Either DR players have slacked off the voting or Achaea has ramped up it's incentives, because they've taken the top spot on the list for the first time since the reset.
It's also interesting to note that DR seems to pull ahead in the mornings, while Achaea catches up in the evenings. Guess it's all they folks who have internet access at work but can't actually play doing the morning voting.
Still think we should put a voting button on the SGE. ;)
MIKEM1
WEILM
Re: Lost the lead.
10/10/2002 10:12 AM CDT
Maybe Simu should put a note in the game blurbs that their players receive NO incentive for voting, but vote simply because their players really BELIEVE their games are best.
Called a back-handed jab. All true, completely honest, but raises an appropriate doubt about Achea's votes, since they only have 1/3rd of the DR players at prime time...
~Kyn
Called a back-handed jab. All true, completely honest, but raises an appropriate doubt about Achea's votes, since they only have 1/3rd of the DR players at prime time...
~Kyn
XIZOR
Re: Lost the lead.
10/10/2002 11:30 AM CDT
>>>>Either DR players have slacked off the voting or Achaea has ramped up it's incentives, because they've taken the top spot on the list for the first time since the reset.<<<<
you sure....i just came from there and we were still 50 votes ahead....oh make that 51<click click click>
not to mention with no incintives here,im starting to see it as a waste of my time since i dont really care who is considered the #1 mud....i dont play archaea,i never intend to play and i spend most of my spare time in DR...so i could really care less is i can tell others "hey,i play the #1 MUD on the internet"...most people i know would say "so what?...im goin to play counterstrike...have fun with yer silly mud"
so archaea can beat DR all it wants....dont mean theyre getting any of my time or money
Izzit
you sure....i just came from there and we were still 50 votes ahead....oh make that 51<click click click>
not to mention with no incintives here,im starting to see it as a waste of my time since i dont really care who is considered the #1 mud....i dont play archaea,i never intend to play and i spend most of my spare time in DR...so i could really care less is i can tell others "hey,i play the #1 MUD on the internet"...most people i know would say "so what?...im goin to play counterstrike...have fun with yer silly mud"
so archaea can beat DR all it wants....dont mean theyre getting any of my time or money
Izzit
PRAXIS
Re: Lost the lead.
10/10/2002 12:15 PM CDT
>Called a back-handed jab. All true, completely honest, but raises an appropriate doubt about Achea's votes, since they only have 1/3rd of the DR players at prime time...
The huge discussion (read: uproar) on the TMS boards right after DR/SIMU joined, and it was stated that Achea was providing IG incentives to vote had a few notable conclusions.
1) Some folks on that board just don't care about the votes
2) Most folks on that board stated the results are meaningless anyways
3) It is presently not against voting rules
4) The argument could be said for P2P vs. Free muds
5) The subject is pretty much a dead horse
6) All muds are seeing new characters
7) The rationalization is that "its all good", regardless of the vote results
As a Mentor, I have noticed a few new players, who really pick up DR quickly, understand verbs, and need just general shove in the right directions. I can only assume, not having directly asked, that these folks are checking out DR and learned of it from TMS. Thats the end-all benefit that TMS offers: New folks.
I beleive the more people that try DR, get a good dose of the "goodies", the more folks will stay, regardless of a IP based click-fest voting counter.
It's not like TMS is actually an authority, its a group of folks who enjoy mudding, and like any group of folks, share ideas, flame, provide help, and enjoy doing those things.
-Marc/Slaris
"We've all heard that a million monkeys, banging on a million typewriters, would eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare."
"Now, thanks to the Internet, we know that this is not true."
The huge discussion (read: uproar) on the TMS boards right after DR/SIMU joined, and it was stated that Achea was providing IG incentives to vote had a few notable conclusions.
1) Some folks on that board just don't care about the votes
2) Most folks on that board stated the results are meaningless anyways
3) It is presently not against voting rules
4) The argument could be said for P2P vs. Free muds
5) The subject is pretty much a dead horse
6) All muds are seeing new characters
7) The rationalization is that "its all good", regardless of the vote results
As a Mentor, I have noticed a few new players, who really pick up DR quickly, understand verbs, and need just general shove in the right directions. I can only assume, not having directly asked, that these folks are checking out DR and learned of it from TMS. Thats the end-all benefit that TMS offers: New folks.
