The Core Coliseum turns 8 years old on July 28th. I haven't been here since the very first days, but I have been here for the better part of that time. Caterane was the GM when I joined and MindWandererB took over after him. When the CoCo was all but dead, I took over back around January 2009 and we had a hard fight. We started back with the 3.5 arena where the 4e one had pretty much failed, but by August, we closed the 3.5e arena for non-participation and the 4e arena was going well.
Then the board restructure came in and the Core Coliseum became a group. As a GM and owner of the group, I had a lot more control over the forums than I had before and the addition of the wiki looked like a great benefit.
However, the huge amount of work that would be needed to get things up and running was taxing and it was several weeks before we really had the bulk of the material moved over. Heck - I still haven't had the time to clean up the bad formatting for the rules pages in the wiki. Its on my list, but that list is very long.
Still, the last set of pairings in the forum was on August 13, 2009. The first set of pairings in the group was September 10, 2009. We missed about 2 weeks in there - so that's not too bad.
In the first year as a group, we had participation all over the map - either in Gladius or in Sagaris - and we saw some faces come and others go. I praise the long-term players and a look forward to the new players in our midst.
In that first year, we managed over 300 fights though. That's not a huge amount by the old numbers (estimates put the total of fights for the entire history of the CoCo somewhere around 5000 fights), but given how rocky our participation has been, I was happy to have it.
Overall, this second year as a group has come along nicely and we're well on our way to beating last year's numbers by a small(ish) margin. The first year was 331 fights; so far in the second year, we're up to 319 and there's still about 2 months left.
So what's up and coming with the CoCo?
Well, even though we only use a core number of resources, that doesn't mean we don't try to keep things interesting around here. Lately, we've been engaging in a couple of competitions to try to either come up with something new or to try to expand on what we've already got.
From the 1st Annual Prestige Competition in September (yes - the 2nd annual competition will be coming soon!), to the Design a Monster Arena Team Contest in December, to the current Map Competition, we have tried to just give a little more variety than you might have seen in previous viewings of the CoCo.
Also, I rather liked the short challenge idea (Weekend Challenge to Build a High Defense Character), so that might be making a couple of more appearances in the short and long term.
So what can you do?
Really, the best thing to keep the CoCo going is to participate and to find more players. Still, if you've already activated 2 characters or teams this week, asked all your friends to join and even posted to link to the CoCo a couple of times, there's still more to be done.
I'm always looking for ideas that would help improve the relationship of the CoCo to the players, especially for newer players. If you see something that is just making things too complicated, or just puts new players off - let me know. If you can think of some great avenue for advertising, such as CoCo on Facebook, please, see what can be done about it.
New contest ideas, ideas for cross-polenation with other groups or other forums will always be welcomed.
For all of you who have ever participated in the CoCo, thank you for your time. It was a pleasure to have you while you are here, have been here, etc.
For anyone who has never tried it - it doesn't take a lot of time and could be just what you never knew you were looking for.
Good fighting everyone - see you next time!
