Post by trottingsky on Sept 13, 2014 15:33:15 GMT
With this being a staple event that happens every year and it having been unofficially confirmed for this one I wanted to raise an issue about last years Pinch the Parcel.
For those who are new to PonyCon and not in the know this game involves people sitting in a large circle with a huge pile of wrapped presents that players have donated in the middle. Dice are passed round and when you get one in your hands you roll it, if you get a 1 or a 6 you can get up, run to the middle and grab a parcel and take it back to where you were sat. Once all the parcels are gone, a timer is started and the dice are passed around again, the difference being that if you roll a 1 or 6 this time you can get up and go 'pinch' a parcel from someone else!
While those who are extremely sensitive might feel the game is mean spirited, this was offset by the fact that when the game was run in PonyCon 2012 you had to donate a minimum of 2 parcels if you wanted to take part. This ensured that there would be more than enough parcels to go around and everyone would get at least 1 as when you get up to pinch natural common decency kicks in and your going to grab one from a a pile someone has rather than someone who just has one. This was offset slightly by the reluctance of most people to pinch from young children who all ended up with sizable piles at the end but even with this only a few people were left with nothing and strait away those with excess were sharing them (I had 2 and gave one of mine to one of them) so I don't believe anyone went home empty handed.
Fast forward to PonyCon 2013...
For whatever reason the stricter guild lines about donating fell apart and when the event started a large influx of people joined who had not donated anything at all. This badly undermined the game in my view with there not even being enough for half the players to get a parcel each, heck it would of been a lot worse had I not gone a little overboard and donated around a dozen parcels which was about a third of the total amount.
I've already made a post about this on UKofE the UK brony form, but felt it important to post about it here not just to reach out to the various non-bronies here that would not see the other post but also to get the attention of those who will be running the pinch the parcel event this year.
I'd like to humbly request that, if the event does go ahead this year, that the more strict rules I saw in place for PonyCon 2012 be brought back and we don't have a repeat of last year with lots of people joining that have not donated.
I do understand that one of the factors that might have might have lead to people being allowed to join who did not donate is that most of them did not know you had to and by the time they found out the event was about to start and it might have seemed unfair to exclude them. This can be solved though by having a tiny mention of donations being necessary for Pinch the Parcel in the opening announcements with it being added that if you want to take part but don't have anything, buy a couple of things from the venders and wrap them up. Dirt cheep wrapping paper can even be at the PonyCon reception decks for people to use with that info also being mentioned in the opening ceremony. I am MORE than happy to chuck in a tenner for the cheep wrapping paper as that would be more than enough to cover it.
Finally, if after careful reflection those running the Pinch the Parcel event decide not to implement the most stricter guide lines about having to donate to take part so once again there is the potential for a large number of people to take part that have not donated anything, I want to humbly request to anyone reading this, please don't be selfish and join without contributing, even a couple of cheep blind bags would be fine if you can't afford anything else.
For those who are new to PonyCon and not in the know this game involves people sitting in a large circle with a huge pile of wrapped presents that players have donated in the middle. Dice are passed round and when you get one in your hands you roll it, if you get a 1 or a 6 you can get up, run to the middle and grab a parcel and take it back to where you were sat. Once all the parcels are gone, a timer is started and the dice are passed around again, the difference being that if you roll a 1 or 6 this time you can get up and go 'pinch' a parcel from someone else!
While those who are extremely sensitive might feel the game is mean spirited, this was offset by the fact that when the game was run in PonyCon 2012 you had to donate a minimum of 2 parcels if you wanted to take part. This ensured that there would be more than enough parcels to go around and everyone would get at least 1 as when you get up to pinch natural common decency kicks in and your going to grab one from a a pile someone has rather than someone who just has one. This was offset slightly by the reluctance of most people to pinch from young children who all ended up with sizable piles at the end but even with this only a few people were left with nothing and strait away those with excess were sharing them (I had 2 and gave one of mine to one of them) so I don't believe anyone went home empty handed.
Fast forward to PonyCon 2013...
For whatever reason the stricter guild lines about donating fell apart and when the event started a large influx of people joined who had not donated anything at all. This badly undermined the game in my view with there not even being enough for half the players to get a parcel each, heck it would of been a lot worse had I not gone a little overboard and donated around a dozen parcels which was about a third of the total amount.
I've already made a post about this on UKofE the UK brony form, but felt it important to post about it here not just to reach out to the various non-bronies here that would not see the other post but also to get the attention of those who will be running the pinch the parcel event this year.
I'd like to humbly request that, if the event does go ahead this year, that the more strict rules I saw in place for PonyCon 2012 be brought back and we don't have a repeat of last year with lots of people joining that have not donated.
I do understand that one of the factors that might have might have lead to people being allowed to join who did not donate is that most of them did not know you had to and by the time they found out the event was about to start and it might have seemed unfair to exclude them. This can be solved though by having a tiny mention of donations being necessary for Pinch the Parcel in the opening announcements with it being added that if you want to take part but don't have anything, buy a couple of things from the venders and wrap them up. Dirt cheep wrapping paper can even be at the PonyCon reception decks for people to use with that info also being mentioned in the opening ceremony. I am MORE than happy to chuck in a tenner for the cheep wrapping paper as that would be more than enough to cover it.
Finally, if after careful reflection those running the Pinch the Parcel event decide not to implement the most stricter guide lines about having to donate to take part so once again there is the potential for a large number of people to take part that have not donated anything, I want to humbly request to anyone reading this, please don't be selfish and join without contributing, even a couple of cheep blind bags would be fine if you can't afford anything else.