well co-branding, you could help get the word out.

    Any help with prizes would be great. This first one is going to be a bit modest so we don't need to go big.

    Did I read something about Pitchfork t-shirts?

    Or maybe ship donations or RSI gift cards?

    Do you have members in the SF Bay Area, besides myself? I think I recall a few attendees mentioning it.

    Follow ups probably won't be location based, I want to apply what we do to online happenings.

    - Ed.
    sailor67
    sailor67 10:05PM
    Let me talk it over with the team.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank June 30
    How many people will be in the competition, and who is allowed to enter?
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian June 30
    Hi all!

    Just to be clear, I am not demanding sponsorship of prizes, that helps the co-branding, but it's entirely optional. I'll probably be working with CIG and our partner, The Base online radio station for prizes as well. Something Pitchfork branded would be excellent though.

    What I have in mind is building PVE esports focused on the Vanduul Swarm mode as a prelude to Operation Pitchfork. I think its a great tie in and we can even do some in-fiction reporting of it ("Original Systems Arena Commander used by Operation Pitchfork for training and competition...").

    First event will be a meetup/lan party in Palo Alto, CA. But I intend to move on from there to online, and other location events.

    We may do PvP later too, but this idea of the Vanduul Swarm challenge strikes me as a unique opportunity to work with one of our favorite community project/orgs, OPPF.

    Hope you like the idea!
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian June 30
    Hi Shank!

    First event is going to location based, next Palo Alto Meet Up in mid-to late August. I expect 12-20 people. Anybody physically present that is a backer can enter. It's being done LAN Party style, so it would be played on your own rig, but we will probably have a few SC capable systems others can use.

    We could consider doing something online earlier, but there are significant logistical hurdles to deal with first, so we thought the meetup might be a good way to do the first run.

    Venue has some nice meeting and conference room spaces, and Fiber to the Premise datalinks.

    Online I'd want the admission to be as open as possible. But a lot of the questions are yet to be answered yet. I wanted to see if we could bring you guys on board early as that will guide how we develop this.

    - Ed.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank June 30
    All that sounds good.

    I was just wondering if it is open to everyone or just certain people?

    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank June 30
    Heehee, typing at the same time.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian June 30
    As a promotional event, don't really want to restrict it. Just need to balance that with the need to keep the numbers manageable.

    Some events (and I do intend for this to be a series of events) could potentially be restricted. Like we could have one restricted to pitchfork members for example. But my aim generally is to have this be a promotional tool for both Pitchfork and Citizen Star News (and Star Citizen as a whole of course).

    - Ed
    Lyt
    Lyt July 1
    I'm in Aus so wouldn't be able to take part until it goes online. Regardless it sounds like a great idea, some cross promotion and it would probably help with recruiting as well.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    Well Lyt, you'll have to just keep practicing so you can kick ass and cook bacon when we go online.

    Thanks for the endorsement, yeah I think this could be great for recruiting.

    On general parameters of the competition:

    I am thinking we may need to limit the "heat" time. I am reading about people making it past level 40? How long does that take? Ain't nobody got time for that. (I am personally nowhere near that good. I'll probably stick to organizer. :P )

    Probably needs to stay within 15-20 mins be reasonable. Hard to watch if it gets longer than that. And I do want to produce videos out of this. So I guess the heat might be how far can you get in 15 mins? (Or how far can you get before getting knocked out? That sound reasonable?

    Probably have qualifying heats and the top 4-6 become finalists and do a live heat with all going at the same time. Should make for an interesting event. (Not sure how that would translate into an online event, have to think about it. Probably proctored twitch sessions, submitted for review. Not quite as exciitng live, but only fair for TZs sake.)

    Still have a few decisions to make about ship loadouts and other "advantages". (Voice Attack?) May not want to codify too early. Quite a few patches likely between now and then (one hopes).

    - Ed.

    GreyDemon
    GreyDemon July 1
    I like the idea, but can't make my way to California anytime soon. Being a Pennsylvania resident makes it a bit of a trip.
    Jonais
    Jonais July 1
    This sounds like a cool event as long as the prizes don't get too out of hand. I don't think limiting how people play is a good idea. If the tool exists and is usable then it should be allowed. This includes Voice Attack and custom rigs. As for load outs I think it should be restricted to anything currently available with the exception of known (at the time of play) buggy OP weapons. There isn't really a wide range of available weapons yet so restricting them seems a little pointless unless it's restricted strictly to the base weapon load out of each ship just to keep things standard. I live outside of Chicago, so unless you guys come out here I'll be waiting for the online event. That and I need to get my new computer first, hehe.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    With such interest, may do the online version sooner than later. But still much to be done before then.

