About the votestone

[assterixxx]

First off; Great idea, coding the votestone! This might be frowned upon, but I was actually voting for another shard, a friends friend just launched, and thought they could use the vote more. Now I have become selfish and greedy.
I know its a temporary thing, but I thought I throw in an idea, if it's decided to become a permanent fixture around here.

I can never remember when I vote, so I end up voting 4-6 times a day, just to make sure I get it done. Instead of doing something about it myself(like learning to tell time / stop drinking / ...), I thought I would come here and cry about it - like a normal person. *grins*

My proposal is this: When you go to to "Claim reward" you could actually see, when you last vote was received, instead of the last time it errored out. I know it's not that hard to code a timer, but coding timers for every IP on the other hand, might be.

So, if its staying and if its not a huge chunk of work I'm asking for, would you consider doing this?

[Unbeliever]

Well, I like the idea very much. I enjoy Excelsior more than any version of UO before it, including production in 1999. It'll be nice to help the server out the best I can and it's nice that it's mutually rewarding, with +Colibri offering a thank you in return.

I hope that over time this will work exactly as expected. For the time being I have a problem though, haha. I voted early this morning - it went through and I got my 1 ED, no problems. Just tried to vote again 14 hours later. On the voting site it seemed to work just like the first time, giving me the [ResponseCode: 0] message. In-game though when I clicked the reward stone I got an error message saying [Successful: No. Message: This ip has already voted! Please vote again in 52908 seconds]. Since the book says we can vote every 12 hours idk why it would tell me to wait 14+14 hours to vote again. I went through the process again and the reward stone gave me the same error but this time told me to wait 53021 seconds. Added time for bad behavior, I guess lol. If that can be explained or fixed or both, that would be cool.

Also an fyi to staff: the UOShards link on the homepage is dead.

One of those servers appearing on a few of the topsites links is clearly abusing the voting system.... dunno what anyone can do about it but they show 800-1100+/month visits yet they average less than 100 players online and their forums are deader than disco.

[Opopanax]

I didn't know there was a reward for voting? Like when you click the golden grave stone in Trinsic? How do you claim a reward for voting? I have been voting but not claiming anything!

[Xavian]

There shouldn't need to be a reward to vote. Just like there shouldn't need to be a reward for donating. You should do it because you like the shard and want to see it continue to succeed.

[assterixxx]

@Xavian

I get where you are coming from, but that mindset belongs in ideologies. Sure in a perfect world, and all that... Nevertheless, if we were to follow your statement to its inevitable conclusion, you shouldn't be paid for your RL work - after all, you want society to succeed, don't you?

I'm not saying you are wrong though, if that wasn’t clear.

EDIT: After 2 secs of research, I have learned that there were an average of 1 vote pr day, prior to the votestone's introduction...

[Xavian]

After 2 secs of research, I have learned that there were an average of 1 vote pr day, prior to the votestone's introduction...

On which site?

UO Gateway is about 125.1 per day
GTop is about 55.4 per day
Top 100 is about 20.7 per day
GameZone is about 12.33 per day
Top 200 is about .6 per day

Votes are cast even without the stone, so why introduce extra gold for something that is already occurring? It's a nice temporary incentive, but unnecessary as a long term incentive.

I believe the stone placed in TC was linked to GTop. That means 55ED per day on the server, or 1650ED per month, or 82.5 mil gold. Granted that's not a lot overall for the server, but it's a lot that doesn't really need to be added regularly.

[Unbeliever]

There shouldn't need to be a reward to vote. Just like there shouldn't need to be a reward for donating. You should do it because you like the shard and want to see it continue to succeed.

Votes are cast even without the stone, so why introduce extra gold for something that is already occurring? It's a nice temporary incentive, but unnecessary as a long term incentive.

You're suggesting that players show appreciation for the server and at the same time that the server has no need of reciprocating to the players. Maybe the need is not absolute but for certain more players will be involved with an incentive to do so. In any case players are bound to appreciate the kindness and reciprocate in other subtler ways as well.

I believe the stone placed in TC was linked to GTop. That means 55ED per day on the server, or 1650ED per month, or 82.5 mil gold. Granted that's not a lot overall for the server, but it's a lot that doesn't really need to be added regularly.

Just as someone needs to buy ED at some point with rl money in order for others to purchase it with gold, ED does not equal gold unless someone has farmed it. The reward stone will increase the total ED on the server but it cannot increase the total gold on the server.

