DEATH RACE 2010 has received amazing and surprising support since it was first announced, both BattleClinic and EON Magazine have stepped up to provide coverage. The front-page forum post on BC has gotten well over 1,000 views or more and EON recently posted the news on their Facebook page. In addition the support from the blogging community has been overwhelming, with many posts, banners and even fiction being written about the event. The prizes available to entrants continue to grow, from their choice of faction frigates to fully-fitted Rifters and much more on the way. The available "prize pot" is well over 240 million isk and growing.
And yet, as I check this morning, we have SEVEN entrants.
The race is twelve days away. I have received untold numbers of emails, convos and questions about the event in the in-game channel. The response has been amazing, awesome and totally positive. And yet we remain with only SEVEN entrants.
I had no idea what I was getting myself in for when I announced the event. To be honest I was simply trying to create something fun both within and without the game itself. I knew it would be a pain in the ass, but I went ahead and did it anyway. I never expected to get hundreds of racers, but I thought a reasonable expectation would have been between 20 - 40. Out of 500k+ players.
At this point I have no choice but to create a self-imposed deadline. By Friday August 13th if we do not have at least 20 racers signed up to race, I will cancel the event. I owe it to the sponsors, the donators and the volunteers (who will be manning the systems, monitoring the racers, and more. All without a chance to win themselves.) to do so. I also owe it to the seven racers who have signed up in good faith already. I want them each to know that in the event that the race is cancelled, they will get their entrance fees returned.
This was always a trial balloon. I made the assumption that others would be as excited to participate as I was in creating it. I may have been wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. Judging by the forum responses and most of the questions, the majority of players are simply planning on finding ways to cheat, or gank the racers. Which is fine, as long as we have actual racers to race. The Death Race was designed to be fun, a free-for-all without a lot of rules getting in the way. But maybe that isn't something that Eve is interested in?
I've always been man enough to admit when I've been wrong.
And yet, as I check this morning, we have SEVEN entrants.
The race is twelve days away. I have received untold numbers of emails, convos and questions about the event in the in-game channel. The response has been amazing, awesome and totally positive. And yet we remain with only SEVEN entrants.
I had no idea what I was getting myself in for when I announced the event. To be honest I was simply trying to create something fun both within and without the game itself. I knew it would be a pain in the ass, but I went ahead and did it anyway. I never expected to get hundreds of racers, but I thought a reasonable expectation would have been between 20 - 40. Out of 500k+ players.
At this point I have no choice but to create a self-imposed deadline. By Friday August 13th if we do not have at least 20 racers signed up to race, I will cancel the event. I owe it to the sponsors, the donators and the volunteers (who will be manning the systems, monitoring the racers, and more. All without a chance to win themselves.) to do so. I also owe it to the seven racers who have signed up in good faith already. I want them each to know that in the event that the race is cancelled, they will get their entrance fees returned.
This was always a trial balloon. I made the assumption that others would be as excited to participate as I was in creating it. I may have been wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. Judging by the forum responses and most of the questions, the majority of players are simply planning on finding ways to cheat, or gank the racers. Which is fine, as long as we have actual racers to race. The Death Race was designed to be fun, a free-for-all without a lot of rules getting in the way. But maybe that isn't something that Eve is interested in?
I've always been man enough to admit when I've been wrong.