    Who knows what we'll have in a month and half of near weekly patches? I know the are working on eSports support. Spectator modes, etc.

    Agreed largely on custom rigs, tools and weapons. For the physical event though it amuses me to think of several people in the same room all trying to use voice attack. That might get interesting quick.

    Prizes out of hand? We'll use what we dig up, I suppose. Not sure what would constitute too much. (MOAR PRIZES!) But don't intend for to a big burden for Pitchfork, if that's your concern.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 1
    My concern on the prizes, is balancing it out. If you have an incredible amount of prizes for the physical event and only a few for the online event, there are those who will try to say it was rigged and only your RL friends were part of getting the really cool stuff.

    I'm not saying that is what you are doing, I'm saying we need to be careful of what people may perceive. There will always be those who try to tear things apart just to do it, no matter your good intentions. We just need to be ahead of them and try to make sure we limit the ways people could try to Flame War and Troll this.

    The only thing I can think of right now off the Mech is T-Shirts, the rest of it is participation stuff so far.

    I think this is a fantastic idea, I just don't want it to be stamped out before it can take hold.
    Jonais
    Jonais July 1
    Totally agree Shank.

    I think the prizes should be more in the way of token prizes since people should be signing up b/c it's fun rather than for the prizes themselves. If the prizes are too big it tends to take the focus away from the event and the purpose and it turns more into a focus of getting the prizes.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    I understand what you are saying, Shank and Jonais. I agree to an extent, and actually for the first session, don't expect the prizes to a big part of what we are doing, mostly just icing on the cake and a little extra incentive to turn out. Although if CIG offers an LTI Idris or something crazy, I'll have a hard time turning that down. :)

    I am not looking to make this a burden on Pitchfork, not coming to beg for prizes. More looking for a win-win cobranding. It just made sense after I came up with the idea of focusing the competition on the Vanduul Swarm mode.

    Beyond the early stages I don't want to make any promises. E-Sports can get to be a big deal and don't really want to paint ourselves into a box just yet. Let's focus on the start and see where it goes.

    For now, think we could get a Pitchfork T-Shirt or a couple maybe? Or posters or something? (Actually have access to a large format printer, come to think of it. If you've got hi rez poster art files, I can get it printed. Wouldn't cost Pitchfork a thing.)

    I think it would be great to offer something specifically Pitchfork branded. Physical prize makes sense for the physical meetup.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 1
    Anything CIG want's to offer is fine, we are not saying turn down prizes.

    I'm more talking in general for the events longevity than OP specific. I'm all for OP branding. I have np with helping with the cost of T-Shirts.

    Posters can be found at this link on the OP website:
    https://operationpitchfork.com/forums/index.php?topic=33.0

    On Page 2 I think is the best OP poster,

    Supremacy's

    "The meek may inherit the Earth"
    "The rest of us are going to ORION"

    http://i.imgur.com/ffvENNy.jpg
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    Sounds good. I think we are basically agreeing then on prizes.

    I am afraid none of that art you linked to is sufficiently high enough resolution or scalable to make a good physical poster.

    Supremacy's might work if I had the original file, but it would depend on how he put that together and the source images. (And I like his design a lot.)
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 1
    I added Supremacy to the conversation, so he could pass on higher resolutions of his art work if he has/wants to.
    Supremacy
    Supremacy July 1
    Hello gentlemen, I might just have a 2k res of that on my laptop. I can check it out later.

    And concerning technique, I kinda wrapped that one up in paint :P I guess you'd need a vector or something, right TH?
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    Hi!

    That is nice work. We were talking about offering a large format print poster of it as a possible eSports event award.

    Vector or very high rez base file would be good (Adobe Illustrator or In Design we use for that). Alternatively we could start over from the elements and try to make something scalable.

    2k rez might be a good start.

    How big is that file? If it's not too huge you can mail me at ed@citizenstarnews.com
    shadowma
    shadowma July 1
    Hi sound great too me as well, but I wouldn't be able to participate unless its online.
    But still would love to watch on twitch or youtube, sounds great ! Hey might be cool
    if we had any famous people who play SC or are citizens maybe to come to the event,
    just the a thought. Also so some cool prize ideas like LTI or maybe just insurance for six months?
    I think this could be really be a good thing for the game as well as OPPF & worth a chance.

    Shadowma
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    shadowma,

    Yes very much agreed. I'd love to do some tie ins to the online community during the event.

    Perhaps a Skype call could be integrated, and yes plan to Twitch at least some aspects of the event.

