[POLL] Rule Changes

[chacusha]

Please take this poll to determine rule changes for Game 2.


[PROPOSAL 1] Alliances in Game 2
A reminder of the alliance system -- The six teams here at ff_land get divided into pairs (alliances). The point values of allied teams are added together and the alliance with the highest total is declared the winner. Last game it was the Thief/Monk alliance.

For the next game, the new alliances would be Soldier & Thief, Monk & White Mage, and Black Mage & Dragoon. The individual team comms would all be combined as well, meaning that Thieves would be invited to the Soldier comm as members without posting access and vice versa. Of course, individual members can still choose whether or not they actually want to join/interact with their allied team but it seemed to help team morale overall last game.

• Rationale: Creates larger "teams" and allows uneven teams to be balanced.
• Arguments Against: I'm not sure if anyone brought up arguments but I can see it being more motivating to compete if you don't have to worry about the performance of your allied team. It also may interfere with building up individual team identity.


[PROPOSAL 2] Vagrant Story
While not a Final Fantasy game in name, Vagrant Story is officially part of the Ivalice Alliance along with games like Final Fantasy XII and Tactics (Advance (A2)). Originally intended to be separate from the Final Fantasy series, it was later purposely connected back to FF by references to it in later Ivalice Alliance games.

For more information see the FF Wikia.


[PROPOSAL 3] Kingdom Hearts original characters
Currently ff_land allows any KH fanworks that prominently feature the FF characters. However, things featuring ONLY KH original characters (I'm talking Sora, Riku, Namine, Organization XIII, Hayner, Aqua, Ventus, Eraqus, Ansem, etc. here, NOT Disney or imported FF characters) have always been a vague grey area.

I can see arguments both ways. While KH and FF are strongly linked and many people are fans of both, to me it's always seemed like a separate fandom. And while I love the KH games something fierce and even my mod icon and tag banner feature Aqua, I can see how allowing fanworks that only feature KH characters could be a slippery slope. So yes, please let me know your opinion on this one!


[PROPOSAL 4] Raising stamping and referral points
For this, I'm proposing to raise the points given for sorting an applicant from 5 to 10, and the points for referring someone from 50 to 60.

• Rationale: About 1/3 of the voters in the polls said 5 points was too low, and only 12% of last game's points were earned in FF Classchange (this includes referral points). FF Minigames and some scales in Moogle Workshop are getting a boost, so it might be good to inflate the sorting points to match. 60 is also a more easily divisible number than 50.
• Arguments Against: A majority said they were okay with 5 points per application, and 10 points might be a tad high for voting on an app... (but I don't want to use a non-round number, so it's got to be either 5 or 10). roax brought up concerns about too-high referral points here


[PROPOSAL 5] Occasional restrictions on games in contests in ultima_arena
For this proposal, there would be occasional restrictions on games allowed for contests, particularly fic contests. Currently, nearly all challenges in ultima_arena allow you to submit an entry featuring any FF game. The proposal here is to have challenges where the games you can choose from are limited in order to even the playing field, as not everyone is familiar with every game.

For example, a fic written for a highly obscure game might not get the same amount of attention as one with very recognizable characters. To solve this, there could be challenges where only obscure game fic is allowed, and other challenges that are focused on a particular popular game such as Final Fantasy X. See this thread for arguments for/against.


[PROPOSAL 6] One fewer short contest in the second half of the month
Currently, the contest schedule is: one month-long challenge, two half-month challenges in the first half of the month, and two half-month challenges in the second half of the month. The proposal here is to have only ONE half-month challenge during the second half of the month instead of two, for a total of 4 contests in a month rather than 5.

• Rationale: At most two challenges would be due at a time. Right now the max is three, with one of them being the big month-long challenge. It would also tone down the end-of-the-month point bonanza that happens in ultima_arena.
• Arguments Against: Not as many contests in the second half of the month to keep people occupied.



