Facial La Fleur's Blog (44 followers)

Welcome to the third annual Great Random To Do List Challenge. As the extended 2014 edition is coming to a close in a couple of days, we're ready to lift the lid and reveal the details for this year's new challenge. We would have been ready to launch sooner, but Rich deployed an update on TA that effectively broke the script that we had spent the better part of the past few months developing and testing. Now that all of the bugs have been squashed, we can finally get the party started. Some participants have previously expressed concerns about potential foul play in past challenges, but the aforementioned script will completely eliminate the possibility of list manipulation and level the playing field for everyone by automatically generating a list of 100 achievements for each person. We don't suspect anyone in particular has bent the rules put in place in earlier challenges but, with the value of prizes on offer, we had to take measures to ensure absolute integrity of the contest for all involved. Not too far back, we conducted a poll to determine what, if any, type of achievements should be allowed to be excluded from your lists. Surprisingly, most of you stated that only unobtainable achievements should be removed. As a compromise to those of you that may have voted different from the majority, there is a small silver lining to that black cloud hanging over your head in the form of exclusions. Continue reading below to learn more. Lastly, the low 30,000 minimum gamerscore from last year is still in effect. Now that all that mumbo jumbo is out of the way; read the rules, love the rules.


Step 1: Sign Up
Join this TA Leaderboard and you're pretty much good to go. This leaderboard will be used to send out mass messages regarding updates and other details about the challenge, and is also where our script gathers all of the information that will be used when creating your lists. We promise not to spam you too often... probably.

Step 2: Exclusions
New to the challenge, exclusions will serve participants in a variety of ways and possibly even add an interesting level of strategy to the proceedings. Participants may exclude up to 25 games or 5% of their total incomplete games, whichever is LOWER, that our automated script will ignore during list generation. Any and all games, up to the specified limit, of your choosing qualify for exclusion for whatever reason you wish to do so. Whether you no longer own a game or a certain piece of DLC, or simply don't want to put the extra effort into a difficult or low quality game, exclusions are your friend. For instance, since I no longer own a Kinect sensor for my XBOX 360, my exclusion list consists of mostly Kinect required titles. Last year we introduced the rule that games must be on your card for at least two months prior to the start of the contest for consideration, and that stipulation still stands this time around. The only major difference is that our script will automatically exclude games within that time period so that participants will not need to worry that they may accidentally overlook an achievement that could potentially disqualify them from the prize pool. Lastly, any achievements that are flagged as discontinued or unobtainable on TA will automatically be filtered out during the list creation process. Keep your eyes open for a TA update message detailing how we would like you to submit your exclusions.

Step 3: Create Your Blog
Once everyone has submitted their exclusions list, you will be contacted with a list of links to copy and paste into your TA blog. After you've created your blog you will be able to export your achievements directly into your TA to do list page with another tool we've created. Stay tuned for further specifics about how this will work and exactly what you'll need to do on your end.

Step 4: Profit
Some tasty prizes are on offer this year and we are hoping that the increased value of the prize pool will be more of an incentive for participants to really put in an effort to complete their lists. Historically, only one person has succeeded so far. Will you be the next to join them?


Official Rules And Other Fine Print
1. You must be a member of the Achievement Hounds community to qualify for prizes.
2. You must have a minimum gamerscore of 30,000 points at the time that signups close.
3. All games must be on your card for at least two (2) months prior to launch of challenge.
4. You must create a blog post on TA with your 100 random achievements, as seen in my original blog post.
5. You must post a link leading to your TA blog in this thread.
6. The deadline to sign up for this contest is March 31st, 2015 at 11:59pm PST. Tell your friends!!
7. The deadline for exclusions is April 5th, 2015 at 11:59 PST. If you do not submit your exclusions list, you'll be stuck with whatever achievements we give you.
8. In the unlikely event that your exclusions leave less than 100 available achievements for your to do list, you'll need to revise your exclusions list accordingly.
9. The contest begins on April 10th, 2015 at 12:01am PST for those that meet all of the above requirements. Don't play any games from your list until then or you may be eliminated.
10. To qualify for monthly prizes, you must share your progress at least once every prize period in this thread unless said prize specifies otherwise.
11. Participants that are inactive for more than three (3) months risk early elimination, so please check in your progress in this thread at least once every ninety (90) days.
12. In the event that one or more of your achievements becomes unobtainable due to server closures or other widely known issues, you won't be required to unlock said achievement.
13. These rules may be amended as the judges see fit prior to the launch of the contest.


Special thanks to the Achievement Hounds Podcast hosts for once again sponsoring the contest and to all participants new and old that have shown interest in this challenge each year. Lastly, and certainly not least, a huge thank you to zzUrbanSpaceman for supplying his scripting expertise and helping me to bring this thing closer to the original vision I had for it two years ago.


My Random To Do List