Christmas 2018 Brainstorming
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:09 am
The shelves are full of pumpkin spice Twinkies and pumpkin-shaped Reese's, so it must be time for Christmas ideas! In mid-Spetember! At least it's cooled down a little this week, but that was probably some hurricane's fault or something. Maybe it's not so bad having such reliable, predictable weather in-game. Maybe I should work on getting to those Carpathians to get in the Christmas frame of mind.
As usual, I'm going to be collecting ideas for both SWL and AO, even though AO just got a big Anniversary update, so I'm not expecting a whole lot there. There might be a couple new little things, though. And SWL will most likely get The Christmas Conspiracy back, plus some new cache, probably. Big ideas can still go in the list, of course. Whatever they don't have time for now, can always be saved for later. Ideas are always better than none.
There is no contest involved, and I'm not even keeping track of which idea is whose, because the best ones tend to be collaborations anyway. That's why I prefer collecting ideas at shows. Batting them around a bit and adding details and inspiring each other for more ideas is what brainstorming is about. Of course, sometimes ideas come up at inconvenient times, and if you think of something between shows and just want to get it written down before you forget, you can post it here in this thread or send it to me in a PM, or on the FC forums, or Facebook, or Twitter or whatever. I'll bring it up at a show later for the interactive bit.
The rules:
1) Don't infringe anyone else's Intellectual Property. There are Fair Use exceptions for parody and such, and oblique references are fine, but a direct copy of someone else's IP isn't going to happen. Grey areas are not worth the trouble of getting lawyers involved.
2) Items should be social in nature rather than providing a gameplay advantage. Minor conveniences and average gear, on par with the items we've had in previous years, are fine because that still comes out to a cosmetic difference from what's normally available.
3) Keep it within the game's rating and rules. Clothing can be pretty skimpy, like the various bikinis we already have, but remember, only monsters go to "clothing optional" beaches. Ingesting drugs or alcohol, including tobacco, is similarly prohibited. I don't recall anyone suggesting anything patently offensive in the past, but if even suggesting it would be against he EULA, it's probably not very Christmassy anyway. Then again... Krampus. So, you know. "Christmassy" is relative. We can leave the grey areas in on this one and let FC make the call.
4) New ideas are preferred. If you want to go back to last year's thread and copy one or two favorites, because they're still your favorite ideas, go ahead. I'll probably be doing that myself toward the end. Don't just paste the whole thread here, though. Similarly, please look over this thread before you add to it, to make sure someone else hasn't already said the same thing. (Just write your idea down first so you don't get distracted by all the shinies and forget yours.) If there's already something similar, adding some details and/or options to it is always good.
5) Contributing ideas to this list is understood to be freely, anonymously, contributing unsolicited ideas for FunCom to use or not, in whole or in part, as they see fit. Even if they end up using your original creation verbatim, by submitting your idea here, you're suggesting they do so and giving them the requisite rights to use your idea. It's kind of the whole point here. If you would prefer to sign your name to your idea and send it in yourself, you can just go to FunCom's forums or feedback form and do that.
Here are the lists from previous years, in case you want to copy some old favorites or browse for some inspiration for new ideas:
Christmas 2017
Christmas 2016
Christmas 2015
Christmas 2014
Christmas 2013
Christmas 2012 (thread is M.I.A.?)
Christmas 2011
Christmas 2010
The schedule:
Sep. 14 - Sep. 30 - (two weeks) I'll be collecting Christmas ideas at all the GSP shows I can get to and posting them in this thread. I'll collect any ideas sent to me on forums, FaceBook, Twitter, or replies to this thread to also discuss at the shows.
Oct. 1 - Oct. 7 - (one week) GSP DJs, Staff, and Dancers vote on their favorite ideas, just to choose the order I'll list them in and decide which I'll spend a little more time detailing.
Oct. 8 - Oct. 15 - (one week) I'll write up the top 20 ideas in a big, detailed suggestion list with links to reference art, attach the remainder as additional brainstorming, and mail it to FunCom with a link back to this thread, in case they want to see any additional discussion we have about it here.
some time mid-October - FC normally starts planning the event roughly two months ahead to have time to plan, design, create, implement, test, and debug the new items and events. We should have the Christmas ideas to them before they're done making Halloween, so when they're ready to start planning Christmas they'll have just gotten our list.
Dec 18-19 - the AO Christmas event starts "usually" the Tuesday before Christmas, but Christmas is a Tuesday this week. SWL will surely add something new that needs patching, but often starts their events about a week after AO, which would, in this case, be *on* Christmas. So my guess is they'll be starting only a day apart, and both will still run though New Year's, completely overlapping. Either that, or AO's event starts on the 11th and runs for four weeks. It's hard to guess what the exact schedule will be before they even decide what they're doing, so I'll just aim for early.
