Creatures Caves

It's about that time! The CCSF 2012 concluded about five months ago, and it's never too early to start thinking about our big annual event. I wanted to open up a preliminary discussion, mainly to share the results of the CCSF 2012 poll, and to start getting some thoughts together for our next one. I hope no one minds I've taken this on... I figure as last year's coordinator, I at least have the responsibility of passing on the torch and making sure that planning begins early on!

Visit the CCSF 2012 Site

CCSF 2012 POLL RESULTS

Note: There were 31 respondents, with one respondent choosing the lowest rating (terrible) for everything with no details. This response has been included, even though it is more of an outlier. Percentages have been rounded in some cases, which is why the numbers do not add up to 100%.

At the end of last year's CCSF, I posted a poll to gather feedback about the festival. On the whole, most responses were neutral to very good. Here is a quick breakdown:

Overall Rating of the CCSF
3 Negative Responses (9%) - 1 Rated Terrible (Lowest Rank)
3 Neutral Responses (9%)
26 Positive Responses (81%) - 8 Rated Amazing (Highest Rank)

Favorite Days
1. Day 13 - 9 Responses (29%)
1. Day 14 - 9 Responses (29%)
3. Day 1 - 4 Responses (13%)
Least Favorite Days: 5, 9, and 10 (0 Responses)

Activities Rating
3 Negative Responses (9%) - 1 Rated Terrible (Lowest Rank)
6 Neutral Responses (19%)
22 Positive Responses (70%) - 11 Rated Amazing (Highest Rank)

Blog Posts Rating
3 Negative Responses (9%) - 1 Rated Terrible (Lowest Rank)
3 Neutral Responses (10%)
25 Positive Responses (80%) - 14 Rated Amazing (Highest Rank)

Comments Rating
1 Negative Response (3%) - 1 Rated Terrible (Lowest Rank)
10 Neutral Responses (32%)
20 Positive Responses (65%) - 7 Rated Amazing (Highest Rank)

Daily Shee Chapters Rating
2 Negative Responses (6%) - 2 Rated Terrible (Lowest Rank)
5 Neutral Responses (16%)
24 Positive Responses (77%) - 15 Rated Amazing (Highest Rank)

Star System Rating
2 Negative Responses (6%) - 1 Rated Terrible (Lowest Rank)
11 Neutral Responses (35%)
18 Positive Responses (58%) - 9 Rated Amazing (Highest Rank)

Selected Comments About Favorite Aspects

"I was rather fond of the fact that the releases were scattered over the course of the day rather then all of them getting dumped at the start, like past CCSFs had done. It made the entire thing a bit more exciting and built up suspense, which I say was a smart move."

"I loved the activities! I wish there were more of them!"

"The activities were great. I thought that announcing all the activities at the beginning, instead of making them "surprises" at different times during the festival, was an excellent way to do it. People could pick and choose which contests they wanted to participate in and make time for them, instead of feeling like they were coming out of left field... and it meant all contests had a nice long window of opportunity for people to participate in them."

"Loved the Shee story. Very creative and a great way to tie things together."

"I liked being able to leave comments on each post or chat with others. I believe that interaction was important and being able to thank all the creators and the organisers as well."

"The new format is a nice change from the usual website."

"The activities. I personally did not participate but it made the festival interactive, not just an early creatures Christmas in which many receive but are unable to give."

"The backstory. The whole idea of rather than having just stuff released at random, having a semi-coherent backstory to go along with it was a massive improvement over previous years. Also, the backstory was well-written."

"I loved seeing everyones entries whether they were new releases or just artwork or stories!"

"Also love that the site was updated a few times every day instead of one large update per day."

Selected Comments for Improvement/Changes

"There was a lot of art posts, and sometimes it seemed a little much."

"More consistent coverage of community features would be good to see. Like, I know there was supposed to be a CCSF Ask Laura special, but there was so little news coverage for it that it basically dropped off the radar after the first day. It's kind of a shame when someone tries to do something for the CCSF and it's essentially ignored--we need to make sure people know they're welcome to participate and that their contributions are valuable."

"Although I do wish more people (myself included) had been able to take part in all of the activities. I think that would have helped bring the community together more."

"A few days also felt a bit thin, but not much you can do about that. The activities could have gotten a bit more notice from you; I didn't notice then until half-way through."

"The website. The runic banners were brilliant, but the background is only earth and the bare links are somewhat stale."

"I found the blog format a little tricky to work with and would prefer a list of released content on an individual page rather than a blog post showcasing several at once."

"I couldn't figure out, or really understand the point of the star rating system. Also, the contest prizes consisting of good-quality agents in a Creatures Community which is dying out due to lack of people playing seemed odd to me. It probably would have been better in my view to use something like the golden shee trophies as prizes, and release the agents."

"The layout of the site felt a bit confusing (I'm really unfamiliar with how blogs are constructed) and the ?captcha? codes was often hard to read."

Many other responses mentioned wanting more downloads and releases, which is something we can always improve upon with enough planning!

Participation in the CCSF 2013
No - 4 Responses (13%)
Maybe - 7 Responses (23%)
Yes - 20 Responses (65%)

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Feel free to get the discussion started for the CCSF 2013! I'm planning on holding a series of polls, which has been done for the past few years, and seems to get everyone's ideas organized a little more easily. Discuss away!