amtgard v9 DEVELOPER reports
The Amtgard V9 Team is committed to keeping the Amtgard community involved and informed about the ongoing research and development of Amtgard V9. On this page you can find progress reports about the project that we hope will boost your confidence in the team and your excitement for the project itself. As always, if you have any unanswered questions, check out the FAQ or can contact the V9 Team directly through v9@amtgard.com or by messaging the Amtgard V9 Facebook Page.
DEVELOPER REPORT - OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022
Hello Amtgard! Wunjo here!
We have officially begun closed alpha playtesting and debuted our new logo, so let's talk about it!
NEW LOGO
To align with the launch of the alpha, we have released our new Amtgard V9 logo. This is takes aspects from the current Amtgard website logo, the placeholder V9 logo, and solidifies Clippy as the phoenix of V9 Amtgard, as represented by the signature three-tailed look. To further distinguish our logo from the V8, we swapped out the red lettering for a nice rich purple. Also, on the advice of our community members, we created a simple V9 seal that event organizers can add to their advertising material to identify when their event is using V9 rules. We are really happy this new logo and hope you are too!
CLOSED ALPHA PLAYTESTING
The bigger news is that the closed Alpha playtest has officially launched and is automatically available to all Phase 2 FRP parks as well as any new parks who wish to participate! All members of registered parks are now welcome to join the Amtgard V9 Discord server to view the alpha docs, provide feedback, and participate in discussion.
WHY ISN'T PLAYTESTING OPEN TO EVERYONE?
A common question we have been receiving is why we don't just open playtesting to everyone in Amtgard and the answer is quite simple. The V9 ruleset is still in early development and it's very raw. It is not in a state that we want parks to feel obligated to playtest unless they are collectively willing to do so. Many parks that are choosing not to participate at this time are doing so because they have a growing population of new players and they don't want to burden those recruits with trying to learn two rulesets.
The alpha ruleset is going to be subject to frequent revisions and changes as we receive playtest feedback. As such, only parks with players who are willing to adapt to these frequent changes will be able to properly contribute to the process. Once we have settled on a more stable ruleset, we will launch Open Beta Playtesting (ETA Summer 2023) so everyone can sink their teeth in without needing to apply.
So in a nutshell, he alpha playtest is closed because it's not going to be a good fit for all parks. The beta playtest will be the main playtest for the public and that will be arriving around Summer 2023.
LEAKED INFORMATION & SPECULATIVE FEEDBACK
We are aware that the alpha documents are being 'leaked' to the public and unfortunately it is logistically impossible for us to prevent this. That said, we had already accounted for this 'leaking' and part of our solution involves only allowing registered park members to join the discord server and contribute proper feedback. While this may seem counter-productive, we are trying to limit the amount of speculative feedback and focus on input from actual on-field playtesting, of which only the registered parks have shown interest in doing.
NEXT STEPS
That all said, we are keeping an eye on progress as always and will be adjusting the needs of our initiatives to suit what works best for development. If we decide that we need to change our methods to better support the project, we will do so. We are not tied down to any specifics methods and will remain flexible and ready to adapt as necessary.
Beyond the release of the alpha itself, our plans for the future are two-fold:
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First, we will be monitoring playtest feedback and discussing potential revisions in our development channels. As we resolve them, those changes will be pushed to the live playtest document and all alpha playtesters will be notified, along with a changelog.
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Second, we will be moving forward with internal development of the class rules, including all the magic and special abilities as well as the combat classes themselves. Thiese are set to release in Spring 2023. More news on that in the coming months.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, we are very excited to finally have our feet on the ground with actual playtesting and so far the feedback has been positive. Our current playtest members are very understanding of the 'work-in-progress' nature of the alpha and are eager to help us optimize it. I honestly think that finally getting to see a large chunk of the actual ruleset has given contributors a better perspective into our plans for V9 and many members have expressed that their confidence has increased with actual rules in their hands.
THAT"S ALL!
That's it for now! As usual, you can find more information about the parks and application process here.
Until next time!
- Wunjo
Director of Amtgard V9 Development
DEVELOPER REPORT - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2022
Hello Amtgard!
Welcome to the first Developer Report of Phase 3! I've got a few fun things to share with you let's get to it!
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Some folks may have noticed that we've been pretty quiet since July and that's because we've directed all our energy inwards to prepare for the launch of the V9 Militia Alpha! In addition to working hard on the product itself, we are once again renovating our Discord server to match the needs of this next set of trials.
As part of this, the Focus Group initiative has been officially concluded. We appreciate all the discussions and feedback they provided us and we hope to see some familiar faces pop up in the Alpha feedback channels.
Speaking of which, our Field Research Project is transforming into the Alpha Playtest community and all FRP Parks will be automatically added as Alpha Playtest parks. With that in mind, a big thank you to all the Field Research Ambassadors for who stepped up to help collect park feedback during the FRP phase.
"But Wunjo! How will the alpha parks give feedback if they don't have representatives?"
Good question!
THE ALPHA COMMUNITY DISCORD FORUMS
Discord has recently unveiled a new feature - forums! All members of Alpha Playtest parks will be invited to join the V9 Discord server and engage in conversation and feedback using Discord's new forum system. Just like the days before Facebook, we can finally have user-generated, topic-based conversations that aren't commandeered by marketing algorithms. Getting this new system was incredibly important to us because Facebook's recent trend of skewing feedback by actually HIDING posts and replies that aren't generating engagement is a huge red flag and dangerous to genuine feedback. Our development doesn't need more echo chambers. Discord Forums allow us to organize conversation and track feedback much better than the current wall-of-text that traditional Discord offers.... which up until now was the only thing Facebook had going for it.
As such, it should come as no surprise that...
