[CQ-Contest] Evolving scoring systems

[Ken Low]

"I am not attempting to solve any issues with a particular contest.  My scoring comments then emphasized by Mark, are being suggested as a means to sell radio contesting to a huge group of younger people who 
love to compete using computers playing online games.

Aren't the amount of logs being sent in a function of the internet reaching almost every location on the planet?  Participation should be up too as I think we have more amateurs in the world than we ever had.

Making scoring more interesting or dangling carrots in front of participants has been a proven method in online gaming.  See the series of articles recently published in NCJ.  We can't fix the age problem unless we can interest younger people.

Mike W0MU"


If the goal is to attract new, younger, 'Millennial-type' participants to Radiosport, minor changes like distance-based scoring won't move the needle.   Here's why:

My son Patrick, K3PAL got his General class license when he was 13, with lots of help from me.   He tried a few contests on Phone and RTTY but it did not stick - not complex enough to hold his interest.   Many real challenges of contesting come at the advanced levels (band selection, propagation, Run vs. S&P, off times, etc.) which for beginners don't matter.

Now he's 19 and a Freshman at UVM Honors College.  Don't ask me how he does it, but he's getting A's and B's while spending 2-3 hours a day playing Guild Wars 2.   Out of 2 million players worldwide, he is ranked in the top 150.   What's the attraction?   It's complex, social and accessible:

1.   SOCIAL FRATERNITY:  He is on a team ('guild') where he was interviewed for two weeks to verify his skill level.   This involved streaming his game play for observation and review by the team officers before he was admitted.   Now he's been admitted it's clear it serves a social purpose an an 'elite online fraternity'.   They use 'voice chat' to coordinate their attacks online.

2.   ACCESSIBILITY:  It's available 24/7.   Patrick arranges his competition schedule around his classes.   Millennials like Patrick do not operate on a 9-5 schedule ... They operate in a 24/7 mode.  His guild teammates live in Europe, Silicon Valley, etc.  They form teams for 'raids' based on day-to-day accessibility.

3.   MATHEMATICAL CHALLENGE:  He has completely deconstructed the gaming algorithms to increase his scores and attain his current rating, and writes User Guides to help other players. It is obvious the mathematical complexity aspect is a major attraction.

4.   CONSTANT IN-GAME FEEDBACK:   No 'slow rate hours' in his game.   There is constant action and obstacles to overcome.

5.   LOW BARRIERS TO ENTRY:   Patrick builds his own computers from scratch since stock models don't have the graphics capabilities he looks for.   He has dual 24" monitors, 7 fans for cooling, noise-canceling headset and a memory keyboard that records his keystrokes for playback which helps him kill certain monsters.  Total investment was about $1,700 but the ongoing costs are  FIOS Internet fees only.  Total cost = a big tribander.

You can see the parallels to Radiosport in all 5 aspects I described above.   But you can also see how hard it is for Amateur Radio to compete for Millennials' attention.

A small Postscript:   As you can imagine, our dinner table conversation frequently goes like this:  "Hey Pal, how about a little less gaming and turning those few 'B's into all A's"?   To which I get the infamous 'teenager blank stare' back.   

But as he's majoring in Business and Economics and will probably start his own company one day, I don't push too hard.   It's clear he knows 'the Millennial marketplace' better than I do.  Most importantly, when his company goes public, he'll be a prospective client for me at UBS Private Wealth Management :-)

73,

Ken KE3X