General

Topic NVM

Frank

* 16-May(#1)

With Summer quickly approaching, I will soon be hosting the bi-annual High Roller Secret Santa. Since John will be taking back over the regular exchange, I figured I would do another gift exchange to go along with HR. While some White Elephants are to give weird/ungiftable items, this exchange will act as a way to find nice gifts fitting within the theme.

The rules would essentially be, that there's a central theme (for example Xbox, or Nintendo, or PlayStation) and a price limit (either $30 or $50). The goal is to find a unique/nice gift, that hits the minimum requirement and is appropriately themed. Items can include toys/figures, clothing, merchandise, collectibles, and of course games! I'd likely have items vetted through me as part of the sign-up process, unless there's a better way to go about it without spoiling my fun as well.

MrBean

* 18-May(#2)

Happy 14 years!

Bleed_DukeBlue

18-May(#3)

I might be down for this. Sounds interesting.

Frank

18-May(#4)

MrBean wrote:

> Happy 14 years!

Thank you buddy. It's been a long journey!

HEHEHATE

18-May(#5)

Always happy to join on the festivities frank.

Frozyre

20-May(#6)

I'm game for it. Though I'll say that it could be more along ballpark of $30 because the santa stuff is going to require more offerings. It may encourage people operating on budgets to join.

Feeb

20-May(#7)

Sure.

Mattman2

20-May(#8)

I'm down!

Kevster

20-May(#9)

I'm in

Heavyd814life

20-May(#10)

I'd be down!

Frank

* 20-May(#11)

Glad there's interest. I'm shooting for setting this and the Summer High Roller up for early June

@Frozyre good call. I am happy to drop the minimum to $30. If others choose to add more value that's up to them.

Question. Do you think I should continue with the White Elephant theming, or should I incorporate it as a themed Mystery Box Gift Exchange? Someone on Discord mentioned the White Elephant part might imply getting gag gifts.

sinnie

20-May(#12)

I'm down for this! I love these!

HybridCRoW

25-May(#13)

I am interested... should be able to do it.

Frank

3-Jun(#14)

Post is live for those interested

https://gametz.com/General/white-elephant-myster-b...

Frank

3-Jun(#15)

Seeing the negs in the main topic, I'm assuming this is due to my rule of sending me a list. I'm happy to remove that rule and just up the star requirement to gold. I only did it this way to ensure people familiar with a traditional White Elephant didn't try to unload junk. I'm doing this for you guys so it's communities choice...

Kommie

(frozen)3-Jun(#16)

Well, the problem is "white elephant" is synonymous for junk. You're telling people it's a White Elephant gift exchange while simultaneously telling them its not a way to unload their unwanted, white elephant junk.

Frank

* 3-Jun(#17)

I would have just called it the Mystery Box Exchange. Maybe that's a better name and I need to rework the rules?

Deleted it for now, maybe it's too ambitious of an idea?

Feeb

3-Jun(#18)

Just set a base gift value and go from there. The problem is in white elephant you get to steal and snipe desirable gifts. Hard to replicate online. I'm sure there's a formula out there.

sinnie

4-Jun(#19)

I personally don't care for the retro thing. Isn't my choice at this point in my life.

Kommie

(frozen)4-Jun(#20)

I'm into retro, just not Nintendo.

Mattman2

4-Jun(#21)

How about we do a wider category like geek decor? Something less niche'?

I am finishing building my first house recently so that could be fun and useful.

ryanflucas

5-Jun(#22)

I want to see a gaming exchange where we're assigned a partner and given a list of their favorite gaming characters. We find a stuffed animal or action figure in that realm for them, but as a side note we're tasked in taking weird pics of that stuffed animal or figure to include.

I got Frank as a partner. He likes Mario. So I find a Mario plush. I then take him to work and show him getting into trouble. Maybe I drop in to the local hardware store's plumbing aisle and snap some risque photos of Mario on plumbing fixtures. Whatever. Frank gets the plush in the mail and a link to crazy pics I took. I like Kirby and someone runs with that idea.