V9 DEVELOPMENT & FEEDBACK WILL BE ENTIRELY ON DISCORD
We were originally weighing the options of having a Facebook group for people to provide alpha feedback, but for the reasons listed above, and many more, we have decided that Facebook is simply a step backwards for our development, and for Amtgard itself. We will still post basic updates on Facebook, but all playtest engagement with the team will happen on Discord.
We hope that this move can help signal to the rest of our populace that it's time to start moving away from Facebook as a logistics tool.
SURVEY-BASED FEEDBACK WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE.
In addition to open discussion via our discord server, there will also be Survey-Monkey powered feedback forms that participants can fill out to submit their feedback in a more traditional method. No Facebook, Discord, or Google Account required.
NEW DATA ANALYST!
As we move forward into Phase 3, we've recruited a new Data Analyst to help us peer into our class surveys and provide insight and highlight trends. They are not a member of the core team, operating purely in a data-analysis role so they can focus 100% of their efforts towards dissecting data and delivering deep dives. If you have experience in data analysis and interested in helping this team, please reach out to us on Facebook, Discord, or via email (v9@amtgard.com).
NEW ADVISORY COUNCILS
Speaking of insight, to upgrade some aspects of the now-dissolved focus groups that we still need, we have assembled three Advisory Councils to oversee and inform our work in regards to sensitive topics, namely Accessibility, Women in Amtgard, and Ethnic Diversity. These three councils will be getting early eyes on our work to let us know any red flags they see and to suggest improvements or alternative solutions. Each council has a diverse group of passionate members with experience in the relevant topics and we are looking forward to working them more and more as the V9 ball gets rolling.
UPDATED TIMELINES
Lastly, we have updated our Phase 3 timeline to include the target release dates for the Alpha.
The Militia Alpha is scheduled to release sometime in October 2022. This will include all the rules that would be needed to play a Militia game, including Core Combat Rules, Armor and Weapon construction, Armor Breaking, Archery, Projectiles, etc. We will also be including a few new 'essential' sections such as the Honor System, Safety, Gray Areas, and Garb.
The Battlegame Alpha is scheduled to release sometime in April 2023, with pieces of it being released earlier as we see fit. This will include all the classes, abilities, and systems required to play a full class battlegame.
Before I go, I would also like to leave some concept artwork we received from the art team we hope to work with for the official release. (Art Credit: Ink the Tea studio)
Enjoy!
- Wunjo
Director of Amtgard V9 Development
ANNUAL 2022 AICOM MEETING - JULY 2022
Hello Amtgard! We made it to Phase 3!
July 2022 was focused on only one thing: the continued existence of the Amtgard V9 Committee. With a proposal to disband the team looming over us, we worked with the EXCOM to ensure we were as prepared as possible for the AICOM meeting where the 22 Kingdoms would vote to either dissolve us or empower us.
Thankfully - we survived and now have shiny new authority to playtest and develop a V9 ruleset in earnest.
You can see the breakdown of the AICOM votes below, as well as a link to the entire video meeting for those who want to relive the suspense and see how each Kingdom represented themselves on our biggest stage.. All the V9 discussion and voting is right after the opening remarks and role call.
As for what's next, we'll be re calibrating ourselves for Phase 3 over the next few weeks and then working diligently to prepare the first alpha document for release.
Since there were also many new V8 changes passed at the AICOM meeting, the Field Research Program is transforming into the Alpha Playtest Program to ensure we don't have any mixed signals. Going forward, you're either playing fully in V8, or fully in V9 - no more V9 experiments within the V8 ruleset.
And that's it for now!
Keep your eyes peeled in August for tons of Phase 3 information including Alpha Playtest applications and release timelines.
Until then, thank you for support the continued development of Amtgard V9. See you in the Alpha!
- Wunjo
Director of Amtgard V9 Development
ANNUAL REPORT - JUNE 2022
Hello! At the request of the EXCOM, we've put together our 2022 Annual Report Video a bit earlier this year!
We also created a full text transcript(with relevant slides), however we strongly encourage everyone to watch the video if possible.
We put a lot of love into it. ❤️
Enjoy
- Wunjo
Director of Amtgard V9 Development
DEVELOPER REPORT - SPRING 2022
Hello everyone! It's been a few months since our last report! The Pandemic is falling off and everyone is going back to work so it's been very busy indeed! As such, I'll be going over all the happenings for Spring 2022.
Since our last update, the V9 Team has successfully distilled our shared vision into an elixir of intent and we plan to use that to fuel our development moving forward. Notably, we'll be presenting a handful of these development decisions in our 2022 Annual report, to be release mid-June ahead of the Annual IKCOM meeting.
We are very happy with the progress we're making and the blurry edges of the future are really starting to come into focus. It's a great feeling and I'm very excited to share what we've got in store in future updates.
With that in mind, we've also concluded our Phase 2 surveys - the class surveys - and now have the ability to really deep-dive into what makes each class tick, from a mechanical perspective and a player-experience perspective.
Respondent engagement was tricky for this one because we knew folks wouldn't complete all 15 surveys. That said, we assigned some reasonable targets and managed to meet them, so we're happy with that. You can see the numbers in the chart below this report.
During this time, we've also brought on an volunteer Data Analyst to help interpret some of the larger data sets without being part of the core V9 Team. So far the time saved is proving to be immensely helpful.
Another aspect that has been helpful is our Field Research Program. We've assembled over 50 parks at this point and they've been running six (6) experiments designed to explore more "out there" ideas within the V8 ruleset. We used to call these "pocket playtests". The idea is that they would let us explore foundational concepts before we had to build an entire alpha around them.
The Field Research Program will be transitioning into the V9 Alpha program after the 2022 IKCOM meeting and all the parks that applied to the FRP will transition over. To avoid conflict and confusion with any upcoming V8 changes, we wanted to make make sure that any V9-related testing going forward would be done entirely within the V9 alpha ruleset, not V8. It is our desire to cooperate and coexist with the V8 Team during the entire V9 Development process.
