Community Choice Award Announcement (with NEW INFORMATION)

[Dacy]

We would like to heartily thank all the participants in the Second Homecoming Base Contest, which was our first as Community Representatives! We also wish to thank all the people who went through the bases; we hope they enjoyed them, and were able to appreciate all of the hard work that went into them.

 

We, as CRs, had really pictured that, when given the choice between several amazing bases, people would go see them and then pick the one they thought was the best, and vote for it. And sure, tell their friends about the great bases they saw, who'd also go and visit and be amazed, and then go vote.

 

Well, that wasn't really what it looked like was happening. And we're sad, and trying to make this work in the fairest way possible. We conferred, debated, and discussed this intensely all day. And this is what we finally came up with, as a plan that hopefully does not punish people who had nothing to do with how things have played out, but gives us a bit of a do-over. A fresh start.

 

So, as to the Community Choice Award, we are aware of concerns about the voting that have been raised. We believe that, whether or not there is actually any problem with the vote that would affect the outcome, there is unfortunately some perception that the outcome has been tainted. Therefore, we would like to offer what we feel and hope will be a satisfactory resolution.

 

First, we are going to postpone the announcement of the Community Choice winner, because we want to offer the community a chance to confirm their votes. We are offering a chance for people to vote in person. Here is how it will work:

 

• The 5 bases from the Community Choice voting poll that got the most votes but did not win a category award on Sunday will be selected as the choices for a re-vote.

These 5 bases are:

DRYAD-20249
PIRATE-16369
EXPLOREONFOOT-20176
RAMPAGE-27317
VAULTLUXE-17647

 

• CRs and judges will schedule times during which one of them will be at polling base. This will be ONE location on Excelsior and ONE location on Everlasting, but neither is a base in the running for the Community Choice, so there is no favoritism. We assume you have taken the responsibility to see the bases, and if you would like to see them again or you did not get a chance before, Dacy is offering 5 tours. This was done to reduce confusion and possible missed chances to vote because of changing locations.

 

• The bases to visit to cast your vote are:

The Station, on Excelsior, which is code STATION-18074

Crash Castle on Everlasting, which is code CRASHCASTLE-26019

 

• A list of the choices for the vote will be clearly visible. Your vote is private, you choose which base to vote for, and send it to the designated global with the name of your character.

 

• Dacy's 5 tours will all leave from Kallisti Wharf on Everlasting.

Monday, May 1, 8 PM EST

Wednesday May 3, 8 PM EST

Saturday, May 6, 12:30 AM EST, 2 PM EST, and 8 PM EST.

 

• There will be a schedule with many opportunities for everyone to visit and vote. The schedule will be posted on the forums and various Discords after the Awards have been announced. 

 

• UPDATE: When you visit one of the two bases below:

STATION-18074 (Excelsior) or CRASHCASTLE-26019 (Everlasting)

 

        You might see someone afk. There is a sign with instructions you can follow. If you follow the instructions, your vote will count. This was to cover gaps in the schedule so that no matter what time you come by, you can vote.

 

• You will be given a game global email address that you will send an email to that contains your vote. Please also include the name of your character. Veracor will be in charge of these emails.

 

• Judges will note the global address of anyone who is visiting, and give them the email address to send their votes to, and CRs will cross check the globals to make sure no one votes more than once.

 

• Only those votes that match the globals recorded by the judges as being a base visitor, will be counted.

 

• If, for some reason, you cannot find a time which matches your schedule in which to visit a base and vote, please contact CR Dacy at @Dacy, either in game or on the forums, to arrange a time.

 

• Votes will be tabulated, and the winner announced on Sunday, May 7, 2023, at 5 PM EST.

• Voting closes at 11:59 PM EST on Saturday, May 6.

 

HOURS AVAILABLE (see above for note on this)

 

 

In this way, we are not changing any rules, and we are still honoring the voice of the community, but we hope that people will feel more confident in the contest results. We would like to reiterate at this time that this contest is meant to be about the merit of the bases, not any other factor. Please visit and give your honest opinion as a vote for the base that impresses you the most, and disregard anything that is not relevant to that.

 

Moving forward, any future contests will be significantly different from this one. We've had what you might call a learning experience, and we expect that we will be able to take what we learned this time and improve the experience for all in the future.

 

It is our deepest desire to see this wonderful community feeling good about the amazing bases we’ve seen and toured, and we are hoping to see support and encouragement for all those who have worked so hard.  Thank you!

