[FAQ] TBT Party Service Helpdesk - For Your General TBT Fair Questions

[Sheando]

does the error posted in the participation tracker mean that if anyone missed a puzzle or jar (or any other event) then they're screwed out of getting an imposter now?

Worse than that—it actually means that even participating in literally every event doesn’t reward 192 tickets, unless I’m making a math error somewhere. You now HAVE to get two VERY strong Count Inside the Bottle guesses (6-8 ticket minimum) in order to have a chance at an imposter, and we have to unlock all 9 balloon tickets, and you have to get at least one ticket from one of the Pin the Tail on the Villager events, which I assume will be the completely random guessing games we’ve had before.

I completely understand staff wanting the imposters to be next-to-impossible without winning an event, but it feels a little unfair to not find out until halfway through the event. I’m sure some people skipped one or two small things thinking they could still hit their goal and are now finding out (too late) that they can’t. And I was so, so excited to have a rare collectible available via hard work and forum participation instead of just RNG—my heart sank when I saw that such a huge amount of earning potential had been eliminated.

I love these huge TBT events, but I wish there was a little less focus on making collectibles SO exclusive and unobtainable—to the point where it is preferred to introduce a significant element of unfairness and randomness for participants halfway through a month-long event rather than just allowing a slightly larger number of users to own the special pixel images.

 

[Mars Adept]

Yeah, the collectibles are already difficult enough to obtain as is. (The staff refused to reissue the original glow wands FOR YEARS.) I don’t appreciate hard work not being rewarded because of pure luck, something out of the person’s control.

I suggest the staff lower the price of the imposter wands. The TBT economy doesn’t matter much anymore anyways as TBT currency is near impossible to obtain and people just enjoy obtaining their favorite collectibles.

 

[seliph]

Worse than that—it actually means that even participating in literally every event doesn’t reward 192 tickets, unless I’m making a math error somewhere. You now HAVE to get two VERY strong Count Inside the Bottle guesses (6-8 ticket minimum) in order to have a chance at an imposter, and we have to unlock all 9 balloon tickets, and you have to get at least one ticket from one of the Pin the Tail on the Villager events, which I assume will be the completely random guessing games we’ve had before.

I completely understand staff wanting the imposters to be next-to-impossible without winning an event, but it feels a little unfair to not find out until halfway through the event. I’m sure some people skipped one or two small things thinking they could still hit their goal and are now finding out (too late) that they can’t. And I was so, so excited to have a rare collectible available via hard work and forum participation instead of just RNG—my heart sank when I saw that such a huge amount of earning potential had been eliminated.

I love these huge TBT events, but I wish there was a little less focus on making collectibles SO exclusive and unobtainable—to the point where it is preferred to introduce a significant element of unfairness and randomness for participants halfway through a month-long event rather than just allowing a slightly larger number of users to own the special pixel images.

i want to wait for an official response but if this is the case, yeah this is extremely poor planning. i would understand it all if this was the case from the beginning and/or it was caught right away as i understand wanting some collectibles to be rare, but we're two whole weeks into the fair. yeah mess-ups happen but it's been too long to go back on it imo - people have already planned and submitted entries, bought collectibles, and maybe even skipped an event round thinking they'd be okay, changing it now just isn't right.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

hearing this news, I feel very upset. I was starting to look up a bit after being very burned out on events after what happened back in December-January. but if it's the case that the imposter wands are STILL very much based on luck in order to get, then I just don't know what to say anymore. just let people get what they want please, artificial scarcity is honestly very annoying.

 

[Roxxy]

I hate being over dramatic but heartbroken that there is no chance of my dream. Unless you are an amazing artist or super lucky most of us have no chance. I am neither and although there are cute collectables my dream is gone

 

[Alolan_Apples]

So no Photo Challenge or Lineart event this year?

There is going to be a Lineart event after all. But no traditional New Horizons Photo Challenge.

 

[Sheando]

Just want to say I was wrong about the Pin the Tail on the Villager events being random—maybe if we’re able to work together in small groups, people can get 6-8 tickets from that as well, which would make 192 more doable!

 

[xSuperMario64x]

even if that's the case, I hope that people who thought they would be able to miss 1-2 things and get it, are still able to get it.

 

[duckvely]

will the tickets from the second round of count inside the bottle be distributed before the rest of the physical prizes go on sale?

 

[Xara]

I don't want to chime in on this much because I'm sick and my brain is foggy, but if staff are unwilling to change things midway through an event for fairness sake (like they have been in the past), situations like this should be included in that. I completely understand that mistakes happen; with the amount of time, energy, planning and work that goes into these events, plus the staff still having their personal lives and obligations to manage on top of it all, no one is expecting perfection. Things like this can and will slip through the cracks.

However, this error went unnoticed for 2 weeks, and many people (myself included), had already planned around the tickets they thought they'd be able to earn based on this error. I don't think it's entirely fair to correct it now.

