Graal Olympics 2008

[Rufus]

The Graal Olympic Games (also known as the Graalympics) was an old global tradition, consisting of 5 different sporting events that pit each server against one and other in friendly competition. Developed by Tyhm and Angel, the first set of games were hosted in July 2003, with a mostly positive reception. However, it did receive criticism and the most apparent was due to the lag spikes during the events and inability of player participation outside of those competing. Regardless of criticism, the popularity and success of the first Graal Olympics spawned several different attempts at a sequel, but sadly no attempts came to fruition due to the lack of support from community developers.

By Olympic standards, the 'real' sequel to 2003 should have taken place last year (with the four year Olympic wait and all) but people seem to have have forgotten all about the games. As many of you probably already know, in August 2008 the Summer Olympics begin in Beijing, and last year I had originally planned to do host something similar on Classic to coincide with it while I was a Game Coordinator. Classic is currently not as popular as it was, and I left my job there quite a while ago, so I hadn't really thought about it much since then. While researching for something on Bomy Island in the old Graal2001 threads, amongst the kingdom rivalries, inflation complaints, and rock stealing campaigns, I stumbled across some old threads that reminded me of the event, and after speaking to Stefan about it, I've decided this might be the perfect time for a revival.

Graal Olympics 2008

• Teams and Representatives
Like all other Graal Olympics, players will be picked to represent their respective servers in a series of preliminary events, hosted by local events staff. Depending on how fast the events are developed, a dumbed down version could be provided for this purpose, but I'm not sure yet. Representative teams will be decided for the following servers: Graal Kingdoms, Zone, Classic, Era, N-Pulse, Unholy Nation, Valikorlia, and Zodiac by the Managers of each server. In the interest of fairness, we would like (if possible) for each team to include both male and female players, and one member of staff from that server. Teams will not be accepted if they are comprised entirely of one guild or group. If a team is chosen with blatant favoritism in mind it will not be accepted either. With that said, it will be entirely up to the servers to choose which players they would like to be representing them and how they go about this, but within reason. Servers will also be encouraged to collect a few backup players too, just in case.

• Events and Games
The Graalympics is hoping to have some great improvements this year. The sporting events included have never been played on Graal before--they will be created specifically for this competition. For the events I am thinking of using Bomy Island style content; the bodies are more functional providing better animations, and it would generally have a fresher feeling to it. As well as being new, the total number of events has more than doubled, increasing from the intial five to thirteen, each with unique features and style. This total refers to both the classic events and a bunch of new ones too. The events played in 2003 will be returning (with the exception of trivia and the foot race), but they will be completely revamped with improved gameplay, visuals, and setting. These classic three, as many of you remember, are Fencing (Sparring), Sumo Wrestling, and Tug of War. Accompanying these events include: Hurdle Sprinting, Archery, Hammer Tossing, Modern Pentathlon (Horse Racing), Rowing, Tennis, Water Polo, Baseball, Football (Soccer) and Hockey.



Now I don't want to give too much away about the individual events themselves yet (so I won't), but each is planned to have its own varying characteristics, controls, and strategies to make it worthwhile. The games are divided into three categories, 1 player, 2 player, and 4 player battles, meaning your server might be relying on a single player or a whole team. Every server will play 6 events in total, so alone they will not play every single event. It is advised, however, that servers practice every event, as they will be announced by an NPC at random shortly before the actual event. Each server will be placed onto one big leader board, and if you or your team comes first place in an event, you will gain +2 stars for your server and a gold medal for yourself, and +1 star and a silver medal for second place where applicable. The goal at the end is to get as many stars for your server to secure first place, as the server with the most stars at the end be the Olympic Champions. If by chance two servers end up tying, there will be a sudden death event hosted with an event that neither servers have played before.

While the object of the games is to gain the most stars for your home server, the focus is on the competition and involvement more than the outcome ..

• Spectator Participation
Previously in the Graalympics, as the servers nominated only a couple of players to represent them, the majority of players were spectators with little to do but.. well.. spectate. This year I thought it would be nice to do something else for those who would like to watch, so even if you aren't representing your server in the events you can still have fun. When you visit the server to watch the games, before the main event starts a team of Event Coordinators will be hosting various events for those not taking part. Winners of the side-games will receive Star Tokens, which can be used to bet on the outcome of the main events. At the end of the main events, the jackpot would be shared between those who put faith into the lucky winner. Each player would start off with 20 star tokens, and at the end of all events, the spectator with the most tokens would be rewarded with a prize worthy of such gambling talents. The betting would have a limit of 5 tokens per event, and if you're unlucky enough to lose all of your tokens a refill pack would be available on sale, putting those gelats to use.

• Development
So far, Dusty, Dan and myself have been working on minor parts and changing things accordingly. However, in the one and a half months we have till the Beijing Olympic games start, it will be nearly impossible for the three of us (and Crono) to develop 13 different high quality events and the world they will be played on. Some content that we will use currently exists, but in order for this entire thing to happen we're going to need some help. If you're interested in helping out on this project, we'll be pleased to have you, but we need serious developers only. Feel free to contact myself, Dusty, Dan or Crono through forum PM or in-game and we'll take it from there