And that's it for now! You can expect to see our annual report very soon. We are looking forward to moving into Phase 3 and I hope to bring you more exciting updates then!
Thanks for reading!
- Wunjo
Director of Amtgard V9 Development
MONTHLY REPORT - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022!
Hello! We've got another dual-month report coming to you since there's not much I can talk about YET.
Since our return to action, the team has spent the last month going over our independent visions for V9 (as discussed in the previous report). Each of us took turns presenting isolated visions of what V9 could be and we are going to be using those visions to create a metaphorical Venn-Diagram which will serve as our starting point for work on the Alpha build.
Overall, these presentations were a truly inspiring experience and it really served to re-ignite the creative passion in the dev team, especially since we've been doing mostly surveys for the better part of two years.
I am very excited to start shaping the alpha build as we move into March and you can expect more updates on that as we progress into the spring.
Speaking of progress, we are continuing to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and adjust our timelines accordingly. At this time, our release schedule remains unchanged.
Lastly, I will leave you with our most recent podcast visit - The Archive with host Godric Grai!
Thanks for reading!
- Wunjo
Director of Amtgard V9 Development
MONTHLY REPORT - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021
Hello everyone! Wunjo here! It's the end of the year and time for our final update of 2021!
Over the course of November and December, the V9 Team has successfully created and finalized our first two FRP experiments that will be launching in January. We have also established the feedback form templates that we will be using to collect the results from our Research Ambassadors.
Companion App progress has been slow and we are currently working with several AI teams to assess feasibility, budget, and staffing requirements.
We have also begun working with AI-HR to put wheels in motion for our Illustration Team, who will be providing the updated artwork for the V9 Rulebook. We are in the very early stages but we should be putting out a general call for volunteers in January and making some feasibility assessments by the end of February. We will be exploring options for both player-made artwork as well as the cost/benefits of hiring a professional team to cover our graphic needs. Stay tuned for more information in that regard.
When it comes to the class surveys, we have received an expectedly low amount of responses overall - simply due to the amount of surveys that are being presented, as well as the preference-specfic nature of each survey itself. By looking at some of the Phase 1 data, we were able to generate an engagement chart (see below) to showcase some of the relevant metrics and targets that we are looking to achieve in order to secure a strong statistical significance.
As you can see, most classes are under 50% of their target engagement AND we have a slightly lower amount of women responding to the survey than our phase 1 data would say is normal.
Our primary goal is to get the General Class Survey over the 400-response line and ensure statistical significance there. Many responses to the questions in that survey can be cross-referenced to our class-specific surveys to add support data to any topics that do not hit their engagement targets.
Our effort to boost engagement include bi-weekly posts to highlight surveys that are under-responded, as well as a small prize draw for members who complete the general survey in the last weeks of December. At this point, our hope is to get the General Class Survey to it's target by the end of December, and leave the class surveys open into the early months of 2022 to try to fill them out as we work on the non-class aspects of our V9 Alpha.
Speaking of the Alpha, each member of the V9 Team has been asked to indepently consider all our data so far and put together what they feel Amtgard V9 is shaping up to be. They are encouraged to be as vague or specific as they like. When we return to our weekly meetings in 2022, we will compare and contrast our thoughts and use that discussion to begin work on the Alpha rules for V9.
It's all very excited and I can't wait to share more with you in the coming months.
With that all said, I'll leave you with one final gift - please check out the most recent episode of the WAK! podcast where Gorovan and I discuss V9 and share some juicy secrets and hilarious stories.
Happy Holidays everyone! See you in 2022!
MONTHLY REPORT - OCTOBER 2021
Hello everyone! Wunjo here! I hope everyone had a spooky Halloween season!
Progress for the month of October has been steady.
The Class Surveys have launched and are slowly gathering responses. They will remain open until January at least.
The Focus Groups have been overhauled successfully and our members should now have greater access to information and an easier time discussing the various topics. In addition, we will be looking into monthly voice meetings with each of the topics in an effort to improve communication with members that are having difficulties with the text-heavy nature of Discord.
Next, we have selected and on-boarded the first group of parks for the Field Research Program (FRP) as well as their assigned Research Ambassadors. Everyone is very excited to be involved. The FRP itself doesn't begin posting experiments until January so for now we are just getting everyone settled in.
Internally, we are putting the finishing touches on the methodology we will use to collect feedback from both the Ambassadors and the general populace, as well as curating some of the initial plans for experiments themselves.
Lastly, the Amtgard V9 Team has begun having regular meetings to advance of plans for an Amtgard Companion App (to be launched alongside V9), as well as gathering artists to provide visuals for the V9 document itself. Both of these initiatives are in very early stages so there's no much I can say other than "they are happening".
As usual, the V9 Team plans to take December off so the next report will likely involve us getting everything tidy for the holiday break.
That's all for this month's report. Thanks for reading!
- Wunjo (Tyler Salvador)
Director of Amtgard V9
MONTHLY REPORT - SEPTEMBER 2021
Hello everyone! Wunjo here! Welcome to Phase 2 of Amtgard V9 Development!
With the world slowly returning to normal, I have found myself with less free time to record and edit the video versions of these reports. Coupled with the near-zero engagement we've seen for the past report videos, I've decided to stick with simple text for all the Phase 2 reports. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes and I thank everyone who took the time to watch the video reports last year.
Now on to business!
September 2021 has mostly been a time of re-organization and ramping up our Phase 2 initiatives. While Phase 1 was very wash-rinse-repeat, our plans for Phase 2 are less straight-forward. As we move through development, the need for creative thinking and major decision-making will become more and more prevalent and so our week-to-week plans will have to be a bit more flexible to accommodate the needs of critical thinking.
