Howdy folks!
Event sign-ups are going live very soon but we need to make sure everyone is aware of a recently rolled out feature: the ability to transfer e-tickets to other accounts.
If you purchased a 3-day badge or banquet ticket, those "digital assets" appear in your "My Downloads" section at the top of the page. Underneath each of those assets should now be a field that allows you to type in the email address of another paizo.com member so that you can transfer an e-ticket to them. This is necessary for event signs-ups as when they go live, you'll need a paizo.com account and an 3-day badge e-ticket on your account to be able to sign up for events.
For example, if Bob Smith bought two 3-day badges on his paizo.com account for he and his wife, Bob Smith will now need to transfer one of those e-ticket badges to his wife so that she can sign-up for events. To do so, Bob enters his wife's email address into the field under his digital asset and transfers the e-ticket to her. The most important part of this setup is that all parties involved must have a paizo.com account. If Bob Smith attempts to transfer one of the 3-day badges to his wife and she does not have a paizo.com account associated with the email he inputs, it won't work. You must transfer the 3-day badge digital asset to a valid paizo.com account associated email.
Right now this effects a minority of our ticket holders, but it's a minority we want to make aware of this change so that everyone can sign-up for events once they're available.
I will post to this thread when events become available and will most likely set a hard date and time so that everyone knows when they open and everyone has a fair shot at signing up for events.
Please don't hesitate to post here if you have any questions.
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Right now this effects a minority of our ticket holders, but it's a minority we want to make aware of this change so that everyone can sign-up for events once they're available.
What? You mean not everyone is bringing their gamer wife/girlfriend/S.O./ or kids?
A family that plays together, stays together.
Just dont make the mistake when you GM of killing off your wife's character. It took me over a week of dinner, flowers and appologizing to bring peace back into the household.
Right now this effects a minority of our ticket holders, but it's a minority we want to make aware of this change so that everyone can sign-up for events once they're available.What? You mean not everyone is bringing their gamer wife/girlfriend/S.O./ or kids?
A family that plays together, stays together.
Just dont make the mistake when you GM of killing off your wife's character. It took me over a week of dinner, flowers and appologizing to bring peace back into the household.
I kill my fiance's characters alla time :P
Makes things entertaining it does ...
Director of Brand Strategy
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Will we have notice of when sign ups will begin, or will those members who happen to be on the site when it goes live get first dibs?See Josh's post at the top. He says that the date/time will be announced here.
Ah yes, I see that now. I overlooked it amid all the instructions on sharing tickets. Silly me.
My gf is going to be attending the con with me on saturday (her first time), and is just going to sit and observe, not actually play in a ny games. Does she need to have a paizo account for her ticket, or is it ok as is since she is not playing in any games? Just curious, and next time Im not buying a 3-day badge for someone who decides to only go for one day...:-(
Looking forward to the festivities!
skeetyrbug
Will there be a limit on events you can sign up for, so that a few people don't blitzkrieg through and grab all slots like they're in first in line for concert tickets? Or some sort of lottery system? Last year it was very friendly and laid back and everyone got a chance to get in a game, or more.
My gf is going to be attending the con with me on saturday (her first time), and is just going to sit and observe, not actually play in a ny games. Does she need to have a paizo account for her ticket, or is it ok as is since she is not playing in any games? Just curious, and next time Im not buying a 3-day badge for someone who decides to only go for one day...:-(
Looking forward to the festivities!
skeetyrbug
For the sake of organizing names on badges, please have her create an account and transfer the badge to her account. That will make my job a bit easier when it comes time to organize the badges.
Will there be a limit on events you can sign up for, so that a few people don't blitzkrieg through and grab all slots like they're in first in line for concert tickets? Or some sort of lottery system? Last year it was very friendly and laid back and everyone got a chance to get in a game, or more.
There will be a 48-hour or more preview window where folks can look through the event schedule and get an idea of what they want to sign up for. Then we'll have a set date and time that the event sign-ups will go live. This, combined with a lot of awesome events conflicting in their time slots, will make the process about as fair as we can make it.