 

 

Community Representatives
 Dacy      &     Easter Bunny

   And the Judging Team

 

And please vote. This has been really hard on us, but especially on the bases involved. None of the builders have done anything wrong, and all of the bases are wonderful and deserve at least a visit. Please vote for your favorite, and feel free to leave positive comments here about what you saw.

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Dacy
update information

[Dacy]

Bases up for the re-vote will be the top 5 chosen by the number of votes in the Community Choice poll (that did not win their category). Those bases are:

 

VAULTLUXE-17647

RAMPAGE-27317

DRYAD-20249

EXPLOREONFOOT-20176

PIRATE-16369

 

This is a new vote. Please visit and vote. We will be posting a schedule of where and when the bases will be staffed by the judges, soon. Voting will be from Monday through 11:59 PM Saturday, May 6th, with the winner announced on Sunday, May 7.

 

-Dacy

[EnnVee]

8 minutes ago, Dacy said:

Bases up for the re-vote will be the top 5 chosen by the number of votes in the Community Choice poll (that did not win their category). Those bases are:

 

VAULTLUXE-17647

RAMPAGE-27317

DRYAD-20249

EXPLOREONFOOT-20176

PIRATE-16369

 

This is a new vote. Please visit and vote. We will be posting a schedule of where and when the bases will be staffed by the judges, soon. Voting will be from Monday through 11:59 PM Saturday, May 6th, with the winner announced on Sunday, May 7.

 

-Dacy

Can you please post the Server location of each base?

[Master_Minion]

6 minutes ago, EnnVee said:

Can you please post the Server location of each base?

those are all everlasting

[Dacy]

5 hours ago, EnnVee said:

Can you please post the Server location of each base?

My apologies. Yes, Everlasting.

 

[Kartanian]

No, sorry. I'm not going to do this. And in an unusual turn, I feel strongly enough about this to post a comment.

 

This is too complex for what was supposed to be a very simple "vote on the forum" process.

 

I appreciate the CRs' and judges' efforts. If there is a perception problem, this will not fix it. It just creates (or feeds) cynicism, in my opinion. How and why do you expect votes to change with a re-vote? How does an expectation of bias and manipulation affect a re-vote? How does this affect the case(s) where people were encouraged to vote for someone without seeing the bases?

 

I voted once, though I have multiple accounts and have relationships with several of the base owners. If I have to go through special hoops to re-vote, it's not worth it. It is no longer fun. And fun, IMO, is the whole point.

 

No need to reply to this. Just register it as my vote of disapproval. Again, this is not a knock on the usual process or the CRs' or judges' actions, but I wanted to let you know that I'm opting out of what is now a "not fun" thing.

[Dacy]

Sorry to hear that. I agree it's a mess. I agree, I'd rather be doing a lot of other things. It's a shame some people decided to make this a contest of factors other than the bases themselves. But I do disagree that it won't help. I can't be positive, of course, and there are people like you who are just done. Some of the base builders feel the same. Some are really hurting because the way things were, it became about things very not related to base merit. We can't ensure everyone has visited all the bases, and that's not a rule, it's a fair play suggestion, it's an encouragement and a chance for the builders to have their creations seen and appreciated. But the in person aspect does mean that the people who show up care enough to make the effort. 

 

Will it repeat the same results as before? Doubtful exactly as to the numbers and proportions, perhaps,, because of people like you who don't want any part of this, and perhaps people who've changed their vote because perhaps they got swept up in a campaign that had nothing to do with the base itself, and now, I sincerely hope, they have had time to think and do better. Some even had a really busy week and didn't have time to get to all of the bases, and so either did not vote or voted with incomplete information. I know some of those people whose week was too busy to visit. And so, I hope. I hope that this is reassuring to the base builders who are right now unsure that any of the votes they got meant what it should have. I hope that people decide to be better. And I hope that the base that wins is truly chosen because it is the Choice of the community. Whatever the outcome, we've done all we can do to make it the cleanest we can. And I hope that counts for something.

 

This is  your chance, Paragon. Choose who you will be. And please visit and vote. And I will continue to hope, because I know this community is at its heart, a good one.

 

Dacy

[Easter Bunny]

Better late than never?? I hope...

