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Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Does the System Allow Those Who Like Playing the Content, to do so?

In a mainstream setting? No.
Indeed, it does practically everything it can do, as a system, to prevent this; from making sure new and old players can't play together naturally, to giving people extra reward for doing things that disrupt and prevent play.

Those who play the content are forced away from the central focus areas of the content, and can only play in hidden away places. This leads to newer players having even less chance of ever experiencing play, because all that are left in the main areas, are AFKers, and those who reap rewards from bullying.

This causes a feedback loop, with fewer newcomers being able to play, so more turning to AFKing, which means even fewer get to play. This also strengthens the negative word of mouth about the content, which results in even fewer turning up to the content in the first place.

Any group of people who enjoy playing the content, slowly die out, as they have no access to the newcomers, so no chance of replacing people they lose (anyone they do manage to capture, outside of the normal system of things, will be increasingly far behind them in skill, and thus find it harder to relate, or get into the content, due to not having as many options for competition, and getting less reward - unless a lot of effort is gone to, to juggle the teams to make it fairer, which is difficult, even in the best of circumstances).

A decreasing population in playing groups causes less enjoyment to be had, because those who remain have fewer people to play with, find it harder to get to play, or have competition, and also get the negative psychological effects that stem from being in a dying community (especially an ignored one).

Score:

1

If there weren't multiple Worlds to hide away in, and off-site versions of Gop, the system would have completely killed off it's playing communities, many Years ago.

09-Jan-2017 21:44:25 - Last edited on 09-Jan-2017 21:45:47 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Conclusion:
The current system fails to deliver on any aspect required to encourage play and enjoyment of the content. Indeed, it has many negative effects that are so strong, that even when there is the potential for a slight positive effect to be caused by an aspect of it, this is prevented from occurring by other aspects (or parts of the same aspect), and the negatives would outweigh it, even if it weren't prevented.

This is not a system for a piece of content to have, if it is supposed to be enjoyed actively, or even have the possibility to be enjoyed. It would be a good system for a piece of AFKing content, but even then it would be fairer to simply disallow/prevent active use of the AFK content, rather than have the aspects of the system where if anyone who tries to use it actively, they get bullied.

A Minigame deserves, and actually requires having a system that allows, and encourages active exploration, play, and enjoyment of it. It is, after all, supposed to be content designed for those who enjoy such things; anyone who doesn't, has other pieces of content designed for their own playstyle and enjoyment.

Overall Score: 12/60.
It's hard to think of a worse system, for the long-term health of a Minigame. It may not have been clear at conception, but it has proved itself so, beyond shadow of a doubt, and therefore it's time for a change.

09-Jan-2017 21:58:31

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

__________________

To see how other systems compare, we'll start with one which allocates tokens via orbs scored per person (considering both the option for it being the sole system, and that of it being an aditional one).

Does the System Require Participation in the Content, in Order to Gain While There?

Sole System: Yes.
Additional: No.

As a sole system, his system ensures that reward can only be gained by being active in the content; however the activity undertaken, and the motives fueling the activity, are not without flaws (as will be covered in other sections), and it completely removes the option for those who don't wish to participate, which removes the ability for them to be a positive part of the content (though, at least, it removes the negatives of their actions).

As an additional one, it doesn't require participation at all, any more than currently. At best, it just gives people who are already defrauding the system, a way to do it a little faster, by putting in minimal effort, some of the time.

Sole System:

10

While it ensures activity in the content, this is not encouraged to be positive activity, and indeed there is incentive for negative activity.

Additional System:

4

While it could help encourage activity, it doesn't require it, and the best ways to gain will still involve manipulating the outcome, and periods of AFKing.

11-Jan-2017 00:01:42 - Last edited on 11-Jan-2017 00:02:41 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Does the System Encourage Teamwork?

Sole System: A little, but not inherently.
Additional: Very, very slightly.

When the Sole system, it does not encourage teams to work together to perform well, the only team encouragement relies on people working out the averages, and working together to manipulate the system.

The primary encouragement will be for individuals to be the one who scores the most orbs, which is an incompatible goal with teamwork. It will encourage a lack of teamwork in order for personal gain, at best.. and will directly reward those who disrupt and sabotage their own team mates, in order to score orbs they have brought close to the altar.

As an additional system, the same problems will occur, as will the ones from the current system. The strongest team-ecouraging influences will be to manipulate for gain, not to work well together at the content; in addition will be the encouragement to monopolise orbs, and work for solo gain, at the expense of others in the team.

Sole System:

3

Very little exists of the incentive for teamwork, and the majority of the incentive is directly against teamwork.

Additional:

1

Given the current system's already overwhelming lack of teamwork incentive in playing, what little positive influence adding this new part will give, will be even more overwhelmingly negated, than it manages to do to itself.

11-Jan-2017 00:20:52

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Is the System Conducive to a Positive Experience for Newcomers?

Sole System: No.
Additional: No.

On it's own, this system would cause many problems for newcomers, as they would be gaining even less than they currently do, and with just as much persecution from more experienced players, with them still being directly rewarded for preventing new players from gaining reward.

