Post 4 Gold System

[Donovan]

I agree completely with Ilheod's post. Getting extra gold for taking the time to develop your characters and the world around them should definitely be rewarded, and you shouldn't be punished for having them just do some stuff for fun.

I believe that this is the best way to encourage new members to stay on, while incentivizing the more experienced RPers to take chances and change the world around them. If this is the method used, it has my vote.

[Charlotte]

I’ll be frank, I’ve tried not to review other people’s posts as I wanted to make sure I presented my unaltered view on this. So if something I say is redundant, apologies.

I’m in favor of a fully merit-based system. While I think a hybrid system could work, it still doesn’t address one of the main concerns I’ve always had about this site, which are that two main things seem to be used to gauge your character’s progress:

1. Post count - While to my knowledge this view has begun to shift, there has been a precedent in the past that post count = power level. To a certain extent I understand why this perception exists, but it leaves for a gap due to posting quality/character development/world involvement, all of which are NOT tied to post count at all.
2. Gold per post - Currently, if you post more than 250 words, you receive 20 gold per post. This does not take into account at all a myriad of things that I believe should be considered when you are participating in what is a writing forum:

1. Quality of Writing
2. Development of Characters
3. Development of Unique Concepts
4. Contribution to Development of the ‘game’ world

Instead, you are rewarded regardless of your contribution, as long as you make 250 word posts that don’t break any rules/go against lore.

I don’t believe you should be rewarded for simply coasting by, or for not developing a unique and complex character, or for not contributing to the world. If you have a job, you aren’t rewarded for showing up and performing work at par. Sure, you receive average pay for your role - which would happen in a merit-based system - but you aren’t rewarded the same as going above and beyond employees. In the same vein, a thread that goes on for 5 pages that follows minimum post count and just consists of slaughtering bandits, should not be rewarded the same as a 2 page thread that is well-thought out, challenges the writers involved, and presents actual character development.

Right now, the current system tries to balance the field in a way which is, frankly, too gamey. It allows people who have a lot of time on their hands to post so much and with so little thought, that we end up with others, who while they don’t have as much time to post, are seriously focused on improving their character, developing them, and contributing to developing the world that their character’s exist in. A gold 4 post system punishes the latter and reward the former, which is completely backwards.

While I agree there would be additional work to be done, I don’t think it would be a bad thing. I’m sure there would be members willing to contribute to the cause to ensure that threads are reviewed. Not to mention, you can limit which threads are being reviewed, and create a system that accounts for that. I’ve seen it work well on other sites with little to no issue.

To again be frank, I don’t like feeling like the system we have in place simply rewards random bandit raids and sub-par character development when there are people who, instead of trying to max out thread slots, are actually trying to create a real plot with their character. This ends up in people with more time posting a lot and being rewarded for simply pumping out posts instead of slowing them down and forcing them to develop as writers. The system as it is discourages actual writing improvement past increasing word counts, which is a bit troublesome considering we’re all here (or at least should be here) to have fun writing and simultaneously improve as writers.

That’s why I think B is honestly the only option for building a better system for better rewarding the members for improvements in their writing and putting time and thought into their posts rather than encouraging them to min/max to get the most out of the gold system. It’s highly exploitable and has already been exploited by certain users in my opinion.

[Kenshin]

Jul 9, 2015 11:49:11 GMT -6 Charlotte said:

I’ll be frank, I’ve tried not to review other people’s posts as I wanted to make sure I presented my unaltered view on this. So if something I say is redundant, apologies.

I’m in favor of a fully merit-based system. While I think a hybrid system could work, it still doesn’t address one of the main concerns I’ve always had about this site, which are that two main things seem to be used to gauge your character’s progress:

1. Post count - While to my knowledge this view has begun to shift, there has been a precedent in the past that post count = power level. To a certain extent I understand why this perception exists, but it leaves for a gap due to posting quality/character development/world involvement, all of which are NOT tied to post count at all.
2. Gold per post - Currently, if you post more than 250 words, you receive 20 gold per post. This does not take into account at all a myriad of things that I believe should be considered when you are participating in what is a writing forum:

1. Quality of Writing
2. Development of Characters
3. Development of Unique Concepts
4. Contribution to Development of the ‘game’ world

Instead, you are rewarded regardless of your contribution, as long as you make 250 word posts that don’t break any rules/go against lore.

I don’t believe you should be rewarded for simply coasting by, or for not developing a unique and complex character, or for not contributing to the world. If you have a job, you aren’t rewarded for showing up and performing work at par. Sure, you receive average pay for your role - which would happen in a merit-based system - but you aren’t rewarded the same as going above and beyond employees.

Right now, the current system tries to balance the field in a way which is, frankly, too gamey. It allows people who have a lot of time on their hands to post so much and with so little thought, that we end up with others, who while they don’t have as much time to post, are seriously focused on improving their character, developing them, and contributing to developing the world that their character’s exist in. A gold 4 post system punishes the latter and reward the former, which is completely backwards.

While I agree there would be additional work to be done, I don’t think it would be a bad thing. I’m sure there would be members willing to contribute to the cause to ensure that threads are reviewed. Not to mention, you can limit which threads are being reviewed, and create a system that accounts for that. I’ve seen it work well on other sites with little to no issue.