Here are the Poll Center hours for the remainder of the week:



Please note: Dacy will also be leading a handful of tours this week as well. The tour schedule is:
Wednesday: Tour at 8pm EDT - Meet at the portal in Kallisti Wharf (Everlasting)
Friday "Night" / Saturday Morning: 12:30am EDT (5/6) - Meet at the portal in Kallisti Wharf (Everlasting)
Saturday Day: Tour at 2pm EDT - Meet at the portal in Kallisti Wharf (Everlasting)
                       Tour at 8pm EDT - Meet at the portal in Kallisti Wharf (Everlasting)

[SupaFreak]

Dacy, I think you all are handling things pretty well considering the circumstances.  I'm sure you all learned a valuable lesson on this one and hopefully you'll keep your head up moving forward into the future.

I don't know if the Poll results could've been hidden until the end, but I think the fact they could be seen once voted on worked greatly against fairness.

 

I've also racked my brain trying to figure out what I would've done if running a "Community Choice" in an easily exploitable setting like this and it's almost an impossible task.  One popular person or supergroup rallies their voters and it's game over.  Even if they don't feel their friends base is the best - they're likely to remain loyal and vote for them.

 

Perhaps a sum of the judge's rubic score VS sum of votes in a private poll would've worked out better?  *shrugs*
 

That being said, despite our base not qualifying - I am continuing to participate.  I'm from Torchbearer and don't know a single one of the other base builders.  My vote for Community Choice first go round actually won their category - or so I'm lead to believe - so my new vote (already voted earlier in-person) is not the same as before.

I had my wife tour the final 5 with me the last two days and she did not participate on first round of voting but will this time - so there's going to be another new vote for someone.

So, in closing - know that there will be 2 new votes in the mix for some builder(s) who didn't receive one before!

Edited May 2, 2023 by SupaFreak
Wording in final line.

[DavidWyeth]

I try to not get political in this game. For one thing I like a lot of different people involved in many different groups and many of them don’t get along. I really don’t know exactly what the fuss about this is, but I can only assume that it’s the number of people complaining about the voting feeling that the “best” base didn’t win. Well anytime you have several different items to pick from the winner will have less than fifty percent of the vote so that most of the voters don’t think it was the best base. That will always be the case. Did people vote for reasons other than what the base looks like? No doubt some people did. But that is how voting goes. I agree with Kartanian that this just isn’t fun anymore. There was a vote and a winner. It’s one category and popularity will be a factor in any people’s choice award period, no matter how many times you have a vote.

I have entered many costume contests and I rarely ever see one of my top five picks even get mentioned, and at the same time I have won some contest myself. Not any of the official ones, but some of the community ones. Art is very subjective and not every likes the same thing. I will bet money more than 50% of the community disagrees with the judges’ choices too. When you have many options to choose from, the winner almost never gets fifty percent of the popular vote, which inherently means most people believe someone else should have one. People need to get over it. Applaud the winners politely, thank the judges for running the event and move on. It’s a game and I personally have had my fill of screams for revotes in the real world. I don’t need here too. Thank you but I voted once I don’t see a need to do so again. I am sorry that you must deal with this and appreciate your hard work.

[Dacy]

4 hours ago, DavidWyeth said:

Thank you but I voted once I don’t see a need to do so again.

Suit yourself. We did not take on the labor intensive job of redoing a vote because of “people complaining that the ‘best’ base didn’t win.” We are also, believe it or not, familiar with what a community vote is. And still will be.
 

Clearly you aren’t inclined to believe we had reasons we felt sufficient to take on what we took on, and if someone isn’t willing to accept our judgment no matter if you know specifics or not, then clearly you don’t trust us, and there’s not much to say. 

Personally, I love all the people I see coming in. They are still, some of them, going and visiting bases.  People have with rare exception been positive, and we aren’t seeing any of the things that made us decide this was our best option in moving forward. Another week of intensive work for us. More complaining. Long nights. And we knew that’s how it would go. But we felt it was the best and most fair.
 

Sorry the vote isn’t “fun”. It truly didn’t didn’t seem like a lot to ask. And most people are happy to help.

 

-Dacy 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Dacy

[SupaFreak]

6 hours ago, DavidWyeth said:

I really don’t know exactly what the fuss about this is, but I can only assume that it’s the number of people complaining about the voting feeling that the “best” base didn’t win.

 

I'm pretty sure the fuss is that there's quite possibly a large amount of votes that came from sources that participated in visiting little to no bases at all.   The judging panel is merely making things right in the eyes of the majority.  The polls were easily manipulated, the current method is not.

 

And I personally disagree with anyone who states things are no longer fun because we have to vote in-game.  While dopamine is commonly released into our systems through methods of clicking Like buttons on social platforms and participating in polls - it's also commonly released into our systems when we interact with others in a social setting such as a superhero MMO and clicking buttons in-game!