With that in mind, our goal for September was the following:
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Perform a census of the focus groups [Complete]
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Open applications for the Field Research Program [Complete]
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Prepare the Class Surveys that will run until December 31, 2021. [Complete]
Interestingly, we originally planned the Class Surveys to launch in November, but we were able to assemble them much quicker than expected so we are pleased to launch them right now, on October 1 2021.
As you can see, we're making great progress!
Moving into October, our goals will be the following:
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Complete a pruning and re-organization of the Focus Groups using the data collected from the census.
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Prepare the on-boarding and feedback portions of the Field Research Program
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Review applications and select the parks that will be invited to the Field Research Program
Once the FRP parks have been chosen, the V9 Team will be faced with our biggest challenge yet -- making major decisions about the direction we want to take Amtgard V9! Our plan is to start the FRP experiements in January so we'll be spending the rest of 2021 carefully looking at the data and discussing what concepts or ideas we want to push out to our volunteer parks.
It's sure to be an exciting period and I'll be there to keep you all posted as it happens!
That's all for this month's report. Thanks for reading!
- Wunjo (Tyler Salvador)
Director of Amtgard V9
ANNUAL REPORT - PHASE 1 - JULY / AUGUST 2021
Please take a look at the following video to see our annual report for Phase 1 of Amtgard V9 Development. The presentation includes plenty of data, charts, insights, and observations about what we've done, where we're at, and where we're going. Enjoy!
MONTHLY REPORT - JUNE 2021
Hello all! Wunjo from V9 here! All Phase 1 Surveys are now closed!
This is a very exciting moment for us because it means we can finally start to sink our teeth into the data and start taking bigger steps towards actual concrete decisions.
On behalf of myself and the rest of the V9 Team, we want to thank everyone who took the time to complete these surveys, as well as everyone who helped advertise, promote, and share the links across the hundreds of Facebook groups, Discord servers, and all those players who are not engaged with social media. We could not have done this without you!
With that all said, here is the final numbers for Kingdom engagement for Phase 1 of the Amtgard V9 surveys.
As you can see, there were five Kingdoms that managed to achieve perfect >15% engagement across all surveys: Desert Winds, Goldenvale, Iron Mountains, Nine Blades, and the Rising Winds.
Two other Kingdoms came extremely close: Emerald Hills and Northern Lights.
While there are a number of Kingdoms with low representation, it should be noted that all of them made a concerted effort to boost their numbers in the final months, and for that we are grateful.
Overall, we successfully achieved our initial target of 12.5% engagement, or 1/8th of the total Amtgard population pre-Covid. About half-way through Phase 1 we set a stretch goal of 15% engagement and we managed to come very close to hitting that target as well, with only 3 surveys missing the target by one or two percentage points.
At the end of the day, we connected with an average of 551 players per survey, which is 17.3% of the current population and 13.7% of the pre-Covid population. This is an amazing sample size for our research! For context, most real-world research projects aim for only 10% of the total population!
With the final numbers in hand, the margin of error for our data can now be officially calculated to be +/-4% with a 95% confidence level. In layman terms, we can say with 95% confidence that the "true" result for any of these questions will be within +/-4% of the values we acquired.
What all this means is that we are very well prepared to enter Phase 2 and start making smart, informed decisions about the future of this great game.
And that concludes the monthly report for June 2021!
Please join me LIVE at the annual Inter-Kingdom Circle of Monarchs meeting on July 31, 2021 for our first YEARLY report, where we will discuss the progress, results, and future plans for the Amtgard V9 Team. I've linked the agenda below. You can find more details about where and when to watch by visiting the official Amtgard facebook groups, the Amtgard Circle of Monarchs group, and your Kingdom's facebook group.
IKCOM Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17xu8EX_Fy5q7Tph4nG_vkdwB1Qba1NWcqybMAbiYmVQ/edit?usp=sharing
See you there!
- Wunjo, Director of the Amtgard V9 Project
MONTHLY REPORT - MAY 2021
Welcome to the Amtgard V9 Monthly report for May 2021.
I've got a very short update for you so we are skipping the video portion entirely.
The most important piece of information is that ALL the V9 Surveys (#1-9) will be closing on June 30, 2021.
I have compiled the engagement levels for each Kingdom and presented them in the chart below you so you can see how your Kingdom is doing overall and on a per-survey basis. If your Kingdom has any surveys with engagement listed in Red or Yellow, please consider completing those surveys if you haven't already. This will help each ensure that each kingdom is fairly represented across all topics.
Progress-wise, the V9 Team is continuing to work on preparing our annual presentation for the Inter-Kingdom Circle of Monarchs at GotC 2021 on July 31, 2021.
And that's all for this month!
Thank you all for reading! All surveys close on June 30, 2021 so head over to the Surveys page and get them done before it's too late!
- Wunjo, Director of the Amtgard V9 Project
MONTHLY REPORT - APRIL 2021
Hello Hello! I’m Wunjo and welcome to the Amtgard V9 Monthly report for April 2021.
Today we launched Survey #9. This will be the final V9 survey before the Inter-Kingdom Circle of Monarchs meeting in August and because of that it is a very unique survey for a number of reasons.
Firstly, we wanted to re-assess all our previous surveys and make sure any unanswered questions had a chance to be put in front of the populace.
As such, you will notice that this survey addresses topics from all over the rulebook.
Also, due to our upcoming deadlines, we had to pack a little more content into this one than usual so don’t feel obligated to complete the entire survey in one sitting.
That said, there’s some really juicy content in there, such as...
The second reason for this survey: Paladin and Anti-Paladin.
The final questions of this survey is actually a joint-project between the V8 Team and the V9 Team. Since the IKCoM will be directly discussing the future of the restrictions on the Paladin and Anti-Paladin classes as soon as August this year, both teams felt it would be beneficial to put out a populace-wide survey about this topic beforehand.
The results of this section of the survey could have an impact as early as this summer, so if you would like to make your opinion heard when it comes to the restrictions on Paladin & Anti-Paladin (or the removal thereof), please make sure you take the time to complete this survey.
