User blog:Shadowpunch13/Global Prizes Breakdown

Overview
Hey so, I've always wanted to do more of these blog posts and I really enjoyed the last one I did, so I figured, why not do another? Yes, let's waste time on another finger cramp inducing journey, summer seems like the perfect time for something like this. Anyway, let's get straight down to business. In this post I'm going to talk about why I believe Global Prizes otherwise known as Community Prizes are hands-down the best custom element ever added to CPR and how I believe they should be used going through the future; so let's begin, shall we?

Introduction
First off, if you weren't aware, Global Prizes were something first introduced during The Fair 2018 and later brought back in parties such as, the Christmas Party 2018 and the Island Adventure Party: Festival of Fruit. The way the system has been used is that, a cumulative, set amount of currency/points is required for a tier in the interface. Once the community has reached said amount, they are rewarded with a hand picked item and the prizes will continue until the party's end regardless of how many have been won (thought at the time all prizes in all scenarios have been won). Fun Fact, they were actually planned to be login rewards at first, but back to the subject at hand. First off, I want to applaud the staff for coming up with an idea that actually gives the game replay value in the sense, that it has you continuously log on to try and reach towards said goal. Now moving on to how this has played out in parties we have been given.

Prizes
First off the prizes themselves are pretty straightforward, as they are more often than not pretty standard, however the occasional, custom or semi-custom item will make an appearance. Personally, either route is fine, but if they choose to make it the latter, where they are custom and semi-custom items, there should be a way to gain the items in the future due to it being unfair to the staff who worked hard on the items, if they were just to be thrown away. I do wish to expand on this thought in the next section.

Challenge
My first criticism of the challenges is that they are too easy. In my opinion the global prizes should be difficult to obtain in order to have people really coming back and not leeching off those who are actually interested in the challenges. Of course, there is no way to force people to comply, but an added bonus to those who do contribute would be nice. This will lead me into a comparison I wanted to make. I believe there is a game out there that perfectly understands how to do their community challenges, and that is Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.

Changes
You see the way they do community challenges in these two games are very similar and yet very different. First off I believe one major factor that should go into global prizes is that in order to claim the items, people must complete a minimum of the task themselves. The Island Adventure Party: Festival of Fruit gave us something similar to it, in which they gave prizes for personal goals but I feel as though this will get people in the mood to actually take part. Next I believe that the goals should be challenging in the sense, that we may not get every price. I know it may seem unfair but it is called a "challenge" after all. If they make the goals too simple they it won't feel like we actually accomplished anything. Expanding on the last statement, they should make the prizes either random or desirable. Don't get me wrong, custom items are a great thing but say if you were able to get say, a treasure book code from them then it could give everyone a piece of what they want. And this leads into my final point.

The Where & When
I wasn't able to pinpoint the exact screenshot for this but I do vaguely remember an admin, (either hagrid or stu) saying the global prizes were on the easier side in terms of programming, though I may be misremembering that. Nevertheless, I believe these challenges should happen all the time, and yes I mean even when parties aren't happening. Not only will it get people playing more often, but it'll also fix some possibly forgotten elements of the game. What do I mean, well allow me to give you an example. Say a small-ish party or mini-event has just wrapped up and the island just returns to normal. You log in and you see a community challenge for say, coins earned in mini-games or penguin visiting different igloos. Whatever the case, a few days go by and throughout said days, you complete your minimum requirement for the challenge which could be 10,000 coins earned in mini-games or 30 different igloos visited. This entitles you to the prizes available at the time, one of which could be a rare item, not seen in a few years, a code for the treasure book or card-jitsu cards (maybe a way to sneak in those gold card-jitsu cards) and you claim the rewards, and in under a week the challenge has come and gone. Whatever has been won, has been won and whatever hasn't will be saved for another time. That would be my ideal way of them doing this, but is it yours?

Conclusion
Global Prizes are an amazing feature added to Club Penguin Rewritten and I'd love to see more of them! I feel as though changes should be made and the staff should take a page out of PvZ GW2's book in order to enhance their challenges. I'm curious as to what you think though however. Did I nail in on the head or was there something I didn't think of or that I missed. Comment your thoughts and I'll see you on the next one.