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Shiny New Chat Thread!

by mariah

HELLO, SUMMER GAME PLAYERS!

We're busy as bees behind the scenes, getting the next badge drop ready for your eager eyes!

The leaderboard has been blowing up as players decipher codes and rack up badges -- and everyone's effort in just this first little while is both impressive and AWESOME!

There's lots of chatter and enthusiasm on each post and comment thread! Looking through some of the dicsussion, though, we realized that it would be smart to create a new blog post/thread especially JUST for chatting.

The comments on badge drop posts are a FANTASTIC way to give newer (or just stumped!) players hints, but it can be hard to see those hints or intimidating for newer folks to feel comfortable asking questions if badge threads end up being used for more general conversation.

Sooo... we'll be opening up a weekly chat thread on Friday afternoons -- a little bit before each badge drop. That way, badge drop posts can be more specifically for badge questions, event post comments can be for questions about events, etc.

And with that, have at it! Feel free to chat away about whatever random topic you'd like in this brand-spanking-new chat thread! VOILA!

If you need a starter topic... BADGES: Which ones have been your favorites (this year or previous years), and what do you love so much about them?

THANKS FOR PLAYING!

Comments

Submitted by Bookbird on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 4:25pm

now we need the other here, to make sure they understand we are keeping the conversations here now :)
*goes back to doing math*
Edit: in answer to James' question, yes i'm trying to skip english.with my current progress, i might only manage the first semester

Submitted by ValerieL Staff on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 5:33pm

Alright, so if I'm gonna answer the starter question, my favorite badges last year were all the Fairy Fortune Hunter ones because I love fairies and I loved looking up all the fun facts and then finding all the stuff AADL has in the catalog. I also enjoyed the Catalog Diver ones because they really showed me a lot about what AADL has as far as materials and I learned about various genres of items and that sort of thing. If I had to pick ONE specific badge, it'd be the "Sloths, Wombats & Capybaras, Oh My!" badge from last year. I like weird animals such as Capybaras (and I think the word is just fun to say.. heh) and llamas and other animals that maybe aren't as mainstream as say pandas, which I like too, or chimpanzees, which I don't. So it was fun finding things in the catalog about the stranger animals in the world. :)

Submitted by Commander Taffy on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 5:50pm

Yeah, that was a concern of mine. It would be slightly unnerving for people with questions to instead of finding answers read our odd (to say the least) discussions.

Hmmm. I really liked the manga ones because I like manga and had ran out of mangas to read. However, I found really good manga and was crying today because of it. *sniffle*

Submitted by Lmd3577 on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 6:03pm

This summer the badges I have liked are the ones with Shirley Temple and the one with the cute cupcake on it. I hope that there will be more of these badges but I also hope that they will start up a couple more sets with the local history of the city and old news articles from the past because I really liked those ones last year the most and they were fun.

Submitted by Bookbird on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 10:14pm

i'm still exhausted even though I've been resting for a few hours... my eyes hurt

Submitted by Pumpkinscones on Sat, 06/22/2013 - 12:52am

The Hitchcock, Pappy and Second space one don't seem to be on the Badge list. Or at least for me. Am I blind or are other people having the same problem. I can still get them, or at least the Hitchcock and Pappy......

Submitted by Commander Taffy on Sat, 06/22/2013 - 2:51pm

Interesting new badges, the Tigers one was easier than I expected though, considering I am not a sports fan.

Submitted by Pumpkinscones on Sun, 06/23/2013 - 12:34pm

So I don't know if this is what usually goes on with the Summer Game as it is my first year - but people making literally hundreds of un-named empty lists? Do the admins take any notice or are they just left there? I've been enjoying looking through the new lists for new reading material but it makes it a little difficult when there was literally at least 26 pages of the list board (I got board at looking after that - boom boom) taken up by one players empty point grinding.

@smiles: I came kinda late so I went to the third floor to get the comic book people codes. Then I went to look for you guys but I couldn't find me. I saw James' mom and she like freaked out. She went around the whole building trying to find him.
@gxl: yep.

I know who you are talking about now. Filly, the person currently at the top of the leader board with over 100,000 points, and Sonic Dash, who is second and has over 80,000 points, both have made PAGES (Filly has made over 2,000 empty lists; Sonic Dash over 1,600) of public, empty lists.

This is just ruining the idea of what it means to be a Summer Gamer. This is not a competition where you have to do anything you can to "win", this is a library program meant to promote summer reading. Doing this is probably against the rules and completely unnecessary and defeats the purpose of the Summer Game.

