[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 agree! I think favoritism is just unfortunately a reality of voting for quite a few people (not everyone does it, and I know quite a few awesome people who don't here at ff_land ♥), but I think that there will always be a small amount of people who will tend to gravitate and vote more towards characters and games that they personally like more. And I think writing restrictions just kind of opens up more of a "playing to favoritism" kind of mindset when it comes to other aspects of fic writing too: if someone writes a story about a person's least favorite character or pairing from FFVII for example, does that automatically mean that the story won't be worth considering either? To some, that might BE a case where they're not going to appreciate the story or vote on it...but to others they will look at it and maybe even take more appreciation of it as putting a new light on something for them or just take into account that it is very well-written. I think the reasons why people vote vary greatly from person to person, so I'm not entirely sure there's any one solution to that conundrum.

...I could see giving up bias to be extremely hard for some, unfortunately I think that's just a reality of fandom stuff in general. But I've honestly been impressed so far with non-super-popular characters or games that I have seen exhibited in challenges and getting votes. If someone honestly gets inspired to write a story about ANY game or character, I think that's something that they should feel free to write and be happy submitting.

If you ask me to write about even a game that I maybe have written for in the past but for whatever reason just don't have as much of a desire to do so now (for instance, I tend to find it harder to write for FFVII...I did it recently for the letter challenge, but it was only because that was honestly the first idea that popped into my head for that challenge--if I was TOLD that I could only write for FFVII, I would probably be having a hard time of it since I normally don't get inspired to write about that world...and if I was told to write a story about a game I haven't played, I'd just not submit and then I'd feel guilty about losing points that way). I think personally it would really limit the amount of entries in challenges to begin with for that very reason: people won't write for games they haven't played or they don't feel inspired to write about...and people are probably not going to vote in the challenges that are focused on games they're not interested in themselves (I could so see a challenge for Crystal Chronicles getting pretty much ignored on both fronts, for instance).

[the-404-error.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, I'm positive a lot of people here wouldn't vote by favoritism, but if even a small number do, they're going to anyway.

To some, that might BE a case where they're not going to appreciate the story or vote on it...but to others they will look at it and maybe even take more appreciation of it as putting a new light on something for them or just take into account that it is very well-written.

Yes, and I think since the majority don't just skip over something they don't like or recognize, it shouldn't be too much of a problem... however, in close challenges (which almost all of them end up being, when looking at the numbers), those few voters voting for what they know or like the best can tip it over and push a possibly better written fic/better graphic out of the running. I really don't see how it's possible to fix this beyond reminding people to take into consideration more than just their favorite characters...

If someone honestly gets inspired to write a story about ANY game or character, I think that's something that they should feel free to write and be happy submitting.

Yes, this pretty much. If I write something for IV or II, I don't expect many people to read it (and I certainly don't expect it to win), but as long as I enjoyed writing it and at least one or two other people enjoyed it, it doesn't matter too much. Winning is fun for sure, but it's not the only factor... and then I end up pleasantly surprised if I do end up placing with something from a not-extremely-popular game. XD