Author's Post Day: we summarize and draw conclusions
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We did it!

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19 original posts, 1 contest entry, 1 contest, 2 slightly late posts. Total: 23 posts altogether (counted not by medals, but by fact, of course). For comparison, during the Razer retro-review contest, a total of 59 posts were written. It lasted exactly one month. If we consider DAP strictly as an event, it was undoubtedly a success. The average engagement in each post compared to the standard was virtually unchanged. On the positive side, if we take the average level, it's even slightly above average.

However, there are no diamonds yet. At least not for now. The latest provocation was the most notable... My post closest to that moment is “About the indie future, the repetition of the 1983 crisis, why Steam must die, and a bit about OnLive with Desura”. The “memory post” from AQuaRity about the first Test Drive Unlimited is lagging just a bit behind. At the time of writing, there were seven units of “gold”, with the potential number reaching ten.

And yes, I am incredibly surprised and perhaps even amazed by the fact that throughout the entire DAP, there was only one (and even that a “random”) contest post and not a single (!) DAP post about GAMER.ru. This is truly impressive.

So, let's list all the heroes in order of appearance.

  • The “ribbon cutter” was comrade Chili at 0:05 server time. Acting as scissors: the translation of a culinary post on Braid.

  • Afraid of a work backlog during the day, Serick hastily posted his wonderful (though quite brief) preview of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, which rightfully earned gold.

  • Well, don't think that all our posts are published at midnight! Of course not. There are enthusiasts at 4 o'clock in the morning too. For example, SergeyTube with his sniper guide from the game Monday Night Combat.

  • After eleven o'clock, I7u4eHbKa broke the prolonged pause. He was assisted by the blog guide to the immortal game Half-Life: Counter-Strike. Well, it wasn't the most notable post of the day, but the initiative is commendable, isn't it?

  • It wasn't even half an hour when Tomo unleashed a valentine contest for the game Drakonia (the most revolutionary blog on the site after Team Fortress 2! Hurry to upvote and subscribe :)

Sideways and upwards! Sideways and upwards! That’s where the “Follow” button is

“The event within an event” — our simultaneous posting at noon server time fell through :) Not least because of confusion with time zones. However, this is too small a failure to mourn — especially since three posts did appear simultaneously, which is also a result. Among them:

After that, posts were distributed quite evenly over time to the very victorious end.

  • And the “main wave” was opened by his walkthrough of Gish by comrade STEPshishka. From this moment, the feed cries out from delight nonstop.

  • “War is the path of deception,” tells us lab-rico in his, um, “quote book” of the Treatise on Military Art. This is exactly what the developers of Total War: Shogun 2 were inspired by.

  • And again, unconventional! This time from Midest, who published his hybrid of a guide and a review about Star Wars: Republic Commando. Even the fact that the post was buried by someone (let’s not point fingers, although we all suspect who it was) did not prevent it from earning gold.

  • At that moment, 4q0007 was inadvertently participating in DAP (most likely unaware) with his contest interview entry.

  • It’s hard to say whether copying from one’s own site can be considered original work, but in our case, we can make a small concession. Just one for the entire event! :) Most likely, you have already guessed that this is about D\_ED\_2 and his genre scheme of computer games.

  • Next on the list is the mind-blowing and mind-bending fanfic about “The Prince of Darkness. The Dungeon of Ankaria” by Algavar. “Approved by the hedgehog Exstas”. I think regulars on the site know what that means ;)

And then the populace leaned towards retro...

  • Mafia2\_the\_best posted a review of the collector's edition of the first “Mafia”

  • ArDec became firmly attached to the Aliens Versus Predator series and this time told about the characters from AvP 2. Besides that, ArDec is probably the most active commentator during DAP.

  • Sisel doesn’t lag behind the collective: he wrote a retro-review of Rayman 2: The Great Escape.

  • And again the first “Mafia”! mafiozo published his review of this game.

Towards the end, the heavy artillery came into play.

  • The so-called “final stage” began with a review of A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda from Werat. The title of the post reminds us of “Mafia of Creativity”, which we will undoubtedly discuss below.

  • Marnara didn’t change her area of expertise and almost routinely (which is so pleasing!) released a stellar post about TES II: Daggerfall.

  • Meanwhile, Soth decided to experiment and ventured into the “preview” genre. And not just any preview, but for a console game! Specifically, for Killzone 3. The experiment, as the golden frame around the post unmistakably hints, was successful.

  • And finally, I close the official part of DAP. The last post from the perspective of the pre-set frames appeared at 21:38, where a small but fierce debate on the topic of “indies vs AAA projects” started almost immediately.

Nevertheless, two more posts appeared at night. It’s hard to say whether they are indeed “late” (there are no identifying tags on them), but perhaps we should mention them here too.

  • At 00:31, Laeda posted a brief review of the Warhammer 40,000 Retribution beta. “News from the front,” so to speak.

  • The unofficial part concludes with wondervill at 04:19 with his substantial review of Sid Meier's Pirates!

Discussing the true goal of the event and drawing conclusions

Well, the skeptics were right. The event really didn't carry any restoring function, and if we consider it “in general terms,” it brought little. For example, in January on Gamer, 180 medals were awarded. Of course, the average quality level of DAP posts is higher, but nonetheless.

As for the true goal... “Welcome to the computerized experimental center at the Laboratory for the Study of Gamer Nature” :)

Yes, the main goals are to collect statistics and test community reaction under non-standard conditions. Roughly speaking, it was a test of how hopeless Gamer is. Sorry for some insincerity — by revealing the main goal in advance, I would ruin it.

Cunning plan

First of all, DAP was deliberately not coordinated with the administration. Just as deliberately, it was held specifically on a Sunday. These two conditions should have tested the administration's interest and, let's say, its attentiveness. For the same reason, this post is published in the evening rather than in the morning.

In this direction, the result is quite ambiguous. On one hand, medals were awarded quite promptly throughout the day, and at one point, the main page even featured 20 medals for 19 posts — practically, heh, “Full Main”. Nevertheless, the logic of awarding is shaky. Some posts from the list above — even those that are truly 100% original — remained without a medal even after the fully working day — Monday. Also, in the morning, the main page almost had none of yesterday’s posts — almost only pinned ones.

Overall, this is an old problem. The deputies are unable to solve it. Technically, there are four solutions to the problem: revive the theme “Author! Author!” and completely equalize rights and make mutually exclusive the medals of “recommended by the deputy” and “recommended by the editorial board”; introduce “cross-site deputies”; add a “need a medal” button; strictly control pinned posts (though total control over the main page is unlikely to be a successful solution).

Big Brother is watching you

Conclusion #1: Today's medal system works overall, but clumsily. It’s worth seriously considering fixing this situation, as the necessary technical corrections are indeed not complicated (all the necessary tools in the system already exist).

Furthermore, I have said it multiple times and will continue to repeat: Gamer's potential as a social network for stimulating UGC is less than utilized at 50%. Filling empty blogs is a drop in the ocean compared to the potential opportunities.

Conclusion #2: The community is potentially ready to work