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Dec. 8th, 2009 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stillness_then_strikeBack on the HMD, a number of people expressed concerns about the way Angelii voting functions. The main complaint was that it is essentially a popularity contest. While the moderators admit that the way we conduct the voting is not ideal, it is the only way we currently know how.
As such, we're opening up this post for suggestions on how to do it otherwise. If you have an idea, please let us know.
First, however, I'm going to explain my (and Ryune's) original reasoning, and then note alternate solutions with their benefits and drawbacks.
Initially, Ryune and I were going to go with modly choices - it had worked well for me in other games, it should work here. But then we realized that such a system would be incredibly biased. We are, after all, only human - we can't really be impartial arbiters. As such, choice by mod fiat really wasn't the way to go: it'd create a little club of mod favorites with power, which isn't something we wanted.
We then decided to base it solely on time in the game, and to create a vote based on that. That was the very first system we used. The first problem we ran into was that a lot of new players felt left out, and complained that there was no way for them to get involved in events. They felt like they couldn't be part of the metaplot, because there was no way for them to become Angelii. We also ran into the problem however of a number of players who didn't want to be Angelii, hence why we began a self-nomination system. It is a pretty big responsibility, it directly connects you to the metaplot, so we didn't want to include people who genuinely had no interest in becoming Angelii (and I know there are some players like that).
Thus we let people nominate themselves if they felt up to the task, and made the vote itself based more on character development / how much a character has changed over time. The problem we have now is that a number of people are accusing this of being a popularity contest - only players who are popular end up getting in. I've also heard the complaint that characters who aren't by nature very social or active won't get in.
It is true that if your character is visible and interesting, you're much more likely to have a chance, and that's for a reason - characters who are active will by their very nature affect the plot more, and be around enough to be useful as Angelii. We don't want characters who aren't around to be in that position because during certain plot events you really should be around. As for popularity, well... again, there's player bias. But that's a fault of the system. If we base it on some arbitrary value, like number of posts made or time spent in game, that excludes characters who don't post much or players who are still relatively new (the problem we had before). Putting it exclusively in the hands of the mods would create even more bias - I know that I don't trust myself to make a reasonable decision in this regard, and I'd rather it be in your hands.
But I'm open to suggestions. If you guys have an idea on a better way to do it, I am listening.
And now, for new people, some clarification about wtf an Angelii is, how powerful they are, and how to become one.
Angelii, in the hierarchy of Deva society, are couriers, messengers, spies, information gatherers, and clerks. Being one is rather like being an apprentice - the idea is that you're to learn about how the universe functions before you get any higher. While Angelii are generally more powerful benders, this is not always the case - Tony Stark, for instance, is a much less powerful bender than Prowl, who is not in any way an Angelii (yet, anyway). The Angelii get chosen in Nautilus based on how much they've grown as a person; while it's better if they know how to bend, they don't have to, and they still get the basic powers - Sight (seeing Weird Stuff), flight, and teleportation - without being able to bend well.
I'd also like to note that the only reason it is based on character development is because Cyrus wanted it to be that way. Other Deva had entirely different criteria for their Angelii, particularly since Angelii is the first step on the path to becoming Ashura (where it IS based on bending, since Ashura exist to move and change things). Cyrus was the Deva of Change, thus, she was concerned with change, thus, people in Nautilus become Angelii when they've undergone a great change.
The same is not true in Helix. Solaris believes in systems and in hard work, thus, working hard and contributing to the society he had built (a cog as part of the greater machine) would be what would slowly let people ascend to Angelii. A Deva of War might simply throw his Wakened at each other in bloody battles, and the strongest would become his Angelii. The system in Nautilus is largely automated because Aaron agrees with Cyrus about Change. But what I'm saying is that there might be other routes.
I hope this all makes some sense and clears things up.
As such, we're opening up this post for suggestions on how to do it otherwise. If you have an idea, please let us know.
First, however, I'm going to explain my (and Ryune's) original reasoning, and then note alternate solutions with their benefits and drawbacks.
Initially, Ryune and I were going to go with modly choices - it had worked well for me in other games, it should work here. But then we realized that such a system would be incredibly biased. We are, after all, only human - we can't really be impartial arbiters. As such, choice by mod fiat really wasn't the way to go: it'd create a little club of mod favorites with power, which isn't something we wanted.
We then decided to base it solely on time in the game, and to create a vote based on that. That was the very first system we used. The first problem we ran into was that a lot of new players felt left out, and complained that there was no way for them to get involved in events. They felt like they couldn't be part of the metaplot, because there was no way for them to become Angelii. We also ran into the problem however of a number of players who didn't want to be Angelii, hence why we began a self-nomination system. It is a pretty big responsibility, it directly connects you to the metaplot, so we didn't want to include people who genuinely had no interest in becoming Angelii (and I know there are some players like that).
Thus we let people nominate themselves if they felt up to the task, and made the vote itself based more on character development / how much a character has changed over time. The problem we have now is that a number of people are accusing this of being a popularity contest - only players who are popular end up getting in. I've also heard the complaint that characters who aren't by nature very social or active won't get in.
It is true that if your character is visible and interesting, you're much more likely to have a chance, and that's for a reason - characters who are active will by their very nature affect the plot more, and be around enough to be useful as Angelii. We don't want characters who aren't around to be in that position because during certain plot events you really should be around. As for popularity, well... again, there's player bias. But that's a fault of the system. If we base it on some arbitrary value, like number of posts made or time spent in game, that excludes characters who don't post much or players who are still relatively new (the problem we had before). Putting it exclusively in the hands of the mods would create even more bias - I know that I don't trust myself to make a reasonable decision in this regard, and I'd rather it be in your hands.
But I'm open to suggestions. If you guys have an idea on a better way to do it, I am listening.
And now, for new people, some clarification about wtf an Angelii is, how powerful they are, and how to become one.
Angelii, in the hierarchy of Deva society, are couriers, messengers, spies, information gatherers, and clerks. Being one is rather like being an apprentice - the idea is that you're to learn about how the universe functions before you get any higher. While Angelii are generally more powerful benders, this is not always the case - Tony Stark, for instance, is a much less powerful bender than Prowl, who is not in any way an Angelii (yet, anyway). The Angelii get chosen in Nautilus based on how much they've grown as a person; while it's better if they know how to bend, they don't have to, and they still get the basic powers - Sight (seeing Weird Stuff), flight, and teleportation - without being able to bend well.
I'd also like to note that the only reason it is based on character development is because Cyrus wanted it to be that way. Other Deva had entirely different criteria for their Angelii, particularly since Angelii is the first step on the path to becoming Ashura (where it IS based on bending, since Ashura exist to move and change things). Cyrus was the Deva of Change, thus, she was concerned with change, thus, people in Nautilus become Angelii when they've undergone a great change.
The same is not true in Helix. Solaris believes in systems and in hard work, thus, working hard and contributing to the society he had built (a cog as part of the greater machine) would be what would slowly let people ascend to Angelii. A Deva of War might simply throw his Wakened at each other in bloody battles, and the strongest would become his Angelii. The system in Nautilus is largely automated because Aaron agrees with Cyrus about Change. But what I'm saying is that there might be other routes.
I hope this all makes some sense and clears things up.