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Do I need to make a PFS character BEFORE registering for an event, or can I wait and make one after-wards depending on what I sign up for? I don't have one yet as there aren't any PFS events anywhere near where I live, and I can't really afford to go to conventions (besides this one, because I love Paizo so much) I'd like to make one or two characters and just play with them all weekend, but as I've never been to a convention, I don't really know how this works. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I would advise making up your character ahead of time. You are supposed to create a 1st level character, and eventually have them progress. Download the organized play guide and check it out.
If you wait until you get to the game, it will cut into the time that the group has to complete the scenario, which can be quite tight.
Your other hope is that the DM has some pre-generated characters available. Many do, but it is not a sure thing by any stretch. For example, I had none when I ran scenarios at GenCon. I hope to have some for PaizoCon, but it may depend on the scenario I get.
There are 2 scenarios for 1st level characters, so try to get into those. There may be other low level games in the open gaming area.
Have fun!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Will there be a limit on events you can sign up for, so that a few people don't blitzkrieg through and grab all slots like they're in first in line for concert tickets? Or some sort of lottery system? Last year it was very friendly and laid back and everyone got a chance to get in a game, or more.
We've decided that a lottery is the way to go. You'll have a few days to tell us which events you'd like to be entered into the lottery for, and you can give different weights to different events. And for those of you who are coming with family or friends, you'll be able to specify a buddy, and we'll make sure we keep you and your buddy together.
Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.
If there are any slots open after the lottery, we'll open up remaining seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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We've decided that a lottery is the way to go. You'll have a few days to tell us which events you'd like to be entered into the lottery for, and you can give different weights to different events. And for those of you who are coming with family or friends, you'll be able to specify a buddy, and we'll make sure we keep you and your buddy together.
Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.
If there are any slots open after the lottery, we'll open up remaining seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.
In this "lottery" scenario could it happen that you do not get any of the things you really want? Lets say that I want to go to 5 events and put a heavy weight on one of them and do not get it. Then the other 4 events I designate a lower weight to and do not get into those because other people wanted into those 4 events more? Maybe since you did not provide details it has confused me.
Same difficulty as canticle (was it??), neither the 3 day pass nor the banquet ticket are showing up as being transeferable in the My Downloads section. I have to tried to log off and log back in and there is still a 'no show' for both.
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Senior Software Developer
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Same difficulty as canticle (was it??), neither the 3 day pass nor the banquet ticket are showing up as being transeferable in the My Downloads section. I have to tried to log off and log back in and there is still a 'no show' for both.
If you've only purchased one ticket, you need to contact customer service to transfer it to someone else. The transfer tool only shows up if you've purchased more than one ticket.
In this "lottery" scenario could it happen that you do not get any of the things you really want? Lets say that I want to go to 5 events and put a heavy weight on one of them and do not get it. Then the other 4 events I designate a lower weight to and do not get into those because other people wanted into those 4 events more? Maybe since you did not provide details it has confused me.We've decided that a lottery is the way to go. You'll have a few days to tell us which events you'd like to be entered into the lottery for, and you can give different weights to different events. And for those of you who are coming with family or friends, you'll be able to specify a buddy, and we'll make sure we keep you and your buddy together.
Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.
If there are any slots open after the lottery, we'll open up remaining seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Lottery sounds fair to me - and honestly the *less* you tell about the details of it probably the better... Maximizing chances is what we're all good at after all...
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Lottery sounds fair to me - and honestly the *less* you tell about the details of it probably the better... Maximizing chances is what we're all good at after all...In this "lottery" scenario could it happen that you do not get any of the things you really want? Lets say that I want to go to 5 events and put a heavy weight on one of them and do not get it. Then the other 4 events I designate a lower weight to and do not get into those because other people wanted into those 4 events more? Maybe since you did not provide details it has confused me.We've decided that a lottery is the way to go. You'll have a few days to tell us which events you'd like to be entered into the lottery for, and you can give different weights to different events. And for those of you who are coming with family or friends, you'll be able to specify a buddy, and we'll make sure we keep you and your buddy together.
Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.
If there are any slots open after the lottery, we'll open up remaining seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Of course, if you tell people nothing about it, you create the bonus minigames of "Reverse Engineer the PaizoConII Lottery," and maybe also "Engineer How the PaizoConII Lottery Should Have Been," as once it's run, there's nothing stopping the forumites from comparing results by posting inputs and outputs. Still, a lottery sounds like a fair system to me, as long as the bidding rules go up in time for everyone to get any questions answered on the boards. If you're going to the trouble of some sort of points based weighting system, I suspect an auction would be better, but that's probably tougher to program.
For the truly nerdy, there's probably academic papers on proper bidding strategies, as this sounds like it will be similar to how some law and MBA programs determine who gets what electives.
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My gf is going to be attending the con with me on saturday (her first time), and is just going to sit and observe, not actually play in a ny games. Does she need to have a paizo account for her ticket, or is it ok as is since she is not playing in any games? Just curious, and next time Im not buying a 3-day badge for someone who decides to only go for one day...:-(
Looking forward to the festivities!
skeetyrbug
Reminds me of the zit faced big gulp days. When the best looking male of the group has his "new girlfriend" come over and he spends more time googling at her while she sits on his lap. The rest of the gang googles at her too from glances behind the DM screen and their character sheets. Only true hardcore gamers can act like she doesn't exist, but then a lover's quarrel is sure to come right at Ground Zero Game.
"They didn't even say hello! It was like I wasn't even there! Why do you hang out with these losers?"
"Teheh."
Thank God I am an adult now and take care of the poor awkward girl by ignoring the gaming group altogether. Yes, I am the nice one.
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Chief Technical Officer
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In this "lottery" scenario could it happen that you do not get any of the things you really want? Lets say that I want to go to 5 events and put a heavy weight on one of them and do not get it. Then the other 4 events I designate a lower weight to and do not get into those because other people wanted into those 4 events more? Maybe since you did not provide details it has confused me.We've decided that a lottery is the way to go. You'll have a few days to tell us which events you'd like to be entered into the lottery for, and you can give different weights to different events. And for those of you who are coming with family or friends, you'll be able to specify a buddy, and we'll make sure we keep you and your buddy together.
Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.
If there are any slots open after the lottery, we'll open up remaining seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.
We're still finalizing details. However, one of the key goals, as I said, was "Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events." Now, we can't promise that everyone will get into an event (for example, if 10 people only expressed interest in one event, and that event had only six seats, then at least four people wouldn't get into any event) but I can tell you that, so long as you're flexible and provide a reasonable selection of possibilities for us to choose from, we'll do our best to get you into some events.
Reminds me of the zit faced big gulp days. When the best looking male of the group has his "new girlfriend" come over and he spends more time googling at her while she sits on his lap. The rest of the gang googles at her too from glances behind the DM screen and their character sheets. Only true hardcore gamers can act like she doesn't exist, but then a lover's quarrel is sure to come right at Ground Zero Game."They didn't even say hello! It was like I wasn't even there! Why do you hang out with these losers?"
"Teheh."
Thank God I am an adult now and take care of the poor awkward girl by ignoring the gaming group altogether. Yes, I am the nice one.
Dunno if Im the best looking in the group, but my gf is. I did tell her what it was going to be like, but she wanted to come anyway. :-)
If she distracts the DM, and the group gets an advantage, that ain't my problem.....lol
Besides, she's a high school math teacher. She has those kids of issues every day. God help anyone who acts TOO much like an oogling idiot. I pity the fool....lol
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We've decided that a lottery is the way to go. You'll have a few days to tell us which events you'd like to be entered into the lottery for, and you can give different weights to different events. And for those of you who are coming with family or friends, you'll be able to specify a buddy, and we'll make sure we keep you and your buddy together.Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.
If there are any slots open after the lottery, we'll open up remaining seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.