Beyond that, the Amtgard V9 team is hard at work making preparations to close out Phase 1 of development and move smoothly into Phase 2. We cannot make any statements about our plans just yet, since they rely heavily on receiving permission from the IKCoM to do so. All I can say is that we are well on track to meet all the deadlines we set out for ourselves last summer, so please sit tight, buckle up, and we are sure to have a ton of new information for you after the IKCoM meeting in August.
Last but not least, I wanted to remind everyone that the entirety of the Amtgard V9 surveys will remain open until the end of June 2021, after which they will be closed forever. If you have ever wanted to impact the game, please go back and make sure you have completed each of those surveys. Every single voice and comment matters.
You can find all the surveys right here.
That’s it for me for this month. Thank you all for reading and don’t forget to check out Amtgard Survey #9: Miscellaneous Questions + Paladin & Anti-Paladin!
- Wunjo, Director of the Amtgard V9 Project
MONTHLY REPORT - MARCH 2021
Hello! Wunjo here. Welcome to the V9 Monthly Report for March 2021.
As usual, before we start I would like to announce that Survey #8: Spells & Abilities, is now available to be completed at amtgard.com/v9. This survey covers exactly what it says on the label – all the spells and abilities of the current V8 ruleset.
Place your bets now for what the most loved and most hated abilities will be! My bet is on [REDACTED]!
With that said and done, you folks have been filling our surveys with messages about how you want to see more of the other V9 team members and less of me. I get it, my stupid face is everywhere right now. Well you’re in luck! We’ve been reaching out to all the kingdom governments to see who would like to have the whole V9 team come over for a visit and open discussion.
Since we’ve started this initiative, we’ve been invited to AMAs for Goldenvale, Iron Mountains, Wetlands, Westmarch, Dragonspine, Northreach, Rising Winds, and Tal Dagore. All of these events have had at least five (5) of the six (6) core V9 team members present and on video for you to see and interact with in real time. If getting to know the people in charge of V9 is important to you, talk to your Kingdom Monarch or Rules Rep and ask them to connect with us to schedule a visit!
That all said, another way to interact with us more closely is to apply for the focus groups! Heron actually goes into more detail about the focus groups in the video-version of this report so if you really want to hear from a new face, go watch the video above!
With focus groups in mind, another V9 team member, Wat, has been reaching out to the various Rules Reps to let them know which players from their kingdoms have been invited to a focus group but have not joined yet. If you have applied to a focus group, check your junk mail for an invitation from v9@amtgard.com or check directly with your Rules Rep to see if you are on their list.
Lastly, I would like to give you an update about the future of the project.
At this time, Survey #8 will be our last “mainline” survey – meaning that it’s the last survey that is covering a broad topic from the V8 Rules of Play. We will likely have at least one more survey before the IKCOM meeting in July just to tie up any loose ends that we may have missed in our initial pass over. The rest of our time leading up to the meeting will be dedicated to further analyzing the data, talking with our focus groups, and putting together a plan and presentation to present to the Circle of Monarchs.
This will NOT be the end of the surveys overall. It will just be the end of the monthly surveys as they have been presented thus far.
We hope to keep making these monthly reports so even without surveys you can still stay aware of what your V9 commitee is doing.
Thank you for taking the time to read or watch this report. See you next month!
V9 Survey #8: Spells & Abilities is available now!
- Wunjo, Director of the Amtgard V9 Project
MONTHLY REPORT - FEBRUARY 2021
Hello everyone! My name is Wunjo and welcome to another V9 Monthly Report!
Before we begin, I'd like to announce that Amtgard V9 Survey #7 is now available to be completed! This survey covers "How Classes Work", which includes all the shared systems between classes, including leveling, credits, customization systems, garb standards, and Look the Part.
And now into the report itself!
We're going to start with the engagement levels for the last survey (Survey #6: Fundamental Battlegame Mechanics). As you can see by the chart below, we had pretty good engagement this time around. In fact, not only is it good, this is one of the best overall turnouts across the board. We've had some kingdoms with really high numbers in the past, but this is the first time we've had this many kingdoms cross the target engagement line. Only four (4) kingdoms did not meet the mark within 1 month of the survey being released. So if you're part of the other 18 kingdoms that participated, give yourself a round of applause! Awesome work!
Next up, I'd like to discuss our future surveys and our plans leading up to GotC 2021, the big Inter-Kingdom Circle of Monarchs meeting happening in July 2021.
The surveys that we are hoping to have completed by that time are "How Classes Work" (which just launched today), as well as assessments of all the abilities in the game. We want to know what works, what doesn't work, what people like, what players find enjoyable, etc... -- and that is where we are going to stop before we bring our big report to GotC.
Now I know what you're thinking,
"Why aren't you surveying about all the specific classes?"
Here's the thing. The classes are the final step in putting together the V9 ruleset. They are the accumulation of everything we build. We are going to be surveying about them after GotC, once we give our report to the IKCoM, and after we get their feedback about the direction we've decided to take V9 development.
We want to be able to look at all the surveys up to that point (10 total) and sit down as the V9 team to talk to the Rules Reps, Focus Groups, and all our other external contacts. Together we will restate our design goals, refresh our missions statement, and really pinpoint what the key problems are with the V8 ruleset, as indicated by the surveys. From there, we can make strategies to tackle them and every other change will be a kind of ripple-effect to accommodate the fixes we make. Once that's done, we can decide if we want to add extra embellishments and other non-essential changes to the system.
With all that in mind, the class surveys will follow suit based on how it all plays out. We want to make sure the IKCoM is on board with this plan before we go ahead with class research. There's no point engaging people or polling about the classes if we're not even sure about the direction we'll be going with them.
Which brings me to my next topic, what else is happening after GotC?