Is there anything AADL can do to revoke these players' points? I have already reported them. These players clearly care nothing about the actual lists, shown by the lack of items and naming of the lists, and only about the points.

Hi Pumpkinscones! You're right, this sort of grinding on lists isn't in the spirit of the game. We've (AADL staff) noticed and sent out warning messages. Thanks for keeping an eye on things. Empty lists are frustrating and not exactly helpful to other folks, either!

The empty lists by filly and sonic dash are very infuriating, and people that want to look for useful lists will find it very difficult. I hope this empty list problem is resolved soon, to return the summer reading game's honest reputation. Spammers are like the IOI in RPO, and people have to resolve this problem.

Well, I would suggest just writing down everything you see on a typical badge. Badge descriptions, hints, clues, the hint that pops up after you enter a code and it tells you the next code, maybe the point values...
You'll need to provide links to all of the items, as well.

Submitted by Zhengyang1022 on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 5:46pm

This is somewhat irrelevant, but I think that some of the advanced badges are easier that a few beginner badges.

Submitted by cherylo on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 6:46pm

@bookbird, do you have my email address? it's [my first name].[my last name]@gmail.com. ( I think you might be able to see my full name from my player page??) Send me a message so I can reply with the template.

Submitted by Morgsush on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 10:48pm

Jerry, why do you keep on asking who everyone is?

And Bookbird, it's actually not that bad. Plus, the number of codes is up to you. :)

@Sara, per your request, here is the format I use:

Name of Badge/Quest: [TITLE HERE]
By: [your name or names here]
Theme: (not strictly necessary, but this is the place to talk about your badge and what you are trying to accomplish with it.)
Image to use for badge:  [description of what you want, link to an image you made, or whatever works]
Original badge (mouseover) clue text:  [put the first clue here]

[name, description, and link to catalog item]
suggested code:  [CODE]
redemption text: [put the text the player sees after entering the code here]
alt clue text: [the text for a participant who views a score ledger other than their own on which this badge has been redeemed/for the hints in the main badge quest page] 
--------
-->repeat the last four items as often as needed until done!  number them if that helps you keep track.

Submitted by Bookbird on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 10:13am

That is sooo helpful. The staff should have a new post with the template so those who don't read comments can see it too :)

Submitted by ValerieL Staff on Sun, 06/23/2013 - 3:47pm

For a change of subject, for those of you who have attended KRC, what's been your favorite part(s)? I really enjoyed watching both Quickfires. I was able to catch a little bit of both of them on my lunch hours and really enjoyed it.

The rest will shake out in the end, it always does. :)

Submitted by irenzero on Sun, 06/23/2013 - 4:19pm

I liked the research area of the site badges last year... have we had any old news badges this year?

Submitted by fairytale on Tue, 06/25/2013 - 12:33am

I think it would be cool to have a new badge this year that relates to Michelle Chamuel/Ella Riot - and The Voice.

Submitted by Pumpkinscones on Tue, 06/25/2013 - 4:17pm

Points Blitzkreig ....... rode 16.5 miles today to visit Traverwood, West and Pittsfield...... 15 codes, 4 badges and a bunch of reviews that I finally posted after writing them over the past week. Hurrah! But now I'm hot.

Submitted by jbpuckett on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 2:50pm

So I'm going through the new 2013 badges and codes and whatnot, and I am noticing the points per code are quite smaller than they have been in past years. Then I went and looked at my scorecard for last year and I got several thousand points from the first badge drop without any checkouts or other items.

Am I crazy? Or have I missed the justification? Any thoughts on points/code or points/badge?

Though there's a lot of books in the catalogue, they are finite. Comments are infinite. We met a guy who was Public Enemy #1 IOI, who wanted the commenting points lowered. But since the chat thread, there aren't that many comments on the other posts.

@Bookbird - I'll be out of town this coming weekend as well. I'm going to visit my best friend in Buffalo, NY. Very excited about going to see her but a little bummed about missing the badge drop!

I have to admit, that is the one nice thing about being on the staff board... I can be competitive, but in order to be up near the top, I don't need to have nearly as many points as you do on the public list! I've been rating things and doing lists and commenting and all sorts of things, but if I was on the public list, I'd be in the low to mid 20's instead of in the top 5. Heh.

@Morgsush -

Heh, we're still competitive amongst ourselves, our point totals just don't get as high as the public's. :) But we're still pretty competitive within the group. Heh.

