GoCrossVideo Contest Results!

After much debate, wrangling, horse-trading and greased pig wrestling, the GoCrossCampus team is proud to announce the winner of the GoCrossVideoContest. Michael Rog from Rice University did by far the most exceptional job of projecting megalomania onto the screen:

(it helps to know that his team, Will Rice, is yellow)

Choosing the best video wasn’t simple. Ultimately, we wanted to pick an engaging video that could get a new player excited to play GoCrossCampus. Since it wasn’t an easy decision, we decided to pick some submissions to highlight as Honorable Mentions below:

The “Game Pride” Award goes to Matthew at Virginia Tech (via Cornell). Simple, subtle and well-done.

The “A Commander’s Life” Award goes to Ian at RPI. Sadly, I think this happened to a couple of my friends at Yale. They will be sorely missed.

The “Would Watch Over and Over Again” Award goes to Kurt at Yale. Hilarious, and even got some coverage in the blogoworld.

The “Most Intense” Award goes to Andrew at RPI. His video, clocking it at 11 minutes (unfortunately, only 10 of which can be uploaded to YouTube), gives an in-depth look at team dynamics that the ILC commanders will surely appreciate.

All entrants will receive GoCrossCampus t-shirts. Thanks to everyone who participated in the inaugural GoCrossVideoContest!

Happy Three-Week-Long Winter Break!

In case our adult readers have forgotten the typical college schedule, let me remind everyone: typically, at least three weeks of bumming around during the latter half of December and first half of January. I’m not sure what relevance January 8^th has to the US holiday calendar, but whatever… most colleges aren’t in session.

This has interesting implications for our games. We wanted things to be over a couple weeks ago, but (given the month-long pause) that wasn’t happening. Things are working great now, so what are we to do? Two-hour turns in an attempt to get the games over quickly were a brief but probably ill-considered experiment. Now it’s the weekend before Christmas, and we don’t want to force the game on people.

So we’ve decided to compromise and finish up the Ivy League and Rice games next week with four-hour (not two-hour) turns. Hopefully this will allow everyone a little extra time to sleep, since it was evident that we were dealing with some really sleep-deprived players. (I shouldn’t have to say that if you don’t want to get up at 4 AM to place armies, don’t.) All the games will be over by the new year, so we don’t need to worry about things running into next semester.

So what’s next for us? Well, for starters, we’re going to try to keep the blog a bit better updated. Then, we’re going to be launching two games to Indian engineering schools. The games will very much be an experiment, as this is not only our first venture overseas but a new kind of team division (by majors) and a new way of marketing the games (by seeding, not by top-down adoption). Most of this is just our way of adapting to the different situation and culture at these schools.

Will it work? Who knows! That’s half the fun of GXC…

Hi, Rice!

As if our server hamsters needed any more work, GXC is now inviting Rice University to the party. Rice, like Yale and Harvard, uses the Oxford Residential College System. As the birthplace of GXC, our game flourishes among residential colleges. The reasons for this aren't rocket science.

1. Residential colleges are the universal center of social life at these universities. Unlike other schools where students are split between the Greek scene, campus groups, and local groups, every student at Yale and Rice consider themselves a part of their college.

2. Residential colleges tend to be small, equally sized groups. It's a lot easier to recruit among a group of 100 when facing another group of 100 than it is to recruit among a group of 3,000 when facing another group of 30,000. Or another group of 300. Or another group of 3,000.

3. Residential colleges concentrate teammates in a geographical area. This emphasizes the "locally social" aspect of the game and allows physical recruitment (at dining halls, going door-to-door) rather than only electronic.

That said, the game seems to work at a variety of places -- whether we're looking at schools without Res Colleges (e.g., RPI) or between schools themselves (e.g., the Ivy League Championship). It's just a bit tricker to find the right way to divide the teams so that every student is fighting for something they identify with. Ultimately, this is something that should be done entirely by students without any interference from us.

But first, I have to go feed some hamsters.