Make it So Challenge #2 Results

by Charlie Plaine, Make it So Host

6th December 2013

The second challenge, Equippable, tasked each of our challengers to create an equipment card. As the results and feedback will show, this is a very difficult challenge. Equipment is probably one of the most difficult card types to design mechanically. In general, it's easy to find creative elements for an equipment, but difficult to match those to appropriate mechanical test. This is especially true in the modern era when we have a lot more rules about what can (and can't) be an equipment card. Let's see how the contestants did:

Results
As before, Allen Gould (AllenGould) has agreed to substitute for Jordan Leung. Here are the results from this challenge:

For detailed results, check out the Challenges page of the Make it So subsite. You can find a breakdown of the public votes for each card, as well as all of the comments from the judges and those from the public.

Leaderboard
With multiple challenge results, we can start to look at an overall leaderboard for this competition. Here are the standings after the first two (2) individual challenges:

Analysis
Official Make it So statistician Chris Lobban (Maelwys) did some number crunching and sent the following data, which we are sharing with you:

Akoonah
Mean: 4.51
Median: 4
Mode: 1
Received every possible grade at least once, including two 10s and a record-setting six 1s. This card is notable in having the furthest spread between the Mode and Mean averages, indicating that although it received a lot of 1s, overall a lot of people marked it higher than that, pulling up the Mean significantly.

Comm Badge
Mean: 5.53
Median: 5
Mode: 5
Received every possible grade at least once, except a perfect 10.

Crawlspace "Key"
Mean: 4.3
Median: 3
Mode: 2
Did not receive any 9s, but did receive a record-setting ten 2s. This card is also notable in having the furthest spread between the Median and Mean averages, indicating that although half of it's marks were extremely low (1-3), it also received a fair number of higher marks to pull up the mean.

Hairpin
Mean: 4.97
Median: 5
Mode: 7
Received every possible grade at least once, except a perfect 10.

Isolinear Chip
Mean: 5.14
Median: 5
Mode: 5
Received every possible grade at least once, including a record-setting eleven 5s, this card was apparently the definition of "average" in this challenge, with all three averages being at or near 5.

Lucky Charm
Mean: 5.23
Median: 5
Mode: 4
Received every possible grade at least once, including a record-setting seven 4s, this card was just below the definition of "average" in this challenge.

Mark X Tricorder
Mean: 5.8
Median: 6
Mode: 7
Did not receive any 2s, but did receive a record-setting 5 eights, making this the best received card of this challenge.

Odo's Bucket
Mean: 4.8
Median: 4
Mode: 2
Receiving no more than six of any single rating (and at least two every rating except an 8), this card obviously got a mixed reception.

Remote Controlled "Brain"
Mean: 5.49
Median: 5
Mode: 5
With a record-setting eight 7s, and at least one of every grade except a 4, this card managed to hold on to 3rd place with slightly above average scores.

Overall Comments
Finally, the public was given the opportunity to offer any comments on the challenge and the submissions overall. Those appear here, unedited:

• Very un-exciting entries this time. But I guess thats the problem with equipment.
• No Kazon PADD? Feels like the contestants were "playing it safe" this round, nothing particularly exciting or controversial here.
• I think it's important for Equipment to have utility across deck types and not be too specific. Bring on Harshest Conditions and Remote Controlled "Brain" :)
• Some nice cards, but equipments live from the cards that get them into play. I can see spending Latinum for some, others are highly situational and can only be useful if they can be special downloaded. I like, how most contestants tried to keep to the "the more powerful, the less people" approach. Overall nice work again!
• In this challenge, there were some great cards and there were some terrible cards. I very much loved some of the cards but very much disliked some of the cards.
• I think the one's I liked the least were the rather mundane items from the Trek universe (Hairpin, Chip, Combadge). For an Equipment challenge I feel like some really interesting and compelling choices could have been made. Akoonah wins this round in my book, with Brain making a close second.
• Unlike most people on the boards, I think that this challenge went much better than the first. Nothing is obviously broken and I could see using any in the right deck.
• Tough challenge and good ideas from all contestants!
• This may be the fault of the guidance given to the contestants rather than that of the contestants themselves, but I think the contestants need to push the boundaries a little more. I know equipment can give skills. Show me something that demonstrates you can design something new!
• Good luck to all!
• I'm sorry to say this but this really is a bad one. Not one contestant managed to make something worthwhile or interesting enough. Most made things that where either unplayable or just unbalanced. Two even managed to make a card that was probably better as something else then an Equipment. And making a 4 row template for nothing just feels sad.
• This was challenging, I'm sure. It doesn't help that we don't have a solid agreement on what equipment can/should be.
• This is a tough challenge. Equipment is not a place to try to make a large influence on the game; it's not where a big concept usually belongs. I really hope that the actual Design team does not work on cards this way -- to ever say "We need an equipment card for this set." As such, asking it of you MIS contestants might be an exercise in giving you enough rope to see if you hang yourselves.
• I feel most of the cards meet the requirements of the challenge.
• Equipment is difficult to make right. I think the contestants did better in the first challenge, overall, but still a good showing.

Thank you to everyone who participated in voting for this first challenge of Make it So! Join the discussion of this challenge and the results on our forums, and follow along for more details on the second and subsequent challenges!

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