**NS Roleplay Symposium 2017**
LOCATION: Symposium Hall
TOPIC: "NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying”
TIME: 4 PM EST, Thursday, July 13th
Good evening, everyone. Thanks for coming to this afternoon/early evening panel. I’m Swith, your moderator.
Zwangzug is our special guest speaker for this evening’s topic, “NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying”. Her overview can be found here: nsrps.boards.net/thread/37/rookies-guide-ns-sports
Panellists, please introduce yourselves.
BEGIN
::
Zwangzug - Today at 4:01 PM
Hello! I'm Zwangzug, and I've been RPing in some capacity in the sports subforum for most of the last ten years. Some of my responsibilities there have been a host of various events, including the World Cup of association football (soccer) twice, and the president of the World Cup Committee twice, as my puppet, Aguazul. Looking forward to explaining our niche to you! :smiley:
Swith - Today at 4:02 PM
Thanks so much for being here this evening, Zwang. As a general opener, why do you roleplay in NS Sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:03 PM
I like the "pacing" of it, so to speak; every day there's a new game to be inspired by if I want, and I can build up my nation and plot storylines out on my own. But it also provides a way to bounce RPs off others and interact with their humor. It's not too open-ended or too restrictive for me.
Swith - Today at 4:04 PM
Can you tell us a little about the sports we'll find in your subforum? Is it just American football, or does it expand into things such as the Olympics and cricket?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:04 PM
Definitely very expansive! Soccer/football is probably the most popular event, but there are Olympics every so often, as well as stuff like cricket, and American sports like baseball and basketball. Every so often there's even stuff like Quidditch.
Some users have designed their own sports like "community football" and "7ball" and put together rules for running it. I don't know much about how those work, but if you can describe a way of simulating results, it probably has a place here.
Swith - Today at 4:05 PM
Quidditch? So the subforum isn't just limited to real sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:06 PM
Correct. The bulk of the sports you'll see are real, but some are invented/fantasy.
Swith - Today at 4:06 PM
Do tech levels affect NS Sports much? If so, what's different between PT, MT, FT, and even FanT for sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:07 PM
They don't affect sports much. Most countries are something like modern-tech. You can RP your team of consisting of a fantasy creatures like elves, or future tech creatures like robots. However, the results of the match won't take that into account, so you need to be prepared to lose to ordinary humans.
If you're an MT nation that doesn't recognize FT ones, it's okay to write a normal roleplay that focuses on the sports side of things without going into details about "oh, they were totally aliens from Jupiter."
Or you can go into detail about how the government "covers this up" from the citizens. Some of the funniest RPs I've ever read have been in this vein.
Swith - Today at 4:09 PM
The latter is probably the approach I'd use for my 'concealed FT' nation.
For complete noobs to NS Sports, how should you get started with it?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:11 PM
I would say, look for a thread that says something like "in signup/open" and carefully read the directions in the OP to see if you can join. Right now we don't have much in signup, but there is a cricket thread that's open to everyone. Cricket is a sport that requires a little more involvement right away than "our team wants to join" (which is how most threads work); you need to schedule out your games in advance. But you're definitely able to jump in.
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=418118 If that's not something that appeals to you, I'd suggest reading some of the roleplay threads that are in progress to get a feel for the forum and the styles of writing that go on, then wait for another thread to open up.
Swith - Today at 4:12 PM
You mentioned in your overview that sports roleplaying is "open-ended". Can you explain what this means?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:13 PM
What I meant by that was that pretty much any style of writing can be turned into a sports RP. You could write a newspaper article that focuses on a team, or an interview with a player on TV. But you could also do something farther afield, like a third-person story describing the manager and his or her family as they prepare for a game. This can branch out into stuff that doesn't have much to do with sports. So it's a very free-form writing process.
Swith - Today at 4:15 PM
Several people are very interested in those approaches already, including myself.
What if you practically know nothing about whatever sport you've signed up to play in? Does the community teach it? Are they understanding or forgiving if you fumble things (no pun intended)?(edited)
Zwangzug - Today at 4:18 PM
I can't speak for everyone, but most of us are! The community is usually able to teach it, or point you towards resources where you can learn more about it. Most tournaments have an "out of character/discussion thread" where you can ask basic questions, and you'll usually get lots of answers there--no question is too simple. One thing that's usually helpful for your opponents is to provide a "roster," or a list of players on your team; if you don't know how many players to put, for instance, it'll usually be possible to find someone who can serve as an example (but try not to copy-paste their formatting completely, or outright plagiarize). And if you don't know a lot about the sport itself, writing character-based stories instead of detailed game articles is a great way to get started (this is often the approach I took as a soccer newbie).