Haha, you think that, but just cuz our overall points are lower doesn't mean we're less competitive. I have refreshed the leaderboard a truly *disgusting* number of times.

@Bookird, you will catch up on the badges when you get back. Hopefully the shop opening this Friday won't bum you out either...if we follow the pattern of prior years the most common items will be rolled out this week, with more diverse items added later.

Yeah, I think there will be the normal summer game items. And, people don't have that many points yet, so even if there is the supreme thing, (or anything expensive) not many people would buy it...

@jbpuckett, you're not at all crazy. I think last year there were far too many points sloshing around and that the actual read/watch/listen points were made less important that way. I have so many points I didn't spend left from previous games, I currently have enough to buy multiple of the big prize packages, assuming no change in pricing. But I won't grab one unless I earn the points this year, because that's how I roll. Beyond around a quarter of a million points or so, IMO, there just isn't enough to spend them on, and the point economy is distorted. The scarcity of the available items has a bigger effect: I really would have liked an umbrella last year, but they sold out before I got a crack at them. (I trade books, DVDs, and CDs on swap.com, bookmooch.com, and paperback swap.com and its sister sites, so point economies are something I have thought a fair amount about.)

I started commenting last year and am not in the top 20. Rating,reviews,starring,listing,and tagging items in the catalog count towards points too! Now that Cherylo mentioned it, I wonder if there will be price changes....

I doubt it @Bookbird. The right way to tinker with an economy like this one, aka a toy, is to change one thing at a time: either change the supply (points available) or the pricing (points to use) but not both at the same time. Otherwise you can't tell what the effect of the changes really was. Which in turn is why economist argue endlessly about the real-world economy, because it's impossible to change anything systematically and isolate effects of a given change.

uhh...ok. you basically say that they will most likely change things (points and prize prices) one at a time, and not at the same time/summer. Otherwise there will be confusion/problems.

I simple explanations are good if you are on a time limit. Complex(ish) explanations like yours are good for testing the mind, so I don't actually have a complaint.

Submitted by dumusicgirl on Thu, 06/27/2013 - 12:28pm

I have been reading, writing reviews, texting codes, tagging, and using that photo page but have only earned one badge. Am I doing something wrong? Is there something I should be doing that I'm not?

dumisicgirl: You didn't earn the "tags away" badge or the "tell us what you really think badge"??!!!! But you earn "tags away" for adding just one tag, and you earn "tell us what you really think" for adding just one review!!!! I'm very confused. But you don't earn badges for reading, and only certain codes will get you badges.

@sarahcweiss: You do sort of get badges for reading, since there *is* a badge for finishing the paper version of the Summer Reading Game. :)

And yes, only certain codes get you badges (like for the branch explorer badge, you need the branch codes themselves, not all the other codes in the branches), but each code gives you points which gives you more to use in the Summer Game shop for great stuff. :)

I also took pictures :) who couldn't resist taking pictures of the cuteness of the chocolates? Who was disappointed with the size? Who thought the chocolates were yummy?

Submitted by camelsamba on Fri, 06/28/2013 - 3:59pm

Separating chat from other threads is a good idea. Thanks!

Re: the chocolates. I was actually disappointed in the quality/taste - I expected better from Schakolad. But they were cute, that's for sure! And I'm glad a local business was able to support the summer game (and the library support a local business) in that manner.

Submitted by cherylo on Thu, 07/04/2013 - 7:32am

Back to the suggested topic of badges, I really enjoyed the fish and ships and d'oyly cart series last year. I felt smart when I knew the items before searching, which happened some of the time, and I learned stuff when that did not happen. I loved how they entailed mixing and re-mixing different knowledge bases and also mixing high/classic and low/popular culture.

I will save my points and not spend anything until I have enough for a super package. I just calculated that if you only earn 1000 points a day, it would take you 150 days to get a super package.

Submitted by Bookbird on Sat, 07/13/2013 - 6:51pm

whatever. isn't it strange how everyone seems to be gone, and the chat threads aren't really being used?

Well, probably most people don't check the comments for older posts much. I do, in case a player asks for help regarding older badges; so don't assume nobody is listening/watching when you chat on older posts. I may not respond, but I am monitoring.

It's so sad that Morgsush smiles and James aren't commenting anymore. Their comments make the conversation so much more interesting...

Submitted by Bookbird on Mon, 07/29/2013 - 12:45pm

I was thinking, if you're born in China but live in the U.S. and speak mainly English, would you still say you're from China?

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