So for Secret Hitler we have 1 attendance for Chocomint, 2 for VitC and 3 for Happiness. VitC claimed victory for an extra light orb.
For Christmas, we had full participation from everyone but Buff Busters, who only got 2.
For Ping Pong, @LoliconExE is the winner, with Echo coming second!
Here are the current totals.
Chocomint: 63
Buff Busters: 10
Vitamin C: 69 (Nice)
Team Happiness: 127
After the Crossover Meeting event, everyone gets full orbs for participation. Make sure to vote for your favorite!
Here are the current totals:
Chocomint: 66
Buff Busters: 13
Vitamin C: 72
Team Happiness: 130
Here are the current totals!
Chocomint: 74
Buff Busters: 17
Vitamin C: 83
Team Happiness: 138
The due time of all events has passed. December 31st is the last day you can post your submissions to be acknowledged as part of the festival. Keep at it!
We’re at the last day! There’s still 17 hours left until the end of the festival, so you still have time to get late submissions in, but I’ve tallied up all of the light orbs earned so far.
Chocomint: 80
Buff Busters: 25
Vitamin C: 92
Team Happiness: 146
I think it could be anyone’s game honestly 
As announced on The Monthly Terra, here are the awards for the Winter Festival!
Graphic Design Award
The team with the most impressive Graphic Design: Team Happiness!
Guardian Award
The team that was able to Change Themselves: Vitamin C!
Gaia Award
The team that was able to Change the World: Buff Busters!
Participation Award
Team that the highest participation overall: Vitamin C!
Competitive Spirit Award
Team that won the highest number of non-vote events: Vitamin C!
They won Speedrunning, Secret Hitler and New Discussion!
People’s Choice Award
"Team that won the highest number of voted events: Buff Busters!
They won Design a key character, Voicemail and 4koma!
Quizmaster Award
Team that racked up the most points for the trivia events: Chocomint!
Light Orb Award
Team that obtained the most light orbs: Team Happiness!
Chocomint: 83
Buff Busters: 25
Vitamin C: 97
Team Happiness: 146
REAL Light Orb Award
Team that obtained the most light orbs, not including the Spirit of Giving: Vitamin C!
Chocomint: 81
Buff Busters: 76
Vitamin C: 100
Team Happiness: 94
Empathy Award
Team that best exemplified Kaza’s value of Empathy: Team Happiness!
Quality Award
Team that best exemplified Kaza’s value of Quality: Vitamin C!
Fun Award
Team that best exemplified Kaza’s value of Fun: Buff Busters!
MVPs
Chocomint: StarfishBender!
Buff Busters: Pepe!
Vitamin C: Naoki_Saten!
Team Happiness: grooven!
Thank you to everyone that made this event possible! I’ll be sure to upload the Monthly Terra as soon as I can so you guys can enjoy this finale.
And as promised, here is the Monthly Terra, capping off the festival.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the festival and made it the awesome event it was! I’ve awarded you all forum badges for your efforts, as well as Dango Tickets to the MVP of each team.
I’ve already started planning for next year’s festival, but if you’d like to be part of the organisation team for that event, just let me know and I’ll get back to you! I want this to be an event driven by community members, so don’t be shy about applying.
Please look forward to next year’s Winter Festival, and enjoy all the events we have lined up until then!
Ideas I’ve just had over the month, for next time.
My ideas so far:
To keep things organized, some parts of the format and required info should be determined beforehandWe did do varifying times for the live events. Just so happened that the 16UTC events were relatively unpopular.
What I mean is, make events not just at 00/23UTC and 16UTC, but all around the clock. Of course, that depends on when an organizer is available to host it.
While I won’t repeat anyone else’s ideas that have already been said, I really do want to chime in in one of them for now:
It may not be a permanent habit or skill after 14 days but this would be fantastic to try out. Perhaps the event could start once signups close or right after teams are announced, or that this event lasts a month or so?
