World Grand Prix Organization: OOC Discussion Thread

[Hapilopper]

Hah, thank you! I'm enjoying what you and Fleft have been doing with VVV and UrGa.

[Tumbra]

Hi everyone. Regardless of whether you took part in the latest WGP2 season or not, please do take a few minutes to fill out this survey. I'm trying to both get a sense of how the changes to WGP2 this season were received, and attitudes toward open-wheel motor racing on the forum in general. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: For clarification, when I was asking about whether the season was too short, I was referring to the number of races.

[Tumbra]

Hi everyone. Regardless of whether you took part in the latest WGP2 season or not, please do take a few minutes to fill out this survey. I'm trying to both get a sense of how the changes to WGP2 this season were received, and attitudes toward open-wheel motor racing on the forum in general. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: For clarification, when I was asking about whether the season was too short, I was referring to the number of races.

I'll be closing responses for this survey on Sunday so I can present results. Please try and get your opinions in before then - thanks.

[Tumbra]

Hi everyone.

Here are the results, in rudimentary form;

We received 25 results, 14 of which were from those who participated and 11 from those who didn't.

11/14 people felt that the season length was appropriate. 3 were neutral on the matter.
11/14 people felt that there were enough opportunities to roleplay with the other people in this series. The other 3 were neutral.
10/14 people felt their efforts were rewarded, with 3 being neutral and 1 disagreeing.
10/14 people felt that the season came to a satisfying conclusion, with 4 neutral.
13/14 people felt they were likely to return for the next season, with 1 unlikely.
Overall, everyone felt satisfied with the hosting of the season.

7/14 people were aware of the change to the points system.
Most people were neutral on the change to the points system, with 7/13 responding such. 6/13 felt positively.
8/14 felt that more points being given out was a good thing for WGPC/2, while 5 were neutral. 1 vehemently disagreed.

8/13 people were aware of mandatory elimination qualifying.
Most people were neutral on the change to mandatory elimination qualifying, with 7/14 responding such. 4/14 agreed, while 3/14 disagreed.
11/14 people agreed that the single style of qualifying made the season more cohesive, while 2 were neutral. 1 vehemently disagreed.

13/14 people were aware of sprint races this season.
Responses to the presence of sprint races was almost unequivocally positive, with 12/14 people thinking they were fun, while the remaining 2 were neutral.
7/14 people disagreed with the suggestion to hold sprints every weekend. 4/14 were in favour. 3/14 were neutral. This was probably the most divisive question in the survey.
7/14 people disagreed that sprints should have a separate cutoff. 5/14 were neutral, while 2/14 were in favour.
13/14 people agreed that the number of points for sprint races were appropriate, while 1 was neutral.

13/14 people were aware of the word limit...
10/14 felt it was not too strict, with only 1 thinking it was. 3 people were neutral.
6/14 agreed that the word limit improved their writing, while 5 were neutral and 3 disagreed.
Thoughts on the continued presence of a word limit were much more positive, with 12/14 thinking there should be one. 2/14 disagreed.

There were two sets of questions; one for participants and one for non-participants.
13/14 of participants thought that restrictions on AI content this season were a net positive. 1/14 were neutral.
10/11 of non-participants thought that restrictions on AI were a net positive. 1/11 disagreed vehemently.

18/25 of respondents (total) thought that the restrictions that were implemented this season were not too strict. 4/25 were neutral. 3/25 thought they were.

10/25 of respondents thought restrictions should not be loosened for images. 9/25 were neutral, while 6/25 thought they should.

11/25 of respondents thought that AI usage should not be allowed, even if said usage credited. 11/25 were neutral. 3/25 thought that it should be allowed if properly credited.

17/25 of people are positive towards the future of open-wheel racing on the forums. 5/25 are neutral, while 3/25 are negative.
14/25 thought that the current pacing of seasons was appropriate, while 10/25 were neutral. 1/25 disagreed.
16/25 thought WGP2 was a good way to get people into open-wheel racing. 6/25 were neutral, 3/25 disagreed.
11/25 thought there needed to be a one-week break at the mid-point of the season. 9/25 were neutral, while 5/25 disagreed.
11/25 disagreed that WGPC focuses too much on character-based RP. 6/25 were neutral, while 8/25 agreed.
14/24 disagreed that WGPC seasons were too short. 4/24 were neutral, while 6/24 agreed that seasons are too short.
8/24 people thought TRS was too complicated to use, while 9/24 were neutral. 7/24 disagreed.
18/24 people thought WGPC Motorworks is a good thing for the series. 4/24 were neutral, while 2/24 disagreed.

If your view was in the minority and you wish to talk about it, feel free to do so! I feel that these results on the whole are positive for the community and are good advice for potential future hosts of WGPC/WGP2. There also seems to be a consensus against AI usage in the series.

[Valentine Z]

From my first glance, everything looks to be in order and of course, you also do host a very good season. ♥ Overall, interesting responses distribution.

The one that I would love to talk about - is the usage of AI images.
> 10/25 of respondents thought restrictions should be loosened for images. 9/25 were neutral, while 6/25 thought they should.
> 11/25 of respondents thought that AI usage should not be allowed, even if credited. 11/25 were neutral. 3/25 agreed.

