The Emoticon War!

[dark-daventry]

This thread is for a war on all the emoticons on the forum! You choose your side, and fight for your favorite one. The war is fought by using as many emoticons of the one you choose in one post, while it still being on topic to a discussion. For example, you can't just randomly spam suffer all over your post. It has to actually relate to conversation. If someone asks for a spoiler, then suffer is an appropriate response. You may also substitute your emoticon for a feeling or word. Instead of typing suffer, use instead. Instead of writing I love you just do  instead. You may choose more than one emoticon, but only one per day. You can have a maximum of five emoticons to use. You can only use the emoticons you chose in a post. You may also drop an emoticon at any time to bring in another one. Also, I must admit that I did this thing as a spur of the moment idea, so it may be rusty, and feedback is definitely welcome! I encourage feedback! Those are the rules, so choose your side and start fighting.

P.S. Your first post in the thread is a freebie, so you may use as many emoticons in your first post as you want. Any post after that is limited to the ones you chose. My list of chosen emoticons is below:

1.
2.

I will refine my choices later, possibly adding/deleting some. Also, I may increase the amount of allowed emoticons, if the five only does not work out so well. Again, give me feedback on my idea!

[Delling]

I'm a little confused on some key points here:

1.) Do the posting rules only apply to this thread? For instance, if I pick my five and then want one not on my list in another thread, I could still use it, yes?

2.) If the posting rules apply throughout the entire forum, how do we tabulate usage? 

3.) If emoticons can be exchanged freely at any time, nothing stops players from changing emoticons incessantly so that it's not clear which emoticons they have selected at any one time.

I think this could be refined into a really fun forum game with some additional rules.

1. You must use only the emoticons you have selected for posts in this thread. These must be signified in your first post in this thread.

Consider making it a rule that you must add your emoticons to your signature and that that list must always be updated.

2. You may use whatever emoticons you like while posting outside of this thread.

C H A N G I N G  Y O U R  L I S T

A player must declare the changes he is making to his list in a post in this thread.

1. If you would like to exchange any of the five emoticons you have claimed for other emoticons, you may do so once a week but you may not switch out any of your emoticons for an entire week thereafter.

2. A player may choose to retire an emoticon from their list at any time. Doing so means that the player is no longer allied or aligned with that emoticon so that that emoticon's standing is inconsequential to the player.

S C O R I N G

The emoticons in this thread will be counted at some preset time each week. (I propose Saturday. )


So, the game is somewhat like an emoticon stock market: you try to ally yourself with the emoticon who is winning in the war or (from the other side of things) you are fighting in the war to help the emoticon win.

If the game is intended to be played across the entire forum, consider the following additional rules:

C A P T U R ING

1. You may quote any player's (or should this be "forumer's" in general?) post from another thread into the conversation in this thread provided it is pertinent. Doing so, you allow all of the emoticons in that post to be counted.

Clearly, you could screw this up if you're after a and they used one of those but three 's which obviously help your competitors more...

Also, maybe the score shouldn't be for all emoticons, but only for those people have claimed so far...

Ok, my emoticons are
 

[tessspoon]

This is reminding me of Risk.

[dark-daventry]

I'm a little confused on some key points here:

1.) Do the posting rules only apply to this thread? For instance, if I pick my five and then want one not on my list in another thread, I could still use it, yes?

2.) If the posting rules apply throughout the entire forum, how do we tabulate usage? 

3.) If emoticons can be exchanged freely at any time, nothing stops players from changing emoticons incessantly so that it's not clear which emoticons they have selected at any one time.

I think this could be refined into a really fun forum game with some additional rules.

1. You must use only the emoticons you have selected for posts in this thread. These must be signified in your first post in this thread.

Consider making it a rule that you must add your emoticons to your signature and that that list must always be updated.

2. You may use whatever emoticons you like while posting outside of this thread.

C H A N G I N G  Y O U R  L I S T

A player must declare the changes he is making to his list in a post in this thread.

1. If you would like to exchange any of the five emoticons you have claimed for other emoticons, you may do so once a week but you may not switch out any of your emoticons for an entire week thereafter.

2. A player may choose to retire an emoticon from their list at any time. Doing so means that the player is no longer allied or aligned with that emoticon so that that emoticon's standing is inconsequential to the player.

S C O R I N G

The emoticons in this thread will be counted at some preset time each week. (I propose Saturday. )


So, the game is somewhat like an emoticon stock market: you try to ally yourself with the emoticon who is winning in the war or (from the other side of things) you are fighting in the war to help the emoticon win.

If the game is intended to be played across the entire forum, consider the following additional rules:

C A P T U R ING

1. You may quote any player's (or should this be "forumer's" in general?) post from another thread into the conversation in this thread provided it is pertinent. Doing so, you allow all of the emoticons in that post to be counted.

Clearly, you could screw this up if you're after a and they used one of those but three 's which obviously help your competitors more...

Also, maybe the score shouldn't be for all emoticons, but only for those people have claimed so far...

Ok, my emoticons are
 

Thanks for the feedback! The idea was originally intended for this thread only, but the entire form is also interesting... But I propose we start with this thread and see how it goes. Who would do the counting? I don't think I'd be able to, because of time restraints, and work, but perhaps someone else can. Also, we should probably post the standings whenever their out on the forum. I love your ideas, Delling! Those are definitely some better refined rules. Also, I propose that you don't have to pick your five emoticons during the first post, but can pick them up at various times. Also, adding the emoticon list to one's signiture is also a very smart idea. That way, we don't need to backtrack to the users first post to see which emoticons they chose. I believe that discussion of any topic is allowed, so long as you use only the emoticons you chose. Also, for new players we may want to put a notice to read the first page before posting anything in the thread, to help stop some confusion that may arise.