I beleive the more people that try DR, get a good dose of the "goodies", the more folks will stay, regardless of a IP based click-fest voting counter.
It's not like TMS is actually an authority, its a group of folks who enjoy mudding, and like any group of folks, share ideas, flame, provide help, and enjoy doing those things.
-Marc/Slaris
"We've all heard that a million monkeys, banging on a million typewriters, would eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare."
"Now, thanks to the Internet, we know that this is not true."
SOUTHERK
Re: Lost the lead.
10/11/2002 09:48 AM CDT
I think you are all missing the incentives point. The reason so many vote for Achaea is they are bored! Their only real excitement upon arrival is getting to vote for their silly MUD. For me, Voting for DR is a second or third thought over the enjoyment of playing DragonRealms and working on improving my character.
I find it sad that these poor bored saps at Achaea are too afraid to admit defeat and start enjoying life again by coming to DR. We should send them flowers or something. My heart goes out to them.
I find it sad that these poor bored saps at Achaea are too afraid to admit defeat and start enjoying life again by coming to DR. We should send them flowers or something. My heart goes out to them.
PACKARDJ
Re: Lost the lead.
10/14/2002 11:22 AM CDT
Ok, I've been wondering about this. If your vote only counts once every 12 hours, then how is it that Achaea can be so neck and neck with us when they have only 300 players in prime time, and we have 900? Are they making their votes count more than once? And shouldn't the web site TopMuds be able to control the voting so that it is fair?
I'm having fun with the voting and enjoying peeking at other games (I gotta say DR is #1 for a reason <wink>) but I have been curious about this and was wondering if anyone could explain how it worked.
Lathaliu's Player
I'm having fun with the voting and enjoying peeking at other games (I gotta say DR is #1 for a reason <wink>) but I have been curious about this and was wondering if anyone could explain how it worked.
Lathaliu's Player
HEIR
Re: Lost the lead.
10/14/2002 11:42 AM CDT
<<I'm having fun with the voting and enjoying peeking at other games (I gotta say DR is #1 for a reason <wink>) but I have been curious about this and was wondering if anyone could explain how it worked.
Lathaliu's Player >>
Not everyone in DR is voting, or voting for DR. Most likely there are some number of folks who don't even know about the issue, or use SGE to enter the game, and it's not as convenient for them to vote so they forget.
Heironymous
Lathaliu's Player >>
Not everyone in DR is voting, or voting for DR. Most likely there are some number of folks who don't even know about the issue, or use SGE to enter the game, and it's not as convenient for them to vote so they forget.
Heironymous
SERAPHINA
Re: Lost the lead.
10/14/2002 12:38 PM CDT
>> I'm having fun with the voting and enjoying peeking at other games (I gotta say DR is #1 for a reason <wink>)
I never checked out other games before either because everyone always seem to come back and say we are best. I agree, we are :). Not to totally put down the other games they do have their strengths, different styles that could appeal to different tastes, but even so none can touch DR.
Dellica
I never checked out other games before either because everyone always seem to come back and say we are best. I agree, we are :). Not to totally put down the other games they do have their strengths, different styles that could appeal to different tastes, but even so none can touch DR.
Dellica
SOUTHERK
Re: Lost the lead.
10/14/2002 03:07 PM CDT
>>Not everyone in DR is voting, ...<<
This is definitely true. DR may have 1000 plus subscribers but I had read/heard somewhere that less than 10% of all subscribers read/participate in the message boards. This percentage could easily be applied to other outside participation in things DR, to include the voting for Top MUD.
Most folks come to play DR, and that is all they do. The other MUDs out there may have a smaller group of players, but exactly due to this small crowd, they are more closely connected to each other, know each other, and have a vested interest in the MUD they play (unlike most DRers who just see this as one more game on the internet, which it is, but you know what I mean).
Just because "we" posters read, reply, investigate issues, participate in things outside DR, don't assume that is the norm. It really isn't.
This is definitely true. DR may have 1000 plus subscribers but I had read/heard somewhere that less than 10% of all subscribers read/participate in the message boards. This percentage could easily be applied to other outside participation in things DR, to include the voting for Top MUD.
