Age Restriction on Voting Stones

[Yoda]

[Pariah]

You are in the running for the most mileage out of a meme in history...(insert Nelson Mandela/Morgan Freeman joke here)

+Nyx, I understand your concerns from a staff perspective. I think anything that properly incentivizes newer players to vote is going to attract more headaches. Do I think that making it an ED attracts MORE of these knuckleheads? That, I honestly don't know. As a rule, more people means higher chance of buffoonery just in the general population. I've even seen some of those forum posts about lawsuits and all kinds of nonsensical behavior. I think we saw the same thing with Mistvale...and Treasure Hunting...and now with the facet progress. My point is not to devalue the great work on those things, consider it more that stupid is as stupid does. A new player has so many additional ways as you pointed out of earning the 1 ED equivalent at minimal cost/time investment that I don't believe 1 ED is excessive. I would say the overall impact is minimal and it incentivizes newer players to vote well. I would say perhaps something more even (scratch ticket, deco item) would be appropriate for older players, or even a chance at those items, as a choice over the 1 ED.

[Yoda]

well I mean it applies so often.. its my job its what I do.

[Devlin]

I think we should be discussing how to increase votes.

You ask people to vote.

Perhaps if the reward was large enough, it might even convince some of the winners to stay longer.

The shard and the community should be what keeps people coming back, not a reward based voting system.

[+Nyx]

Yep, asking is often helpful. People will come out of the woodwork for things like that. Not all, but a fair portion would.

There are all sorts of other options - voting gives you tickets, you combine a week's voting into an entry ticket to an event/area you can't get into otherwise, etc etc. Unfortunately, now that the standard has been set for so long with the 1ED, it seems that most folks are going to want to cling to it and be deaf to any other options that are a bit less excessive and generic.

[Devlin]

Personally, I'd say take away the incentive entirely, but people feel entitled to this already, as it has been said. It's not a quest though, it's not a function of the game. It was meant to be a little bonus, a small thank you for contributing towards promoting UOEX as the best shard (which it is!), but somewhere along the way it became warped. Or it was incentive based. Or we turned it into that. Regardless, now it's an easy money feature; people don't care about the voting feature. I mean, I'm sure some see the benefit, but they don't double click that stone every day to make sure UOEX is #1 on the charts, that's for sure.

[Pariah]

I think that's a bit altruistic. People will vote because you incentivize it. No doubt we've had an influx of newer players due to voting and our position on these sites. Honestly, I thought this place was on a downward path until some newer players started showing up. This could just be my observations but prior to our presence on the sites, I saw our online population dip below triple digits. That pretty much never happens now. As has been stated, I can make 1 ED in maybe 5-10 minutes. As a result, I vote when I remember and because I like it here. The 1 ED is that little bump to get me to visit each site, etc. So, if people were voting simply because it was the right thing to do, then why didn't that happen before the ED? Again, I don't disagree with the potential complications of who that behavior attracts. The original proposal of 1 ED a day somehow being excessive I think is false. A newb playing casually will make far more than 50k a day in other ways and any vet can earn that in an extremely short time. Shard and community will keep some of the players for some of the time, but removing something that attracts new players or replacing it with a seemingly less valuable option may hurt the player base more. Again, I'm open to additional options (I don't vote regularly enough for this to really impact me directly), but I do think the reward should be at least as much an incentive as 1 ED.

[Devlin]

So, if people were voting simply because it was the right thing to do, then why didn't that happen before the ED?

Precisely. We should look at that instead of inflating the charts through bought votes. I don't mean to sound cynical or anything, I just don't think paying for votes is right in any manner lol. But it exists, so let's make it work. If people didn't vote before, a combination of public awareness, introducing competition*, and the awesomely proposed raffle system should be enough. I don't even want to call it incentive. The incentive is voting itself, participating in the process, blah blah blah, it comes from the heart, blah blah blah, some other sappy stuff. You vote. Maybe you get a reward. Probably not. But maybe!

*THERE ARE PEOPLE ACROSS THE RIVER WHO THINK THEY'RE BETTER THAN US. NOW LETS GO WIN THAT SOFTBALL GAME! (or some other 90s movie cliche about coming together and having a great summer.)

[Yoda]

kumbaya devlin kumbaya

but yeah vote because you feel like we deserve it not for the reward

[azrok]

Yeah, no doubt we should vote just because we like the shard. Sadly, this is a way of thinking that is too utopic. People won't ever do that save a few individuals out there. And being on top of those sites do help get new people.

