12 replies to this topic

[Aedeagus]

I like the idea of Big Bang Awards, it gives the film-making more meaning, but it could certainly be improved.

• First of all, it seems to me that for a competitive player, it's the best choice to just not vote at all. Every ballot you use is just giving someone else an advantage over you. Now, a fair voting process pretty much has to rely on non-selfish players to some extent, but this conflict of interest could be lessened. How about increasing your own film's appearance % by voting on other films? Of course, just doing one ballot mission is a lot less effort than completing an entire movie, so maybe it could give something like +1% appearance chance compared to a movie's +10%
• Alternatively, there could be a more fundamental change, but I think that would make the voting 100% fair and conflict-free: at the start of every week, split all Big Bang Awards participants into two equal-sized blocks. And so there would be two first places, two second places, and so on. The important thing would be, participants from block A would only get to vote on films from block B, and vice versa. That means they would never vote on someone they're competing with!
• The fact that there are only 2 films shown at a time is probably what makes randomness a huge factor in the voting. Seeing my finely crafted movie cover losing in the rankings wouldn't be nearly as sad if the winners actually looked good! But a lot of the time it's something completely generic taking the top spot. Here's just one thought: show more options on a ballot. How about 8 at a time, small covers you can get a closer look at by hovering over them like in the film history window. I think that would drastically increase the chance of a voter choosing a film because they actually liked it, and not because they had no choice.
• speaking of actually liking the covers... give an appearance % bonus to movie covers that have been customized. If a movie cover has been customized, then it's a lot more likely than its author actually cared about it looking good... which is the whole point of the competition!

So what do you think? Do you have any other ideas for making Big Bang Awards better?

[mountbara]

As a student of algorithms, #1 is already in place. #2, is an unfeasible programming nightmare. #3 There are cuts in number of films in the pool to vote for twice during the week, this lowers the randomness factor a lot as well as it's already tied to #1. As to your last point, people can already buy the win with diamonds, doing what you suggest would give yet another advantage to diamond players, who already have a marked advantage any way, so why do it?

[Kitekat]

if you  ask me the rng and the algorithms are real bad

 

i would like to see a voting for a random cover per ballot of the actors so to win  you have to make alll your covers look nice

[FinnGun]

Not being able to vote your own cover or a cover made by your studio-mate would be the best option to make the look matter. People would vote the best looking/most clever cover, not just ones from their studio.

 

But then again, this won't happen...

 

Maybe, just maybe Playata would get their diamonds because players put (aka used diamonds) some effort to covers, not because they were refreshing choices.

[cumdump69]

But if you can't vote for your own movie or those of teammates, you're better off not voting at all, since you can only vote for your rivals in that scenario. 

[FinnGun]

But if you can't vote for your own movie or those of teammates, you're better off not voting at all, since you can only vote for your rivals in that scenario. 

 

Maybe so, but now there is no real competition. If you are a member of smaller studio, you won't get the chance to win, because players obviously vote for covers from their studio, no matter how well done and thought the other one is.

 

Making the rewards of voting better than 1000 notes would still make players to vote

[CaptC]

If you are a member of smaller studio, you won't get the chance to win, because players obviously vote for covers from their studio, no matter how well done and thought the other one is.

 

The answer to your dilemma is contained within your statement: Join a bigger, active studio that competes in the BBA. Or, accept that your decision to stay in a smaller studio also reduces your chance to win a BBA.

There are plenty of things to complain about regarding the BBAs. But sometimes it is not game structure, sometimes it is the result of personal choices. 

 

The BBAs are intentionally designed as a competition.

Teammates working together are always going to have an advantage over individuals.

Bigger teams are going to have an advantage over smaller teams.

 

In real life, bigger studios win the Oscars more frequently, as well.

[CaptC]

Not being able to vote your own cover or a cover made by your studio-mate would be the best option to make the look matter. People would vote the best looking/most clever cover, not just ones from their studio.

 

An existence proof that your thesis is incorrect:

It used to be the way you suggest. 

Competitive studios posted lists of the names and sometimes pictures of the covers of teammates.

And we voted for our friends anyway.

 

Competitive people compete.

[Veronika]

As I see it, the root problem with the BBA is the ability to "buy" votes by refreshing your selections. This gives each player and each studio the ability to rig the election in their favor by spending diamonds. 

 

I understand that this is a source of income for BBE but if you want to make the BBA more fair, remove the option to refresh. Until you do that, BBA will always be manipulated by players with lots of diamonds to spend.

[hannahhandy]

BBA voting is one of my favorite parts of the game, I wouldn't want to change it too much. It's fun to share your creativity with your friends - i'm always thrilled to get a "Vote for Hannah" in studio chat or when a studio-mate is in the 10 top. 

 

I also enjoy interacting with folks outside the studio (in a way that doesn't involve fighting, haha). I like making new friends by getting or sending DMs about covers we particularly like. Its fun to get a random nice (or naughty  ) comment about a cover.

[Eileendream]

The BBA is completely fair IF (and this is a big if) If everyone who votes remembers that no one else can see their screen and always, without fail, votes for the best of the 2 covers displayed, every. single. time, without exception ignoring any and all pressure to do otherwise.

Since that is about s likely to become the new norm as me winning the lotto without buying a ticket, I will again offer a couple suggestions that I think would help.

#1 Completely get rid of the option to reroll the selections. Don't offer it at all. Not for notes or diamonds or cold hard cash. You get to pick from those 2 only. Want another vote? Do another mission.

#2 Remove the 'From your studio' indication. Preferably all together but If you are going to indicate the studio in any way, then list the name of the studio. This would at least put the studios monopolizing the BBAs in a position to be voted *against as easily as they can vote for themselves.

Just as an aside, this thing with the BBA being broken on NU server is really getting old.

[Tabithia]

Hey Aedeagus,

 

Thanks for presenting some ideas.  Please don't get discouarged by everyone saying that they wouldn't work for what ever reasons.

 

As for my thoughts on BBA itself...  I'm not sure I would change anything.  I get the frustration at the pay-to-win (diamond refresh) part, but I like the studio marker.  Does that mean I will ever come in first with it?  Not likely, though I did come in 3rd two weeks ago with no known diamond help in voting.  Same week a studio mate also placed 3rd with a random generated cover and title.

 

I dislike the cut after the 1st day, means I have 6 days of disinterest if I didn't make it out. 

 

I personally will vote for Studio 1st, recognizable friends 2nd, Custom title 3rd, then which cover looks like it might have been changed to some theme or effort, then to the one that I like more all else fails.  

[Jenny37]

same situation, we dealt about a year ago

 

https://forum.us.big...y-the-vote-bba/

 

It has changed that now it is not the individuals who dominate, but the whole studio

the last 4 - 6 months is 70% of the winning films, this studio