    Like the idea of "celebs" -- although, all Citizens are Stars on some level in my mind.
    arbitrarysketch
    arbitrarysketch July 1
    Hi Transhumanitarian,

    I am the one running the OPPF merchandise store, and I am all for fronting some T-Shirts for prizes, as well as Campaign Ribbons and Medals if desired. Depending on when you have this event planned, we may have OPPF Patches available as well by that time. The difficulty I have been having is getting the store out there and visible for people, since I can't link to it from the RSI forums, and I am not as active as I would like to be with my job and everything (Summer camp business gets a little busy this time of year), I don't have a lot of opportunity to advertise the store. So anyway, I'd be happy to sponsor the event with some prizes if condoned by the Pitchfork leadership. I could see it being a great opportunity to get the store out there for people to see, even if it is just mentioned or linked.

    Disclaimer: The Operation Pitchfork Merchandise Store is not for profit, just for fun. I would just like to see some more sales as I dropped a significant portion of my bankroll in the investment and would like to take as light a hit as possible. Any profits made will be reinvested in more merchandise, gifts for CIG, and supporting the development of Star Citizen. Sponsorship of this event is not contingent on the store being advertised; I'd be willing to front prizes either way.

    -Sketch
    shadowma
    shadowma July 1
    Hey Sketch, not sure if anyone would like this or not but maybe we could sell chits or tickets worth so much in
    OPPF merchandise that way you would know how much to order & or make or have made.
    I don't what we would charge per patch or shirt or groups but if you say sell a $30 for like a set for a patch, shirt & a ribbon.
    Maybe more Iam not sure what the overhead is but its just a thought. Let me know what you think.

    Shadowma
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 1
    arbitrarysketch and shadowma,

    Sounds great. Like the idea.

    Medals are especially interesting actually. That seems apt. Just found the thread with them.

    Oh I see some things going on with CustomInk.com, interesting. https://operationpitchfork.com/forums/index.php?topic=617.0

    Not very convenient for outsiders, but looks like a great resource for you guys.

    All sounding good, guys! I like what I am hearing so far.
    Andy_H
    Andy_H July 2
    Hey guys. Have been reading this. I volunteered for eight years at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, and I functioned as their Charitable Donations department. Schools and Organizations would write us asking for things to auction off for their fundraisers or as prizes for a gala event and such. Much like this, only multiplied by five or six hundred requests per year.

    So, Trans. From what I hear, you are planning on a LAN party in Cali for about 20 some people in perhaps a month. Also there is the idea of an online event. This sounds like you are still in the rough planning stages, and are basically looking for pledges at this time. Will these be two separate events or are you thinking of incorporating both into a single event at a later date? How will you do so? An online event so that others can attend as well is a good idea, but how will you keep it manageable? How will you send online achievers any prizes they are granted? It sounds like there is much to iron out still.

    I have no problem with this, and have no problem with discussing what we are willing to contribute once a firm plan is in place. Any event has to start somewhere and this is part of the process. At this stage granting permissions for replicating posters, icons, ect to use at your LAN party are perfectly acceptable as this is part of setting things up and does not require financial commitment on our part.

    If I was still at the EASM and your purpose for your event was in harmony with our mission statement, I would require that your event planning be finalized before formally committing the museum to shipping items of value. I would send you a letter stating what our standard donation of admission tickets was for an event such as yours, and our willingness to do so once your planning was in place. But I could not go to the Executive Director and suggest that he approve the donation at this initial stage.

    So what I am saying is let's take this one step as a time and not get carried away by our enthusiasm. To my ears, it sounds like any event is a ways off from happening without dropping the online portion.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 2
    Andy_H,

    Thank you for the reply.

    There is a lot to figure out and do, agreed. I've been formulating some basic parameters of the first location based competition itself for the last while, and think am pretty close there. I think the physical event is pretty doable at this point, and plan to hold it sometime in mid to late Aug on a Saturday. Exact date will be announced soonish as soon as I can settle which events (Gamescon for example) I need to work around and availability of a few key personnel.

    There will at least be online follow ups. I think an online component to the initial event is a good idea. At least twitch streaming, and perhaps a "guest" appearance or two from Pitchforkers, via Skype or something similar.

    The main thing I want to work out in THIS conversation, is a willingness to cobrand on the event, and I guess to some extent, what that would mean. Prizes are secondary.

    I want to start talking about this pretty much immediately after/if we reach an agreement to cobrand as a community developed event/series of events, an upcoming CitizenStar/Pitchfork Challenge. If Pitchfork opts not to cobrand, I'll work out some other angle.

    I am fine with stipulating that any prize or financial commitment can be held off until a more formal plan is in place. Quite understandable. In fact, such commitments are entirely optional. It helps your rep to be able to announce what you contributed, but really could do the event with just cobranding alone.

