Here’s your not-so-briefing: I sent along a message to the folks over at SnoutCast about game-related thoughts/ideas. Coming from a background that involves a lot of the bigger games that take place mostly on the west coast, I figured they’d have some interesting things to say- and they did not disappoint!

My thoughts revolved around the idea of not only recruiting new players and teams, but being able to retain them year after year. I do want to be clear: when they mention the part where I talked about teams dropping out, I am in no way talking trash about any of you. Lord knows we’ve all had conflicts during game time (I’ve had to drop out early, myself, in order to pack and catch a plane back to Chicago at 6:00 AM); Rather, I’m speaking more of games in the far-back past where we’ve had upwards of 15 teams at the starting line, and only 7 that finished… and of all the people that had to leave, we never saw most of them come back the next year. Or the next. Or even the one after that. 

I’m intensely proud to be involved in Midnight Madness with all of you, and it’s something that I hope to be able to enjoy for a long time; Part of my concern is that, as some of us get older and things like families, jobs, and locations get in the way, we’re going to need to get younger people interested to take up the torch (so to speak- though I’m not opposed to a clue involving actual torches).

It was pointed out to me recently that our MM2K11 Game Control, Pinky & the Brains, is made up of several younger members- which is a great thing! Midnight Madness hasn’t lasted this long without every participant in it doing something right, but I personally feel that we’re going to need those younger minds to keep Midnight Madness going for the long haul. 

SnoutCast brought up a great point about managing expectations, and helping people to get over whatever humps may be causing them to think about quitting the game. This is a great piece of advice for all of us; Sometimes Midnight Madness just isn’t a person’s “thing,” and that is 100% fine. Other times, people need a push; They need a small victory of some sort. Personally, in addition to hanging on to the outstanding core group of people who play ARMM every year, I’d like to keep searching out for those new people whose “thing” this is, and get them involved for the first time- and, of course, help them out along the way, whenever they need it.

This may be a good place to talk about team feedback. Every GC works really hard to put on a great game, but maybe not everything they do works out for the best. Whether it’s the 2K5 or the 2K10 game, I’d like to encourage everyone to post their thoughts or feedback on the MM Facebook page. GC 2K10 tried out a lot of new things this year, but that doesn’t mean that they all worked. Did you all hate driving to Little Rock? Did you love using Twitter? Have some other really great ideas? Discuss it on Facebook, and we can all try to figure out what works for us (or doesn’t) together! 

Anyway, back to the point. Check out the podcast from SnoutCast- it’s full of interesting thoughts about balancing a sense of fun with the expectations that teams may bring to the game. And, who knows? Maybe we CAN get some of those west-coasters to come down to our little game- so whaddy’all say to showing ‘em how it’s done??

MM FOREVER!   

-Lindsey Sharp
(speaking only for myself- In no way to my thoughts/opinions speak for any team/person that I have been associated with)