For clarification, is it correct to assume that these two do not overlap?
In other words, 10/25 thought about loosened restrictions for images, and 11/25 thought AI should not be allowed. I assume there is no overlap.

(My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is that AI images should be allowed as long as it is properly credited - whether or not it is used as it is or you Photoshop it to an extent.)

EDIT: Clarity and wording.

[Yoknapatawphaia]

Thank you Tumbra!

It was a blast being able to RP this season. I couldn't have done this without you or those who have made this season possible

I will probably put together a short RP in coming weeks, just wrapping things up on my end. Ante will be moving to Patriotlandia, while his manager Stephen...to Hapilopper! Exciting times.

[Tumbra]

My personal take is that if there's some form of transformative function then it leans towards being okay. But that's still ignoring the fact that AI images are often plagiarised from the work of real humans.

Of course, images in general weren't graded (and there weren't that many to begin with). It's text I'm more worried about, but if the community feels like we should be more lax on images vis-a-vis text, then I'd probably be open to loosening those restrictions.

I'm personally happy to see the vast majority of people thinking that restrictions on AI are a good thing. I think that this series — as should all other sporting competitions on NSS — should reward creativity and human writing, and not your ability to craft prompts and feed them into a machine.

[Valentine Z]

Yeah that's fair enough on the fact of AI models having often plagiarized from the works of many others.

[TJUN-ia]

Everything seems to be in order on my end, so I just want to bring up a point that I made on mine referring to this section:

11/14 people felt that the season length was appropriate. 3 were neutral on the matter.

I do not mind the 10-race system we currently use and if that is what we use until the end of time, then I would be perfectly fine with that. But I personally feel that moving to 12 races would do both series a whole lot of good without being too bloated.

I may be in the minority on that opinion, but I would like to see what others feel about this.

[Aboveland]

Everything seems to be in order on my end, so I just want to bring up a point that I made on mine referring to this section:

11/14 people felt that the season length was appropriate. 3 were neutral on the matter.

I do not mind the 10-race system we currently use and if that is what we use until the end of time, then I would be perfectly fine with that. But I personally feel that moving to 12 races would do both series a whole lot of good without being too bloated.

I may be in the minority on that opinion, but I would like to see what others feel about this.

WGPC moved down to 10 races from around 12/13 in WGPC18, and while, at first, many of us thought it would feel a bit lacking, in the end I think we felt a 10 race season was for the best. It's somewhat difficult already for users with modest success to keep up their motivation throughout seasons as they are, and even people at the sharp end (speaking from experience) start running out of steam near the end. 10 races leaves me feeling like I've done all I can without making me feel like I've spread too thin. I think it's the sweet spot.

(Also, consider that sprint weekends feel like more than one race and make the season feel longer).

[Recuecn]

I’m most curious about the 12% of people who have a “negative attitude” toward the future of the WGPC. Obviously it’s just a few people, but are there any common threads in their pessimism? Anything mentioned in the open-ended questions that could be addressed?

[Tumbra]

I’m most curious about the 12% of people who have a “negative attitude” toward the future of the WGPC. Obviously it’s just a few people, but are there any common threads in their pessimism? Anything mentioned in the open-ended questions that could be addressed?

There was nothing directly related to the pessimism in the open-ended response. Most relevant comments were elaborating on specific answers rather than suggestions outright.

[Liventia]

Everything seems to be in order on my end, so I just want to bring up a point that I made on mine referring to this section:


I do not mind the 10-race system we currently use and if that is what we use until the end of time, then I would be perfectly fine with that. But I personally feel that moving to 12 races would do both series a whole lot of good without being too bloated.

I may be in the minority on that opinion, but I would like to see what others feel about this.

WGPC moved down to 10 races from around 12/13 in WGPC18, and while, at first, many of us thought it would feel a bit lacking, in the end I think we felt a 10 race season was for the best. It's somewhat difficult already for users with modest success to keep up their motivation throughout seasons as they are, and even people at the sharp end (speaking from experience) start running out of steam near the end. 10 races leaves me feeling like I've done all I can without making me feel like I've spread too thin. I think it's the sweet spot.

(Also, consider that sprint weekends feel like more than one race and make the season feel longer).

Speaking from a host perspective, I also feel like 10 races is fine especially considering things like sprint races, non-championship races, practice weekends etc that have been done in the past. As it stands the calendar already stretches out 3 months. Any more and it really begins to feel like a slog. Consider too that many people have other RPing interests and priorities, and there is always a noticeable drop-off in quality in WGPC/WGP2 towards the end of seasons. This used to really be a problem, to the extent RPs would actually dry up (and also why I never finished season 10 – there was literally no more interest, and I wasn't going to spend literal hours on scorinating and formatting results any more). Extending the season now will only make this more stark.

[Tumbra]

I'm inclined to agree with both Liv and Above — to the extent that I didn't even include non-championship races this time round, and didn't include a mid-season break to move the season along a bit quicker. Unless we start to introduce mid-week races (which I feel would be extremely unpopular), I think 10 is a nice equilibrium to have.