Swith - Today at 4:19 PM
Are the posts done in a NS Sport RP basically a collection of one-shots that play off the same results?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:20 PM
Sort of. Usually there will be a bunch of results posted at once ("on the first day of the tournament, Audioslavia beat Zwangzug 2-1, Kyrusia beat Reploid 3-0,") and then we might all write posts about our own game, ignoring the others. But Audioslavia's posts might string together into a larger storyline, and ditto mine. Or they might stand independently. It depends.
Swith - Today at 4:21 PM
So really, the only limit you have is the amount of effort you want to put into your writing?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:21 PM
Precisely.
Swith - Today at 4:22 PM
Alright, let's get to the one thing that every noob asks about: the scorinator. What is it? How does it work? And what are considered modifiers?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:24 PM
A "scorinator" is a program that generates the results of a game, like those fake ones I made up just now. It's based on random numbers, so there's always an element of chance involved, but it's designed to have scores that are realistic for the sport in question. Very often, things are weighted so that there will be a bonus for teams that have had experience/success in the past. So if Audioslavia and I were to play a World Cup game right now, he would probably have an advantage because he's played in the last few World Cups and done well, whereas I have not played in the last several tournaments.
In many tournaments, however, hosts will give a bonus to teams that write roleplays. So posting well-written stories can somewhat increase your likelihood of success, though again, it all comes down to the way the random dice fall.
In a few soccer tournaments (like the World Cup), you can also select a "style modifier" that symbolizes whether you're an attacking or defensive team. This influences the score (whether you're more likely to win 6-4 or 2-0) a little bit.
Swith - Today at 4:26 PM
To put it into perspective for roleplayers apart from NS Sports, would you say it's like having a +1 in an ability, such as defense?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:26 PM
Like D&D? Sort of! Before the dice hit the table, I guess. The DM just has to make an arbitrary decision at some point and then the dragon bites your head off anyway.
(I'm...not very familiar with this way of going about things.)
Swith - Today at 4:29 PM
Not a problem. I completely understand. For us tablertoppers, the team would be the character app, and we'd determine where we want to assign points. The GM would give us a bonus point or two, if we had panache.
This leads me to a very basic question: how are starting points determined? I've seen events such as the Olympics, where nations list points for each person on a team. Is this a fairly standard approach?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:30 PM
That's a traditional approach for multi-sport events like the Olympics, which don't come around very often and have lots of entries from the same user.
It's very common to see events like the World Cup, though, where people will only enter one event ("my team,"), in which case their starting ranking will be based on their win-loss record in the last three or so tournaments.
Swith - Today at 4:31 PM
Do noobs suffer for participating for their first time... meaning, do they stand a chance when competing against veterans such as Audio or yourself?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:33 PM
When it comes to win-loss results, they do suffer a little bit when participating for the first time, because of this starting-rank thing. One way to get around this is the RP bonus, in part. Some tournaments (particularly the World Cup) have a newbie-only event at the beginning, which gives new users a chance to practice RPing and also get a rank boost before the main tournament starts. However, it's important to recognize that since random numbers ultimately decide who wins, winning should not be the objective, so much as writing and reading enjoyable roleplays--the same as on any other subforum.
Swith - Today at 4:34 PM
If you had to describe NS Sports to someone, would you use words like 'fantasy football'?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:34 PM
Not really. Fantasy football is making predictions about which RL players will do the best statistics-wise, and I think of what we do as something fairly different.
Swith - Today at 4:35 PM
Do many NS Sports players play sports in real life?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:36 PM
If anything it's more like fictional stratomatic
Not that I remember. I think more of us are hardcore fans. :smiley:
Swith - Today at 4:37 PM
How did you, personally, get into sports RP? What drew you in, and then gave you reason to stay?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:39 PM
I was lurking around one of the World Cups many years ago, and enjoyed the RP there. I signed up for the next one and was able to participate in a great "qualifying group" of teams that interacted with me and were very patient with my weird storylines even though I didn't know a lot about soccer. I also got in on the ground floor, as it were, of the World Baseball Classic, a sport I know much more about, and was able to RP that somewhat more easily.