And do you accept bribes as part of this lottery? =)
Our lottery will seek to maximize the number of different people who get into events, as opposed to having lucky people who get into every event and unlucky people who miss out on everything.And do you accept bribes as part of this lottery? =)
Superscribers get first pick right?
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Dunno if Im the best looking in the group, but my gf is. I did tell her what it was going to be like, but she wanted to come anyway. :-)
If she distracts the DM, and the group gets an advantage, that ain't my problem.....lol
Besides, she's a high school math teacher. She has those kids of issues every day. God help anyone who acts TOO much like an oogling idiot. I pity the fool....lol
I want to by in this party.
Canticle -- weird. You should see it. I'm investigating now.
I don't see it also. I'm not planning on transferring my ticket so I'm not sure this is important.
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Senior Software Developer
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Here's how the lottery will be handled. I haven't finished writing the code yet, so if you see any red flags, let me know.
Everyone who has a ticket to PAIZOCON will be able to rank each event on a scale of 0 to 4. Zero = "I don't want to attend this event," and four = "I really, really want to attend this event."
You'll also be able to specify one other PAIZOCON attendee as your "buddy." If you win a slot via lottery, so does your buddy -- if there's room for both of you. (You'll both have to agree to be buddies to actually be buddies.)
This phase will last for several days, and the date signups end will be posted at the top of the page.
Once the signup phase ends, we'll be using a random serial dictatorship to actually handle the lottery. This approach is intended to be fair, giving equal treatment to equals, and strategy-proof. It's not envy-free as something like a Bogomolnaia-Moulin simultaneous eating algorithm would be, but establishing full preference relations for 250 attendees and 70 events is problematic. Also, I couldn't figure out how to code a probabilistic serial algorithm because apparently I'm just that slow this week.
The source of randomness will be a java.security.SecureRandom using the SHA1PRNG algorithm, seeded by rolling 3d8, eight times. (Yes, physical dice.)
The lottery will be in multiple rounds, at least one for each day of the convention. For each round:
1. Select a dictator: The list of attendees is shuffled, then the first person in the shuffled list is selected as dictator and removed from the list. If the dictator has a buddy, that person is noted and also removed from the list. (That is, if your buddy gets selected, you and the dictator are both considered to have had your chance in this round.)
2. Let the dictator dictate: We'll collect the list of events for the specified day that the dictator (and buddy) has marked as ranked highest, and shuffle that list. The first event in the list will be examined: if there's space available for the person selected (and buddy), then that person (and buddy) is assigned to the event. If there isn't space available, then another event is selected, repeating until all highest-ranked events have been exhausted. Once we've tried the dictator's highest ranked events, we move on to the next-highest ranked list, and so on, until we've assigned the dictator to an event, or the dictator's list of desired events is exhausted.
The shuffle list-select dictator-shuffle events-select event process repeats until we've exhausted either the entire list of attendees, or all the events for the day. If we've exhausted the list of attendees but not the available events, we start another round for all attendees for the remaining events for that day. If no assignment gets made in a round, we stop doing rounds for that day and move on to the next day.
When the lottery results are posted (and the date that will happen will also be at the top of the events page), any events that didn't get completely filled via the lottery will be open to first-come-first-served signup. My guess is that the lottery will fill everything except the 36- to 50-seat events, so there won't be a need to rush to be the first.
Each event will have a checkbox next to it, and if you won an event via lottery the checkbox will be checked. Events that conflict with events you won via lottery will have their checkboxes disabled. You can uncheck the box for an event you won via lottery, but you'll be warned if you're about to do so.
seeded by rolling 3d8, eight times...
Blasphemy! The seeding should be by rolling 3d6, six times!
Ah well, just felt like I had to find something to complain about.
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Senior Software Developer
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I'm open to the idea of allowing multiple buddies, but keep in mind that the more buddies you have the lower your chance of getting into one of the 8-seat events. If you have three people who are buddies, there have to be at least three seats available for an event when any of the buddies is selected as dictator, whereas if it's just you and no buddies, there only needs to be one seat free to get the event.
