[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

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

I think you're making a very valid point. XD Not only could it hurt participation for submissions in general, but I could definitely see it becoming an issue with voting as well (people are already less likely to not vote what they're familiar with and there are more popular games out there, not really much anyone can do about that! Still, limit a challenge to something like the earlier games, the online ones, or the spin-offs and I can definitely imagine people just not bothering to vote or read). O_O; ...Says the person who plays CC Ring of Fates, lolz.

[lightofeilia.livejournal.com]

Still, limit a challenge to something like the earlier games, the online ones, or the spin-offs and I can definitely imagine people just not bothering to vote or read)

And what I'm trying to say here is that I am being FORCED to vote because there are entries where there are games that I know about. I would rather have a challenge where I won't vote than a challenge where I'm forced to vote.

[glacialphoenix]

...the thing is, even if there are restrictions, it's likely to be a group of games, from what I can tell? So... if there's a mix of games you do know and don't know anyway - would you have the same problem? I'm not trying to dismiss your opinion, I really do want to know.

[lightofeilia.livejournal.com]

Probably, yes, though the group of games mix is Tako's idea

[arivess.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm being mean every time I reply to you, so I'm sorry again, beforehand, but.

So.

Your idea is to restrict it to one single game at a time?

No offense, but what about the games that only 2-3 people have played? (Which is like... at least 10 of the games.) Are all of them going to have to be thrown into one restriction category? But then the same problem would still be there, with only the popular games getting the better end of the deal.

Not to be rude and I really don't want you to hate me, but I'm finding your reasons for restrictions kind of selfish and lazy. ._.; To me, it sounds a bit like you're saying, "I don't want to read about games I don't know, so separate them so I don't have to deal with them. I don't care what happens about them beyond that."

You talk about it not being fair to have to judge two games evenly when you know one and don't know the other, but most of the people here who write the more obscure games have said we don't mind if you don't vote for ours. So it feels like the bulk of your argument is you feel like you shouldn't have to read fics you don't want to. :\ (Which... you don't have to. You can just not read them and not vote, altogether? Again, at the cost of sounding arrogant, I think it's fairer than asking people to write fics they don't want to.)

[lightofeilia.livejournal.com]

I don't hate you, so don't worry lol.

(Which... you don't have to. You can just not read them and not vote, altogether?

That's taking away my voting/participation points. Which is tiny compared to your submission points, which is ultimately what you're getting at. The freedom to submit whatever you want as opposed to being forced to sit back and not participate.

At this point I think we can go on arguing and defending and nothing's going to be resolved. I'll go with the poll. If games are restricted, I'll do my best to help come up with a system that could appease everyone. If games are not restricted, then things will just go back to the way they were.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

That's taking away my voting/participation points. Which is tiny compared to your submission points, which is ultimately what you're getting at. The freedom to submit whatever you want as opposed to being forced to sit back and not participate.

Preeeeeeeeeeetty much. But, again, like I said, it's much easier to vote on something you don't know that it is to write something you don't know. The former is hard, I'm not belittling your concern, but the latter is completely impossible.

My only problem with "going by the poll" is no one else is giving their opinion except you and cowturtle. >.> I am going to be rude here and say that if they can't come out and say something, their opinion should count for less, because it feels like they don't give a damn.

[lightofeilia.livejournal.com]

My only problem with "going by the poll" is no one else is giving their opinion except you and cowturtle. >.> I am going to be rude here and say that if they can't come out and say something, their opinion should count for less, because it feels like they don't give a damn.

Agreeing.

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

I can definitely see how that would be an issue for a voter and I'm really not trying to belittle your opinion or anything like that! ♥ I think you're making a valid argument here...but I think it might also be an issue for writers too if they feel FORCED to write for a game they're not inspired for either.

We have more voting participants than fic writers ATM, so I think a lot of people just fear game restrictions possibly limiting the number of fic writers too. I'm actually not much of a fic writer (Yin pretty much covers that area for the most part, lolz!), but I have written a few things here for the Drabbles and Letter fic challenge. The games I picked were all varied though (for the drabbles I did FFVIII, FFIII, FFIV, FFXIII, and FFXI and for the Letter fic I did FFXIII) because they were simply what came to mind for me when I read the prompts. I'm not entirely sure if that would be the case if I were told that I could only write a fic for, say, FFX (especially if something came to mind for FFVIII for me instead!). :)

...Lolz, I'm sorry if that didn't make sense. I really do see where you're coming from because I tend to vote more than write and I know it can be hard to vote without context, but I can also see where the writers are coming from as well. ♥