Mattman2

5-Jun(#23)

ryanflucas wrote:

> I want to see a gaming exchange where we're assigned a partner and given a list of

> their favorite gaming characters. We find a stuffed animal or action figure in that

> realm for them, but as a side note we're tasked in taking weird pics of that stuffed

> animal or figure to include.

> I got Frank as a partner. He likes Mario. So I find a Mario plush. I then take him

> to work and show him getting into trouble. Maybe I drop in to the local hardware

> store's plumbing aisle and snap some risque photos of Mario on plumbing fixtures.

> Whatever. Frank gets the plush in the mail and a link to crazy pics I took. I like

> Kirby and someone runs with that idea.

Sounds like a great way to wind up on the 6 o'clock news...😂

ryanflucas

5-Jun(#24)

I feel @Sid_Ceaser would love this sort of exchange.

Frank

* 5-Jun(#25)

i suppose the theming could use work. I chose Nintendo because that's a theme I personally find interesting. I'm afraid generalizing it to "geek decor" or something along those lines will result in gifts people wouldn't actually enjoy.

I definitely think deviating away from White Elephant is a good call, since that caused confusion. If we did a more generalized theme, would you still want me to vet the gifts, or would you rather it all be based on trusting the person will go through with the right value/theming?

Mattman2

* 5-Jun(#26)

I say vet the gifts if I had a vote.

HybridCRoW

6-Jun(#27)

"Tell me you're sending junk without telling me you're sending junk."

Frank

6-Jun(#28)

HybridCRoW wrote:

> "Tell me you're sending junk without telling me you're sending junk."

Forget the White Elephant part. We're leaning more towards the Mystery Box aspect of the exchange.

Frozyre

* 6-Jun(#29)

Frank wrote:

> Seeing the negs in the main topic, I'm assuming this is due to my rule of sending

> me a list. I'm happy to remove that rule and just up the star requirement to gold.

> I only did it this way to ensure people familiar with a traditional White Elephant

> didn't try to unload junk. I'm doing this for you guys so it's communities choice...

You know what, don't let the score system dictate this. It is just a silly dumb internet toy that once had meaning but people have abused it. You have a lot of organic responses that say to do it based on who is willing to enter.

Don't let good ideas go to waste because some people may just want to unload junk.

Mystery anything is a bad idea. I'd much rather know or have an idea of a theme than potentially getting junk like as if it was a lootbox when they started putting in stuff that was like warehouse clutter.

Kommie

(frozen)6-Jun(#30)

Also, FYI even for regular Secret Santa stuff, you don't have to list video games. I probably list more non-video games stuff compared to video games. Just cause it's a gaming site doesn't mean you're only into games.

Frank

* 6-Jun(#31)

Would 90s gaming be a better generalized theme? That way it can include Sega/Sony and still leaves it broad for things that aren't video games.

Frank

6-Jun(#32)

Kommie wrote:

> Also, FYI even for regular Secret Santa stuff, you don't have to list video games.

> I probably list more non-video games stuff compared to video games. Just cause

> it's a gaming site doesn't mean you're only into games.

I totally feel you on that Kommie, but for a themed Mystery gift exchange on a game-centric site, I think video game themes are appropriate.

Frozyre

6-Jun(#33)

Secret Santa both summer and xmas both already cover varied themes as we seen.

Could do an 80s - 00s bracket.

Frank

7-Jun(#34)

https://gametz.com/General/summer-mystery-box-gift...

I narrowed it down to 90s era for this first event. If things go well with this one, and people like this idea, I'm happy to host more in the future with varying themes. For the first exchange, I think retro is appropriate.

Just because it's 90s FYI doesn't mean the item HAS to be from the 90s. For example, a Pac-Man cookie jar from 2010 would be fine, since Pac-Man is an arcade staple, or a Panzer Dragoon T-Shirt, or a Tetris neon sign, etc.