Player of the year 2023 vote

[+Colibri]

We're having another player-of-the year contest! You're invited to come by to the town center and cast your vote.

There are a lot of helpful and kind players on this shard, and this is a way to see some of the names who have had a big impact over the last year. I wish i had upgraded the stone to make it possible to vote for multiple players, and assign points, but since this is something that should already have been up in early January, I couldn't postpone it much longer.

The vote stone will be up until March 2nd, 23:59 shard time. The winners will then be announced.


The rewards for the top voted players are:
- Winner: A "Key to the realm" (decorative item), to be kept forever. First choice of a rare ethereal mount which they can keep and use forever. Ability to open up a public moongate from anywhere on the shard to the Town Center, maximum 3 times per day.
- 2nd place: Second choice of a rare ethereal mount (for a year). Ability to open up a public moongate from anywhere on the shard to the Town Center, maximum 2 times per day.
- 3rd place: Third choice of a rare ethereal mount (for a year). Ability to open up a public moongate from anywhere on the shard to the Town Center, maximum 1 times per day.

Notes:
- Ethereal mounts: any ethereal mount from the Veteran's Reward menu, plus a few others (i think it's 3-4 but not sure if one of them is already on the veteran rewards list). The winner can ride it forever, and 2nd/3rd place can ride it for a year (can keep the statuette after that, but it can no longer be mounted)
- Public moongate ability can be used until next year's vote for Player-of-the-year.

Player of the year 2022, Praise, who was the winner in the vote a year ago, has opted-out of the contest so you can't vote for her. Though I'm sure she would be in the top 3


Rankings of the vote
The vote stone has closed and we have our rankings!

Winner of the 2023 Player of the year competition is Zalia. Congratulations, well deserved!
Right behind her on 2nd place is Nmrd, well done, congrats!
And in 3rd place we have Seventh Stone, no surprise, congrats!
Also an honorable mention to Bowmaster who came in 4th and John Warren in 5th place. As well as everyone else who got a few points.

Here's also a list of top 5 voted players, with the points, and also the average account age of the players who voted for them.
Zalia, 56 points, 2030 days,
Nmrd, 53 points, 1447 days,
Seventh stone, 21 points, 1737 days.
Bowmaster, 19 points, 1046 days.
John Warren, 14 points, 3691 days.

[Melkor]

UO for me is a place to escape from reality a bit, I feel like it is for a lot of us. Real life has enough already.
When I see fellow players arguing, it's got to be detracting from their game experience. When it spills over into public venues it can detract from everyone's experience and potentially discourage new players from joining our generally quite awesome community.

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGxQXmu7Os

[Alibaster]

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGxQXmu7Os

Good song. should be the mantra of our community.

[Eremite]

UO for me is a place to escape from reality a bit, I feel like it is for a lot of us.

Bro, same. Reading the forums makes me feel like I'm in a middle-schooler, not a middle-ager. I feel young again!

[Armstrong]

My vote went for Seventh Stone, but then I saw Zalia going stronger. So switched to team Zalia. You both rock tho
Nmrd, your guild, vendor area and efforts to help newbies is also really precious, and many will benefit from the town center portal in you hands. But still, I am too much amazed by MAD Taming area.

[Josef]

Same here,Armstrong. Anybody who tames is aware of all her hard work on Ice Island. I feel that she deserves it.

[Eremite]

Still always sidestepping my question. Should players that have been jailed be allowed to participate in this comp?

I thought about this and I personally don't think it should necessarily disqualify as it's a community-voted thing. If someone's breaking rules enough to make a menace of themselves, they're likely not going to get enough votes to win anyway. I think the problem will pretty much just sort itself out without any intervention from staff.

[+Colibri]

I have removed the offtopic posts.

If someone's breaking rules enough to make a menace of themselves, they're likely not going to get enough votes to win anyway. I think the problem will pretty much just sort itself out without any intervention from staff.

Yeah I think that's probably how it will work.

Well it can (theoretically) be a problem if someone is always keeping on the side of the law, doesn't jailed, is still well-liked among players, but also causes a lot of drama.

Many years ago we had a house-design competition and I remember that one player was sending out messages, asking for people to vote for him. I forgot whether he was disqualified or not, but I think we made a rule that it's not allowed to spam and ask others to vote for you.

This is just a simple popularity contest, no complicated mechanics or rules. The rewards are decorative enough, and it's rather hard or impossible to cheat. Oh btw, I will check the top voted players to see where the votes come from. If it's from accounts that barely play and appear to be created just for the purpose of voting, then those votes will be removed.

[Nmrd]

My vote went for Seventh Stone, but then I saw Zalia going stronger. So switched to team Zalia. You both rock tho
Nmrd, your guild, vendor area and efforts to help newbies is also really precious, and many will benefit from the town center portal in you hands. But still, I am too much amazed by MAD Taming area.

No worries, I'm thankful for everyone that's voted for me actually. DRG Chicken told me to put my name in, so I appreciate it.
Helping new players whether they join RMP or not is something I personally like doing. Always good to see new faces joining the server

[Johnny Warren]

Well it can (theoretically) be a problem if someone is always keeping on the side of the law, doesn't jailed, is still well-liked among players, but also causes a lot of drama.

Definitely could be a problem...