To again be frank, I don’t like feeling like the system we have in place simply rewards random bandit raids and sub-par character development when there are people who, instead of trying to max out thread slots, are actually trying to create a real plot with their character. This ends up in people who have a lot of time on their hands posting a lot and being rewarded for simply pumping out posts instead of slowing them down and forcing them to develop as writers. The system as it is discourages actual writing improvement past increasing word counts, which is a bit troublesome considering we’re all here (or at least should be here) to have fun writing and simultaneously improve as writers.

That’s why I think A is honestly the only option for building a better system for better rewarding the members for improvements in their writing and putting time and thought into their posts rather than encouraging them to min/max to get the most out of the gold system. It’s highly exploitable and has already been exploited by certain users in my opinion.

Would that be B and not A? Richter had said people who are supporting the hybrid idea are voting C when they should be voting A.

[Charlotte]

Ah, I voted on the poll before it was clarified in the C-Box/updated in the thread; updated my vote.

[Chelsea Dagger]

I have no idea if this is possible, but something else that could potentially be done is have like word count brackets.
Something like 50-100 words = 5 gold, 100-150 = 10, 150-200 = 15, 200-250 = 20 and so on. That way if you take the time to write out like a 500 word post, you get rewarded for the effort. Or if you need to contribute to a thread, but at the same time are struggling to hit 250 words/don't want to put in pointless fluff to get there, you still can get something while acknowledging that you wouldn't be getting as much gold as you would if you hit that next tier.

Again, I have no idea if something like this is even possible the way the board works, so if it's not, ignore this x.x

[Richter Abend]

Jul 9, 2015 12:41:31 GMT -6 Chelsea Dagger said:

I have no idea if this is possible, but something else that could potentially be done is have like word count brackets.
Something like 50-100 words = 5 gold, 100-150 = 10, 150-200 = 15, 200-250 = 20 and so on. That way if you take the time to write out like a 500 word post, you get rewarded for the effort. Or if you need to contribute to a thread, but at the same time are struggling to hit 250 words/don't want to put in pointless fluff to get there, you still can get something while acknowledging that you wouldn't be getting as much gold as you would if you hit that next tier.

Again, I have no idea if something like this is even possible the way the board works, so if it's not, ignore this x.x

We actually found a plugin to do that awhile back. It didn't work for some reason.

[Mel]

As one of the people complaining about the posting culture I full heatedly support a change in the current system, as it came about once we changed the system over to it in the first place and has just grown in stupidity.

Personally I see people pushing for posts only to achieve items, gold, promotions, and to have a 'super strong character' [Not that having more posts than someone else does that] completely toxic to the board. While it's fine to have a goal in mind for a character, having one for the sole purpose of making them the strongest most super special power leveled character fed a healthy diet of bandits and so on and so forth, is quite pathetic. If the only goal is to power level a character go play an rpg, because it's hardly interesting for the people you thread with. Also, it leaves little room to develop the character itself nor the world that we're set in.

It also promotes thread jumping when a thread is taking too long, ex: 3 days, and the post begging that we hate so much to the point that you can't even mention that you've posted in the cbox. And there's more, but Charlie pretty much took the words out of my mouth.

I am in full support of a merit based system, as it will promote more creativity, and hopefully cause users to give more effort into plotting and the like. Users being rewarded for improvements to their writing as well as general thread presence will have a positive impact on the forum, putting more focus on story and general development. Gold being awarded per thread will also place merit in riding one out until the end, rather than jumping ship when something gets slow.

And seriously. No more freaking bandits randomly doing bandit things and fightings and killings and omg bandits doing stuff so easy to kill all time lols bandits bandits bandits the minions of WotW. They're not all mountains with a boulder for a brain. Bandits are people too you savages.

Also I think a subboard being opened for people to make threads for other users to critique their writing would be nice, those who don't want it don't have to do it. And hopefully anyone who wants to improve can make a thread for others to post in and give constructive criticism.

---

TL;DR Change, have creativity and improvement rewarded. Anyone who kills a bandit should pay a fine.

[Tiz]

I think it's worth noting that the current system only allows you to BUY powerful stuff-- it doesn't make you proficient with it. As we've all said sixty times before, a combat-heavy character that buys a brave sword will be better with it than will a social-heavy character buying the same thing.

So it's not like post farming is gonna make you OP (necessarily); if Tiz, who fights a lot, buys a brave sword, and Jude, who doesn't buys one too, for the sake of RP, Tiz could still wipe the floor with Jude because Jude doesn't do a lot of combat.

Additionally, thread review would get tiresome SO quickly. That's crazy. There are so many threads happening so often... You'd have to up the Mod staff if you even wanted to consider that as an option. Then there's bias and all that... No, I think the current system works fine.

EDIT: In essence, if your posts are crap, your weapons/spells/items/abilities should also be crap, because post count and post quality should be weighed on separate scales. If I have 109 quality posts, and someone else has 300 craphole posts, they shouldn't have an advantage over me with any weapon because their posts are sux. Also, Mel told me about the old system of doing things? i like that a lot

[Wei]

According to Mel Richter should be finned for killing Orland

[Hugo]

I've chosen to pick A for a hybrid based system. I will expand/edit this post with reasons/thoughts/opinions, at a later time. Also I'm on mobile atm so I don't know if my vote even counted just now.