    Agreed on your other points. One step at a time is fine. The emerging consensus thus far looks good. What are the next steps in your SOP?
    Andy_H
    Andy_H July 2
    Now to my fellow Forkers:

    I would like to bring up another point, only indirectly related to this particular event. This is how we will handle other requests. When I started at EASM and was assigned to operate as the Charitable Donations Department, the museum was receiving and approving about 50 requests for free admission tickets per year. This was because the administration office had little time to respond to requests and generated little awareness that we supported such fundraisers. By the time I was no longer able to continue volunteering eight years later, I received nearly six hundred requests in that year simply because we were responding and the awareness that resulted. Not just from local schools and charities, but from nationwide organizations. So here are some things to think about:

    What is our official mission in considering an event for our support?
    This can be goals such as raising awareness for recruitment or advertising OPPF.

    Is their purpose for the event productive in fulfilling that mission?
    A Tulip festival is probably the wrong target audience.

    What is the criteria they have to meet?
    Four friends in their mom's basement is probably too small in size.
    Is this a well planned and organized effort, or is this some contestant from a Beauty Pageant raising money so she can go to Disneyland while she's in the area?
    (And yes, I did get a letter of request from the Beauty Pageant contestant. I also got a request from a church to raise funds for routine landscaping maintenance. Those went to the bottom of my pile and stayed there. "Oops! Sorry. due to the volume of requests we were unable to process yours in time.")

    What is our minimum limit of support for an event?
    Do we have permissions from the artists for local organizers in reproducing such promotional materials?
    Do they wish to reproduce and mail such material themselves as the contributing artist?
    Are they willing to make more designs for such purposes?

    As a general guideline, what is the maximum limit of support?
    This is in the realm of T-shirts, gift cards, ect. Anything that involved real monetary involvement on our part. Sort of a baseline to guide us in what is reasonable for a particular event size or purpose.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 2
    Just for starters:

    What is our official mission in considering an event for our support?
    *Must not exclude anyone since we are about including everyone.

    Is their purpose for the event productive in fulfilling that mission?
    *Getting the word out about SC, and OP.

    As a general guideline, what is the maximum limit of support?
    *What our members are willing to donate toward that specific event.

    Andy_H
    Andy_H July 2
    Thanks for responding quickly, Trans. I know this is important for you, and this sort of thing can be quite an endeavor.

    I would agree with you on keeping it local for the first event, and your timeline goal seems very reasonable. Twitch streaming for publicity with a few guest appearances would be a plus. Perhaps someone could record and edit as a news segment and possibly see if portions could be sent to Michael "Viewmaster" Morlan for his show Galactic Inquiry. It highlights what SC fans are doing.

    Now as to cobranding. This is something I am not experienced in, so I would like to hear what your vision of what cobranding is and involves. From my incredibly limited and purely office-floater perspective, it's pretty much just including the PF logo or hanging up some promotional posters. Somehow I don't think it's just that simple.

    We are going to have to develop what our SOP for this sort of thing is, since it will be our first one. My advice is make yourself detailed notes, and present what you want and are looking for based on those notes. Be specific on what you are looking for, what your short/long-term goals are for this project, what you are looking for from us and what you envision that means. From my experience in reading requests, it is better to sound reasonably ambitious, have firm objectives, and a solid direction than to sound vague. What we think cobranding is does not matter as much as what you think it is. Our two parties compromising to work out what that exactly means in cooperation comes after, if it sounds like there is something to it that we can work with.

    Now I am a visual thinker. If you would paint me a word-picture of your vision it would help me a lot in understanding what you are going for, and how we can support it. Thanks.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 2
    Good call on Mike Morlan, I am already working with him for an entry in this weeks (hopefully) show about the last get together. He's responded positively. Haven't brought this future event up, yet.

    Well as far as cobranding, yes to an extent, it's just slapping logos and and using each others names. I expect a lot of the support would "viral". I am a big fan of volunteerism, and consensus building (which it appears, is exactly how you folks work). So getting the basic themes set, getting the word out and then seeing what people get excited about the prospect and exactly what they care to contribute is core of the intent. It's also one of the reasons I don't have a detailed plan yet as well; I have some folks interested and definitely on board, but want to leave open the door to the new ideas people can bring in.

    So we'll lead with a concrete event, with a good idea of whats going to happen, but open to new ideas. And the concept that this is almost certain to lead to greater events, both online and off. The general goals of broadening the awareness and participation of both Operation Pitchfork and Star Citizen as a whole, I intend to be front and center of all publicity. (As well as I guess Citizen Star's stature as a news outlet. That does factor into what I am trying to do here, to be completely honest with you.)

    I'd welcome (local and/or non-local) Forkers involvement in the project planning and oversight, on a volunteer basis.

