Age Restriction on Voting Stones

[Devlin]

I don't think young players shouldn't be able to vote/receive a reward. I'm all for promoting the shard and absolutely love it it... But I see some things wrong with letting new players vote.

-Young players have not been on the shard long enough to formulate an opinion on the shard. Because of this...

-Players are not voting because they love the shard, but because they want ED...

-1 ED a day comes to 3-400k a week if maintained actively. While there's the whole, if you give people incentive to vote, are they really indicating their choice, or just getting paid, that's not the point. 350k a week is a LOT of gold for young players; that's a maxed mule, a house (maybe even a small tower, not just a 7x7,) an entire set of armor, a weapon, and enough insurance money to go run headlong into Doom a bunch of times, with enough left over to raise some skills.

I'm not against the voting, or even the reward for voting (50k a day isn't insane to the players who should be voting and know the shard well enough to know that it deserves to be #1.) I just think that newer players shouldn't be allowed to vote; easily obtained cash can disrupt the economy and they aren't voting for the right reasons imo.

[+Nyx]

To a large extent, I agree. I've made no secret of my thoughts on the voting reward - I think it's too much and that it causes a lot more problems than benefits. I don't think new players shouldn't be able to vote, though. I knew UOEX was something special after a week here. I do think that 1ED per day for voting is over the top and is causing people to consider it being paid for service rather than a thank-you for voting. We get -so- many pages and wc gripes every time one of the voting sites is down, because people feel entitled to their 1ED and (mostly) won't vote without it. That's not really the kind of mentality that I think should be encouraged for a family shard like ours.

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.

[Yoda]

although I can definitely see devlin's point I must say

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.

[onemoregenius]

My only rebuttal would be that it makes it much easier to get your character where you want to be with easy access to the money. I actually didn't know about the voting until after my character was mostly developed. Had I been utilizing the rewards, I could have been champ ready in half the time. And truthfully, all the things you guys mentioned (buying mules, building houses, etc) are things that would keep me, as a newb, coming back for more.

I totally understand the opposite side. Perhaps mix up the rewards a little. But having such relatively easy access to cash starting out really aids in quicker development of necessary skills.

[+Nyx]

There are already several easy-cash options for new players. The rat quest for the first few weeks can bring in several mil if one does them often. In Mistvale, the monsters alone give a fair amount but you also get even more for doing the monster contract quests. You can also do the apiary quest and sell the kegs, or level weapons in the Mistvale dungeons (which give 200% xp) for a profit. Removing a guaranteed 50k a day for essentially clicking a few buttons wouldn't really harm the overall income of any player who's utilizing the various newbie options available to them.

[Devlin]

I knew UOEX was something special after a week here. I do think that 1ED per day for voting is over the top and is causing people to consider it being paid for service rather than a thank-you for voting.

My post in a nutshell .

The voting system should be there to promote the shard, not be used to improve characters. Like Nyx said, there are viable options of farming early on that many have used successfully. Granted, not every one will buy you a house in 30 seconds, but still.

[lestatzero]

My Thought.

You vote you get a Vote ticket ...(non transferable) Vote tickets can be used like the raffle table to put a ticket in for a unique item ... the more you vote in a month the more chance you have to win that item. If you want to hold onto your vote tickets for a couple months then why not.... put them in on something you are interested in when the raffle table renews.

If the Voting sites go down for whatever reason they have for going down then No Loss No gain for anyone. Everyone who votes will still have the same opportunity as everyone else once the system is back up and running. (for the many issues the 3rd party voting sites have had in the past ) ...


Just an Idea / Thought..

Too many people are taking the reward as an entitlement rather than the Extra Thank you I think +Colibri intended it to be.

[onemoregenius]

Nyx: those are certainly great points that I had not thought of. I didn't fully utilize the beginner guides like I should have and I probably would have been better off haha.

[Devlin]

+1 to everything Lestat said.

[+Requiem]

I am against voting for ED. I like the ticket idea. Maybe even voting reward only items (similar to the auction only stuff we currently have in place). Then it's saying thank you, without directly affecting the economy.

[+Nyx]

Nyx: those are certainly great points that I had not thought of. I didn't fully utilize the beginner guides like I should have and I probably would have been better off haha.

hehe



Re: raffle idea - I actually kinda love that idea. If +C were to feel there should be more than just a raffle ticket, then perhaps a ticket and a random small item, such as food deco. Or a ticket and a temporary buff item, similar to what I do for the power hour mini-events now and then.

[Wil]

I do think that 1ED per day for voting is [...] causing people to consider it being paid for service.

Hi Nyx,

I would spin it a little differently: You play a quest in a game, you achieve some gain within the game's framework. The game quest is -vote the shard-. The gain is ED. It's not payment for a service. It's just another repeatable quest. One of Colibri's quests, like the Mistvale quests are yours.

Once a decision is made to turn voting into a game with a reward, it makes little sense to me to either restrict who can play or to make the reward too small to entice players. Certainly not if one point of turning it into a game quest is to raise the shard's profile on the voting sites.

Regards,
Wil

[fixxer1963]

You can't have an in-game quest that relies on outside sources for completion. People would still want the quest reward regardless of who's fault it is that the quest is not working that day. That would in turn lead to people claiming to have completed the quest, without even attempting to. Sadly, the honest are always punished because of dishonest people's actions. Same as paying more for merchandise because the store has to pay insurance to cover stolen items.

[Wil]

You can't have an in-game quest that relies on outside sources for completion. People would still want the quest reward regardless of who's fault it is that the quest is not working that day.

Howdy,

Now and then that's what's happened when something has bugged up at one of the voting sites. But "can't" have a quest because it's impacted by things out of the designer's control? That seems a little extreme to me. Like saying you can only have a football game in a dome because it might rain. Or saying you can't link to anybody else's web site because the URL might change.

If there's a non-trivial chance of a known adverse event impacting a game, just design the game to accommodate the adverse event. Play in light rain. Postpone for hurricanes. Vote stone says 0 EDs were awarded to players in the last 6 hours. Or 20 were awarded. Or 3. Assess what that means for the operational status of the vote quest and run it at your own risk.

I noticed the public comments about the most recent breakage were pretty polite. Really just hey, fyi, it's broke. When communication is good and this sort of thing doesn't catch you off guard you don't get too many histrionics.

Regards,
Wil

[Devlin]

your analogies are always funny :p

one thing i'll say... There were charts showing how many votes UOEX received on a couple of the sites. It was getting a handful of votes a month for a while, until the voting incentive was introduced, whereupon the chart proceeded to erupt. Shot straight up the first month, probably more votes in the first week than there was all year. People don't necessarily care to vote the shard as the best; they are already here, what does it matter to them? So the ED bonus did the trick. I'm all for the raffle system. Whoever proposed that, give 'em a medal. Made of chocolate, so it can be eaten. Vote the shard, you get a +1 ticket to your name (like trinsic raffle.) End of the month, draw and see who wins.

Could give people tickets to turn in, but people could stockpile... Make them work for only two months, let them roll over once? Pain to code? Similar to trinsic raffle would work well methinks.