 

[skarmoury]

I was so excited at the start of fair knowing that as long as I participated in every event, I'd be able to get an impostor wand! It's really the only collectible I wanted in the shop so I worked hard for my entries, spent time on them and stuff. But now with the reveal that guaranteed tickets are far less that initially, I feel really... gutted? Cuz now I'm like damn, what collectible do I even go for now that the impostor wand is highly unobtainable

Kind of weird and sad that this mistake wasn't caught earlier on, or it wasn't transparent how many tickets total we'd be guaranteed at least so we could countercheck the tracker. If it was right from the beginning, I could've lowered my expectations at least

 

[cornimer]

I was so excited at the start of fair knowing that as long as I participated in every event, I'd be able to get an impostor wand! It's really the only collectible I wanted in the shop so I worked hard for my entries, spent time on them and stuff. But now with the reveal that guaranteed tickets are far less that initially, I feel really... gutted? Cuz now I'm like damn, what collectible do I even go for now that the impostor wand is highly unobtainable

Kind of weird and sad that this mistake wasn't caught earlier on, or it wasn't transparent how many tickets total we'd be guaranteed at least so we could countercheck the tracker. If it was right from the beginning, I could've lowered my expectations at least

I'm in the same boat. I've been participating solely to get a magenta pinwheel - there's nothing else I'm interested in. I just did the math and with the new change, I'm no longer guaranteed enough tickets for the pinwheel. If I had known from the beginning that this would be the case, I probably wouldn't have participated at all. I have way too much going on IRL to invest time if there's no collectible I'm super interested in, or if there's a chance I may not get the one I want.

If there's any way staff could consider reverting the tickets change out of respect for the time users have already invested into the event, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jeremy]

Regarding the error in the calendar thread, we were unfortunately only made aware of it today. However, because almost all events are still open, I don't see the discrepancy greatly impacting ticket totals, especially because these multi-round events like Count Inside the Bottle are very easy to do. Secondly, some events in the tracker did not provide ticket amounts at all (such as my Pin the Tail event).

The collectible prices were actually calculated with all event totals in mind, which is why it's not as simple as increasing their ticket amounts. I mentioned this on July 29th:

It's unlikely very many people will earn over 200 tickets even when completing everything. The very top tiers were priced as kind of all-or-nothing collectibles!

If you do every task and perform around average in the three puzzle-style events, you'll have enough to reach even the highest-priced collectibles. This would also include Throwback Tickets from the Confetti Collecting event, which were intentionally placed at the earlier goals. So while it was made intentionally challenging, it's certainly doable from effort alone.

That being said, because of the contradicting information we provided and in the spirit of our celebratory theme, we have decided to address this by adding another opportunity to earn Tickets and Throwback Tickets. From Friday, August 23rd at 7:00 PM EDT to Sunday, August 25th at 11:59 PM EDT @Chris will host a quiz event that will earn you 0 - 9 tickets.

One last thing I'd like to address: some of the posts about this mixup were a bit accusatory and pushy towards the staff. All staff members volunteer their free time to host events like this one. Something I don't think a lot of users realize is that it takes at least several hundred hours (possibly thousands, not an exaggeration) to plan and run them, with multiple days working on TBT full-time instead of work or other commitments. Mistakes are bound to happen, so I hope everyone can be patient with us when they do. And I hope this new quiz event will offer extra reassurance to those of you trying to reach 192! However, I do still recommend completing every round of every task since that was the intention of the high price. Thank you for understanding!

 

[Rio_]

Aww thank you so much for adding the extra opportunity to earn tickets (and thank you Chris for hosting, quiz events are always fun!) I’m sorry that some of the feedback felt pushy, we really do appreciate all the hard work you guys put into the event I can’t even imagine all the time and effort and planning needed to put on an event of this scale!

 

[skarmoury]

Thank you Jeremy and the rest of the staff!! I apologize if I sounded pushy or mean -- definitely not my intention, but I was a little negative at the moment I was typing out that response, so I can see how I might come off that way. I think performing average would still leave us a bit under the required for the highest amount, but at least knowing that now, I can plan for other things. c: And I completely understand people make mistakes, myself included huhu.

Of course, thank you as always staff for these events and all your hard work -- we definitely wouldn't have something to talk about had this whole fair not happened, and overall it's a super positive and enjoyable experience!! I definitely had fun doing stuff and being able to talk with people and be active, all that jazz.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

Thanks for improving the situation. I’ll be looking forward to that quiz.

 

[Jeremy]

I think performing average would still leave us a bit under the required for the highest amount, but at least knowing that now, I can plan for other things

The difference in our calculations may be coming from Confetti Collecting, so I've added this sentence: "This would also include Throwback Tickets from the Confetti Collecting event, which were intentionally placed at the earlier goals." Even if the community ignores the Pietro column, you might still be able to reach 192 as long as you do okay on three puzzle-style events- though that would be cutting it super close. Either way, the quiz does give a lot of room to make mistakes now. I would just suggest to everyone: don't rely on the quiz too much because you'll still need to get the correct answers. After all, it's still supposed to be challenging to get that many tickets and some users may still end up just short of the amount.