    Andy_H
    Andy_H July 2
    Thanks, Trans. That helps me understand where you are coming from much better. In fact, some of what you mentioned is why I brought up some questions to consider by the other Forkers. We want to be able to include everyone, so that means being able to manage support limitations in a way that makes it fair to everyone. But also not become a burden to those such as Arbi who had been bankrolling the PF store and having to turn people asking for support away because we ran the well dry with our prize donations.

    I think this is a good thing to support. I know a group here in Oregon that want to do something similar, but it seems a lot harder to set something up in this area for some reason. I was just thinking about down the road. There is quite a bit of time before PF, so if this goes very well think about how many LAN parties and events there may be going on during PF if the ball starts rolling here. Sailor posted something on the forum and look where we are now, not to mention where we are going.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 2
    Andy_H,

    Quite welcome. All sounds good. Definitely want this to be a net plus for Pitchfork, with little overhead to any individual. In fact only want people to spend time on this that will get something (satisfaction at least) out of it.

    Yep all about getting the ball rolling, would be happy to help other local groups once we have something going here.

    On consensus building and moving things along. One of the difficulties is balancing giving people time to discuss and the opportunity to weigh in and the tendencies of these types of things to stall.

    This discussion has been generally positive, with some discussions of points of clarification, but it feels like we are a still a bit away from declaring it a done deal.

    May I suggest comment periods? If there are no objections not dealt with in say 24 hours on this thread, can we move forward with cobranding? Or at least the next step? (Do you want to do a general forums Pitchfork forums discussion? If we do can we limit the discussion period to something reasonable, like 48-72 hours?) This is how I generally manage volunteerism and consensus building with the need to move forward in a timely fashion. Not meaning to sound impatient, just looking for the best ways to proceed.

    - Ed.
    Jonais
    Jonais July 2
    I think it's pretty much been a fairly unanimous opinion that OP is interested in some level of support for this event, but I think what we need now is specifics as to what sort of involvement you'd like. Logos and possible prize support seems to be the start of what you're looking for, but what else did you have in mind? What level of marketing did you have in mind, etc?
    sailor67
    sailor67 July 2
    Hi

    I have been following this discussion, and to my fellow forkers, I mean this most sincerely, you guys rock! The team we have is flat out amazing.

    Ed, because of the holidays in the US we may want to give it a bit more time then that. A lot of folks are traveling and as Andy pointed out there is not a huge rush. Generally we have a committee style vote then is is pushed out for general discussion I know you would like to move faster than that. but the one weakness of a consensus org is that we take a bit more time to decide things even if we do get there eventually.

    With no objections I would like to give this message thread through the holiday weekend then we can have an up or down vote. While there is no set rule, if there is a strong disagreement we continue to discuss it until a strong majority consensus is reached.

    Once we have an agreement this entire thread will be captured on the PF site then we can post on the main PF thread for general discussion Give that about a week and we are golden


    Thoughts?
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 2
    Well I do have a higher sense of urgency than that, I need to start engaging with planners, recruiting assistants, talking to CIG about potential sponsorship. To me the event being less than two months away makes me feel like I need to get moving.

    I'd like to move forward with you folks on board. And have been holding off on many of my next moves until we can say go. But if that means delaying nearly two weeks, I am not sure that's feasible.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 2
    Transhumanitarian,

    It seens like most of the stuff you are holding on could go forward without the final yay or nay from us, unless I'm missing something?

    Sailor,

    What about continuing this discussion through tomorrow, then Saturday putting it up for general OP discussion that would continue through say next Wednesday, US time frame, that way even if people are traveling they would have about 3 days after the weekend to talk about thos?
    Andy_H
    Andy_H July 3
    Just to point out: for events such as what Trans is planning, two months is not a lot of time. He would like an answer on cobranding as it appears to be one of the initial steps ironed out before going to companies like CIG for sponsorship. And every company he contacts will require time as well. Like if you were to start a cattle ranch, you would register your brand and make it official before asking neighbor ranches about upcoming calves they would be willing to sell at a discount. Before asking major investors for money to make a product for market, you would want to be able to present your company name, logos and how you plan on selling that brand name product.

    Before you can sell a brand to consumers, you need to know what that brand is. At least that is the gist of what I am hearing. I think right now the question is are we willing to invest our name and logo to this event. Sort of like a kickstarter that can be presented to SC media. In this case is sounds like it would be sort of like "eSports/Operation Pitchfork Vanduul Challenge Event."

    Once he has that, he can really go to sponsors for equipment rentals, advertising sponsors, prize sponsors, make solid arrangements with a venue that has sufficient room, bandwidth and power. Sponsors often provide discounted or free services in exchange for putting up advertising banners and such at the event. They want the exposure. OPPF is a significant presence in the SC community. I think it is safe to say that most Citizens have heard of us. With being able to put this event out into the media, and if a large SC "Invade the Vanduul" movement is part of the "brand" of a Vanduul killing themed activity, the more attractive this can be for sponsors because that advertising could be seen by many more people than who are physically at the event. The more sponsors he can arrange, the better (and maybe bigger) physical event he can throw. This impacts future events potential. It is a ton of work and time to set something like this up.