Any attempts to get more points, would bring them directly into conflict with players more experienced than them, who will be capable of taking advantage of them for their own gain.

As an additional system, it just further exacerbates existing problems for newcomers, and adds yet more to their troubles, making it yet more unlikely that they will ever experience fun while playing.

Sole System:

1

Rivals the current system, for creating as bad an experience as possible.
Additional:

1

Practically the only way to make a bad situation worse.

11-Jan-2017 00:29:39

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Does the system encourage competition?

Sole System: No.
Additional: Even less so.

The only way these systems encourage competition, is between members of the same team. This is not conducive to any long-term competition, or like for the content (indeed, it would destroy practically any chance of people wishing to stay on past getting what they came for).

If an addition to the current system, this would not inspire anything more than passing competition between soloers, who would still gain less overall by competing, than by simply manipulating the system to gain AFK.

Sole System:

2

Additional:

2

While both encourage competition between team mates, this is a negative, rather than a positive. Competition between teams not encouraged outside solo play, as people will always gain fewer points in a team, if not deliberately boosting one person.

11-Jan-2017 00:42:11

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Does it Encourage and Reward Skill in, and Exploration of the Content?

Sole System: Ineffectively.
Additional: Negatively.

As a sole system, it may encourage people to become skilled in playing, but by far the biggest incentive will be to become skilled at stealing team-mates' orbs. Thus bullying and team-trolling is rewarded.

The encouragement will be to ensure you play on a team with newcomers, who will be easier to steal from, or solo (more experienced players may bring more orbs in faster, but stealing from them will be harder, as they'll become better at preventing it).

Given that newcomers will be the most persecuted, and least rewarded, and with the incentive being to prevent them from learning, the system directly rewards the first few to become skilled, while preventing any subsequent people from becoming so - therefore permanently negating it's only positive effect.

As an addition, it yet again, adds difficulty to exploring the game, and with the existing incentives to not explore the game, it ends up being just another prevention method.

Sole System:

2

Additional:

1

11-Jan-2017 00:51:33

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Does the System Allow Those Who Like Playing the Content, to do so?

Sole System: Partially.
Additional: No.

Stand alone, the system will allow those who enjoy playing, to do so solo.. but won't encourage people to that, with the majority being prevented from even finding out if they do or not (because more experienced players will keep them down), and the best reward coming from bulling and stealing from team-mates (thus few will break out into being able to enjoy just playing - unless they enjoy bullying).

It does get rid of the ability for people to AFK to gain while preventing play.. but it transfers the incentive entirely over to another form of preventing play.

It will still lead to a dead community, by content self-annihilation.

All in all, the mainplay, and long-term effects of such a system will be the same as the current one, for the majority of the playerbase.

Adding the system will be ineffective in removing the current stoppages to enjoying play, and will still cut off new players from being able to enjoy playing the content.

Sole System:

3

Additional:

2

11-Jan-2017 01:01:55

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Conclusion:

Either method would solve none of the major problems, as any good aspects are negated either by others, or by the long-term effects of the same aspects.

The only positive is that as a stand alone system it would eliminate non-participation as being an option.. but given that the gameplay is prevented from being fun, and that it cuts out the vast majority from ever liking the content, it's a decisively bad route.

Unless the whole Minigame were converted to a Solo-only, under the stand-alone version of the system, with all team-content removed, along with a large chunk of the possible community-forming potential, and potential for a large quantity of even those who like active content and Minigames, to like it.

Otherwise it's not possible for this method to help the content, at all.

As an additional system, all positives are made impossible by the current system's effects, and only it's negatives are allowed to contribute; so no chance for it to improve the state of affairs the content is currently in.

Whichever way it's done, this system would require entirely new systems to be coded, and does not rely on already displayed data.

Overall Scores:
Sole System: 21/60
Additional: 11/60

11-Jan-2017 01:13:07 - Last edited on 11-Jan-2017 01:22:25 by Yusou Bhoroi

Yusou Bhoroi

Posts: 8,551 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

So far (for Gop) we've seen that the current system, that rewards entirely by win or loss, regardless of effort or score, only serves to encourage manipulation, without play, as would any system that doesn't give reward based on contribution, regardless of how close the win and loss rewards were - people would still gain the win reward for doing the minimal input (which would only require one of them to not AFK), and would exploit that.

A system that rewards individual effort, would seem fair at first, but would not work for Gop, as it would cause internal conflict within teams, create enmity, and reward negative behaviours.

Further more: any way to make this system would require a lot more work, as it does not rely on data already displayed - necessitating something that is more prone to glitches, both in itself, and caused to the rest of the content.

This would be a set of problems facing any system that didn't base itself on already displayed data - ruling out quite a few other options.

What is required, is a system that has many positives, doesn't impact too negatively upon anyone, and can be based around something that's already displayed as data.

________________

All these considerations lead to the proposed idea:

A system awarding tokens based on team scores, with a set ratio for tokens to orbs.

This system ticks off for being non-complicated, and thus hopefully easy to implement, but how does it stand up as a system for gameplay?

11-Jan-2017 01:32:15 - Last edited on 11-Jan-2017 01:35:32 by Yusou Bhoroi

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