Beer style competitions are regular events where beer makers submit their beer for testing by qualified judges. And that's exactly what we now have in the game! Next to the "beer sales" tab you will now find a "contests" tab. Clicking this tab will show you what contests are underway, who has entered beer in the competition, and who has stepped up to judge the competition. You will also find links for judging the contest and a list of upcoming competitions. For all of the rules to this new TBG mini game please visit the Instructions page:contests

To play is simple. If you have a label in the same style as the active contest then join by clicking the "enter contest" link, selecting your eligible beer from the list, and submitting. You will be charged a $50 brew money entrance fee to enter your label in the contest.

Your newly entered label starts out with a score equivalent to it's beer quality at the time that the beer is entered in the contest. But the contest does not end with just your beer quality, you still must convince the judges that your beer is the best and get their votes. The judges are just other players like yourself who do not have a beer in the contest. Judges can use any criteria they desire to rate your beer and make their decision. Presumably they also know you from the pub so be sure to get in there and talk up your beer! Of course I am sure that they all have very high integrity and buying them a beer or two will not sway their decision, ;) but it never hurts to try! ;) ;)

At the start of the game the judges influence on each competition will likely be small. Judges start with 10 "Judge Points" that they can distribute to the contest entrants. Ten points will have almost no impact on the outcome since beer quality scores can go up to 999. However these same judges will have the opportunity to increase their influence by taking tests. The tests are designed with both a skill and random element such that sometimes they will be extremely hard and other times extremely easy. Each passed test will increase a player's judge points by a certain amount. You receive more points for answering questions correctly on higher quality beers so its a good idea to stick to drinking mostly high quality beer before each test. You also receive 10 judge points for every contest you judge.

There are a number of limitations on how fast you can increase your judge points. See the Instructions page:judging for all the details. First, tests can only be taken a maximum of once per hour. To qualify to take a test you must have drunk 5 different beers in the previous hour. Your individual test will be derived from one of the beers that you recently drank. Once you have tested on a specific beer label then that label will not count toward your unique beers for future tests. Once per week these excluded beers will be reset and once again available. The point of all this is to get you try a vast number of different beers to earn your judge points and to to try and understand what recipes were used in their making. I want judges to work hard to earn judge points and increase their influence in the style competitions. Any day that a judge does not at least attempt to take a beer test will result in a permanent loss of 1 point. If your judge points fall back to zero then you will no longer be considered a beer judge in the game.

To become a judge is fairly easy... just click the "become a judge" link. You must have a minimum of $500 brew money in the bank to become a judge and you will be charged a "Judge Certification Fee" of $100 brew money. This is a one time fee that you will never have to pay again unless you allow your judge points to fall to zero as discussed earlier. You can become a judge at anytime whether or not you have beer entered in the current contest. If you do have beer entered in the current contest then you will not be able to "Judge this contest" which is a separate step. Judges can declare themselves as such for any contest at anytime. It is not necessary to render your judgment when you declare yourself. So you can continue to improve your judge score as long as you like as long you "Make your decision" prior to the end of each competition. Once you submit your decision there is no changing it. You can continue to earn (or lose) judge points but they won't matter until the next contest that you elect to judge.

Methinks this all sounds complicated, it really isn't. Just follow the links and I think you will find it to be fairly straight forward. If you do have trouble understanding something please ask! Also, I am publishing this patch as a "beta" meaning simply that I rushed this code out the door because I wanted it in place prior to the Christmas event and it may have bugs. I have tested the code but I would like to have spent several weeks more testing it. So I will not be entirely surprised if you fine folks discover problems that I have not uncovered. If you do and depending on the severity of those problems I will have to take action up to and including rolling back and/or resetting the entire event. I am extremely hopeful that nothing of the nature will be required but I want to forewarn just in case. My great hope is that this becomes a popular and fun addition to the game and that blue ribbons start appearing on your labels soon!

So I know you are asking... When can I start! There is a Holiday Label contest on right now! On the contests tab you will find a link for the contest schedule. At the start I have designated contests to run for two weeks and I am running the Holiday style first since these beers will soon disappear from the shelves. After that the very popular "Ale" style comes up. My current plan is to publish contests about 4-6 weeks in advance. I will not necessarily run a contest in every style, for instance contests in those styles with few active labels will not occur often if at all. Styles with a lot of active labels will see more contests than others. By all means I want to hear from you if you'd like to see a particular style competition on the schedule.

In other news some of you will notice a change to the farming system in this patch. Crops no longer sit idle when the field is fully grown, instead the field resets and starts to grow again from scratch. I suspect this will not be a popular modification but it is a necessary step in the continued evolution of the game. I still have on my things to do list an "advanced farm" that will become part of the game in the next year. The advanced farm will involve much less clicking and will make up for what I have taken away today.

Brew beer... Drink beer... Play! What else do you need to know?

-Robc