Swith - Today at 4:39 PM
Is it difficult for girl gamers to get involved in NS Sports? Do you find that the community takes them seriously?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:42 PM
For one thing, the forum is fairly anonymous. So there's no trouble joining in right away. It's also easy to RP your country as whatever, so if you want to say women are the equals of men on the sports field or the dominant gender culturally, that's fairly normal. I sort of laughed it off at first when people assumed I was male early on, and I think people are a little more sensitive now. It is annoying when people swing too far the other way to "oh, you're a woman, let me dump all my gender concerns on you" though
Overall it's not too bad though.
There are some immature people but I don't think it's any worse than any other subforum. Probably better than a few.
Swith - Today at 4:43 PM
Would you mind clarifying something for us (because my PM count is increasing glares at my favorite pest)...
Is NS Sports just for nation roleplay, or can people set up known professional teams, such as NLF or NHL teams?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:44 PM
People can and very often do set up their own domestic leagues, say "the Zwangzug league of our own ice hockey teams." This is a great way to get practice using scorinators without the pressure of an international competition.
Occasionally you can enter the best of your country's soccer teams into an international tournament (the equivalent of the UEFA Champion's League.)
In fact, I've kind of cut back on the World Cup stuff, but still do domestic leagues, because it's easier to go at my own pace that way.
Swith - Today at 4:45 PM
But you wouldn't see something like the player Swith sending in Team Brazil for an NS Sports football world cup?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:45 PM
I'm not sure what you mean, sorry.
Usually it would be "the player Swith sending in Team Swith for the NS Sports football world cup."
We don't RP teams that exist in real life.
Swith - Today at 4:46 PM
Sorry, I'll clarify. Real world teams aren't a part of NS Sports.
Zwangzug - Today at 4:46 PM
That's correct.
Swith - Today at 4:46 PM
Yes. nods Thus we can stop asking that question in PM. glares again, laughs
Zwangzug - Today at 4:46 PM
No worries! :smiley:
Swith - Today at 4:47 PM
You touched upon 'beginner' tournaments earlier. Can you explain a bit about that? Do new-to-NS Sports players join these before going into larger events such as World Cups and the like?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:49 PM
Sure. Very often, yes. When there's a signup thread for the World Cup, it will include in the OP something like "if you're a new player, mention also if you want to join the 'Baptism of Fire'," which is a pre-World Cup event only for new teams. So it's not forced on you, but definitely encouraged. This allows new players to get experience with sports RP, and gives them a small boost in their ranks going into the tournament so they won't be so far behind the more experienced teams. At the moment, I'm not sure if any other events have them. I know American football did in the past, but I think they might have gotten rid of it because it wasn't really big enough.
Swith - Today at 4:51 PM
I'm not sure if this is something in your area of expertise... Kyru mentioned this in a previous panel earlier this week, but how useful would the scorinator actually be for use outside of NS Sports? Like military or possibly economics? Can it be adjusted to suit these demands/topics?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:52 PM
It's basically only as useful as the players want it to be. Like, if two players are agreed on "we'll let the outcome of our battle be decided by this weighted random spreadsheet," I don't see why not, and I think there are some spreadsheets floating around for this purpose (that don't call themselves that). I know there are a couple spreadsheets that we've modified heavily to simulate elections. No idea about economics.
Swith - Today at 4:53 PM
Can you explain a bit about puppets and rules pertaining to them? Can nations use puppets in the same event, for example?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:54 PM
It's up to the OP of that event. Sometimes the answer is "not at all," and sometimes the answer is "one main nation and one puppet, but the puppet needs to announce itself during signups." Sometimes the answer depends on whether you're a new nation or returning. You should always read the OP carefully to check for puppet rules, because the moderators can enforce them pretty strictly.
It might also be the case that "we'll allow puppets, but we'll kick them out if we need to get to a round number for drawing groups."
Swith - Today at 4:55 PM
Is there any advice you can give to a player that wants to run their own event for the first time?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:56 PM
Participate in other events first to see how it's done. Make sure you're comfortable with the scorinator. If you're co-hosting with a partner, make sure you've talked over what kind of RP bonus scale you'll be using.
And take care of your mental health! No matter how unimportant we maintain that wins and losses are, flukes will happen and someone will get upset. We say "try not to let it get to you" but it's easier said than done.