Here's how the lottery will be handled. I haven't finished writing the code yet, so if you see any red flags, let me know.
Everyone who has a ticket to PAIZOCON will be able to rank each event on a scale of 0 to 4. Zero = "I don't want to attend this event," and four = "I really, really want to attend this event."
You'll also be able to specify one other PAIZOCON attendee as your "buddy." If you win a slot via lottery, so does your buddy -- if there's room for both of you. (You'll both have to agree to be buddies to actually be buddies.)
This phase will last for several days, and the date signups end will be posted at the top of the page.
Once the signup phase ends, we'll be using a random serial dictatorship to actually handle the lottery. This approach is intended to be fair, giving equal treatment to equals, and strategy-proof. It's not envy-free as something like a Bogomolnaia-Moulin simultaneous eating algorithm would be, but establishing full preference relations for 250 attendees and 70 events is problematic. Also, I couldn't figure out how to code a probabilistic serial algorithm because apparently I'm just that slow this week.
The source of randomness will be a java.security.SecureRandom using the SHA1PRNG algorithm, seeded by rolling 3d8, eight times. (Yes, physical dice.)
The lottery will be in multiple rounds, at least one for each day of the convention. For each round:
1. Select a dictator: The list of attendees is shuffled, then the first person in the shuffled list is selected as dictator and removed from the list. If the dictator has a buddy, that person is noted and also removed from the list. (That is, if your buddy gets selected, you and the dictator are both considered to have had your chance in this round.)
2. Let the dictator dictate: We'll collect the list of events for the specified day that the dictator (and buddy) has marked as ranked highest, and shuffle that list. The first event in the list will be examined: if there's space available for the person selected...
honestly, i read this post twice. when a version comes out in english, can someone let me know.....lol
I just hope I can get into an event, say Saturday or sunday morning sometime, with my buddy. thats about all Im asking for....
I want to by in this party.Dunno if Im the best looking in the group, but my gf is. I did tell her what it was going to be like, but she wanted to come anyway. :-)
If she distracts the DM, and the group gets an advantage, that ain't my problem.....lol
Besides, she's a high school math teacher. She has those kids of issues every day. God help anyone who acts TOO much like an oogling idiot. I pity the fool....lol
Since she wont actually count as a participant, I like the cut of your jib, sir, and want you in my group as well. We think alike, you and I...lol
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Senior Software Developer
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The shuffle list-select dictator-shuffle events-select event process repeats
I'm not sure that the additional shuffle before selecting the next dictator is precisely necessary, so we may end up skipping that step. I included it because subtracting a buddy (or buddies) changes the list and it might be easier codewise to just re-shuffle a new list.
The select-a-buddy system I'll be implementing actually requires some additional restraints to restrict you to a single buddy choice, so it's not terribly hard to change those restraints to allow multiple buddies. The main problem with allowing more than one buddy (apart from the drawback I noted earlier in the thread) is deciding which group of buddies should actually be considered to be a group.
If I select Erik as a buddy, and he confirms, and then he selects Jason as a buddy, and he confirms, is Jason my buddy? Right now I lean toward no, I must also select Jason as a buddy. So my list of buddies, should I be chosen as dictator, becomes an intersecting set of everyone I've selected as a buddy and those my buddies (and their buddies) have selected.
In a social networking application like Facebook or whatever this distinction matters less than here, where the decision is "which eight attendees out of 250 get to game with Monte?"....
A fascinating selection schemehonestly, i read this post twice. when a version comes out in english, can someone let me know.....lol
I just hope I can get into an event, say Saturday or sunday morning sometime, with my buddy. thats about all Im asking for....
What's up:
- He's still working on it, so if anyone sees anything unfair, let him know.
What we do:
- Everyone gets to rank *every* event from 0 to 4. Zero = Ick!, 4 = Yeah!"
- You can buddy up with someone so that you will *only* be placed in an event if your buddy is too.
- We get lots of time to do this.