This said, here are some other ideas for now:
The ultimate point is to have fun!Crazy idea, what if we made the festival like Mario Party? We have dice rolling. We can make a map, and there can be event spaces where you can spend your coins for bonuses. Teams that land on the same space can duel for stars or coins. Movement can be made automatic or manual depending on how often game coordinators want to communicate with teams. Events would be basically the same but would earn you mostly coins maybe a star very rarely. The game board would be the way of converting coins into stars, and you can have secret bonus stars at the very end.
@yumemi roll 4d6
3, 6, 5, 5
I’m honestly thinking about making the topic about picking up new skills or getting into better habits, but won’t consider it until after the Sharing Circle at the earliest - one thing at a time! A part of me doesn’t want to wait a whole year to start though!
The Mario Party idea would be super awesome to try out, but it sounds like something Kaza would want to try out before the next WF in some capacity to figure out all of the logistics and what is automatic or manual. It may still end up being very similar to the automatic dice game Helios ran in the past.
Also, it makes sense that a lot of people want to talk about negative feedback loops, but I still have too many negative thoughts about how that went, and when it happened, to believe that this isn’t going to end up punishing sincerity and effort in the end since it already did. This would be the case even if it is nothing more than a Mario Party game.
If you want some reference, the idea comes from Sean ‘Day9’ Plott and how he encourages his community to do these 30 day projects.
The Xmas thing was not a feedback loop. It was a group of people deliberately crashing the economy. This festival had no feedback loops. The point of a negative feedback loop is to make min-maxing less rewarding and make games more chaotic. Yes, it “punishes effort” in the sense that the team with the most skill, strategy and time doesn’t always win, but it makes it more fun when the game isn’t decided until it’s truly over. Before Xmas, one team had an incontestable lead, and that’s just not very interesting. Chaotic games also still reward effort just not as much. The goal isn’t to make the whole thing a coin flip; effort still tilts the odds in your favor, but not to the point that it’s 100% certain. The best poker player in the world can still lose due to bad luck. That doesn’t mean poker isn’t a skillful game.
Since I’m at work I can’t view the video, but thank you Helios! It will definitely be looked at soon! 
You are right and I wasn’t clear at all there - that’s totally my fault. It was an event and not a loop.
For how much debate occurred for the Spirit event in the group, I cannot possibly agree with this since it was well within reason that Team Happiness could have caught up, and still possible that the other teams could have as well since there was no guarantee on participation, especially with the information that only we knew at the time.
The problem with the Mario Kart (certain Mario Parties) rubber band (blue shell) technique is that it doesn’t really allow the player in last place to catch up with the team in first place all that much. It doesn’t change the distance they have between themselves and 2nd/3rd/4th, etc. In fact it shrinks the distance for 2nd place without them doing anything additional of value or effort. A rubber band shrinks on both sides.
A better answer could be to multiply rewards, to some extent, for teams that are behind by some sort of ratio to increase and incentivize effort and competition across the board. A team that is way too far behind should still not catch up of course, but does it have to be about being “first place” anyway?
Perhaps the real question is to find the right mix of ingredients first.
Well the exact functions of the blue shell aren’t really applicable to this kind of competition. I’m just using it as a shorthand for any system that would increase chaos and act as a catch-up mechanic. I haven’t thought of any details. I just know something is needed, cuz man did that game get out of hand quickly. We got a year to figure out what the best course of action is.
I understand more now.
Since I don’t have an outside view of the situation and did not read much in the Discord areas in the other groups I don’t have much clue what is best overall when it comes to the next festival. Sorry all.
I was NOT happy with waking up at 3AM Christmas to find all that shit at the team’s feet though, and I hope that the end result of all of this is a better festival for all while keeping the better themes intact. If I’m the one making a mistake then just tell me, but I just don’t want a system that seriously punishes fun and hard work.
I took the results from this festival and applied them to an extremely rudimentary board game system. Even though Vitamin C still ends up winning both times, every team is neck and neck until the end. And there’s so much room for development: item shops; board events and services like Boo, Bowser and DK; longer and more advanced maps etc. That stuff would require more decision making, and it would be a bit weird for me to “play” all teams at the same time.