    The prizes and contributions (things we can donate) can wait. There is sufficient time for that to be discussed. This is simply a case of unfortunate timing with the holiday weekend and a specific answer that is needed soon.

    Anyway, I am guesstimating that this is the situation. Do I have that correct, Trans?
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 3
    Andy_H,

    Spot on.

    I have some of that lined up (the venue with bandwidth for instance) but for the stuff I don't have and would at least be nice, I should have my branding story straight before going to them. I'll be disadvantaged if I don't.

    - Ed.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 3
    For myself, I am for it. From everything I have seen of and my dealings with Transhumanitarian on the forums, he seems like a stand up person. I can only speak for myself though.

    Transhumanitarian,

    Have you been a part of something like this before, and what kind of help and/or volunteers, on physical location and online are you looking for? That way during our discussions about this we can let people know in case they want to help.

    People will also have questions of if you are making money off of the event and what compensation they would recieve for their assistance for the event? I am not pushing for anything, just trying to get ahead of questions I believe will come up.

    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 3
    I meant to also ask about if there would be entry fees and if so do you know about how much they will be?
    Lyt
    Lyt July 3
    It certainly gets my vote, branding and soft prizes (large file posters etc) cost nothing and I really think the boost it would give PF would be invaluable.
    sailor67
    sailor67 July 3
    If you guys are OK with Shank's suggested time I am good with it. Ed that work for you as well?
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 3
    Shank,

    Definitely no entry fees for the first physical event. I may consider entry fees later for some events. Not above making a buck (err... being compensated at least a little for time and overhead costs) on these things, would be nice actually, but would need to be relatively unobtrusive. I hate the idea of feeling like I had ripped anyone off.

    Lyt,

    Glad you agree. Really trying to get a win-win here.

    Sailor,

    Works a lot better for me. I've been getting active on the OP forums to help smooth the way, and be prepared to answer any questions.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 3
    Shank,

    To answer more of your questions. I've done some event planning that is related to this, but esports are a bit of a new thing for me. Getting into the spirit of where I see Star Citizen going for the short term. My experience with esports is pretty limited to EVE alliance tournaments and the New Eden Open. I realize that EVE isn't standard esports. For Star Citizen, I am looking at where we are now and designing something that can work, and doesn't need to assume a lot of progress. Am reaching out to some people I know that do esports, if anyone in Pitchfork is experienced in that area that would be welcome.

    Open to co-organizers.

    As for volunteers:

    Local/Physical:
    Need a few Referees to be able to monitor the gamers so we can record scores and watch out for funny biz.
    Maybe some techies to help people set up.

    Local/Physical or Remote Online
    People experienced with streaming and capturing streams from other computers. I am prepared to work out the details myself, but help would be appreciated.
    Hosts and commentators
    "Celebrity Guests" - Any recognizable forker how is comfortable in front of a camera.
    Art and Assets - We can do this, but more experienced people is better. My artist partner and myself have other work to do and only so much time to spare.

    Online
    PR Dept, will need to talk up the event and potential of the Pitchfork Challenge. Should be pretty viral, but it also helps to have engaged personnel prepared to work in the different forums and social media (and now how not to overdo it, Reddit is a particularly tricky place for example.).

    I expect to get a lot of local help from https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/BART - Bay Area Ready Team - but the stronger the OPPF presence the better.


Older Messages

    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 3
    I just got a bit more information on the large format printer.

    24 inches across, height is pretty variable since it's a roller.

    For best results, raster images should be at least 300 dpi at that size. 150 dpi could work though.
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 3
    Transhumanitarian,

    How much would it cost for me to have one made for myself and also 3 more, one for each CIG Studio? I would also pay shipping.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian July 3
    I think the biggest deal would be shipping.

    I think we could do a small quantity for $10/each. If this becomes a major production, I'd have to requote.

    I like the idea of sending it to CIG studios.

    Did you have a design in mind?

    FYI - You can call me Ed. Easier to type. :)
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank July 3
    This one by Supremacy, same one from earlier in the thread.

    Posters can be found at this link on the OP website:
    https://operationpitchfork.com/forums/index.php?topic=33.0

    On Page 2 I think is the best OP poster,

    Supremacy's

    "The meek may inherit the Earth"
    "The rest of us are going to ORION"

    http://i.imgur.com/ffvENNy.jpg
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank 2:17PM
    Do we want to work on some wording for the OP website discussion?
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian 6:18PM
    Right, had been doing that, how does this look:

    Citizen Star News - Operation Pitchfork Join Operation: Pitchfork Challenge eSports Tournament

    Citizen Star News is interested in sponsoring a variety of eSports events, starting with a physical event in Palo Alto CA in late Aug in conjunction with a LAN party already planned by the local org BART. (Planned online and local events beyond the first of course.)