[Poll #1744111]



Thank you! :)

Comments

[virago-queen.livejournal.com]

I'm very much against restrictions. I can understand how lack of context can be a pain - I flail around a bit whenever I read anything II, III, V, or Dissidia-related - but putting restrictions on writers would really dampen participation, I think. I know that I personally do not write well with limitations - you try to make me write something from IV or X, and I'm going to just fail horribly, simply because I don't have any desire to write anything for those worlds. The only restrictions I could get behind would be eliminating one game from play - like, a fic challenge where you can't write anything from VII, for instance. That would still leave some leeway.

Contests are my favorite form of participation here, fic contests especially, and I know it would really, really frustrate me if I couldn't participate one cycle because I haven't played Dissidia or something. Or if I really, really wanted to write something from VI, but couldn't because only three other people have played the game.

Context is important. One of the main things I vote on in a fic from a game I'm familiar with is if I feel the characterization is solid. But when I run across those that I can't do that with, I pay attention to the crafting - word choice, flow, plot structure. These things transcend game settings.

Sorry if I come off a little strong - this is just one of those things that I feel could really put a damper on participation, which is definitely not what we need.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

*nods* About contests, there's also the problem that pointswise, Sai and I are the only thieves that regularly write, and she's much busier, so I'm usually the only one on my team that enters longer writing challenges. And I'm the comm weirdo who knows the obscure games much more than the popular ones. (...Heck, I know all the obscure games better than all the mainstream ones.) So, at the cost of sounding whiny, it's really not fair that I wouldn't be able to enter something, especially since I supply most of my team's writing entries.

[virago-queen.livejournal.com]

I can definitely sympathize! Vanja's been doing some more writing (yay! ^^), but I'm still the bulk of the Black Mages' writing power, especially when it comes to longer stuff.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

*nods*

...Although, um, technically, I think I can write from any game if I have to, except for like... 8, 12, FFT, and FFCC. XD; But Mysti says that might make my argument a little more relevant? The fact that I can, but... mou. It's like... I can, but it won't be any good? I can, but I'd rather not? I guess kinda like that.

[virago-queen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know the worlds of IV, X, XII, and Tactics well enough to read them easily, and supposedly well enough to write them, but there is literally no inspiration whatsoever for those. And if there's no inspiration and no desire, then there is no fic. Simple as that.

I try to diversify my writing, though! So people don't get tired of constantly reading VII-fic from me, lol. But my happy writing zone is pretty firmly VI-IX, with a little XIII thrown in.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

Mine is... uh. I think mine's been whatever-I-felt-like, thinking back. XD; But I think that's kind of the whole point. I didn't particularly stick with one fandom, whether obscure or mainstream. I just picked whatever I wanted to write, period...

[glacialphoenix]

Sorry. :P

But I kind of figure Vanja and I are more inclined to write NES/SNES-era... so if it came down to the popular ones you'd be the only one entering.

[virago-queen.livejournal.com]

Lol, is cool. You're like the minigame goddess anyways. =P

Yeah. I could handle PSX-era, but if it came down to PS2, we'd just be kinda screwed.

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

I can understand that! I think my fear is that restrictions would definitely limit creativity and the amount of participation in challenges (something that is still a bit lagging on some of the teams, especially in terms of the writing challenges).

Considering that I can't really enter the graphics challenges too much and the only other way I can get points is by voting on entries...my main source of point-earning for Team White Mage comes from either submitting fan fics for challenges or posting them in MWS (I'm well aware that my FFIII fics aren't probably going to be read by a lot of people, but I still have fun writing them so I'll probably continue to do so for future challenges if they're not restricted! XD). Quite a few of my favorite challenges are the fan fic ones for that very reason.

I would feel terrible if I couldn't submit for a challenge because it was about a game I didn't know or feel comfortable writing about (it's nearly impossible to write for a game you haven't played, for instance). And I do think context is quite important for fic writing too, and I definitely do pay special attention to that especially if I'm not familiar with a game that a fic is about (I have read some amazing FFV, FFVI, and The Crystal Bearers fics here that I really adore despite not having played the games myself yet). I think there are aspects about writing that definitely transcend game settings. :D