Development Cycle Archive

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Agent_X_7 wrote:

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Thunderheart wrote:

Please let us know what you think about this.

Thanks!

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Sounds good. I think you should give the one-star bandits ranks like Jawa or Ewok....

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Even better...Gungan!

New system sounds good. Now I'll actually know what all the forum titles mean!

Message Edited by NashAdiras on 08-19-2004 10:32 PM

Message Edited by NashAdiras on 08-19-2004 10:32 PM

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GarVa wrote:

3. Why are you doing this?

A: We want to encourage to post more responsibly and using the time/post count along with the rating system we can do this. We will also be granting icons, titles and even some privileges based on the new rankings.

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• Everybody wants to be a star - Simply put, everyone will want the highest rank attainable, regarless of whether it comes with privledges or not. We just want higher...higher is better. This greed (for lack of a better word) will drive people to any type of posting necessary just to garner good star rankings. It will take approx. 5 seconds after this system goes live, for the "5 stars all-around" posts to start going up all over the place. Instead of just having idle posts, that serve no purpose other than community-building (a.k.a. grind threads), there will be idle posts in which everyone just 5-star's each other all the time. You're right that the occasional 1-star bandit won't have much of an effect in this system, which is why star grinding threads will be so successful. Sure, the mods can delete and/or lock them, but they can only do so much, and as it is now, many, many of these threads fall through the cracks and are left untouched.


• What's popular isn't always right... - And so the old addage goes. It's very easy to get people to 5-star your posts. First, you go into the jedi forums and complain about how long the grind is. Then, you can hop over to the BH forum, and complain about not being able to kill jedi. Hop onto any dev post and make obnoxious, unrelated complaints about whatever broken system you're mad about today. A trip to the JTL boards, and you can start posting about howeveryone deserves to be in beta, or why you feel the combat balance is more important. Finally, a stop at your friendly neighborhood galaxy board, where you can post such enlightened topics as "SOE b teh SUXXOR," "Why do I pay for this SH1TE!!" and "CSR's are useless!!!111!!!." While making these rounds, you can gather yourself plenty of popularity points, and lots of 5-stars to boot. But in the whole process, you've never really added anything substansive to the community, you're just stirring the pot, so to speak.


• What's right isn't always popular - A sure-fire way to get yourself mixed results and garner hatred is to actually be a contributing member of the community and express intelligent opinions about things. The types of "responsible posts" that you're expecting will not be those rewarded in this proposal. Need examples? Just check out some of the responses to the "How to become a Jedi." post by Triforcer. This is perhaps one of the best, most philosophical, most enlightened posts I have ever read. It's about human decency, being neighborly, and kind, thoughtless and giving....It's about what it means to be the kind of person archetyped by the "jedi" in the star wars universe. But how was that recieved? Not only did the majority of the responders totally miss the point, they began trashing it as well. Such a post would more than likely end up with a 3 star average rating when all the dust settled, as there will be strong opinions on both sides (especially when the post is something controversial, and not just misunderstood). The system you propose discourages such posts, in favor of ones that would be better recieved by the majority of others.

Discussion is good. Disagreement is good. The purpose of these forums is not simply to pat each other on the back and say great things about SWG. It's about the free exchange of ideas, and healthy discussions which will, in the end, yield a better product. My fear is that many (not all, but some) who do their best to actually contribute substansively to the community may be lured away from saying anything controversial, and in so doing, they will be taking away a vital part of these forums. The allure of more prestigious titles is powerful indeed, and basing these titles on popularity will do nothing to better the quality of posts overall. All it will do is make popularity of prime importance when posting, leading to a group of the best posters having mediocre titles (because they don't care) and a plethora of those posting only when it will be well-recieved, so as not to hurt their precious title. That will stagnate discussions, and won't help anyone in the long-run.

Ackeeba Owadu
Master Weaponsmith - Intrepid
Ackeeba's Weapons Emporium - The Promenade
Tatooine (2599, -4428) outside Mos Eisley

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