Personally I really hate the portal to TC part of this reward. It's one reward that is most definitely NOT decorative. I feel like the result of a popularity contest shouldn't give someone a powerful item that breaks game mechanics.

I also think that given the lack of a deputy (+K) means that there's a lot more onus on us following the rules rather than fear of jail time keeping us following the rules. If we all knew at the end of the year we would be disqualified from this competition if we visited jail... well suddenly there's another motivator to help people do the right thing. I just saw it as an easy way to support server integrity (which I tend to bang on about quite a bit). I would definitely hate to see someone get in the top 3 if they were a known AFKer or multiaccounter.

[Zalia]

Same here,Armstrong. Anybody who tames is aware of all her hard work on Ice Island. I feel that she deserves it.

Thanks, Josef! I am rather proud of the MAD Area - bit shout-out to all the players holding houses to keep it going. I have a house of Horses in the works, and then, all the animals currently available on the Spawner list will be there for taming.

[Demascus]

Just throwing in my two cents here. It seems there are several very qualified, deserving individuals for POTY, which is an encouraging sign for UOEX. I have had the pleasure of interacting with a few, and I'm certain there are numerous others equally as deserving that I don't know very well (I tend to be a bit reclusive in my playstyle).

Zalia: One of the most enjoyable, classy people I've met on this server. The taming area alone warrants UOEX sainthood, and is most definitely a labor of love, and she has been doing it long before there was any award for being nice. She has always been super helpful filling in those hard to get +5 crafting suit pcs, and quick to chat in depth about BOD's, mark runes for IDOC's, and many other worthy acts. Probably the greatest compliment I can pay Zaila is this...I've never heard a single person utter a negative word about her. In the current climate of UOEX, that is a feat all unto itself. Thank you, Zalia.

John Warren: being a veteran of several years I've interacted with JW over the years, and we've shared a mutual respect, but have never been super close. More recently, knowing his love of weapons, gear, and game theory, we started communicating a bit more about these things. I'm well versed and knowledgeable in this area, but I enjoy hearing other's theories and input to expand my own gameplay and thought process. JW is a good person to chat with if you need help on these matters. He is a Mentor and helps with accurate information in WC (a lot of players give rampant misinformation, though well intended). He guides newer players, but also helps vets like me who are perhaps a bit too routined and haven't experienced as much of the game as we should've after several years. I noticed he had run a player through S'Gail, and I'd never been there. I felt a little stupid reaching out to another vet, even via pms, and asking for help. He never once made me feel stupid and instantly said "let's go do it this week". And we did exactly that (again, this was before the POTY contest started). He died numerous times due to my newbish nature there, but never wavered on patience, and explained everything in depth. I offered gold both before and after our expedition, and he declined on both occasions (he could've been leveling or hunting, making much more gold). He was happy to help. He enjoys his mentor role, and it's an invaluable resource for players just starting out. Keep up the good work John Warren!

As I said, there are numerous others that are well deserving. I've chatted with Seventh Stone and he seems like a very nice, helpful individual. He once offered to help with any scripts I might need assistance with, long before POTY was a thing. Nmrd I just met tonight, but seems a very chill, helpful, nice individual. Helped me out with an item, as I'm conducting some tests on a few in game mechanics, and he was glad to assist. Also, he noticed I was unguilded and offered me a home with RMP guild. I'm more of a solo act, as I told him, but I think it's nice people still try to bring strays into the fold and experience MMORPG's and all they have to offer.

I'm certain I'm forgetting a few, and apologies if I did, but wanted to acknowledge a few that came to mind. There are many who didn't even make themselves eligible, so all-in-all, thanks to those who try their best to be selfless and help others and keep the community aspect of UOEX alive.

[culichi]

Still always sidestepping my question. Should players that have been jailed be allowed to participate in this comp?

I thought about this and I personally don't think it should necessarily disqualify as it's a community-voted thing. If someone's breaking rules enough to make a menace of themselves, they're likely not going to get enough votes to win anyway. I think the problem will pretty much just sort itself out without any intervention from staff.

if its a minor infraction like an oopsie on world chat or even the first afk arrest but yeah if its someone who just enjoys breaking the rules over and over again they should be kept out. one major reason is that jailed players are not outed by colibri so we dont actually know for sure who was jailed or for what so we cant filter out the bad actors colibri has to do that.
in old uo i loved playing around with exploits and talking trash on world chat but when i came here and was told that nyx would ban serious jail birds from her events i have behaved myself here (kinda hehe). this yearly contest is awesome and so are the rewards they should be reserved for players who add to the server not detract.

[culichi]

I have removed the offtopic posts.

If someone's breaking rules enough to make a menace of themselves, they're likely not going to get enough votes to win anyway. I think the problem will pretty much just sort itself out without any intervention from staff.

Well it can (theoretically) be a problem if someone is always keeping on the side of the law, doesn't jailed, is still well-liked among players, but also causes a lot of drama.

/wave

[Silent]

A lot of good names to be voted for honestly! I'm not sure if this was talked about in the first edition but having a multiple (lets say 1 to 3) voting option would perhaps not make such a great different but give more appreciation to the players. I feel like I don't have only one good person to vote for. I like a few of them and I want to show appreciation to all of them. I think apart from the winner that is what is all about

So shout out to all of you in the excelsior halls of fame because you matter here. You are all winners