[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

[arivess.livejournal.com]

;_; I honestly think you're trying to fix a problem that isn't really there. I know you're trying to make it fairer for more obscure games' writers, but we're not the ones complaining that no one's voting our fics. XD;;

[lightofeilia.livejournal.com]

It's not that no one is voting your fics; it's that people are most likely going to vote the games that they know versus the ones that they don't. You can talk about the "obscure" games but I think most of the voters here DO in fact know about the "obscure" games.

I don't mind the obscure games fics winning, I'm just saying that I think it would be better to have challenges where the voters would know all of the fandoms that are being represented so that we can vote with confidence.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

Problem with that is, even though you say you don't want restrictions to be FF7/8 only, if we want the voters to know all the fandoms presented, it's going to be practically 7/8 only. Or 7/8/10/12. It'd mean it'd be impossible to do something like 11, for example, because out of the whole comm, only Breyzy, Yin, and I know it.

I know you don't mind the obscure games fics winning. From my point of view, you're trying to make it fairer for the obscure games. I'm saying the obscure games writers don't mind that we're not winning. We don't mind that you're voting a game you know over ours. We just want to write what we like.

[lightofeilia.livejournal.com]

Why would it be practically 7/8 only? Based on the poll, 9 people have played FFIV. You would have at the very least, 9 potential voters. The voting would be fair because it will not be skewed by people who have not played FFIV.

Same goes for FFXIII. 13 people.

I can see your point for say, FFII. 2 people have played FFII.

I know you don't mind the obscure games fics winning. From my point of view, you're trying to make it fairer for the obscure games. I'm saying the obscure games writers don't mind that we're not winning. We don't mind that you're voting a game you know over ours. We just want to write what we like.

Yeah, okay. That does lessen my ... er, concerns? Uhm, voting anxiety.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

A total of 9 voters out of 30+ participants is not much... You're saying you want something where everyone who votes would know the game, which means some 20 people aren't going to be able to vote whether they want to or not. And you most likely wouldn't be voting either, so I don't see how that'd help your points any compared to if you just don't vote on a general one. XD;

[chacusha]

Only 18 people have voted on that poll, though? This is kind of beside the point but 9 out of 18 is half which is pretty significant.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

But the people who know the more obscure games are the ones who participate more and vote first. XD; You're not going to get more than 1-2 more votes on the obscure ones out of rest of the people.

[chacusha]

But non-spoiler-adverse people would still be able to vote in obscure fic contests by judging solely on writing ability, yes? Eilia just wants context to play a role, or for it to not play a role, not a mix.

And I don't know if you can really make statements about people who haven't voted in that poll yet? FFIV is not all that obscure of a game. Middle of the road I would say.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

True, but still. Most people who would judge it solely on writing ability and not context would be people who'd be judging it on writing ability and not context anyway even if it weren't restricted.

And I wasn't saying FF4 is obscureobscure, just that it's still not "game that everyone knows". Eilia was the one who specifically cited FF4 as an example. I still maintain that not many more people are going to vote for the less mainstream games, though, because most of the ones who've played them are the super-active players that vote on everything near the start.

[thedrowned.livejournal.com]

With how many games there are, context will always play a part. You simply can't have one or the other without upsetting someone. The mix of the two is the easiest way to ensure everyone is (mostly) happy.

Eilia made it a point that the shorter writing challenges would need more context than something longer: these challenges should have a restriction (games with the lowest votes can't be used). With how many games all the members have played, they can still do something even if one of their chosen games is barred.

[glacialphoenix]

I... can't speak for the other obscure-fic writers, but as someone who tends to favour the semi-obscure games (VI and IX)?

If I have the freedom to choose the games I want to write, I also have the freedom to accept the consequences of choosing those fandoms.

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I think that's the issue most of the fic writers are having who are more vocally against the idea of game restrictions...I think in all honesty, writers just want to write what they want to write. XD I personally know sometimes I'm not going to get votes or comments on things I submit and I'm okay with that because writing it made me happy. *cue corny Hallmark music now, lolz* :)