 

[skarmoury]

The difference in our calculations may be coming from Confetti Collecting, so I've added this sentence: "This would also include Throwback Tickets from the Confetti Collecting event, which were intentionally placed at the earlier goals." Even if the community ignores the Pietro column, you might still be able to reach 192 as long as you do okay on three puzzle-style events- though that would be cutting it super close. Either way, the quiz does give a lot of room to make mistakes now. I would just suggest to everyone: don't rely on the quiz too much because you'll still need to get the correct answers. After all, it's still supposed to be challenging to get that many tickets and some users may still end up just short of the amount.

Thanks for the clarification Jeremy!! still, having a back-up plan in case things go south would be nice for me in case I cut it pretty close but not enough c:

 

[Sheando]

If you do every task and perform around average in the three puzzle-style events, you'll have enough to reach even the highest-priced collectibles. This would also include Throwback Tickets from the Confetti Collecting event, which were intentionally placed at the earlier goals. So while it was made intentionally challenging, it's certainly doable from effort alone.

That being said, because of the contradicting information we provided and in the spirit of our celebratory theme, we have decided to address this by adding another opportunity to earn Tickets and Throwback Tickets. From Friday, August 23rd at 7:00 PM EDT to Sunday, August 25th at 11:59 PM EDT @Chris will host a quiz event that will earn you 0 - 9 tickets.

One last thing I'd like to address: some of the posts about this mixup were a bit accusatory and pushy towards the staff. All staff members volunteer their free time to host events like this one. Something I don't think a lot of users realize is that it takes at least several hundred hours (possibly thousands, not an exaggeration) to plan and run them, with multiple days working on TBT full-time instead of work or other commitments. Mistakes are bound to happen, so I hope everyone can be patient with us when they do. And I hope this new quiz event will offer extra reassurance to those of you trying to reach 192! However, I do still recommend completing every round of every task since that was the intention of the high price. Thank you for understanding!

If you’re exhausted and don’t want to read a long post you can ignore this, haha. I mean that! You guys have tons going on.

I speculated about my math being off earlier because I was genuinely wondering if it was—I’m seeing 170 “guaranteed” tickets even assuming all first-round puzzles are correct, so for the last 22 one would have a chance at a max of 9 from confetti, an expected average of 8 from Pin the Tail, and then any amount from CotB (would need at least 5). With those numbers I can certainly see how staff would expect some users to be able to hit 192, but it does seem like luck is necessary since several tickets from guessing events are required. I noticed that the CotB ticket amounts tend to be fairly generous, yay!

I love the idea of high value collectibles being achievable through high participation, so I really appreciate the quiz event! I think even having a small handful of extra tickets will make it a bit more doable for everyone. Thank you to you and to all staff for always trying to offer thoughtful solutions to member concerns.

Finally, I do want to apologize if anything I posted came across as negative towards staff. I’m always trying to give props to staff members for our fabulous TBT events, and I do not blame anyone for not catching a small mistake across the many events that are graciously provided to members. These kinds of slip ups are practically inevitable for an event on this scale.

I’ve mentioned before that I used to moderate a forum, and we hosted events as well. I always appreciated respectful discourse about events because it gave us helpful info about how to run things smoothly in the future. So that’s always the spirit in which I offer feedback. I never want staff to feel discouraged or like members are angry AT them. <3

Looking at the events still to come and estimating based on past events + the last two weeks of the event so far, it looks like I can expect to spend a minimum of 40-50 hours on fair activities if I want to complete every single thing (including maxing out confetti and donating to the goals). That is an exceptional amount of content for a staff team to create! But I do wonder if that may be where some of the pushback is coming from—these collectibles are gorgeous, but I’m not sure that I would expect any of them to be more “valuable,” so to speak, than 50 hours of highly individualized and concentrated time and effort. Pricing a glow wand higher than a full-time work week can feel a little disheartening.

Again, that’s 100% just my perspective and I’ll enjoy and appreciate upcoming events regardless. I hope everyone still shooting for rare collectibles can meet their goals, and I hope staff members have something reeeeally relaxing planned for the last week of August! Whew.

 

[oath2order]

One last thing I'd like to address: some of the posts about this mixup were a bit accusatory and pushy towards the staff. All staff members volunteer their free time to host events like this one. Something I don't think a lot of users realize is that it takes at least several hundred hours (possibly thousands, not an exaggeration) to plan and run them, with multiple days working on TBT full-time instead of work or other commitments. Mistakes are bound to happen, so I hope everyone can be patient with us when they do. And I hope this new quiz event will offer extra reassurance to those of you trying to reach 192! However, I do still recommend completing every round of every task since that was the intention of the high price. Thank you for understanding!

That's infuriating, I know how much time you all put into this. Like, even just the artwork for the events takes time, while not neglecting the regular modding duties.

Is this quiz in Discord