Swashbucklers (Team 2): Final Project Review

Team Members and roles:

Lindsay- Main Pirate Captain, Main Sign Holder, Leader of Object
http://gamingthesystemuw.blogspot.com/2013/08/team-2-swashbucklers-final-project.html

Kelly- Final Treasure Guardian

James- Camera man & backup sign holder, emergency person finder

Zach- Flag guardian & backup sign holder, emergency person finder

Item: Pirate Hat

Home Base: Silver pillars located on the north end of red square separating it from the quad. Goal destination of Mary Gates Hall entrance.

How our game works: 

The point of the game is to stand at red square with pirate outfits holding a main sign that says:

Arrr Mateys! I've lost my treasure. Can you please help me find it on campus? I promise I'll give you all my booty if you find it! I lost my voice during the great storm at sea last night so I can't talk.

Please make sure you have at least 10 minutes to spare! I will also show you where my mini treasure chests are located on the way, and would like permission to have your photo taken with them.

Arrgg! Let's so find that treasure!"

Once someone starts to play our game the following pictures portray how it should have played out. 

Armstrong at Flag in Red Square #1

Finding the treasure chest at Flag #2 located between the pillars in Red Square

Third treasure chest located in the quad next to flag #3

Flag #4 treasure chest

Armstrong getting to our final destination in front of Mary Gates Hall, finding the large treasure chest!

Game Results Review:

I think it is important to realize that luck does have some say in how every teams game works.  It is luck that determines who walks past your game start point and if they are willing or want to participate.  I think we had really bad luck with this game because nobody wanted to play it.  After trying to flag people down for 20 minutes we eventually gave up and went through the game with Armstrong acting as a random student that wanted to participate.  It was disappointing to have put all that work and effort into the game and have everyone excited to see how it turns out just to see it go south.  In the end though I believe that while we had bad luck there could have been a few things we could have done differently to make the game work better. Even though this game did not work the greatest I still enjoyed the process and the experience.

What we should have changed:

First off I believe that our initial sign used to flag people down had too many words on it.  I noticed people stopping to read it and then walking past when they were done.  It should have been more simplified such as "Help me find my treasure" and not so detailed.  Most people that showed interest in our game didn't want to play because the sign said it would take 10 minutes and people didn't have that time.  I also think that we should have possibly rethought our flag down process.  Instead of stationing each other in different zones or positions we should have all been fully dressed in pirate clothes and all holding signs jumping up and down to get more attention and find people to play the game.  I will be honest in the fact that I wasn't dressed in pirate clothes but that was because I was supposed to be ahead of the game and more discrete about how I was placing the treasure chests by the flags before the participant got there.  We should have also maybe rethought our whole pirate theme idea.  I think we could have thought of something different that would have appealed to more people.  The last thing I would have changed is I would have made our start point in a different location of our zone 2.  I think we should have put it in the quad by the stairs leading up to the art building.  I believe that art students would be very excited to participate in our game and it would have worked well to try to flag them down plus the quad gets good foot traffic at almost any time of day.  

Final thoughts:

Overall I believe our group did a great job and it just was mostly luck that caused us to be unsuccessful in this game.  I believe we had good teamwork and that we had a good game idea and  I wish it could have worked out better for us.  I really enjoyed this final project and this class!