As usual, I'm going to be collecting ideas for both SWL and AO, even though AO just got a big Anniversary update, so I'm not expecting a whole lot there. There might be a couple new little things, though. And SWL will most likely get The Christmas Conspiracy back, plus some new cache, probably. Big ideas can still go in the list, of course. Whatever they don't have time for now, can always be saved for later. Ideas are always better than none.
There is no contest involved, and I'm not even keeping track of which idea is whose, because the best ones tend to be collaborations anyway. That's why I prefer collecting ideas at shows. Batting them around a bit and adding details and inspiring each other for more ideas is what brainstorming is about. Of course, sometimes ideas come up at inconvenient times, and if you think of something between shows and just want to get it written down before you forget, you can post it here in this thread or send it to me in a PM, or on the FC forums, or Facebook, or Twitter or whatever. I'll bring it up at a show later for the interactive bit.
The rules:
1) Don't infringe anyone else's Intellectual Property. There are Fair Use exceptions for parody and such, and oblique references are fine, but a direct copy of someone else's IP isn't going to happen. Grey areas are not worth the trouble of getting lawyers involved.
2) Items should be social in nature rather than providing a gameplay advantage. Minor conveniences and average gear, on par with the items we've had in previous years, are fine because that still comes out to a cosmetic difference from what's normally available.
3) Keep it within the game's rating and rules. Clothing can be pretty skimpy, like the various bikinis we already have, but remember, only monsters go to "clothing optional" beaches. Ingesting drugs or alcohol, including tobacco, is similarly prohibited. I don't recall anyone suggesting anything patently offensive in the past, but if even suggesting it would be against he EULA, it's probably not very Christmassy anyway. Then again... Krampus. So, you know. "Christmassy" is relative. We can leave the grey areas in on this one and let FC make the call.
4) New ideas are preferred. If you want to go back to last year's thread and copy one or two favorites, because they're still your favorite ideas, go ahead. I'll probably be doing that myself toward the end. Don't just paste the whole thread here, though. Similarly, please look over this thread before you add to it, to make sure someone else hasn't already said the same thing. (Just write your idea down first so you don't get distracted by all the shinies and forget yours.) If there's already something similar, adding some details and/or options to it is always good.
5) Contributing ideas to this list is understood to be freely, anonymously, contributing unsolicited ideas for FunCom to use or not, in whole or in part, as they see fit. Even if they end up using your original creation verbatim, by submitting your idea here, you're suggesting they do so and giving them the requisite rights to use your idea. It's kind of the whole point here. If you would prefer to sign your name to your idea and send it in yourself, you can just go to FunCom's forums or feedback form and do that.
Here are the lists from previous years, in case you want to copy some old favorites or browse for some inspiration for new ideas:
Christmas 2017
Christmas 2016
Christmas 2015
Christmas 2014
Christmas 2013
Christmas 2012 (thread is M.I.A.?)
Christmas 2011
Christmas 2010
The schedule:
Sep. 14 - Sep. 30 - (two weeks) I'll be collecting Christmas ideas at all the GSP shows I can get to and posting them in this thread. I'll collect any ideas sent to me on forums, FaceBook, Twitter, or replies to this thread to also discuss at the shows.
Oct. 1 - Oct. 7 - (one week) GSP DJs, Staff, and Dancers vote on their favorite ideas, just to choose the order I'll list them in and decide which I'll spend a little more time detailing.
Oct. 8 - Oct. 15 - (one week) I'll write up the top 20 ideas in a big, detailed suggestion list with links to reference art, attach the remainder as additional brainstorming, and mail it to FunCom with a link back to this thread, in case they want to see any additional discussion we have about it here.
some time mid-October - FC normally starts planning the event roughly two months ahead to have time to plan, design, create, implement, test, and debug the new items and events. We should have the Christmas ideas to them before they're done making Halloween, so when they're ready to start planning Christmas they'll have just gotten our list.
Dec 18-19 - the AO Christmas event starts "usually" the Tuesday before Christmas, but Christmas is a Tuesday this week. SWL will surely add something new that needs patching, but often starts their events about a week after AO, which would, in this case, be *on* Christmas. So my guess is they'll be starting only a day apart, and both will still run though New Year's, completely overlapping. Either that, or AO's event starts on the 11th and runs for four weeks. It's hard to guess what the exact schedule will be before they even decide what they're doing, so I'll just aim for early.