Rules of the game

I created our family on a lark and named it after my podcast because I could.

I had no idea there would be Family Feasts, and that having active family members would be beneficial to winning a few simple virtual prizes. But that's how it works.

As time marches on, we've learned that delaying the start of the Feast makes it easier to win them. Few people seem to object to that. I encouraged RDoc1 to move on and find a new team if s/he wasn't happy with having "boring" Feasts. I totally support moving onto a new team if there's any reason you're not happy with the one I put together.

As for RDoc1, s/he joined a team that requires you have 10 help points every week, and earn at least 50 bags in each Family Feast. If it makes him/her happy being part of such a team, I'm glad s/he joined it.

I have talked with one of the captains about having a minimum requirement for the Feast, but I have not implemented one. I'm still not going to.

But here's my loose-knit guidelines for membership. Apologies if I'm asking too much.

I don't care about how many or how few help points you have. I don't bother to look these days. If you ask for free rolls and scratchers, and don't help anybody earn them, it's no big deal. We have plenty of people who spend the 3 seconds it takes to help multiple times per day. Our team has a huge help score. As of this moment, two members have scores >200.

I am not setting a minimum on Feast contributions. Beyond the daily free game, I spent less than 20 rolls on the last Feast, and scored 40-something bags. I spent no rolls on the prior Feast and scored 30+ bags just by playing one free daily game.

All I hope for is to have active players who engage regularly and play their free daily Feast game, if nothing else. Almost everyone ends up with 20+ bags during each Feast. That takes very little effort.

But I'm not setting a minimum requirement. I try to watch the bottom of the player score total at the end of each Feast, but I don't keep stats. If I notice somebody is consistently inactive, I will consider removing them. I know people take breaks from the game, and some folks are kind enough to let us know. But I'm not going to set a minimum requirement for the Feasts. I couldn't care less if we win or finish in 20th place, but I'd rather have a chance at winning, and therefore I'd rather have modestly active players on our roster.

So what's my point? I'm not penalizing people simply for starting the Feast 3 or 4 hours after it begins, despite the fact our goal is to wait until the next day. But during the past two Feasts, the players who started it were players who contributed less than 30 bags. And when I sent them private messages, asking if they are paying attention to our delayed start notifications, I got no response. After several messages over several days, with zero response, I decided that it was time for them to go after we finished the Feast.

I don't care if you don't want to chat. We have active players who never chat in the group chat, and that's fine. But I don't think it's asking too much for anyone to acknowledge a private message when one is sent. So if a player starts the Feast, and never pays attention to our announcements or acknowledges a private message I've sent, I figure s/he doesn't much care if s/he is in our group or not.

Am I a jerk, or am I simply trying to build a team of players who pay attention to each other, even if they don't chat? That's for you to decide. If it turns out you all think I'm doing things all wrong, I'll happily turn over the leadership. But I don't see many complaints, and 95 percent of you seem to be active players. We all found our way to my team by happenstance, and it has turned out to be a fun, active group. I don't know how I got so lucky.

Finally, coordinating the delayed start of the Feast has been easy, thanks to our team captains. I set the teams up, and the captains spread the word each time via private messages and reminders in the group chat. Thanks to the seven of you for making it work!