First, I want to state that despite all the problems with this event, I had a blast! I seldom see anything in-game that can keep more than 3-4 people at a time occupied for more than a few minutes, so this was quite entertaining, kinda like the carnival coming to town. Whether it worked "correctly" or not, I would hope that there are in the future other attempts to involve people on this scale. Practice makes perfect.
On to the constructive...
(1) What can we do better in these events to distribute information to new players that may join the event that might be well under way?
(5) What is the best form of communication for this event?
These two go hand in hand IMO. My RP background is largely based in real-time, spontaneously evolving events (I do renfairs where maybe five of us are coordinating 20-30 passer-bys) and getting the story disseminated to newcomers on the fly is critical. I think the chats are the best way, because it allows a chain of command; i.e. the event originators are using say guild chat, but each guildie forms a group of non-guildies and clues them through group chat. If the group gets too large, divide and form a new one, with group leader being up to speed and in touch with other group leaders. Newcomers dropping by can be quickly incorporated and brought up to speed (and if they don't like what they see, they are free to leave). Most importantly, it keeps all the workings out of main.
Unfortunately, the current situation with introductions and unknown/someones makes this difficult.
(2) How can we get rid of the confusion that seems to accompany these events?
Keeping all the workings out of main... main should reflect what is happening ICly, since that is your progress bar... when main gets full of gibberish, confusion is the only possible outcome.
(7) Who is in charge of the event? (If there are several people in charge then it would be best to communicate their positions in the event and what they are in charge of. Having everyone doing the same job may cause confusion and conflict if it is not agreed on before the event, thus making the event look poorly planned)
This is where the chain of command has to be laid out before the event starts. And someone will HAVE to volunteer to take the probably less fun parts of leading the groups. They will likely miss some of the action because of this, but if you don't have someone doing it your event will likely disintegrate quickly.
And as you probably note, none of these work without PLANNING. Think out all the likely outcomes, diversions, sabotage (yes, people will deliberately try to be jerks just because they like being disruptive), etc, and have your responses planned out as well. You will never think of everything, but every bump that is negotiated smoothly leaves you more freedom to focus on the ones you didn't forsee, and deal with them on the fly.
*edit*
Ok, got interrupted before...
So to tie what I said above to the gurgontid event;
chain of command - this event was top heavy (not critisizing, just observing). There were, as near as I could tell, only about three people trying to direct everything. As a primary organizer and also a central figure in the RP, Izzy had far too much on her plate that could have been delegated... When we do a renfair event, even though there might be 5-6 of us conducting the action, to an observer only a couple of us are visible. The rest are making sure the RP keeps moving, dealing with hecklers, organizing (inciting?) the crowd, directing traffic, etc, all while blending into the background. When the RPers have to do it all, the pace gets slowed and the even starts to break down. Ideally it should be more like, Izzy works out a general outline of how her side of the event is to unfold with an assistant, then she just plays her part while the assistant, through chat, directs the (evil) gang as needed. Likewise for her (good) counterpart. That way the main window shows a consistent progression of the storyline, so everyone knows what is going on, and they can refer to their group window for more specific instructions as the event unfolds.
I think lack of that coordination was a big issue here, because it was impossible to tell from main what was happening. Even those who knew in advance about it were confused, and those who just came along without prior knowledge were completely lost. I even at one point tried to form a group with several who came along so I could clue them in, but without something in main I could point to for reference, it fell apart quickly.
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of passer-bys who really wanted to join in (and not just the handful who were simply looking for a PVPfest), so I think it was a good idea, but it got too big and lost control. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little more planning and organisation.
