Thoughts about Game Calendar

[vonklaude]

I just wanted to make three suggestions for the Game Calendar that might make it better to use.

1. Make Ruleset column use a pulldown so that it is easier to list all sessions for a given ruleset. For example, right now a search on "5e" won't find the Hoard of the Dragon Queen session listed under "5th edition". That makes it much harder to find all relevant games.

2. Replace "Last GM Activity" column with "Next Session" so that DMs can consistently surface when their next session will be. That will make it much easier to find a game that will be a time you can join. Ideally, this column should convert for viewers timezone setting. The value of knowing when your GM was last active seems slight. Some DMs presently embed their next play time into their description text. So while sometimes Next Session will be blank, having it there will result in useful information and should drive helpful behaviour.

3. Replace "TMZ" column with "League Game" with the options "Yes" and "No" so that one can easily sort Adventurers League games from others. TMZ is made redundant by change 2. above ofc.

[Mask_of_winter]

1. That would definitely fix that problem but then again you'd have to include all hundreds or thousands of RPGs available on the market right now. Or have an "Others".

[Trueshaft]

The confusing bit about the calendar for me is there are what appear to be entries from months ago that still show on the calendar as well as sessions that have been cancelled.Very confusing for a new member like me.

[Trenloe]

League game is very D&D 5E specific - it's not just 5E being played on here! ;) The main view of the game calendar should be generic, not with fields that might be redundant for a lot of gamers.

I agree with option 2 though. :)

[JohnD]

The confusing bit about the calendar for me is there are what appear to be entries from months ago that still show on the calendar as well as sessions that have been cancelled.Very confusing for a new member like me.
That's because the people who made those entries haven't deleted them.

[Nylanfs]

I would like to see #1 with an Others that creates a line to enter the game system that is (or can be) added to the list of game systems.

[Wazoodust]

I would like to see #1 with an Others that creates a line to enter the game system that is (or can be) added to the list of game systems.

I agree with this, if you're looking for something less popular you can select this, but find you're major number of games(Pathfinder/5E/3.5E) and standardize the listing so they're easier to sort and find things. If there are variations for league play that could maybe be a checkbox or another dropdown choice. So long as a player isn't sifting through useless info for them.
I did just look and counted 16 different entries for 5E. If you leave it so an uncommon ruleset could be entered that would solve the issue of neglecting a ruleset or using "other"
By far the worst culprit of this is 5E, if you give only 1 option and the DM enters it differently in "other" they may have a tough time recruiting players, they'll figure it out when that happens. (Not trying to be a jerk, that's just human nature of how things work)

[MTS]

I'd like three different views on the Calendar app:

1. I'd like to see a MONTH page, showing the games for the next 30 days. I'd like to be able to switch months. I'd like to click a date on the month page, and see the DAY page.

2. I'd like the DAY page to show rows for 24 hours in my time zone. I'd like to see the scheduled games for that day represented as blocks arranged on the 24 hour rows on the page. For each game block I'd like to see a color or icon representing the rule set being used (perhaps the color is just a thick colored line at the beginning of each game block). The block should start at the game's start time and end at the game's finish time. I'd like to filter the games down to specific rule sets. I want each game block to show whether the game is accepting new players. I'd like to click the game block to see the GAME page.

3. On the GAME page, I'd like to get the details of the campaign. I'd like to be able to sign up as a player for the game. I'd like the description from the forum to show up. I'd like a link to the forum to make comments there. I'd like the signup sheet to be chronological so that it tracks who signed up first. I'd like a link to the DM so I can ask questions.

This would eliminate many of the problems with the current system.

[Morgentaler]

As discussed in a previous post...the ability to add notifications on the calendar..you can get them for threads private messages but calendar activity? Unless I'm missing something.
I've converted my games to Obsidian Portal. So only suggesting to those using the calendar.

[Zacchaeus]

Looking at the Calendar a large part of the problem is that DMs aren't closing off games or deleting them or even keeping them up to date and so there are many more games on there than are actually taking place, it seems to me anyway. If I sort the games by last activity then only a handfull of entries have had anything happen in them (outside of the few FGDaze games that still haven't been deleted). If I were looking for a game I wouldn't be looking beyond any games where there has been no activity in the last week or so, since I would assume that anything where there hasn't been activity are either running or have fallen by the wayside.

[MTS]

Looking at the Calendar a large part of the problem is that DMs aren't closing off games or deleting them or even keeping them up to date and so there are many more games on there than are actually taking place, it seems to me anyway. If I sort the games by last activity then only a handfull of entries have had anything happen in them (outside of the few FGDaze games that still haven't been deleted). If I were looking for a game I wouldn't be looking beyond any games where there has been no activity in the last week or so, since I would assume that anything where there hasn't been activity are either running or have fallen by the wayside.

I totally agree.

That's a great reason to move to a MONTH / DAY calendar, kind of like Microsoft Outlook. Show the games that are scheduled. If they're older than today, no big deal -- they appear on that date on the monthly calendar, but who cares if they're ever deleted.... If we see a Monthly calendar, it's obvious when a game is older than today.

[vonklaude]

League game is very D&D 5E specific - it's not just 5E being played on here! ;) The main view of the game calendar should be generic, not with fields that might be redundant for a lot of gamers.

I agree with option 2 though. :)
That is a good point about League games, sorry. Maybe the column could just note "Organised" game or something to help players identify those that are being run in a fashion that allows characters to be transferred between them.



Looking at the Calendar a large part of the problem is that DMs aren't closing off games or deleting them or even keeping them up to date and so there are many more games on there than are actually taking place, it seems to me anyway. If I sort the games by last activity then only a handfull of entries have had anything happen in them (outside of the few FGDaze games that still haven't been deleted). If I were looking for a game I wouldn't be looking beyond any games where there has been no activity in the last week or so, since I would assume that anything where there hasn't been activity are either running or have fallen by the wayside.
Could I suggest that this wouldn't matter if the session date was formalised. Because then past-dated sessions would sort to the bottom until a future-date session was planned.