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[Column] General: The Players and Their Choice
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
It's no secret that the winner of the MMORPG.com Players' Choice Award Game of the Year 2012 was a huge surpise and a big upset. Pirate101 scored a narrow victory over Guild Wars 2 and a huge discussion erupted in the official announcement thread. In today's Devil's Advocate, we take a look at why some folks just don't get it. Read on!
Here's my unofficial take on this: you don't get it. You don't get what an award for Player's Choice is about.
In the first case, the “Player's Choice Awards” is a statistically unscientific measure of interest in a given topic where people who are interested in the topic actually choose to vote for something they want to win.
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s The Devil's Advocate: The Players and Their Choice.
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Comments
I may not agree with all your columns but I do enjoy reading them.
In this case I agree with everything you said except for the creed. MMOs are games. Obviously there are many reasons people play games but I have never heard of "trying to spread a positive message". LOL. 90% of the time that I have been in games I think the reverse would be the case.
Regardless how the award was determmined MMORPG might lose some respect on their choice. My view of the readership, judging from the forums, is that it is more hardcore than easy going. Hardcore gamers disdain (at least publically) the "kiddy" type games - even though they may play them in secret. Pirate 101 and the elk are not cool to the professional WOW raider or the elite pvp players of the Asian grinders. Still, Pirate 101 is an MMO and it is an RPG so no matter what the audience may think, it is just as viable as Aion, Tera, etc.
I think that the problem with the award is that it is not public enough prior to decision. I am positive that had the GW2 crowd known that there was a chance that they would lose that they would have flooded the site with votes. I just use GW2 as an example
I think this situation would be a win not only for the players (who would like to have their game win) but for the site itself - more people coming to the site to vote.
The internet is the Mos Eisley Cantina - "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
In truth - I don't think that statement applies to just the internet anymore - because the internet is no longer some seperate thing from our lives/society it is an extension of it.
Human society in general has become a cespool of negativity and evil. I fear for humanity.
Somewhere along the way people stopped learning their "please and thank you's" and stopped caring about basic civility and good manners.
I say this as a 29 year old. I'm not even that old to be this crotchety.
A community award would have been better. Not allowing newer accounts to participate. Pirate101 might have still won and really do not care much about that, but right now the award feels pretty much useless and might not reflect the community here at MMORPG.com. Not that the award would be usefull then.
These same group who signed up here will move to the next award and vote there if they can making this award not really unique. Then again I think the whole point of the award is to boost member numbers more then actually award games and companies for what they did.
Also was the award system not bigger and more planned out last years?
and you stand knee deep in that pool. You sound pretty negative to me about your fellow humans. Really look at the past. Mobsters, world wars, US cival war because of slavery. The state we are in have absolutly nothing to do with the internet. Humanty has always been like this troughout history.
People have passion for what they find fun and they sometimes over react like in this poll and you react by how unmannerd, negative and evil humanty has become....
really you need to get out of that cespool right now!
I'm baffled almost every day (as I follow this site almost everyday) how such creative, smart and interesting pieces posted on this site from the experienced writers of MMORPG.com get such lousy, respectless and sometimes simply distateful comments below.
I think everyone knows how low people sink in form of communication, love and respect on the internet. This of course has coloured a large part of the gaming community. I think everyone already knows this. I say "knows", as in: deep within their hearts, not as in: aknowledges and acts from.
This is global, as the community has almost always been on a global scale and communicated globally through internet. That means this is a global problem, which means it gets different responses in different parts of this world. (I will not go into detail, as I fully believe to be in power to offend people)
If the world treats if different, it won't fully understand. It will be confused. Please don't let that happen. We all "know", as I said, deep within ourselves what is the problem, and how to deal with it ourselves.
The problem is respect, the solution: start with the man in the mirror. Do not go to friends, or out on the internet to complain about the problem, like me. Look yourself in the mirror and realize how you act as a gamer. Your worst and best parts. You might scream in teamspeak, or not. You might curse and hate in the comments of somebody putting out their thoughts in a game blog. You might write a acidly hateful reply to this. I would not.
The problem is respect, the solution is to look into the mirror. We are better than this.
