I think this is a much better setup than the one we previously had, and I especially appreciate the fact that players can't be entitled multiple times in a row. At the risk of sounding ungrateful (that is absolutely not the case) I've always felt a bit uneasy about me winning the player appreciation award twice in a row. Two community defenders, two certificates, etc. Please don't get me wrong here: it was also awesome to win those and I'm never selling or giving those custom items away. Not only because I couldn't care less about rupee value, but mostly because of their extremely high emotional value for me (it was the community who voted after all). I've mentioned this quite a few times (usually in private): as much as I appreciated it (I really do) I also always couldn't help shake off the feeling that it would also have been cool for someone else to get the spotlight for a change. I don't do what I do for rewards or anything like that. I do those things because that's just who I am. Simple. Besides: leave community voting for community events. Like Raayn's awesome "Santa's little helper" (which... you probably guessed it, I also once won). Hmm, what do these two events have in common? Oh I know: you can't win the award multiple times! I won't be keeping up with this event, but I do want to compliment staff for this new direction. I think it's much more fair and also easier on the players.
Sorry for a double post but... this is completely different. Have to disagree on that one. What you're basically saying is that some players should be excluded merely because they shared their opinion. That doesn't sound right to me at all. Also be aware of constructive criticism. Sometimes sharing a negative opinion can easily lead to positive things, depending of course on how it was presented and how the other party picked it up. Not every sharing of criticism is done with malicious intents.
I love the idea. My only concern is people will be acting completely different to get the award- sometimes even obnoxiously. People should know that being themselves is the best way to win.
I already commented that I don't like this, but I guess I'll explain why. I have some questions along the way as well. Question: What quantifies a person's benefit towards this community? What mitigates this score? Or is the decision determined on "well he's friendly and he's made about 5 posts this month"-style judgement? I generally equate "X-of-the-month" awards, in all communities, as popularity contests/apple-polisher for lack of a better word competition. I can already take a good guess at who will win these awards, and it's because these are predictable. Generally, nobody is surprised when somebody wins. If anything, you've got one somewhat happy winner, and a ton of salty people asking to themselves, "Where's my reward? Maybe I should post more things so I can look good." And then they fail to receive recognition again, and again, and again. EMC does not have an extremely high number of active players, much less active forum members. For the first year, the most obvious people will be picked, and maybe a few underdogs to spice things up. After that calendar year, the main people who are persistently active and already won, will immediately win again. I do not see the fun to this. Lastly, and most importantly, I think this article accurately represents how I feel about the subject. You don't even need to read all of it; the bolded lines sum it up nicely. .
I love to play Devils advocate on matters like this, but I really feel like the pro's definitely outweigh the cons here. This is a great opportunity to motivate more users to post. This will also promote better quality posts. It is really easy to be negative when someone isn't right there in front of you, this will hopefully make people think before they type! I love the idea. I hope I win someday and the prize is a lifetime supply of B A C O N!
I consider this an awesome idea! First of all I think everyone has qualities of becoming member of the month and I think that being helpful, honest, and happy will be a big factor in what makes the member of the month. It is not all about popularity but to encourage others to help out more and make EMC a good place for all players alike and have lots of positivity for all as well.
since you mentioned it twice, does anyone have any really good bacon recommendations? I'm not talking about that Oscar Mayer generic stuff, I mean juicy, uniquely spiced bacon. If it's anywhere within 3 hours of Pittsburgh, I will drive there and buy 25 pounds of it.
I'd like your post if I could but you definitely have a point here. Which is actually one of the reasons why I'm pretty cool with letting staff handle all this. I mean: if you win this thing and then fully change your behavior afterwards then wouldn't you agree that something is up? But how many players would remember this over the course of one whole year? I think staff may very well surprise you, but that's just my hunch Now, I don't necessarily disagree with you. In fact, I tend to ignore these kinds of events entirely because of that (which is also why I was so surprised to learn that I won some in the past). But there's another side to this story: what about the players who want to have that special player get their spotlight or their appreciation? Story of my EMC life: "You didn't have to do that!" (= me when player X sent me some really nice stuff, from way too much rupees to "just" a collection of "some" redstone items (read: a massive collection with which you can easily build your own auto sorter! )). To which quite some respond: "Yeah, but I wanted to". It's not always about the player who wins this stuff, it's also about others who want them to win. And who knows, EMC staff might surprise you! (edit) Also agreed. That is: you can't rule this out. But is this really that much different from the events where players vote? I mean... From my point of view all you have to do is be around staff organized events, make yourself heard and your presence well known and you're already be likely to be quicker recognized. But I also think it's fair to give the benefit of the doubt for now. Look at the results in one years time, so who won and who didn't and how that all adds up.
This is a very weird award. We have got a bunch of people saying positive things about this, and we have another bunch of people saying that this is putting down the majority. I do not want to get involved, but this kind of split is NOT what the Empire is about. I have not seen any debate, but this obvious split is a weird thing. I’ll leave it at that.
Not to be that guy, but really? I am personally not a fan of this idea for many reasons. If anyone actually cares enough to listen, my inbox is open.
Agreed. I've actually never seen a disagreement like this, even in the politics thread... This is really incredible, and while I'd like to say that the majority is pro MOTM, I don't want to say that someone writing, "Cool!" means that they support this. A huge split... The Empire split... THIS MEANS WAR. Okay, here's what's going to happen- Anger. Civil War. Fighting. New Civil War Promos. A Happy Ending.
