Friday, December 18, 2009

Open Forum – Should Design Challenge Votes Be Weighted?

Design challenges have been a huge part of Atmosphir since the very beginning. They bring a spark of competition into the game, and give designers a chance to defend their title. When Atmosphir was new, Dave himself picked the winners of these challenges. As things have grown busier however, Adz has become responsible for counting the votes.

Between Adz and Dave, a system has been created which determines the weight of each vote submitted. As you know, when submitting votes, you are asked to present your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place choices. Each of these positions is with a certain number of “points,” which determine the final winner.

What some may not be aware of is the fact that some users have more influence over the votes than others do. Although exact statistics are not known, the basic system still exists. Regular users and Editorial Staff votes are worth the standard values. Moderator votes carry extra weight, while Minor Studios Staff carry the largest amount of influence.

Today’s open forum is discussing this system. Should some users have more voting power than others do? As you have read above, Editorial Staff votes are comparable to a standard user’s. Does this seem fitting, considering it is their job to find the best levels? Should Moderators have more power, when it is not their job to work directly with the game? And should Minor Studios, despite their position of power, carry the greatest influence? Those are today’s Open Forum questions.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how a respectful debate works, here are some guidelines:

-Respect the opinions of other people. The point of a debate is to argue a point. Arguing, however, does not mean disrespecting others. Be courteous of what others have said. Acknowledge their points respectfully, but feel free to fight against it as well. Any comments which are deemed disrespectful will be deleted without notice.

-Defend your points. One-line sentences will not help your cause in a debate. Support your argument with solid facts and/or well-thought-out opinions. While you don’t need to write a novel, make your arguments full of information. Use quotes from previous arguments to effectively display what you are fighting.

-Use good grammar and spelling. Whether we notice it or not, we are more likely to take an argument seriously if it is structured well. To ensure your argument reads well, take a moment to proofread it. An alternate option would be to check for spelling and grammar mistakes in a word processor, such as Microsoft Word. At the very least, the forums do have a Spell Check tool. If this forum becomes too violent, unproductive, or heated, it will be locked. Please stay on-topic, and most importantly, have fun!

The debate can be found here.

As a side note, thank you for making the last open forum a huge success. There were many great discussions being held, some more heated than others. Thank you for keeping it at a respectful level of intensity, and please do the same for this one!

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