    Given the unpredictable state of things we thought the most reliable part of the game would be the solo play Vanduul Swarm, which immediately brought up the idea of working with Operation Pitchfork, for at minimum cobranding, and helping Operation Pitchfork raise awareness and show activity for growing momentum and recruiting. In this sense it is an outreach program.

    So the proposal before you today is to authorize co-branding. Allow Citizen Star News to use Operation Pitchfork brand and logos for promotion of the event and for design of tournament awards (probably a posters). Citizen Ed had approached Sailor67 several days ago and we've been discussing the preliminaries for a couple of days with a widening circle of parties, but now it's time for the org at large to comment.

    Participation in the planning, execution and even entry into this and future events by forkers is quite welcome.

    We may do PvP later too, but this idea of the Vanduul Swarm challenge strikes me as a unique opportunity to work with one of our favorite community project/orgs, OPPF. I think its a great tie in and we can even do some in-fiction reporting of it as well, "Original Systems Arena Commander used by Operation Pitchfork for training and competition...".

    We are looking to close in on a decision (on cobranding) by Wed, July 9th, in order to give adequate, prep time for the event.
    Transhumanitarian
    Transhumanitarian 6:19PM
    Decided to focus purely on the cobrand for now "sponsorship" and discussion of prizes seems to get people a bit defensive, and that's really a secondary thing. Happy to offer up anything volunteered, but it's not mandatory.
    Lyt
    Lyt 6:49PM
    Looks good to me
    Renegade-Shank
    Renegade-Shank 7:11PM
    It looks good to me too, just need Sailor to weigh in since I believe he should more than likely be the one to post it on the forum.
    Jonais
    Jonais 8:51PM
    Looks good to me as well. I don't know that sailor needs to post it since it's more of a request from Ed. But probably want to wait to post till you're both online, that way he can follow up your post with a rubber stamp of "This is organizer approved." type of thing. Maybe put the discussion of this on the op site rather than in the main op thread so that it doesn't get too buried and post a link to it in the main thread? Sorry for the rambling...
    shadowma
    shadowma 9:17PM
    Yes, looks good to me as well, should be fun. But I agree with everyone that I would like to hear
    what Sailor thinks.


    flashback
    flashback 9:29PM
    Have not commented before this, but for Operation Pitchfork Sailor has the say so.
    IMHO.
    sailor67
    sailor67 9:49PM
    Hey guys works for me.

    Ed I think we are as go for getting general comments, we can put this thread in the PF site and I can link (I think) in the PF OP or on the Org page


Pitchfork Belongs to all of us

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #1 –
Citizen Star News - Operation Pitchfork Join Operation: Pitchfork Challenge eSports Tournament

Citizen Star News is interested in sponsoring a variety of eSports events, starting with a physical event in Palo Alto CA in late Aug in conjunction with a LAN party already planned by the local org BART (San Francisco Bay Area Ready Team). (Planned online and local events beyond the first of course.)

Given the unpredictable state of things we thought the most reliable part of the game would be the solo play Vanduul Swarm, which immediately brought up the idea of working with Operation Pitchfork, for at minimum cobranding, and helping Operation Pitchfork raise awareness and show activity for growing momentum and recruiting. In this sense it is an outreach program.

So the proposal before you today is to authorize co-branding. Allow Citizen Star News to use Operation Pitchfork brand and logos for promotion of the event and for design of tournament awards (probably a posters). Citizen Ed had approached Sailor67 several days ago and we've been discussing the preliminaries for a couple of days with a widening circle of parties, but now it's time for the org at large to comment.

Participation in the planning, execution and even entry into this and future events by forkers is quite welcome.

We may do PvP later too, but this idea of the Vanduul Swarm challenge strikes me as a unique opportunity to work with one of our favorite community project/orgs, OPPF. I think its a great tie in and we can even do some in-fiction reporting of it as well, "Original Systems Arena Commander used by Operation Pitchfork for training and competition...".

We are looking to close in on a decision (on cobranding) by Wed, July 9th, in order to give adequate, prep time for the event.

- Citizen Ed (-itor in Chief of the Citizen Star News)

Just putting this together as a reply to highlight the proposal, which got a little lost in the full conversation.

Thanks for posting Sailor67!

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #2 –
Wow, quite in here.

Speak up if you have any thoughts on this, good, bad, or otherwise.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #4 –
Update!

We've announced the event. First Pitchfork Challenge being held in two weeks!

