Roleplay Voting Systems

[jmordetsky]

Has anyone ever played an RP game online where there was a voting system?

I remember a long time ago I played this game where there was a vote command, which you would use if you were involved in a scene with someone you thought RPed really well.

What would happen is, as a result of getting a vote after a RL week, the player could use it as a point for increasing their characters skills, attributes etc.

The theory is you could encourage people who wanted to have more powerful chars to actually RP instead of trying to hack&slash their way to it, or bar those who don't RP from ever being able to build uber pcs.

Its also a great anonymous way to say "hey thanks that was a cool scene" with someone. I think it would be great even if we ditched the skills portion of it to just show each week a tally of the top voted players.

The imms could even use it as a benchmark for handing out karma.

Any thoughts?

[Delirium]

Two words:

Popularity Contest.

[SpyGuy]

I played a MUX with a +nom system that basically gave out experience.  The problems with this:

1) IC-wise its not very realistic for the uber-1337 tavern RPer to max out their combat skills because everyone loves their RP.

2) What about excellent solo-RPers/people who work secretly?

3) We're all..err mostly human.  Even anonymous systems end up resorting to "Give +nom to everyone I adventured/RPed with" or "Give +nom o my friend who in my mind is always badass"

4)  Would seriously suck for off-peak hour players who dont get as much character interaction.

I'm opposed to using any sort of system like this on Arm that would affect coded skills.  Mainly because coded skills are gained through the code, its a part of the environment and how characters learn skills realistically.

This system works pretty well on MUSHes and the like where its one of the only ways to advance a character, here we have the nice spiffy code and I'd prefer not to see cliques of +nomer's developing.

All that said, what about a completely anonymous/1 a week/no echo vote deal that would nominate an RPer of the week?  We could see on the weekly update the Account or GDB name of the person who got the most votes.  That might be neat.

[SailorMars]

If I have a really cool RP experience with someone, I send an email to the mud briefly describing the who, what, and why. I'm guessing these make their way to the player eventually because I've gotten some in return.

As for a formalized system, it would take a lot of trust. Especially if there were rewards. If the trust factor wasn't there in full, it would take substantial imm involvement to make sure people weren't cheesing it.

[Ender]

Ehhh... I'm going to have to say no, because it does add a sense of OOCness to raising of a stat or skill.  

If Lord Fallstafffancypantingsworth RPs really well, and gets all the votes by being just indellibly delightfully fun to RP with, should he get stat gains even though he just sits around on his keister sipping wine and complaining about those "uncouth ruffians"?

Armageddon is a "do it" game.  If you want your skills to raise, you better damn well practice them.  If you sit around doing nothing, you aren't going to get better at anything.  It's a great synergy of code and RP that makes the world come alive to me.

Adding OOC rewards for IC actions is just too jarring for me.  I guess I'm just the old fogey who likes his RP the old fashioned way, OOC to an absolute bare minimum

Say the system is approved and does go into use.  You also run into the problems of while some people appreciate villian characters most people are akin to be more warm towards people who are more sociable.  It's sad to say, but a lot of people will gauge good RP on people their characters enjoy being around.  It will encourage friendliness between PCs and LORD KNOWS we don't need any of that hippy nonesense.

I'm not saying all ofcourse, because many of the Armageddon community I believe is mature enough to go through a situation where an evil villian totally makes life miserable for their characters and at the end of the day say OOCly "Wow!  That was really cool!", but I feel these people's votes will largely be overshadowed by the sociable types that are friends with everyone.

[JollyGreenGiant]

Karma's a measure of trust, not necessarily roleplaying ability, although the two frequently go hand-in-hand.

If you see someone playing particularly well, as it is, nothing is stopping you from emailing a compliment about that player to the mud account, your clan imm, or better still, their clan imm if they have one.  These compliments have been known to be forwarded to the players, with any info identifying the source removed, of course.

A vote command seems like the kind of thing that would only be a nuisance to the imms in the long run.

[Gorobei]

Also, it gives players who play around a lot of people all the time a big advantage.  I'm not personally one to utterly enjoy an isolated character, but many people do, and they're necessary for the game.

[Cenghiz]

To tell the truth, my all eight friends would vote for me more symphatetically (sorry if I mispelled)whenever they found out whom I'm playing, so would I for my friends. We're humans, not RP-conscience cops.. And also, most of time that would be a little honest because there would be only our friends in that city when it's noon here. If I have only one person playing in my city except my char, he's automatically the best RPer around eh?

[Bestatte]

Though I agree with the naysayers for the same reasons, it did give me thought about something:

You know how we have the "review" flag, where supposedly it will let the staff know we're hoping for feedback on our RP. Sometimes they just don't catch up with us when we're on, sometimes they do, feedback is -always- welcome (I would hope! ) but isn't always available even when we specifically ask for it.

But, what about if we want the staff to watch someone -else's- RP, because we think it deserves merit? Not that we want them to win some kind of prize, whether stat raise or karma or whatever else...

But simply to give a head's up that the person we're RPing with is an inspiration to our own RP and we would like the staff to take a look for themselves.