The sylvari ordered Rice n chicken in a bar. The waiter asked him: "exploded or intact?" He angrily answered: "Intact of course! Do you take me for a fool?"
Those were his last words.
The people who post on the forums, not the staff of this site, believe they are right and know what the MMO industry should do to make games better. The problem is, they are a very vocal minority. An example, how many forum threads have been made to the decrease in population of GW2? It seems the same people always are postong about the death of this game and others. [mod edit]
The internet is anonymous, thus people feel that they can comment without reprisals - hence the negativitiy.
I wish it was that easy Mufflo - I wish it was.
I agree. It is sad that someone that young is cynical. I did not get that way until I was just over 40. Unfortunately I see the same attitude developing in my twenty-something sons.
Still, there is a play that I believe is called "By the Skin of Our Teeth" that might amuse you. Human society may be a "hive of scum" but the cycle continues. Our society will fall and a better one will emerge from the ruins - if only for a time.
I do not believe that all is lost and I see that in some of the MMOs that I play. Often times I see players go out of their way to help others. In some cases (like GW2) there are benefits for doing so but in other cases there is no visible reason at all. Yes, in general, we humans are fading into the darkness but there are still flickers of light out there. At age 60 that is what I hold on to. Those flickers of altruism.
If we are to believe this article then Pirates 101 had a dedicated fanbase that didn't say much on any MMORPGS forums, but were aware enough to vote for it in their droves, to take this award.
Considering how many other dedicated fans of others games argued about the merits of their chosen one on fthe forums all year, (TERA, TSW, GW2 etc, etc), this result seems rather strange and I don't quite understand the incredulous tone of the article. Protesting your integrity without us really seeing any voting trends data or actual numbers compares you more to the FIFA Word Cup Selection ballet then Miss Universe.
You maybe right, maybe noone bothered to vote in all the mayhem for the most talked about titles this year but really acting offended because it asks questions about your methods just leads to more suspicion..
This looks like a job for....The Riviera Kid!
I got it , and I thought it was funny. Pirate 101 motivated their players to get out to vote. We seen this with other games over the years. Lotro being one of them. I don't see anything wrong with asking your folks to go vote.
I actually went and tried pirate 101 after they won. Let just say its not for me. I think I will stick with eq2.
I got to say this the other games could have done the same thing asked their folks to go vote, made fake accounts to double the votes and what not. So they had their chance.
Oh and just to be clear I voted for tsw.
Consider this, how many who voted for Pirate101 have actually played the game? I'll bet a lot who voted for this game have never even seen a screenshot of it.
Point 5 is well taken, but take it a step further, players voting for the leading unfashionable mmorpg simply to stick it to the big guns and try and help them lose out to a minnow so they can point their fingers and laugh.
In the UK a few years ago people got so annoyed at the constant seasonal chart domination by acts from the X-Factor they started an anti-establishment campaign and backed the most unlikely song to become that years Christmas #1 single, these people PAYED to make this happen and low-and-behold, we had a Rage Against The Machine Christmas number 1
Point is, people will go to extrodinary lengths to make a mockery of something others care about. Simply put, isn't it quite possible MMORPG.com got trolled and brilliantly so?
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
I'm amazed that an article about the strange voting methods of this site leads you and Mr Spock to an analysis about the fall of mankind.
The true tragedy is that it seems that some people have more faith in brands,(MMORPG.com for instance), and companies then they do in their fellow man. The question really should be why that is..
This looks like a job for....The Riviera Kid!
I think it is more that because of the internet and how easy it is to connect with people a world away, and the fact it is totally anonymous, all the negativity in the world is just that much easier to reach and as such it is so prevelant.
I really don't think people in general are any worse, people in general have always sucked and been horrible, but it was much easier to exclude yourself from it and build more insulated communities before...
I also believe MMOs used to cater to a much more niche audience - a much smaller subset of humanity and even of gamers that were (again in general) much more polite to each other and willing to work together than they are now.
The game design decisions of the day reflected that - you were forced to play with others and cooperate.
Such ideas revisited would not work now - I have no desire to connect with most of the gamers in most MMO games these days.