[Styx]

Just as someone needs to buy ED at some point with rl money in order for others to purchase it with gold, ED does not equal gold unless someone has farmed it. The reward stone will increase the total ED on the server but it cannot increase the total gold on the server.

However since ED is used as a currency along side gold, and pretty much permanently maintains it's value give or take 1k gold, Yes. It does increase the gold amount on the server at the same time. And quite drastically.

I enjoy the idea of being repaid for voting, However I think something more along the lines of a weekly/monthly raffle of which voting gains you entries would be a lot less detrimental to the server's economic environment in comparison to free ED's.

[assterixxx]

On which site?

That would be on GTop100 - Here's the site details

On the subject of vote rewards, I would have to agree that 1ED pr. vote might be a bit over the top. But if you think of it as an experiment(as I suspect +Col did) it certainly proved its worth. I personally wouldn't mind if it were 1/7 of the reward, meaning you would have to vote for an entire week to get the white scroll. However, that's a different matter, that the staff probably are better suited to sort out.

[brhanson2]

I use the 2 gold stones in trinsic to vote whenever i can but never noticed a reward. How does one get the reward if they are so inclined?

[Unbeliever]

However since ED is used as a currency along side gold, and pretty much permanently maintains it's value give or take 1k gold, Yes. It does increase the gold amount on the server at the same time. And quite drastically.

I enjoy the idea of being repaid for voting, However I think something more along the lines of a weekly/monthly raffle of which voting gains you entries would be a lot less detrimental to the server's economic environment in comparison to free ED's.

I'll oversimplify an example: If there were only two people on the server and neither of them had any gold or ED, and you gave one ot them 1ED, you'd have 0 gold and 1 ED on the server.

If there was an understanding between them that 1 ED was worth 50k gold, the one fellow would still have to go out and farm 50k gold before he could buy the ED from the other fella.

The amount of gold on the server is affected by nothing except the difficulty of farming it, the time and/or effort players put into doing so, and the amount spent on raffles/auctions which is removed from the economy altogether.

I'd think the amount of ED given away really shouldn't be anyone's concern except for staff's. It is theirs to give as they like, is it not?

[Xavian]

It is not a direct increase of gold, correct. It is an unnecessary increase in overall wealth of the server. That better? There is no need to have it given away for free. No your sense of entitlement does not justify it. There has been no incentive for voting on any other voting site, yet they all receive votes.

[quote="Unbeliever"You're suggesting that players show appreciation for the server and at the same time that the server has no need of reciprocating to the players[/quote]

The appreciation is reciprocated by the server remaining up and active. As well as by staff involvement in creating custom items, events and custom areas for players to enjoy.

Any way you slice it there is absolutely no need for monetary reward for something that is already occurring regularly. I would agree with Styx that some other type of "reward" would be adequate. Such as an event that requires that you have voted to attend. More votes = more of an advantage in the event. Something so that players can feel appreciated and enjoy their reward instead of just throwing wealth at the situation.

[Unbeliever]

I have no sense of entitlement, Xavian. Don't believe I suggested that I did. Pretty much said the opposite - that I'd vote if there were no reward, and I have since learning about it. I just think it's a nice thing for +Colibri to do - that I actually did say in my first post. You realize you're not actually challenging my judgement but the staff's, right? I'm not the one who set up the reward stone or chose the reward. I'm just a player who appreciated it and thinks that someone choosing to be nice is all the justification that's needed. There might be more to it, there might not, I don't know. I'm not privy to much that's behind-the-scenes so I won't pretend to know something I don't or be dismissive. For whatever it's worth, I hope it's brought back as the book in TC says.

[+Colibri]

Just a quick official word: That's what EDs are intended for. Reward for non-gameplay actions i.e. helping the shard in some way. So you can donate, get EDs as reward and then donations are used to pay for advertising. Or you can advertise directly (kind of) and get EDs.

Although as i mentioned in public chat a week back, the 1 ED per vote can't hold up, considering that GTop isn't very good at bringing new visitors to the site. But on february 1st (when all sites reset) and if most of us will vote on all the sites (even though the 1ed is only for the gtop) and if sticks, then it can remain.

[heyyo]

Maybe you could have it randomize what voting site gives the ED, so you have to vote for all the sites (or at least until you get the ED ). Coming from someone who rarely voted, a little incentive will go a long way.