Most folks come to play DR, and that is all they do. The other MUDs out there may have a smaller group of players, but exactly due to this small crowd, they are more closely connected to each other, know each other, and have a vested interest in the MUD they play (unlike most DRers who just see this as one more game on the internet, which it is, but you know what I mean).
Just because "we" posters read, reply, investigate issues, participate in things outside DR, don't assume that is the norm. It really isn't.
GNOMEBARD
Re: Lost the lead.
10/14/2002 05:26 PM CDT
Another admitted tatic by the Achaea players is they change their IP to vote again and double up their bonus. Real simple to do if you don't have a static IP, power down your computer, power cycle your modem. Reboot computer, go into C:/ prompt release and renew your IP, and presto new IP to vote again with.
PACKARDJ
Re: Lost the lead.
10/14/2002 05:48 PM CDT
That makes sense. I think it was Canten who posted here saying that he tried Achaea and that messages asking players to vote were popping up in game quite frequently. Kind of hard for a person to not know about the voting if it is handled that way, whereas people in DR only know about it if they read the boards or go through the web page and see the button.
I'd rather not have messages asking me to vote popping up on my screen every hour anyway!
I was floating around the list of muds and decided to look at the bottom of the list, like number 80 or something. It was a game that, on the surface, looked quite interesting, but the way they had the races set up was extremely restricted. Out of approximately 10 or 12 races, maybe 6 of them were excluded from play for most players, because it was assumed that RPing them was too difficult for the average person to handle "correctly." You had to join the game playing another race and prove yourself first.
That was a little weird, but I could see why a game might want to do that. The strangest part of all though, was how they handled the "proving" process. It sounded lik the GM's would watch you and give you points for good RPing. However, there was no way of knowing how many points you had or what the number of points needed for these "special" races was, unless you completely REROLLED your current character. At that point, they would tell you if you were eligible.
However, there was a clause, clearly stated on the web site, that players were NOT to kill off their characters on purpose in order to try and reroll into one of these races, and if someone found them doing that, they would lose all their earned points!
So....I was sitting there wondering...how DOES one get to play one of these elite races? It sounds like the only way was to RP your heart out, then die by sheer accident! This implies that there can be no planning ahead of time, but to me, making a new character is ALL about planning ahead of time!
Yikes. I found the whole thing confusing and a bit distasteful. Maybe there was a reason why the game was ranked so low.
Moral of the Story is: Not everyone may be the greatest RPers here in DR, but at least we are FREE to RP whatever race we want! <cheer>
Lathaliu's Player
I'd rather not have messages asking me to vote popping up on my screen every hour anyway!
I was floating around the list of muds and decided to look at the bottom of the list, like number 80 or something. It was a game that, on the surface, looked quite interesting, but the way they had the races set up was extremely restricted. Out of approximately 10 or 12 races, maybe 6 of them were excluded from play for most players, because it was assumed that RPing them was too difficult for the average person to handle "correctly." You had to join the game playing another race and prove yourself first.
That was a little weird, but I could see why a game might want to do that. The strangest part of all though, was how they handled the "proving" process. It sounded lik the GM's would watch you and give you points for good RPing. However, there was no way of knowing how many points you had or what the number of points needed for these "special" races was, unless you completely REROLLED your current character. At that point, they would tell you if you were eligible.
However, there was a clause, clearly stated on the web site, that players were NOT to kill off their characters on purpose in order to try and reroll into one of these races, and if someone found them doing that, they would lose all their earned points!
So....I was sitting there wondering...how DOES one get to play one of these elite races? It sounds like the only way was to RP your heart out, then die by sheer accident! This implies that there can be no planning ahead of time, but to me, making a new character is ALL about planning ahead of time!
Yikes. I found the whole thing confusing and a bit distasteful. Maybe there was a reason why the game was ranked so low.
Moral of the Story is: Not everyone may be the greatest RPers here in DR, but at least we are FREE to RP whatever race we want! <cheer>
Lathaliu's Player
YOUNGD14
Re: Lost the lead.
10/17/2002 11:24 PM CDT
As we used to say way back in junior high: big, fat hairy deal. Getting lots of people to click on link, whether they have incentives or not, doesn't make a MUD better. DR is better, whether or not the other MUDs getting bigger numbers then us on some web page.