After GotC, we will be done the main sweep of surveys and the only thing left will be our class surveys (as mentioned above). Those surveys will probably be very different than all the other surveys up to this point, which is why we feel even moreso that they should come after GotC.
Beyond the class surveys, we are going to be shifting to "Deep Dive" surveys. The Core V9 Team is going to start making creative decisions and the focus groups will be able to start working on ideas that may go to playtest. As such, these Deep Dive surveys will include very specific and very narrow questions to help fill in any lingering holes in our data that could be useful to this process.
As far as playtesting goes, we are still limited by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. As soon as we can start fielding with a "critical mass" of players (ie. when we start to feel like things are back to normal) then we will drop playtests. Until that happens we are going to be focusing on deep dives, theory, and lots of discussion and outreach.
Speaking of outreach, we really want to make sure we are connecting with as many people as possible. The V9 Team is doing AMAs whenever requested. We are attending panels, open outreach, voice chats, etc... whenever they are made available to us. We want to be as available as possible.
We were recently featured on Kingdom of Kodiak, hosted by Kodiak, the then-King of Dragonspine. If you want to learn more about the core V9 team members in a casual video format, consider checking it out below.
That all said, if you would like us to engage with your Kingdom, just reach out to us and we can arrange a time and place to connect with your populace. Keep your ears open for players who are eager to participate with V9 but have not been able to do so for whatever reason. We doing our best to be super transparent, open, and engaged with the public but that can't happen one-way. Help your Kingdom be part of this once-in-a-decade development process by reaching out to us and booking an AMA or panel discussion today!
Email: v9@amtgard.com
Facebook: Amtgard V9
V9 Survey #7: How Classes Work is available now!
Thank you for reading. See you next month!
- Wunjo, Director of the Amtgard V9 Project
MONTHLY REPORT - JANUARY 2021
Happy New Year Amtgard! I’m Wunjo and this is the V9 Monthly Report for January 2021!
First on the docket, I am pleased to announce that Survey #5 (Roleplay, Quests, Magic Items, and Monsters) has the second most responses of all our surveys to date. It has over 700 responses so far! This surpasses the Armor survey which is currently sitting at ~650 responses, but is still a ways off from dethroning our top ranking survey, Survey #1, which has over 1000 responses! That is absolutely mind blowing!
To put this all into perspective, our goal for these surveys is 500 responses. Your participating in these past surveys have knocked that number out of the ball park! Thank you so much for coming out and making your voice heard!
Next up, the V9 Team has recently completed a reflection on our goals and accomplishments in 2020.
We have shifted some roles and pivoted some goals to better suit our member’s strengths based on their successes and struggles over the past year. We’re all volunteers here and we want to make sure that those who come out and help us with V9 development are able to contribute in the best way suited to them, even if their initial plans didn’t go the way they wanted. This is true for our core members, our focus group members, and our external supporters from AI and beyond.
We are committed to ensuring our volunteers are placed in the best roles for them and doing our absolute best to avoid burnout. No one in this team needs to suffer from burnout - that is only going to create a poor product in the end.
Ultimately, we took all the lessons we’ve learned from 2020 and lined ourselves up for smoother sailing in 2021.
Speaking of 2021, I’m sure that you’re all aware that the USA and Canada have no plans to get “back to normal” anytime soon. Yes, the COVID vaccines are rolling out but if you look at any projections from the various governments, it’s not looking like we’re going to have a regular spring, summer, or even fall.
With that in mind, the V9 team has accepted the fact that in-person playtesting will not be happening this year. Even if some parks are able to field in 2021, we won’t feel comfortable trying to draw any conclusions from a playtest with just those few parks. As such, we will be holding off in-person playtests until we can get strong, substantial data and our 2021 plan is going to shift to accommodate an on-going quarantine research process.
At this time, the delay should only affect our internal timelines and not our estimated release date for Amtgard V9 – which is currently scheduled for GotC 2024. With that in mind, we are only in January so keep checking these monthly reports and we will update you as the year progresses.
Taking a look at the focus groups now, the program has been running as intended however the older focus groups (the ones that have been there for a couple months now) have begun to stagnate as we, the V9 Team, have been waiting for the completion of all the surveys before we give them any concrete direction. There’s only so much theorycrafting that each group can do before you run out of fuel to brainstorm with.
We have so many creative and talented members that have been putting in tons of effort towards their respective groups and we are eagerly looking forward to the time when we can give them proper direction but unfortunately right now we are simply waiting until all the surveys are done so we can look at the big picture and make decisions from there. We have a very specific process that we are following to ensure we are doing this right.
That said, we are looking into some plans to either put the focus groups into reserve until we are ready to go, or alternatively, finding some other way to keep them engaged and pivot to different angles with their knowledge base to keep them warmed up so as soon as we are ready to make decisions they are all fired up and ready to go.
Last, but certainly not least, I am pleased to introduce Heron from the Kingdom of the Northern Lights as the newest member of the Amtgard V9 core development team. Heron is a paragon warrior, a rules rep, and a highly active member of the amtgard community both on and offline. She brings a wide range of skills, experiences and perspectives that, up until this point, the V9 team has been sorely lacking. We are overjoyed to have found someone that fits the team so perfectly and fills all those niches that we have been looking for. Alongside the skills and talents of the rest of the team, I know we will be able to achieve even greater heights for the future of Amtgard.
Survey #6: Fundamental Battlegame Mechanics is available right now!
If you’ve applied for any focus groups, remember to check your email for an invitation from v9@amtgard.com.
Thank you for reading. See you next month!
- Wunjo, Director of the Amtgard V9 Project
MONTHLY REPORT - NOVEMBER 2020
Hello everyone! My name is Wunjo from V9 and this is your V9 Monthly Report for November 2020!
Right off the bat, I want to let you know that one of our most requested survey topics is now available to be completed! Survey #5 covers Roleplay, Questing, Magic Items, and Monsters. Please check it out as soon as you finish reading this update!