Swith - Today at 4:57 PM
A follow-up to that question: What's the work involved to host a tournament?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:59 PM
Really varies based on the size and complexity. Some of the hardest work is done at set-up, entering the names and ranks of competing teams into whatever program you'll be using. Depending on the program, however (if it's a spreadsheet or something less user-friendly), you might need to maintain that every day, and if there's ever a glitch in the output, that will carry over and fixing that can be a pain.
Swith - Today at 4:59 PM
We've seen a lot of team jerseys and emblems. Are these essential for playing in NS Sports? Also, is there a standardized way to make them?
Zwangzug - Today at 5:01 PM
No. (I usually don't have anything fancy.) And no? There are sometimes threads where people will respond to requests for jerseys or emblems, so you can sometimes post there to get one. Just be patient and respectful of their time.
I don't know how they make them because I am not an art person.
Swith - Today at 5:01 PM
Can you recommend a good scorinator?
Zwangzug - Today at 5:02 PM
xkoranate is very powerful and allows lots of different sports. There's a little bit of a learning curve and assembly required, but lots of threads and people who can help you if you post on the main forum.
Swith - Today at 5:03 PM
Do you have a questions thread on the subforum or a source for guidance on how to use xkoranate? Or do you have members of the community known for being mentors? 'Where should people go for answers', in other words.
Zwangzug - Today at 5:04 PM
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=145487 xkoranate discussion thread
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=55249 scorinators discussion thread
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=612 general discussion thread
Swith - Today at 5:04 PM
Fantastic!
A final question. What's your favorite part of NS Sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 5:05 PM
People's humor and creativity.
Every once in a while I'll see a callback to something from way back in the day and be incredibly impressed.
Swith - Today at 5:07 PM
Thank you for serving as our guest speaker tonight, Zwangzug. People has asked about this topic for a very long time. It's good to finally get information out to them.
Thank you to everyone for their questions! I appreciate the opportunity to mod this panel.
This wraps up tonight's 4PM panel.
Our upcoming schedule is:
Tonight:
Global Economics & Trade: A Primer — 7PM Eastern/11PM GMT
Worldbuilding and Related (Late Hour) — 9PM Eastern/1AM GMT
NS Roleplay Symposium 2017
TOPIC: “NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying”
TIME: COMPLETED
LOCATION: Symposium Hall
TOPIC: "NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying”
TIME: 4 PM EST, Thursday, July 13th
Good evening, everyone. Thanks for coming to this afternoon/early evening panel. I’m Swith, your moderator.
Zwangzug is our special guest speaker for this evening’s topic, “NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying”. Her overview can be found here: nsrps.boards.net/thread/37/rookies-guide-ns-sports
Panellists, please introduce yourselves.
BEGIN
::
Zwangzug - Today at 4:01 PM
Hello! I'm Zwangzug, and I've been RPing in some capacity in the sports subforum for most of the last ten years. Some of my responsibilities there have been a host of various events, including the World Cup of association football (soccer) twice, and the president of the World Cup Committee twice, as my puppet, Aguazul. Looking forward to explaining our niche to you! :smiley:
Swith - Today at 4:02 PM
Thanks so much for being here this evening, Zwang. As a general opener, why do you roleplay in NS Sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:03 PM
I like the "pacing" of it, so to speak; every day there's a new game to be inspired by if I want, and I can build up my nation and plot storylines out on my own. But it also provides a way to bounce RPs off others and interact with their humor. It's not too open-ended or too restrictive for me.
Swith - Today at 4:04 PM
Can you tell us a little about the sports we'll find in your subforum? Is it just American football, or does it expand into things such as the Olympics and cricket?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:04 PM
Definitely very expansive! Soccer/football is probably the most popular event, but there are Olympics every so often, as well as stuff like cricket, and American sports like baseball and basketball. Every so often there's even stuff like Quidditch.
Some users have designed their own sports like "community football" and "7ball" and put together rules for running it. I don't know much about how those work, but if you can describe a way of simulating results, it probably has a place here.
Swith - Today at 4:05 PM
Quidditch? So the subforum isn't just limited to real sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:06 PM
Correct. The bulk of the sports you'll see are real, but some are invented/fantasy.
Swith - Today at 4:06 PM
Do tech levels affect NS Sports much? If so, what's different between PT, MT, FT, and even FanT for sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:07 PM
They don't affect sports much. Most countries are something like modern-tech. You can RP your team of consisting of a fantasy creatures like elves, or future tech creatures like robots. However, the results of the match won't take that into account, so you need to be prepared to lose to ordinary humans.