I've done this via e-mails in the past, when I had a totally awesome RP experience with someone. Send mud a note saying this was too kewl and to please let the player know that "the other player" (meaning me) enjoyed the hell out of it.

Maybe this could be implemented with a new command in the game, to cut down on e-mails and also give any of the staff the opportunity to watch the RP in progress. Something like - review (other player) rather than just plain review.

It would note 1) who is to be looked at, and 2) who recommended the peek. And it would only be used to note someone we feel deserves praise from the staff, and not for any instance of criticism.

Thoughts?

[Forest Junkie]

I don't like the idea...but...

Can you vote for yourself?  :roll:

I don't like the idea...but...

Can you vote for yourself?  :roll:

review
That thin, wall-eyed half elf is good. Damn good.

think "Damn I'm UBER"

[ashjpd]

How about players with a certain amount of karma should get that command? If they have that karma then they are most definetly trusted and MOST definetly know what good rp is, am I right?

[Forest Junkie]

How about players with a certain amount of karma should get that command? If they have that karma then they are most definetly trusted and MOST definetly know what good rp is, am I right?

Heh, nah. No matter how you cut the cheese on this one, it still stinks.

[Anonymous]

Since I don't have friends, no, I don't like this.

[jhunter]

Sorry, I don't really care much for the idea either. I can see people using it just to help their buddies out and such.

[John]

I agree with what everyone has said here. But here are is another reason I don't like this idea.

We can almost never know if someone is RPing well. Maybe I'm having a great sparring session with someone and there's emotes galore. I think he's a great RPer.

It turns the character we're sparring with is actually a pacifist and is only sparring now because he's OOCly bored out of his mind and not for an IC reason.

A bit silly, but it does get my point across

[Gilvar]

Two thumbs down.

[Angela Christine]

Ok.  But the "points" can only be used to improve the Cooking skill.    That way you can tell who the popular kids are because they can make a delicate souffle.

Or Cooking, Contact, and Barrier.  Skills everyone has to some degree, and that can be improved regardless of lifestyle.  Lone hunter, tavern sitter, spy, lacky, mercenary, noble, etc., anyone can be good at these abilities, and being good at them doesn't give you a huge advantage over other PCs.


Or not.  I was on a MUSH that had this once.  Being a friendless newbie naturally I didn't know what to do or where to go, and I got no votes.  It was a little discouraging.


AC

[Callisto]

Since I don't have friends, no, I don't like this.

I'll be your friend. Hug?

[Candi]

If I have a really cool RP experience with someone, I send an email to the mud briefly describing the who, what, and why.

I'm glad you posted this, it brings about a good topic of discussion that I hadn't really considered.  There are many times that I have thought that someone was doing an exceptional job and I gave them a nod from behind the keyboard, but never really acted on it.  From now on I'll be following SailorMars's example and using the old "cut and paste" to see that they get some credit for it.  Good call.

[spawnloser]

Personally, I don't like it because people have a different idea of what is good roleplay.  I know that I have seen a LOT of arguments about some particular thing someone could do where people were diametrically opposed on the subject.

[moab]

I have to agree with most of the posts here.
On the Mushes I've played (and watched a really well-repsected role-player play) the voting system did become a popularity contest.  It even was arranged that when a particular person had a conflict coming up his buddies would vote him so he could pump his stats.  Very sad.

I think that the whole process of sending an email to the staff of the mud about someone's role play is a sign that you really liked/hated the experience you just had.  If actually take time out of my day to write the staff a paragraph or two on YOUR roleplay you can bet that I thought the effort was well worth it.  

I bet the staff views those emails much more seriously than they might someone just adding a +1 to some char's coolness attribute.  :-)

[Seeker]

Interesting, but having it affect stats or skills is a bogus idea.

I do like the concept of having a simple set-up where a character might get some kind of recognition though.  Perhaps a modest monthly highlight posted on the GBD.  Unlikely, probably unworkable, but still interesting.

"Wandering the wastelands of the Tablelands, this month's featured character is Vertrab of the Gith-Kissers.  This lanky, single-armed desert elf has a remarkable history of narrow escapes and blatantly screwing over his fellow-tribemates.  Vertrab, a favored fixture of the desert outpost, enjoys honied mead, raping humans, and environmentally-sound hunting practices."


Seeker

[Carnage]

No.

You shouldn't need a voting system or player compliments to motivate you to play at your best or to create a well-skilled character. I don't ever expect to receive compliments from other players, even if I am the Grand Dragon Master of Role-playing and I rarely, if ever, mail in simple feedback about other players. I believe the one time I specifically mailed in a compliment was regarding someone who played a certain race that's usually played crappily. They played it extremely well. Otherwise there's really no need for comments.

[Realedazed]

I'd liked the idea a lot better, if it didn't link to skills.  Since the staff can't be around to see every scene, emailing the mud seems like a great idea.
I have a quick question. For those who do email the mud, what do you include in the email: a log, a summery of what happened, or just a "The player of SoandSo did a real good job Rping a whatever!"  Just curious, since I think I may do this in the future.