In addition, if you have applied for ANY of our focus group programs through the applications at the end of our surveys, please go check your inboxes! Search for emails from v9@amtgard.com. We have invited over 200 players so far and you could be one of them! Inside that email is everything you need to connect with the V9 Development Team and start participating in topic you signed up for.
Next, let’s have a brief engagement update. Engagement has been good, with participation tending to plateau around the ~500 respondents level (which is exactly what we are aiming for) and slowly creeping upwards after that. Nice.
Now I know what some of you are thinking:
“I really want to participate or contribute to V9 development in a way that is more than just text and surveys, but I don’t really want to go ALL IN to the focus groups. Is there some way that I can just reach out and talk, not in text – but in voice?”
The answer is YES!
We are happy to announce the introduction of V9 Q&A sessions!
These are open to ANYONE and ANY GROUP over voice via your kingdom or park’s Discord server, Zoom, or any other group voice-chat service you want to use.
All you have to do is reach out to us and we will schedule a day where I (Wunjo) and any of the available V9 Team Members will come out and answer questions about V9: what you can expect, how you can get involved, our design methods, how the timeline is going to work, etc…
Even if you just want to talk at us with your ideas and give us everything you’ve been storying up over time; just idea vomit all over us, that’s fine! We want to hear it because it’s important to us.
We want to make V9 development as much of a community experience as possible but we know we can’t individually reach out and get everyone’s exact opinions. If you book us for a Q&A session we can come and listen to you and at least you’ll have the chance to talk to us directly and give us ideas. Also, if anyone has something written up, they can give it to us and we can put it in our stash of reference notes.
We hope this helps players get involved without having to commit to focus groups or relying on just the surveys to get their ideas heard.
To book a V9 Q&A session, connect with us over email (v9@amtgard.com), through Facebook (Amtgard V9), or message me on Discord (Wunjo / Tyler Salvador) if you share a server with me.
And that brings us to the final note of this report – the Christmas Break!
The V9 Team has agreed to take a break for December. We won’t be releasing any new surveys or selecting any new focus group members until January 2021.
I will personally still be around throughout December and any existing focus groups will continue as normal. If you want to book a Q&A session we will try to accommodate you based on the availability of the team.
With that all in mind, after the break we will be kicking off 2021 with a bang because we’re finally going to be getting into all the big topics that you’ve been begging for – Classes, Customization, Abilities, Archetypes, etc… All that good stuff.
As a word of advice, there is going to be intense competition for the spots in these focus groups so start thinking about your resume and how you are going to pitch yourself to us if you want to get on the V9 development team. As usual, we are going to pick two (2) players per kingdom for each class so do your absolute best to prepare yourself OR if you know someone who 100% should be involved, make sure you get their attention and let them know to start getting ready.
Jannuary 2021 onwards is going to be really amazing for the V9 research process and I hope this gets you excited for what’s to come – it’s like a post-Christmas Christmas present!
And that’s it for this report!
Thank you very much for reading!
Don’t forget to complete Survey #5: Roleplay, Quests, Magic Items, & Monsters – available right now!
See you in you in 2021!
– Wunjo, Director of Amtgard V9 Development
MONTHLY REPORT - OCTOBER 2020
Hello Amtgard! Wunjo here with V9 Monthly Report #3 for October 2020!
I’d like to start off by giving an update about our Focus Group programs.
At the time of this report we have three (3) active focus groups and they are all progressing well. The experience is definitely something new for both the focus group members and the V9 team itself. Many of the participants have rarely had the opportunity to talk about these topics in a way that wasn’t just pure theorycraft so it’s been interesting watching everyone settle into the role.
Since we have deliberately invited players from a variety of perspectives and opinions, this has naturally set up certain conversations to be more volatile than others. The Armor Construction focus group, for example, is likely going to be one of the hottest topics in the entire project. Most opinions are so multi-faceted that it’s very easy for any two members to end up in a conversation with the exact opposite opinion. In fact, we’ve already had a few heated clashes, but they have been resolved gracefully and all involved parties have been very understanding and respectful – so that’s a big plus.
As far as overall progress goes, at this point in time the V9 Team is providing prompts to the various focus groups based on the data from the surveys. More often than not, we are asking the members to consider a piece of survey data and help provide context from their kingdoms, as well as potential solutions.
That said, no concrete decisions are being made from these discussions at this time, the V9 Team and I are simply taking notes and adding them to our collection of data. In truth, it is unlikely we will make any definitive decisions on the direction of the project until after the major surveys have been completed. Our current plan is to present some firm directional choices to the IKCoM at GotC in mid-2021. Until then we want to keep everything as fluid as possible so we can adapt to the data as it arrives.
Lastly, if you applied to participate in any of the focus group programs, it’s important to check the email that you gave us. We choose the participants about 6 weeks after the respective survey is released and they are notified by an email from v9@amtgard.com. We send a single email with all the necessary information. There are no follow-ups and we don’t chase anyone down. Please don’t miss your opportunity to participate in V9 development by letting the invitation rot in your junk mail.
Before I go, I wanted to give my usual engagement update for the previous survey.
After three rounds of surveys, Dragonspine, Rivermoor, Tal Dagore, and Polaris have consistently been the least likely to participate in the V9 Survey process.
That said, a number of Kingdoms have had record levels of engagement – including Burning Lands and Emerald Hills, with many others making decent progress or maintaining consistent participation.
Most kingdoms are responding well to the distribution of these charts as a way to boost awareness of their populace’s lack of engagement. Further, Kingdom’s who have decided to award a bonus credit for completion of new surveys are seeing record-setting participation levels, even when those kingdoms had very low engagement prior to the bonus credit initiative.
If you are a Monarch or Chancellor of your kingdom, I highly recommend considering this option as a means of ensuring your Kingdom’s interests are reflected in the results of our surveys.
And that’s it for now!
