Attention All PbPers: Open Call for Assistance

[Oladon]

Call for Assistance

I need you guys' help. For a while now I've been working on a project to generate statistics about all the play-by-posts on Paizo. The resulting public interface is still not quite ready for launch, but I'm at a point where I really need community assistance to complete this portion of the project.

What needs doing?
I've got a spreadsheet that contains all ~3500 PbP gameplay threads from the Paizo boards. I need them categorized and double-checked.

What's the goal?
To start with, cool statistics about who finishes what and how long it takes. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to say "These are the signs of a dying game, here are the stats on it, and here's how to recognize them and prevent it."

There are quite a few other things I'm planning to do as well, but I find that the more I talk about a project, the less I end up getting done on it - so I'm going to just keep the other neat outcomes quiet for now. As Henry Ford said, "You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." But trust me, they'll be great.

Meanings of Game Status
There are three status codes you can use to categorize a game: 2, 3, or 4. Many of the games listed will start with a 1 for status; that doesn't mean someone has looked at them, just that the computer thinks they're active. They still need categorizing, so go to the thread URL and have a look.

Has the adventure been successfully completed? Then it's a 2 for "completed".

Did the DM announce an inability/unwillingness to continue running the game, and did NOT disappear for a month or more first? Then it's probably aborted. (Similarly, if the group TPK'd and decided not to restart the game, it's aborted.)

Did the DM just "stop posting" for a month or more, causing the game to die? It's abandoned. Note that on occasion a pause in posting is normal and planned, and doesn't cause the game to die - the players are ready and willing to pick back up when the time comes. Abandoned means that the last DM post(s) indicated an intent to continue, but it's been over a month and the DM hasn't shown back up. **The exception to this is if a game is on a planned hiatus that hasn't expired yet - for example, if they say "let's start back up in June" and it's only May, don't mark it as abandoned.

If none of these fit, just leave the status as it is... or stick a comment on it asking someone else to look!

Questions?
PM me. Or IM me. Or chat with me on the Google Doc chat. I'm around.

[Oladon]

Thanks for all the help so far, you guys - Khelreddin and Joana in particular!

Keep it up!

[Joana]

As someone who doesn't play Society, I am both impressed by the completion rate of PFS scenarios and nonplussed by the fact that it's possible to complete them in less than 150 posts.

[Khelreddin]

I'm finding PFS more and more satisfying as a way to do PbPs. Though there are weak spots at times, the RP is often quite good, and it's really nice to have a start and finish to a scenario.

I've generally found it takes about 250 posts to finish a scenario, but I can imagine it happening faster.

Edit: Oh, wait! Oladon, did we just hijack your thread? =P

[Oladon]

Hijack? Hardly! That's precisely the type of statistic I'm going to be generating. Even among PFS games, there are some that aren't played, some that aren't finished, etc.

By the way, current rankings are:

Joana: 124
Khelreddin: 117
Mattastrophic: 6
O(ladon): 158

You're such a slacker, Khelreddin.

[Khelreddin]

Yes, I'm a slacker, too busy at playing Pathfinder to enter data about playing Pathfinder. But do you see how I spurred you and Joana into a competitive frenzy, resulting in far more data entry?

I love it when a plan comes together.

[Oladon]

Khelreddin wrote:

Yes, I'm a slacker, too busy at playing Pathfinder to enter data about playing Pathfinder. But do you see how I spurred you and Joana into a competitive frenzy, resulting in far more data entry?

I love it when a plan comes together.

Now get me more people working on it!

[motteditor]

Interesting.

I just updated my PBPs (3 ongoing, 4 finished, 2 aborted), as well as a couple I played in that were abandoned. I'm not quite up to Joana, Khel or Oladon's stats, though...

[Briar the Lesser]

Done. DONE!!!

Curse of the Crimson Throne. All 6 books via PbP. With the same six yahoos throughout.

Started: Septemer 25, 2012
Ended: October 9, 2014

Final post of merit.

A statblock (about 13000 total posts):
Barael- 2088 (15.4%)
Briar- 2005 (15.4%)
Charlie- 972 (7.5%)
Dandi- 1482 (11.4%)
Fondo- 2514 (19.3%)
Nikolay- 1248 (9.6%)
DM Euan- 2706 (20.8%)

Pretty much, DM Euan (aka GM Evilan) rocked it from the start...god bless his evil, dark soul.

* * *

Now what, Oladon!?