[PirateKingChris]

 I choose YOU, ! Uh...mostly cause I'm just plain confused.

[dark-daventry]

Yeah, the rules are confusing! I'll try and iron them out and set them in stone a bit more. Once I have this whole thing figured out, I'll post the newly revised rules here!

[Delling]

Thanks for the feedback! The idea was originally intended for this thread only, but the entire form is also interesting... But I propose we start with this thread and see how it goes. Who would do the counting? I don't think I'd be able to, because of time restraints, and work, but perhaps someone else can. Also, we should probably post the standings whenever their out on the forum. I love your ideas, Delling!

I gave the question of who would count some thought as well. The idea of course is that there would be a running total kept in this thread. So, at each counting period, the counter would find the last standings as posted in this thread and work his way to the end of this thread keeping a tally of each emoticon until finally adding that to the old total at the end of the count. (Alternatively, if the war became really heated, the counter should probably make a post without emoticons in it simply for the sake of having a definite end point... so that people don't try to run out ahead of him. )

As to the questions of who and when, my initial suggestions are myself on Saturdays (possibly well-defined to be sometime well between 10-12pm EST).

Also, the reason I recommended the capturing section was that it seemed like considerably less of a logistic nightmare than playing it throughout the forum while still allowing posts in the rest of the forum to be counted (b/c you can essentially bring in emoticons from elsewhere) and thus, I feel, acts as a compromise to the two ideas (playing throughout the forum ( unlikely...) and playing in just this thread).

A further addendum to C H A N G I N G  Y O U R  L I S T:
3. A player who has less than five emoticons (due to retiring emoticons) may select new emoticons until he has five again when next he may change emoticons. [Because obviously the only reason you retired emoticons was that you wanted to switch out more than one emoticon... ]

Thanks for the feedback! The idea was originally intended for this thread only, but the entire forum is also interesting... But I propose we start with this thread and see how it goes.

Agreed.

Also, I propose that you don't have to pick your five emoticons during the first post, but can pick them up at various times. Also, adding the emoticon list to one's signature is also a very smart idea. That way, we don't need to backtrack to the user's first post to see which emoticons they chose.

Agreed and agreed.

I think the topic for now would be discussion of the rules of The Emoticon War. (Probably to be followed by discussion of how long the posts about the rules were ).

[dark-daventry]

Thanks for the feedback! The idea was originally intended for this thread only, but the entire form is also interesting... But I propose we start with this thread and see how it goes. Who would do the counting? I don't think I'd be able to, because of time restraints, and work, but perhaps someone else can. Also, we should probably post the standings whenever their out on the forum. I love your ideas, Delling!

I gave the question of who would count some thought as well. The idea of course is that there would be a running total kept in this thread. So, at each counting period, the counter would find the last standings as posted in this thread and work his way to the end of this thread keeping a tally of each emoticon until finally adding that to the old total at the end of the count. (Alternatively, if the war became really heated, the counter should probably make a post without emoticons in it simply for the sake of having a definite end point... so that people don't try to run out ahead of him. )

As to the questions of who and when, my initial suggestions are myself on Saturdays (possibly well-defined to be sometime well between 10-12pm EST).

Also, the reason I recommended the capturing section was that it seemed like considerably less of a logistic nightmare than playing it throughout the forum while still allowing posts in the rest of the forum to be counted (b/c you can essentially bring in emoticons from elsewhere) and thus, I feel, acts as a compromise to the two ideas (playing throughout the forum ( unlikely...) and playing in just this thread).

A further addendum to C H A N G I N G  Y O U R  L I S T:
3. A player who has less than five emoticons (due to retiring emoticons) may select new emoticons until he has five again when next he may change emoticons. [Because obviously the only reason you retired emoticons was that you wanted to switch out more than one emoticon... ]

Thanks for the feedback! The idea was originally intended for this thread only, but the entire forum is also interesting... But I propose we start with this thread and see how it goes.

Agreed.

Also, I propose that you don't have to pick your five emoticons during the first post, but can pick them up at various times. Also, adding the emoticon list to one's signature is also a very smart idea. That way, we don't need to backtrack to the user's first post to see which emoticons they chose.

Agreed and agreed.

I think the topic for now would be discussion of the rules of The Emoticon War. (Probably to be followed by discussion of how long the posts about the rules were ).

Discussing rules is definitely a good idea. I say we turn your rules into the official rules, and then once those rules are all straightened out, we officially open the thread. I like these refined rules a lot, and it should definitely make it easier for the game to be played and understood. I do wish we could have a Bot doing the counting for us. It would make it just so much easier on all of us . One concern though. What if someone's sig has no more space left. What should happen then? Should there be an alternative?

[Delling]

Discussing rules is definitely a good idea. I say we turn your rules into the official rules, and then once those rules are all straightened out, we officially open the thread. I like these refined rules a lot, and it should definitely make it easier for the game to be played and understood. I do wish we could have a Bot doing the counting for us. It would make it just so much easier on all of us . One concern though. What if someone's sig has no more space left. What should happen then? Should there be an alternative?

I thought of that... the only thing I could think of is somehow shortening the existing text in the siggie... I come right up against the character limit with mine... A more problematic alternative would be to put them into your avatar (say in a row or block in one corner)... Of course then, anytime you wanted to change your list you'd have to edit your avatar... it could end up being really messy and time consuming...

Best option is to squeeze them into your siggie if at all possible I think (pick small emoticons )...

[dark-daventry]

Well, we could request that they go into your sig if it fits, but if they don't, they could add them to their first post in the thread if they absolutely have to. Or, another alternative, is to make another thread to post the smileys in so we have a constant reference to it. That's the only other idea I could think of. We could also ask it to be stickied for easy navigation. And of course within that thread would be a link to this thread. But that all depends on if the Mods will let us. Just a thought.