If you're an MT nation that doesn't recognize FT ones, it's okay to write a normal roleplay that focuses on the sports side of things without going into details about "oh, they were totally aliens from Jupiter."
Or you can go into detail about how the government "covers this up" from the citizens. Some of the funniest RPs I've ever read have been in this vein.
Swith - Today at 4:09 PM
The latter is probably the approach I'd use for my 'concealed FT' nation.
For complete noobs to NS Sports, how should you get started with it?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:11 PM
I would say, look for a thread that says something like "in signup/open" and carefully read the directions in the OP to see if you can join. Right now we don't have much in signup, but there is a cricket thread that's open to everyone. Cricket is a sport that requires a little more involvement right away than "our team wants to join" (which is how most threads work); you need to schedule out your games in advance. But you're definitely able to jump in.
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=418118 If that's not something that appeals to you, I'd suggest reading some of the roleplay threads that are in progress to get a feel for the forum and the styles of writing that go on, then wait for another thread to open up.
Swith - Today at 4:12 PM
You mentioned in your overview that sports roleplaying is "open-ended". Can you explain what this means?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:13 PM
What I meant by that was that pretty much any style of writing can be turned into a sports RP. You could write a newspaper article that focuses on a team, or an interview with a player on TV. But you could also do something farther afield, like a third-person story describing the manager and his or her family as they prepare for a game. This can branch out into stuff that doesn't have much to do with sports. So it's a very free-form writing process.
Swith - Today at 4:15 PM
Several people are very interested in those approaches already, including myself.
What if you practically know nothing about whatever sport you've signed up to play in? Does the community teach it? Are they understanding or forgiving if you fumble things (no pun intended)?(edited)
Zwangzug - Today at 4:18 PM
I can't speak for everyone, but most of us are! The community is usually able to teach it, or point you towards resources where you can learn more about it. Most tournaments have an "out of character/discussion thread" where you can ask basic questions, and you'll usually get lots of answers there--no question is too simple. One thing that's usually helpful for your opponents is to provide a "roster," or a list of players on your team; if you don't know how many players to put, for instance, it'll usually be possible to find someone who can serve as an example (but try not to copy-paste their formatting completely, or outright plagiarize). And if you don't know a lot about the sport itself, writing character-based stories instead of detailed game articles is a great way to get started (this is often the approach I took as a soccer newbie).
Swith - Today at 4:19 PM
Are the posts done in a NS Sport RP basically a collection of one-shots that play off the same results?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:20 PM
Sort of. Usually there will be a bunch of results posted at once ("on the first day of the tournament, Audioslavia beat Zwangzug 2-1, Kyrusia beat Reploid 3-0,") and then we might all write posts about our own game, ignoring the others. But Audioslavia's posts might string together into a larger storyline, and ditto mine. Or they might stand independently. It depends.
Swith - Today at 4:21 PM
So really, the only limit you have is the amount of effort you want to put into your writing?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:21 PM
Precisely.
Swith - Today at 4:22 PM
Alright, let's get to the one thing that every noob asks about: the scorinator. What is it? How does it work? And what are considered modifiers?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:24 PM
A "scorinator" is a program that generates the results of a game, like those fake ones I made up just now. It's based on random numbers, so there's always an element of chance involved, but it's designed to have scores that are realistic for the sport in question. Very often, things are weighted so that there will be a bonus for teams that have had experience/success in the past. So if Audioslavia and I were to play a World Cup game right now, he would probably have an advantage because he's played in the last few World Cups and done well, whereas I have not played in the last several tournaments.
In many tournaments, however, hosts will give a bonus to teams that write roleplays. So posting well-written stories can somewhat increase your likelihood of success, though again, it all comes down to the way the random dice fall.
In a few soccer tournaments (like the World Cup), you can also select a "style modifier" that symbolizes whether you're an attacking or defensive team. This influences the score (whether you're more likely to win 6-4 or 2-0) a little bit.
Swith - Today at 4:26 PM
To put it into perspective for roleplayers apart from NS Sports, would you say it's like having a +1 in an ability, such as defense?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:26 PM
Like D&D? Sort of! Before the dice hit the table, I guess. The DM just has to make an arbitrary decision at some point and then the dragon bites your head off anyway.
(I'm...not very familiar with this way of going about things.)
