Playtest Redux - All Hands on Deck

For the sake of simplicity, I will work on my "action item" - > need too devise a way to recruit totally random ppl (need at least 11 more) for third playtest -- *Everyone*

- Step 1: We need to hard-code a date, time, and location. Remember, we just need the maximum number of people so it is not critical that we pick a date that every GSD member can attend. However, I understand that some members such as Rajesh must be present. I believe the possible dates are Saturday June 14th and Saturday June 28th.

- Step 2: We need to attract the largest pools of people as possible. This is where things can get a little complicated. In order of size/importance I believe the pools are as follows:
1. Bronxville Elementary/Middle School
2. Bronxville Library
3. Columbia University
4. GSD Friends and Family Members (Remember, no experience is necessary! You can tell them about all the Wii casual gaming crap to persuade them!)
5. Bronxville High SchoolI think that by contacting admins, clubs, and our social networks at these places, we can be successful.

- Step 3: Incentives. We were deciding between paying people and/or offering a raffle. I believe with this mix (if it pans out, we will have mostly minors playing), paying people may not look so great. Therefore, (note, I have no knowledge of the type of funds available to us currently), I would have a tiered raffle with one large prize (maybe a 360 core, Wii, or small TV) and three small prices (maybe some platinum hits or best buy gift cards). If we do decide to pay, I think it should be nominal as these will be children so maybe in the range of $5 to $15. Of course, our largest expense will be food for ~40 people.

Okay now on to an actual plan (this I guess is more for Mo but anyone can read and help) -
- Distribute fliers at the Bronxville School, all over Columbia, and the Bronxville Library.
- Contact any video game related groups at Columbia
- Contact administrators at the Bronxville School and Library to secure visibility (emphasize that you are BXV alums and have BXV School members). Focus on the Bronxville Library Teen Schedule (914) 337-7680

In closing, I believe that the Bronxville School and Library will provide our greatest source. I do not think it is overly optimistic to be able to attract 20 students between grades 5-8. The rest would be gravy. I am very optimistic because of the following: http://www.villageofbronxville.com/subd2_teenschedule.htm

There will be a Halo 2 Tournament at the Bronxville Library on Thursday, June 26th, 3PM. This is a 2v2 (double-team) tournament and the winners receive gift cards. The games will be played on a projector. Not only is this a great way to get information on who is interested (that member list is GOLD), but it will help us gauge the amount of space, resources, and popularity of such an attempt. My ultimate goal is to link up with the library and have a follow-up tournament on June 28th for Halo 3. This makes lots of sense and seems to be the natural outgrowth for the library.

Sorry for the long post but it is necessary. Making ten bodies appear out of thin air is no small task and we will all need to do some work. This has been emailed to many members as well.

Stay cool.

- Paul

Addition: As I finished writing this I remembered a few other key details that need to be ironed out. On the technical side, we need to ensure that the software can differentiate players by their icons or some other metric such as Guest 1 or Guest 2. With lots of "random" players attending, we could run into difficulty going merely with icon identification judging from some of the purely random icons that look like a big color splotch on Xbox Live.

Also, we need to ensure that we have enough physical resources for the test. This includes, TVs/Moniors, Xbox 360s (I am not sure if we need Harddrives but I guess most people have them), controllers, headsets (maybe?), Xbox Live Accounts, and anything else I am forgetting.

We inviting people to play from your personal network, please try and get their name (obviously), phone number, email, and Xbox Live Gamertag if they have one. This will make it much easier to find people and increase the likelyness that they will actually attend.