If you have any questions or comments, you can send us an email at v9@amtgard.com or connect with us on Amtgard V9 Facebook Page.
Survey #4: Scenarios and Reeving, is available for completion at amtgard.com/v9.
Thanks for reading!
– Wunjo, Director of Amtgard V9 Development
MONTHLY REPORT - SEPTEMBER 2020
Hello! Wunjo here! It’s time for our second monthly update post!
This month’s top highlight is the start of the Focus Group programs! After reviewing hundreds of applications, we’ve select two individuals per-topic per-kingdom to join us in the focus group programs for Core Combat Rules, and Weapon Construction. We’ve sent an invitation to the email provided by our chosen participants and many of those players have already found their way to the Amtgard V9 Discord server.
To be completely honest, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect from this initiative. All we knew is that we wanted to give the populace a chance to be involved in the development process in a way that has never really been offered for previous revisions of the ruleset. As such, we’ve been working hard to adapt and evolve our logistic approach to ensure the focus groups members will have every opportunity to impact the creation of V9 in a way that is comfortable for them.
Regardless of what form the program settles into, I am confident that Amtgard V9 will be the most player-driven update Amtgard has ever seen!
Next, I’d like to give an engagement update. Since my last report, Survey #1 has skyrocketed to near 1000 replies, with nearly every kingdom passing our engagement targets. Survey #2 on the other hand has seen wider distribution thanks to the help of the Rules Reps, as well as a more balanced engagement for it’s first month.
At the time of this report, Survey #2 has over 600 responses and a healthy engagement chart (pictured below). There’s a noticeable lack of up-front engagement, but that is to be expected since the initial hype of V9 has died down. As we settle into these monthly updates, we hope that most surveys will be able to reach their targets within a 2-month period.
Lastly, we have begun working with the Diversity and Inclusion Team to better connect and engage with players who have difficulty with text-based environments. As a LARP that has very little text involved in the actual execution of the game, we feel it is crucial to make sure those individuals are involved the revision process.
And that’s all for report #2!
Survey #3, focusing on the Expanded Combat Rules such as Armored Combat, Armor Breaking, Shield Crushing, Archery, and Projectiles, will be launching September 13th, 2020!
If you have any unanswered questions, consult the FAQ or contact the V9 Team directly through v9@amtgard.com or by messaging the Amtgard V9 Facebook Page.
Thanks for reading!
– Wunjo, Director of Amtgard V9 Development
MONTHLY REPORT - AUGUST 2020
Hello! Wunjo here. This is the first official post of our monthly reports! If you look around the website, you’ll notice we’ve added a number of extra pages dedicated to expanding the information available to the general populace and improving the transparency of the project.
If you haven’t already, please take a look at the new pages that can be accessed at the top of this article: “About the Team”, “Frequently Asked Questions”, and the page you are currently reading, “Monthly Reports”.
The focus of this month’s report is going to be an initial engagement report based on the results of our first survey.
We have received a total of 590 responses to Survey #1 at the time of this report. Our survey posts were delivered at least twice to each Kingdom via a direct post from V9, a Rules Rep, or a share from one of the populace.
If you look at the chart below, you can see all the kingdoms and their level of survey participation displayed as a percentage of their population. A Kingdom that is green has met or exceeded the expected level of engagement (12.5%). Kingdoms shown in red have not met the expected level of engagement.
Of note, the Kingdom’s with the poorest representation have not had their Rules Reps accept our invitation to join the V9 development process at the time of this report. On the flip side, the top three Kingdoms are those who have members on the core V9 team. As such, we will be dedicating extra effort to bringing the rest of the Rules Reps on board and improving representation numbers across the community. We expect to see a significant boost in participation once the first round of focus group members have been engaged.
Speaking of Focus Groups, at the time of this report, we have not yet invited any players to the Focus Group programs. Ideally we will be selecting at least 2 players from per-Kingdom, per-topic, for participation in the program. At this time, we plan to contact the chosen individuals sometime during the third week of August.
As for our 1v1 representation and accessibility contact lists, we have acknowledged a survivor bias, particularly in regards to the amount of reading and writing that is required to get to the point where a player can opt-in to the contact list. As such, we will be working towards creating videos to accompany all our text-based announcements and reports in an effort to engage and connect with players that have been otherwise hesitant to involve themselves due to the amount of text involved.
Survey #2, focusing on Armor Construction and Armor Combat Rules, will be launching on the second week of August.
If you have any unanswered questions, consult the FAQ or contact the V9 Team directly through v9@amtgard.com or by messaging the Amtgard V9 Facebook Page.
Thanks for reading!
– Wunjo, Director of Amtgard V9 Development
MONTHLY REPORT - JULY 2020
Kord, Wunjo, and Manama were present at the Inter-Kingdom Circle of Monarchs meeting on July 25, 2020.
Manama was attending as the candidate for elevation to the Rules Rep Organizer (RRO) position and was affirmed to the position with a unanimous vote. He had no involvement in the V9 report itself.
The V9 report began as Kord, then-Chair of the V9 Committee , addressed the CoM and brought them up to speed with our progress since the team was officially sanctioned in 2019.
In a nutshell, much of 2019-2020 was spent establishing the Survey Monkey accounts and dealing with unexpected speed-bumps due to the arrival of COVID-19. Of note, our survey expert became unexpectedly MIA and we were forced to move ahead without them, further slowing down progress since we had been leaning on their expertise for creation and coordination of our surveys.
Kord then stepped down as Chair and presented Wunjo as the new head of the Amtgard V9 Team. Wunjo proceeded field questions from the CoM about the future of the V9 project. For reference, all their questions have been added to our FAQ in one form or another.
Before closing the report, a vote was held and Wunjo was unanimously a rmed into his new position by the Circle of Monarchs.
You can watch the full recording of the CoM meeting below. The V9 portion begins at 7:40:55.