Swith - Today at 4:29 PM
Not a problem. I completely understand. For us tablertoppers, the team would be the character app, and we'd determine where we want to assign points. The GM would give us a bonus point or two, if we had panache.
This leads me to a very basic question: how are starting points determined? I've seen events such as the Olympics, where nations list points for each person on a team. Is this a fairly standard approach?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:30 PM
That's a traditional approach for multi-sport events like the Olympics, which don't come around very often and have lots of entries from the same user.
It's very common to see events like the World Cup, though, where people will only enter one event ("my team,"), in which case their starting ranking will be based on their win-loss record in the last three or so tournaments.
Swith - Today at 4:31 PM
Do noobs suffer for participating for their first time... meaning, do they stand a chance when competing against veterans such as Audio or yourself?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:33 PM
When it comes to win-loss results, they do suffer a little bit when participating for the first time, because of this starting-rank thing. One way to get around this is the RP bonus, in part. Some tournaments (particularly the World Cup) have a newbie-only event at the beginning, which gives new users a chance to practice RPing and also get a rank boost before the main tournament starts. However, it's important to recognize that since random numbers ultimately decide who wins, winning should not be the objective, so much as writing and reading enjoyable roleplays--the same as on any other subforum.
Swith - Today at 4:34 PM
If you had to describe NS Sports to someone, would you use words like 'fantasy football'?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:34 PM
Not really. Fantasy football is making predictions about which RL players will do the best statistics-wise, and I think of what we do as something fairly different.
Swith - Today at 4:35 PM
Do many NS Sports players play sports in real life?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:36 PM
If anything it's more like fictional stratomatic
Not that I remember. I think more of us are hardcore fans. :smiley:
Swith - Today at 4:37 PM
How did you, personally, get into sports RP? What drew you in, and then gave you reason to stay?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:39 PM
I was lurking around one of the World Cups many years ago, and enjoyed the RP there. I signed up for the next one and was able to participate in a great "qualifying group" of teams that interacted with me and were very patient with my weird storylines even though I didn't know a lot about soccer. I also got in on the ground floor, as it were, of the World Baseball Classic, a sport I know much more about, and was able to RP that somewhat more easily.
Swith - Today at 4:39 PM
Is it difficult for girl gamers to get involved in NS Sports? Do you find that the community takes them seriously?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:42 PM
For one thing, the forum is fairly anonymous. So there's no trouble joining in right away. It's also easy to RP your country as whatever, so if you want to say women are the equals of men on the sports field or the dominant gender culturally, that's fairly normal. I sort of laughed it off at first when people assumed I was male early on, and I think people are a little more sensitive now. It is annoying when people swing too far the other way to "oh, you're a woman, let me dump all my gender concerns on you" though
Overall it's not too bad though.
There are some immature people but I don't think it's any worse than any other subforum. Probably better than a few.
Swith - Today at 4:43 PM
Would you mind clarifying something for us (because my PM count is increasing glares at my favorite pest)...
Is NS Sports just for nation roleplay, or can people set up known professional teams, such as NLF or NHL teams?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:44 PM
People can and very often do set up their own domestic leagues, say "the Zwangzug league of our own ice hockey teams." This is a great way to get practice using scorinators without the pressure of an international competition.
Occasionally you can enter the best of your country's soccer teams into an international tournament (the equivalent of the UEFA Champion's League.)
In fact, I've kind of cut back on the World Cup stuff, but still do domestic leagues, because it's easier to go at my own pace that way.
Swith - Today at 4:45 PM
But you wouldn't see something like the player Swith sending in Team Brazil for an NS Sports football world cup?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:45 PM
I'm not sure what you mean, sorry.
Usually it would be "the player Swith sending in Team Swith for the NS Sports football world cup."
We don't RP teams that exist in real life.
Swith - Today at 4:46 PM
Sorry, I'll clarify. Real world teams aren't a part of NS Sports.
Zwangzug - Today at 4:46 PM
That's correct.
Swith - Today at 4:46 PM
Yes. nods Thus we can stop asking that question in PM. glares again, laughs
Zwangzug - Today at 4:46 PM
No worries! :smiley:
Swith - Today at 4:47 PM
You touched upon 'beginner' tournaments earlier. Can you explain a bit about that? Do new-to-NS Sports players join these before going into larger events such as World Cups and the like?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:49 PM
Sure. Very often, yes. When there's a signup thread for the World Cup, it will include in the OP something like "if you're a new player, mention also if you want to join the 'Baptism of Fire'," which is a pre-World Cup event only for new teams. So it's not forced on you, but definitely encouraged. This allows new players to get experience with sports RP, and gives them a small boost in their ranks going into the tournament so they won't be so far behind the more experienced teams. At the moment, I'm not sure if any other events have them. I know American football did in the past, but I think they might have gotten rid of it because it wasn't really big enough.