For how much better the games have gotten in terms of accessibility and even enjoyment, man oh man...
I suppose there were always asshats in MMOs - especially in UO holy crap there were some rude, immature, borderline insulting players.
Direct PvP is so totally and completely against what the MMO should be IMO.
What does it matter? The players "choice" was only a choice between the options you allowed, not a choice between what the players actually wanted.
To put it another way, if I offered the choice of a punch in the gut, 4 hours of right-wing talk radio played at 120% speed or a cheese sandwich for your xmas dinner, then announced to a suprised world that "The players of MMORPG.COM chose a cheese sandwich as their favourite xmas dinner" then I'd expect responses similar to what you've received from those players.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
rofl.
Perhaps one of the complications is handing out trophies and none really understand why someone is told to come and collect their trophy when they won, on the loud-speaker system: "Would Pirate 101 please report to mmorpg.com to collect their trophy, please. Code 4." ? That or..
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
The Deep Web is sca-ry.
Than what game DID deserve to win. Just putting a blanket negative statment like you did only shows how 'Spock on' - sorry couldn't resist the little pun - Bad Spock is.
Please enlighten us and stop being negative.
"The MMO community that encompasses sore losers in polls is nearly as bad as the community that houses the sore losers among those rooting for specific countries in the Miss Universe pageant. Yes, I'm going there."
Haha! Snatch that wig.
You also forgot to mention manufacturer campaigning for their own game. From Kingsisle and associated sites I received the following.
1. Email with link to vote
2. Email to check out their forum which had a thread right there when I used the link
3. Email from fan site encouraging me to vote and with the blessing of Kingsisle.
4. A second email reminding me to vote
5. A discussion in pirate 101 encouraging me to vote, the create another account and vote again.
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
There is also another possiblity that folks have not thought about. The GW2 crowd for the past 2 years has shown up in everybody else forums, bashing and complaining about the other games, and trash talking and saying how great gw2 is compared to the other games.
Just maybe those folks who were tired of the GW2 crowd decided to go vote for something they never heard of as a vote against gw2 at the same time to send a message.
Plain and simple.
The Op forgot factor number 6.
People who voted for the second ranked game just to spite the forrunner to make sure it loses.
Consider this a conspiracy theory if you want, though i think most people know it to be true.
ie the only way to vote against a game for whatever reason is to vote for the second rated game
so the first game doesn't win.
While this indeed may indeed be the tactic of a sore loser you know that many votes for pirates 101 weren't from people that liked pirates 101 or even that had ever tried pirates 101 but simple were from people trying to prevent another game from winning.
SImply put in the lowest terms Pirates 101 was the little kiddy game from a nobody developer that nobody cared enough to hate. hell had hello kitty online been on the list it would probably have won just from people caatsing votes to be funny and show how totally ludicris these game io year awards really are.
I only read a portion of the comments from the original Awards topic, but to me, it seemed quite a few of the people were hardly being "sore losers", but rather upset that the poll itself was so flawed. People want a players choice award that is less likely to be 'cheated' on by registering multiple accounts via proxies, spamming official forums to get players to vote, etc... And let me just state, I don't think GW2 should have necessarily won, I just think Pirates101 isn't quite comparable to GW2, TSW, or Planetside 2.
Really, the voting should have been locked to people who had registered prior to the posting of the poll. The only reasons I can think of that this wasn't done this way, is that a.) site admins were too lazy to code a system to do that, or b.) they were mainly interested in 'expanding' their userbase to increase ad profits. My moneys on the ad profits being the motivator judging by the recent "you're no better than pirates" comments made by the site admin. It's too bad really that many of the people who registered for this poll, likely won't come back to this site until a new game of the year poll or more likely, won't come back ever. Trying to get more users on the site isn't a bad thing by itself, but aiming for temporary ones of this nature just for ad profit is a little deplorable.
I'd be interested to see what percentage of the actual votes were from accounts made AFTER the posting of the poll itself, my guess is it'd be quite a large number. In reality, this wasn't a player's choice award, nor was it an mmorpg.com user's choice award, it was simply a "what game developer/fansites will spam their users the most" award.