May Challenge Voting

[Baziron]

I'd need five votes to give more suitable number of people all the credit they deserve.

In the end, my vote fell for Mid'Som' - cuz it's a Shadowrun suitable map. I just followed my heart.

[Sigurd]

-Never going to vote for myself-

I voted for Torstan because If my players ever do end up wrecked in a caravel, lost at sea, and happen to start a fight..... I have the perfect map!

I just like seeing the sails submerged in the water. Thats great realism.


Sigurd

I also would have been happier to cast more (3?) votes. Too much deserving a vote,

[dorpond]

I also would have been happier to cast more (3?) votes. Too much deserving a vote,

I agree. The problem with contest like this is that some people that have better-than-average maps still might not get any votes and as a result could get upset or make them feel not-worthy. That in turn could create a chain reaction and discourage them from making maps for future contests or maybe even stop making maps at all. Let's face it - it is depressing to put all that work into a map and not get any votes. how is that encouraging?

Is there a solution? Not sure. I think once prizes (just another form of currency) comes into the picture, the focus changes. I think greed can come into play, I think cheating can come into play, and eventually doubt can come into play. All components of the dark side..

So I am not sure if prizes is a good idea to be completely honest with you. I think if the contest is a friendly contest, people have a different attitude in general. If the contest was friendly (no prizes), other mappers might be more open to helpping out other mappers - to show them little tricks - offer suggestions and maybe even take the Map-in Progress from another contestant and edit it, showing them how to desaturate the color or add shadowing effects. I think in general people will help people more instead of guarding their 'secrets'.

I could be wrong - all I can go by is what I have learn in life over my 38 years. In general, once 'currency' comes into the picture, people change -- usually for the worst.

If prizes continue to be in the contests: I think when it comes to contests like these, I think there should be a group of 'voters'. These voters are very educated in the ways of mapping and maybe even educated in the ways of VT's. These voters do not make their own entries so their votes are fair. These voters carefully critique each map and state the positives and negatives for feedback. In the end, they decide on a winner. Maybe we can make this fun and say that the voters next month will be the top 10 mappers from previous months, this way the mappers rotate and gives them a sense of pride being a voter 'this month'.

I also like Meleeguys suggestion of blind voting. Take a look at the real world when we vote for a president - nobody knows who their neighbor voted for. I think the way it is now, new voters are going to take a look at who has already voted and look who is in the lead - they may not even bother at putting their vote on someone who has no votes or 1 votes. They might just look at the two top dogs and start playing favorites - it again takes away from the real focus here - to pick the map you think is best.

Anyway, I am rambling now..

[Robbie]

A lot of the things you mention I agree with. After seeing this evolve I think a panel of voters would be the best solution. As a site I' dlike to run a prize-based contest at least once a year, but I also think that yes, a panel of voters would be best because there's less community bias.

This is a sponsored event and is a one-time arrangement. And also keep in mind there will be first, second, and third place prizes. So as you cast your votes, you don't actually HAVE to play favorites.

[torstan]

Another option would be to give everyone 3 votes with descending value - such as 3,2,1. This would spread the votes around and give a more even distribution. I don't know whether the forum software exists to deal with that though.

It seems that the general feeling is that everyone wants more votes in contests like this, rather than fewer.

[ravells]

All good points Dorpond. As far as I know, there is no intention to make the monthly challenge a prize winning affair (other than the coveted and may I say priceless, compass rose icon for the winner ). This 'prize' competition is very much a 'one off', there may be others, but I don't anticipate that they will be regular.

In coming up with challenges, the CLs try to introduce as much variety as possible and this challenge was certainly different from previous ones.

Perhaps I'm a little naive, but I got the impression that nobody was holding back little secrets, and knowledge was shared freely. A particularly big 'thank you' to Redrobes in this respect who explained at length how to keep files under 75k and the alchemy of compression ratios etc.

I might be mistaken, but I thought that the voting was arranged was 'blind' in that people could not see the result of the voting until they had voted themselves.

I think this has been a great competition this month. I was a bit worried at the outset by the slow take up, which was part of the reason why I slapped down an early entry to act as a stool pigeon . I'm sure people thought 'Hey, I can do better than that!' and they did. No doubt the prizes had a part to play in the large take up, but we're not exactly talking about winning a Maserati or a week's holiday in Las Vegas here!

The purpose of these competitions has always been to provide an opportunity for people in the community to try something new and to have an incentive to complete a project against a deadline with helpful hands along the way. Winning is perhaps the least important part of it.

[torstan]

The voting may be supposed to be blind, but it is possible to see how the voting is going before you vote - or it was this month at any rate.

[Robbie]

Yes, you can view poll results before casting your vote...I don't think thats turn-off-able.

[Valarian]

Is the prize giving based on our results then? I would've thought RPGTonight would have their own judges marking against the criteria laid out. This was my understanding from the original post. I thought the board was voting for the coveted compass rose award.

I agree. The problem with contest like this is that some people that have better-than-average maps still might not get any votes and as a result could get upset or make them feel not-worthy.

I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy.

[ravells]

Ah my bad, I was sure that it was turn offable and that this was the default, but there isn't a button to that with (which is surprising).

Valarian - the games / book prizes are (I believe) awarded in line with the most votes from the board.