Swith - Today at 4:51 PM
I'm not sure if this is something in your area of expertise... Kyru mentioned this in a previous panel earlier this week, but how useful would the scorinator actually be for use outside of NS Sports? Like military or possibly economics? Can it be adjusted to suit these demands/topics?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:52 PM
It's basically only as useful as the players want it to be. Like, if two players are agreed on "we'll let the outcome of our battle be decided by this weighted random spreadsheet," I don't see why not, and I think there are some spreadsheets floating around for this purpose (that don't call themselves that). I know there are a couple spreadsheets that we've modified heavily to simulate elections. No idea about economics.
Swith - Today at 4:53 PM
Can you explain a bit about puppets and rules pertaining to them? Can nations use puppets in the same event, for example?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:54 PM
It's up to the OP of that event. Sometimes the answer is "not at all," and sometimes the answer is "one main nation and one puppet, but the puppet needs to announce itself during signups." Sometimes the answer depends on whether you're a new nation or returning. You should always read the OP carefully to check for puppet rules, because the moderators can enforce them pretty strictly.
It might also be the case that "we'll allow puppets, but we'll kick them out if we need to get to a round number for drawing groups."
Swith - Today at 4:55 PM
Is there any advice you can give to a player that wants to run their own event for the first time?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:56 PM
Participate in other events first to see how it's done. Make sure you're comfortable with the scorinator. If you're co-hosting with a partner, make sure you've talked over what kind of RP bonus scale you'll be using.
And take care of your mental health! No matter how unimportant we maintain that wins and losses are, flukes will happen and someone will get upset. We say "try not to let it get to you" but it's easier said than done.
Swith - Today at 4:57 PM
A follow-up to that question: What's the work involved to host a tournament?
Zwangzug - Today at 4:59 PM
Really varies based on the size and complexity. Some of the hardest work is done at set-up, entering the names and ranks of competing teams into whatever program you'll be using. Depending on the program, however (if it's a spreadsheet or something less user-friendly), you might need to maintain that every day, and if there's ever a glitch in the output, that will carry over and fixing that can be a pain.
Swith - Today at 4:59 PM
We've seen a lot of team jerseys and emblems. Are these essential for playing in NS Sports? Also, is there a standardized way to make them?
Zwangzug - Today at 5:01 PM
No. (I usually don't have anything fancy.) And no? There are sometimes threads where people will respond to requests for jerseys or emblems, so you can sometimes post there to get one. Just be patient and respectful of their time.
I don't know how they make them because I am not an art person.
Swith - Today at 5:01 PM
Can you recommend a good scorinator?
Zwangzug - Today at 5:02 PM
xkoranate is very powerful and allows lots of different sports. There's a little bit of a learning curve and assembly required, but lots of threads and people who can help you if you post on the main forum.
Swith - Today at 5:03 PM
Do you have a questions thread on the subforum or a source for guidance on how to use xkoranate? Or do you have members of the community known for being mentors? 'Where should people go for answers', in other words.
Zwangzug - Today at 5:04 PM
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=145487 xkoranate discussion thread
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=55249 scorinators discussion thread
forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=612 general discussion thread
Swith - Today at 5:04 PM
Fantastic!
A final question. What's your favorite part of NS Sports?
Zwangzug - Today at 5:05 PM
People's humor and creativity.
Every once in a while I'll see a callback to something from way back in the day and be incredibly impressed.
Swith - Today at 5:07 PM
Thank you for serving as our guest speaker tonight, Zwangzug. People has asked about this topic for a very long time. It's good to finally get information out to them.
Thank you to everyone for their questions! I appreciate the opportunity to mod this panel.
This wraps up tonight's 4PM panel.
Our upcoming schedule is:
Tonight:
Global Economics & Trade: A Primer — 7PM Eastern/11PM GMT
Worldbuilding and Related (Late Hour) — 9PM Eastern/1AM GMT
NS Roleplay Symposium 2017
TOPIC: “NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying”
TIME: COMPLETED