Welcome to the FAQ’s for the TA Playlist.
This list has been updated to cover the newest iteration of the TA Playlist, which began in January 2020.
The current TA Playlist team consists of four people, Miles (
ManicMetalhead), Chewie (
ChewieOnIce) and BetaSig (
BetaSigX20) and Alyssiya (
Alyssiya)
If you have any questions, hopefully they’ll have been answered below. If not, feel free to leave a comment on the thread below or message one of the Playlist Team and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
On a side note, the TAPlaylist Gamertag found on site is used it host the news articles only. The account is rarely manned, so any messages sent to that account will likely not be seen for a while.
General QuestionsWhat is the TA Playlist?The TA Playlist is a community event. The idea is to get the community as a whole to play and discuss a game collectively for a month. 4 games are nominated each month, usually following a theme of some kind. The 4 games are chosen by the organisers and the theme could be anything.
Those 4 games are then put to a vote, in which the entire community can choose the game they want. The game with the most votes is the game chosen for the next month and will be played and discussed by anyone who wants to participate. At the end of the month, we'll then write a summary article of all the best points, where your quote may be featured.
Do I get a badge?Of course!
For your first TA Playlist participation, you'll get a shiny new badge on your TA profile, up with the others on your profile showing your TA ratio, number of completed games and other stats. Any future participation will level up that badge like all the others.
When does the event start? When does it end?The TA Playlist begins a new game on the first of every month at 12:00 a.m. UTC. It ends at 11:59:59 p.m. UTC.
Do I need to register?No. You need only participate to get tracked.
How do I participate?You participate by playing the game, sharing your thoughts
in the forums, and uploading game clips. We hope you'll do all of it -- even replay the game if it's not fresh on your mind -- but any way you choose to participate is encouraged.
How are games chosen?The TA Playlist team will curate a list of four games each month, on which the community as a whole can vote. These games can be themed (such as all indie games or sequels) or they may simply be a list of games we think you'd all like to play. These games can be anywhere from 3-4 hour completions, all the way up to 200+ plus. We’re simply choosing games we think the community would enjoy playing and aren’t expecting completions (although if you do, well done!)
We try to ensure that all the games are roughly the same level of game (i.e. we will avoid fielding an AAA game and a small indie game in the same month). Occasionally, we’ll collaborate with other users or site staff (so far we’ve had the GTASC winners and the TA and TT Game Info teams) who will decide the theme and/or the games for the month.
Can new releases be chosen?New releases are entirely likely to show up in the TA Playlist. They will be more likely be featured if they are available on Xbox Game Pass or are given away as part of Xbox Games with Gold. We want the Playlist to be accessible to as many people as possible.
Will you pick games with multiplayer?Yes. However, we’ll always try to ensure that game we pick will have a strong single-player component. This won’t always be the case though, and there will on occasion be fully multiplayer games.
If a game loses a vote, will it come back next month?It will unlikely be the next month, I’m afraid. However, hope is not lost!
As long as the game has not won a TA Playlist before, all runner-up games are eligible, no matter how many times they have lost the vote (looking at you
Control)
When does voting begin and end? How do I vote?The vote will aim to go live on the first Monday of every month and will last for two weeks. Each poll will have a news article and will be visible in the forums.
There will also be a news article accompanying the announcement of the winning game and the announcement of the start of a new Playlist each month.
Is there any sort of round-up of the monthly comments and statistics?With the recruitment of two more members of the playlist team, we now create a round-up article filled with your comments, trivia, our thoughts and other fun info. This usually appears a couple of weeks after a Playlist month has ended.
Can I get notifications for news items related to the Playlist?Yes. You can do so by viewing articles with
the TA Playlist news tag and clicking the subscribe button on the right side.
https://www.trueachievements.com/customimages/063254.jpgTechnical QuestionsHow long does each TA Playlist run for?Each TA Playlist runs for a whole month, starting at midnight
UTC on the first of the month, then ends on the last day of the month at
23:59 UTC.
We don’t currently account for different time zones, so if you’re many hours different from UTC and you want your participation to count, we recommend not leaving it until the final day to take part.
When will my TA Playlist badge updateYour profile is scanned looking for any TA Playlist participation once every 24 hours. This means it may not appear immediately after you unlock an achievement in the nominated game, but will appear sometime in the next 24 hours. If there is an issue, a manual scan for the badges can be performed by the organisers.
What if I've already played this month's game?You can still participate by discussing in the forums or submitting game clips. Leaderboards for TA scores and the like will automatically track your previous progress.
Can I play games from previous Playlist months and get credit on the leaderboards?Only the Playlist participation leaderboard is locked in each month. For any other leaderboard, you can play at a later point and still catch up on the leaderboards. So if you don't quite have enough time to get a game completed or plan to buy the DLC later, you'll be able to get credit for that.
Is DLC included?That depends on your site settings. For discussion's sake, we will usually leave it up to the participating community as a whole to include DLC or not. For example,
Alan Wake's two DLC episodes are now free and closely linked to the main story, so it's a good discussion to have.
What version of a game is tracked?This is done on an individual basis. For games with multiple versions (be it region, platform, remaster/definitive edition, or anything else), the version of the game tracked will be the one for which you have the highest TA score.
If I play both versions will the TA score count twice?Not at this time. Sorry!
How do I submit a game clip?Go to
your Game Clips and select one. If it's for this month's game, you'll have an option to submit it to the TA Playlist hub.
Does a game clip need to be recorded during the month to be submitted?Nope, if you have an older clip you think is worth sharing, send it to the hub!
If you have any more questions, post them below and we'll do our best to get them answered.