What they'll do:
- After that he's going to random pick people, which is fair, but not necessarily "equal", because coding something that would be as equal as possible would be crazy, and about impossible given the extremely limited resources for some of the most desirable events.
- The random pick will be computer and dice based, so no funny stuff.
How it works:
- Each day will be separate chances
- First he'll pick a random person and her buddy if any.
- Then he'll give them a random event from her top choices that are still available, and also has room for her buddy.
- After that he random picks a new person from the pool (which doesn't include the last person (+buddy), and his buddy if any, and repeats the process.
- If everyone has been picked, it starts over with everyone in the pool again.
- If every event for the day is full, the cycle stops and repeats for the next day, until all four days are done.
Then what?:
- Any leftover events are first-come, first-serve. We'll know when to look.
- If there's a leftover event that you'd like instead of one that you got (same timeslot), you can give up your slot win. But you can't signup for both.
Very cool Gary, thanks!
Not necessarily equitable, but quite fair. Also the individual rankings are completely at the discretion of the user - they have no outward impact, just which events are checked first for you. The limited number of "levels", along with the random pick among them, makes it a bit more random as to who gets into the most popular set of games.
250 people, 70 events, about 20 per day, low estimate of 160 slots per day - so most people should get 1-2 slots of their choice I'd guess.
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Senior Software Developer
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I can't figure out how to ensure fairness and allow more than a single buddy relationship. In fact, I think I'd be willing to bet money that you can prove that it's mathematically impossible. (And a lesser sum that someone has actually already proven this.)
Say I select Erik as my buddy, Erik confirms, Jason selects Erik, Erik again confirms. Now, say I get selected as dictator. Is Jason my buddy?
Let's say no, he isn't. So it's just me and Erik. As dictator I sign us up for an event. And everything's great! Except it isn't. What if Jason gets selected as dictator next? He can't choose any events because Erik's already had his chance this round. So Jason is deprived of a choice he ought to get to make.
What if instead of disallowing Jason's stint as dictator we allow him to go ahead and sign himself and Erik up to an event. Well, now Erik's had two events assigned to him this round, and that doesn't seem fair either.
What if we view the buddy groups as Gary+Erik, Jason+Erik and Erik+Jason+Gary? That is, if Gary gets selected as dictator the group is Gary+Erik, if Jason gets selected, the group is Jason+Erik, but if Erik is selected the group is Erik+Jason+Gary because he has selected us both as buddies. That doesn't seem fair to me, because now Erik has more chances of being associated with a dictator than I do, which increases his ability to get an event.
Also, now we can't promise Erik that establishing a buddy relationship with anyone actually means anything. If we allow only a single buddy, we can safely guarantee that you and your buddy will attend events together or not at all. If we allow multiple buddies we can no longer make that promise, and now Erik may game with either Jason, or me, or both, based on who was selected as dictator.
What if we say that if Gary, Erik or Jason gets selected, then all three of us are considered buddies together, even though I never selected Jason and he never selected me? I call this the Carrie problem.
Let's say Carrie selects me as her buddy, and I select her. But I secretly hate her, and don't care about getting into events anyway, and also I have a bunch of mean girls in my clique that agree. So I buddy Alice, Alice buddies Betty, Betty buddies Candy, on down the line until we've got a chain of buddies too big to ever be assigned to an event. Voila! We've all deprived Carrie of her choice, and her only fault was trusting a jerk. Well, I guess she should have selected her friends more carefully.
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What if we say that if Gary, Erik or Jason gets selected, then all three of us are considered buddies together, even though I never selected Jason and he never selected me? I call this the Carrie problem.
Let's say Carrie selects me as her buddy, and I select her. But I secretly hate her, and don't care about getting into events anyway, and also I have a bunch of mean girls in my clique that agree. So I buddy Alice, Alice buddies Betty, Betty buddies Candy, on down the line until we've got a chain of buddies too big to ever be assigned to an event. Voila! We've all deprived Carrie of her choice, and her only fault was trusting a jerk. Well, I guess she should have selected her friends more carefully.
And the bucket of pig blood comes into play when? ;)