Main Landing Page for the event:

http://www.citizenstarnews.com/pitchfork-challenge

Art made for the event (inspired by opening credits of Cowboy Bebop):

http://imgur.com/a/mTa5T

We will likely be adding customized versions of the art as a poster as prizes (w/ winner's callsigns). We'll see how our access to the large format printer goes.

Feel free to use the sig, if you want to help support: http://i.imgur.com/iFaPpcU.png

Reddit thread here for our Redditors: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/2d388d/proud_to_announce_first_pitchfork_challenge_arena/

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #5 –
I can go to this, since I wanted to visit my friends in Santa Cruz anyways. I could look into getting something together for the event, like a little mini booth or something. Let me know what you guys think about having an OPPF official rep there, and what we can do with it.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #6 –
Love the idea.

Not sure about booth, but we can definitely feature you.

Could swing a table.

Have you done any on camera work? Streaming or Shoutcasting?

Anyway, will make sure to make up some extra swag for ya.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #7 –
Ah, a table would be perfect. That's more along the lines of what I was thinking. I do amateur photography, and I have my own Twitch account, but we may want someone with more internet chops to actually host any sort of webcast. Maybe have someone with a popular channel host it (since mine is a ghost town, and I'm not really looking to advertise it), and we could do interviews or comment on the events of the day.

I was thinking about getting some shirts or other Pitchfork stuff to take there to show off, in case anyone wanted any sort of merchandise from the Pitchfork store. That may have to get a little more organized to be prepared for something like that though.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #8 –
Sounds great!

I've not got anyone really up for the main hosting job. I will do it myself if need be but not my thing really, so could use some help. My own Twitch Channel has only been used for some OBS tests so far.

I do have StarCast and TheBase personality http://www.twitch.tv/trendane almost definitely attending, but he's not up for being an announcer. He might be game to having his channel host though, which could bring in some folks.

Oh hey do you have any Vanduul Swarm footage that you think would make exciting moments for a quick Video promo?

Or anyone reading this.

Maybe should make a new thread... cut down highlights (with maybe a couple seconds lead in and lead out) would be ideal.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #9 –
I'll talk to our Youtube team for putting together clips. We've already had a thread detailing some ideas about Youtube projects, but I'm going to get a new thread going so we have a fresh start. If anyone is willing to donate airtime on their Twitch accounts that would be great. They don't need to host anything, but I could definitely use a volunteer co-host if we're doing something like that. I work much better with a team than on my own, so I wouldn't mind at all if you knew of anyone else interested in this project or if anyone here is interested in helping out.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Benjamin the Rogue on

I'll talk to our Youtube team for putting together clips. We've already had a thread detailing some ideas about Youtube projects, but I'm going to get a new thread going so we have a fresh start. If anyone is willing to donate airtime on their Twitch accounts that would be great. They don't need to host anything, but I could definitely use a volunteer co-host if we're doing something like that. I work much better with a team than on my own, so I wouldn't mind at all if you knew of anyone else interested in this project or if anyone here is interested in helping out.


All sounds good! Interesting possibilities!

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #11 –
Something with the electrical system in my roof came up this weekend. I'm getting someone to come out and look at it, but they only had tomorrow and Wednesday evening open, and tomorrow I have to pick my old sarge up at the airport when he gets back from leave. If they come too late on Wednesday, or if the fix is too pricey, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it out to Palo Alto after all. :(

Damn nabbit, I was looking forward to this. One of the downsides to being a home owner, I guess. I might just have to call it, frankly, because I don't know how much money I'm going to need for the roof, and by the time I do, it's going to be very last minute to get to California.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #12 –
Well we had a great time. Was held on Aug 23rd.

Hoping to do follow up events.

We do plan to do at least another meetup in Oct. not sure if it will be an Operation Pitchfork event or not.

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #13 –
Here's the official results and some photos from last weekend:

http://www.citizenstarnews.com/news/pitchfork-challenge-victorious

We declared victory, even though there was certainly room for improvement. But at least a good time was had by all. Even the stream viewers got a kick out of it (helped a lot by attendee and RSI Forums Moderator Toast taking the Mic for a while and talking to folks).

We may do a short video of it as well, if our RL work schedule permits.

A lot of people asking for more of such events, and with CIG's planned support for tournements and esports it certainly should be more possible.

Thanks for the support 'Forkers!
 

Re: LAN party in a little over a month in Palo Alto CA with Online Later

Reply #14 –
Pitchfork Challenge and Citizen Star News got a feature on Galactic Inquiry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8oi3SvTuSc

Played our Pitchfork Challenge video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GqxJF2bP18

Very fun!

Planning a follow up in Mid October, watch this space for news:

http://www.citizenstarnews.com/pitchfork-challenge