[Evil]

I'd be in favor of making the voting reward different, I've previously suggested a pool of numerous cool items that also includes gold and tokens, and 1ED. So, most days you'd probably get a cool food deco or a buff food, a temporary cool weapon/cloak/whatever, or so on; but sometimes you'd get the really 'big' reward of 1ED or other currencies.

Please please please please! The 1 ED is nice, but I vote because I like the shard. I would love Deco items.

[Pariah]

You can't have 1 foot in, 1 foot out. If you're against incentivizing voting at all, I can respect your point of view. However, I believe this will hurt the shard long term. While it's nice to say things like, "Who cares what other shards do?" or "People should vote just because they like it," the reality is you either evolve or die. Those very attitudes are what lead to businesses, religions, communities, etc. being passed by the competition. If ALL other shards incentivize voting, yeah, you should do it too, or else there won't be anyone left to enjoy your content, buy your wares, etc., etc. If, as you're suggesting, there are better ways to incentivize voting, I'm all ears. I would just say that I personally believe 1 ED isn't as much overkill as people suggest and we should make a system with additional options. I mean, outside of the entitled attitude, which we see with all other content as well (see Mistvale, Glittering Ice Wrap, etc.), what is this harming? You have more people that can afford to buy your stuff? You attract new players to the shard? You keep people coming back to earn a reward? I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

P.S. I voted the last two days. Perhaps a new record!

[+Nyx]

While it's nice to say things like, "Who cares what other shards do?" or "People should vote just because they like it," the reality is you either evolve or die. Those very attitudes are what lead to businesses, religions, communities, etc. being passed by the competition.

Copying what the competition is doing isn't evolving, though, which was kinda my point with my statements in that vein. Just providing essentially the same type of incentive as other shards do isn't any sort of growth or change. I realize that if we wanted to try other, more creative ways to motivate players to vote that the 1ED shouldn't have been used from the get-go. I would've preferred it that way, but it wasn't up to me.

It's nice to be at the top of the voting sites, and it no doubt does bring new players here. But, how many of them stay? Keeping the shard at #1 on those sites doesn't help keep people here, paying them to vote doesn't either. The shard needs to evolve, and voting has basically zip to do with any sort of growth for the shard. It helps get people to check uoex out, sure, but it's a false sense of growth when the majority of those players get bored or quit pretty quickly. But, now I'm getting off-topic lol. Voting isn't growth or evolving for the shard, was my main point. That has to happen in other ways.

Anyway, my opinion that the voting rewards need an update, and that it'd encourage more players to vote if there were more options for the reward - you can't incentivize every player with the same reward, as you've exampled to us yourself Pariah Some players want deco, some was the ED, some would prefer the gambling aspect of a raffle and so on. I see no reason why more options shouldn't be added when it's likely to get at least a handful more people voting regularly.

[azrok]

Having more options would be awesome. The simple fact of having a choice can be fun

[fixxer1963]

Copying what the competition is doing isn't evolving, though, which was kinda my point with my statements in that vein. Just providing essentially the same type of incentive as other shards do isn't any sort of growth or change. I realize that if we wanted to try other, more creative ways to motivate players to vote that the 1ED shouldn't have been used from the get-go. I would've preferred it that way, but it wasn't up to me.

It's nice to be at the top of the voting sites, and it no doubt does bring new players here. But, how many of them stay? Keeping the shard at #1 on those sites doesn't help keep people here, paying them to vote doesn't either. The shard needs to evolve, and voting has basically zip to do with any sort of growth for the shard. It helps get people to check uoex out, sure, but it's a false sense of growth when the majority of those players get bored or quit pretty quickly. But, now I'm getting off-topic lol. Voting isn't growth or evolving for the shard, was my main point. That has to happen in other ways.

Anyway, my opinion that the voting rewards need an update, and that it'd encourage more players to vote if there were more options for the reward - you can't incentivize every player with the same reward, as you've exampled to us yourself Pariah Some players want deco, some was the ED, some would prefer the gambling aspect of a raffle and so on. I see no reason why more options shouldn't be added when it's likely to get at least a handful more people voting regularly.

Here are some facts that I think most will agree with:
1: The ED reward is a huge headache due to people thinking it is an entitlement.
2: There needs to be another system to reward for votes, with more options.
3: Being #1 on the sites brings in more people.
4: We have a lot of people start the game and quit because they get bored.
5: It is too easy for new players to advance too quickly. (OK, I know several people will disagree with this one, but I consider it a fact)
6: This dead horse has taken a horrendous beating.