So, release some dopamine into your system today!  Click the Like button on this edited reply and may your day will be filled with more dopamine! 😀

Edited May 3, 2023 by SupaFreak
Editing also releases dopamine.

[Gadzookery]

8 hours ago, DavidWyeth said:

I try to not get political in this game. For one thing I like a lot of different people involved in many different groups and many of them don’t get along. I really don’t know exactly what the fuss about this is, but I can only assume that it’s the number of people complaining about the voting feeling that the “best” base didn’t win.

 

Geniuses on the voting thread admitted to skewering and boosting votes because apparently winning something that was actually about touring the bases and showcasing them is so important that they have to cheat so the votes had to be redone with something in place to ensure the votes are all legitimate

[Dacy]

On 5/1/2023 at 9:41 PM, CR Americas Angel said:

Just did some PvP in the Rampage base. Flying around the tiny buildings was too much fun.

I guess you must have talked to the builder, hmm? Because when we did the judge tour, I asked him about it being a PVP base, and he said he did not make it as a PVP base, and did not know how to turn on the flag.   

I imagine there are lots of the bases that are on the list that would be great for PVP, if that was your aim. I am sure that we will need to make a PVP category at some point for a contest! And even though rampage was not made as a PVP base, I can see how it would be fun. I can also imagine hiding in the foliage in the Dryad, popping out from one of the hidden caves in Lake, fighting as a pirate in the Hidden isle, or raiding a socialite event in Vault Luxe.  What awesome bases we have!

 

-Dacy

 

[Dacy]

16 minutes ago, Gadzookery said:

Geniuses on the voting thread

Let’s not go to personal attacks, please. The people you refer to were not connected to either base or any base in the contest.
 

The reasons we decided to do what we did are complex and I’m not going to get into them here. I would however, appreciate it if speculation on the subject could end. In the end, you either trust our judgment because, as CRs, it’s our job to know what’s going on, we have access to all the information, and we do what we can to improve the situation, or you can just decide that we don’t know what we’re doing. That’s up to you.
 

And let’s drop the whole infighting bit, please. It’s not needed or helpful. The other thread was closed because people couldn’t let it drop. We’re moving on.

 

-Dacy

[Romeyn]

People in general have time constraints, so requesting that they look at all 15 bases before voting is a major chore... the results kinda show that, they start at base one, get tired of looking midway and vote for the last one they saw because it was fresh in their memory.

 

I do appreciate all the work you, EB and all the others have done. Judging is hard work, and you all did a fine job!

[Easter Bunny]

UPDATE: If you are still in the process of showing up to vote for the community choice, you may enter the base and find

me or someone else AFK with a sign up with instructions to follow. This is to cover the gaps in our schedule, so that when you come to a base to vote, no matter what time, you can do so if you follow the instructions. Thank you!

- Dacy and EB

Edited May 3, 2023 by Easter Bunny

[Romeyn]

I would never make a good judge, I dismissed many immediately because I couldn't figure out how to get anywhere

[026]

I was honored to be a judge, and I do not envy our CRs for the work they have done, the difficult decisions they have to make, and the balancing act they have to perform. They have even more respect from me after this fiasco than they did before (which was considerable.)

 

Twentysix (Pshaw)

[Dacy]

And Pshaw, we have GREAT respect for you and Veracor, who have stood with us and been rock solid throughout this heavy time commitment. Hopefully we learned enough that the next judging will be much easier for our guest judges, and thank you for being the best about being guinea pigs for us. 🙂

 

I was just musing about what we've learned, and what is going on right now. The re-vote, I feel, is really going well. Sure, there is a small minority so put out by the whole affair that they've decided that to not vote speaks more loudly than a vote, but I'm seeing really good positives here. If we were ever to the point where we forgot how badly this can go and went and did another community vote, I think I'd want to do the (only) vote this way.

 

What are the positives here?

1. Some people don't go to the forums, but they can vote in the game they are already playing, and very easily.
2. Monitored vote is something that is easy to verify, and it seems like the supervision keeps people conscious of their own integrity; there have been absolutely no reason to doubt any of the voting we have seen.
3. Some people are still visiting bases; some didn't have time last week, some, I think, once we made them come in person, decided, well, may as well go see what we're voting on, and that is only to the good. More bases appreciated. More fairness in the decisions made.
4. I think invisible voting is definitely the way to go on a voting poll like this. I wish I could have done that for the first one! Forums need an upgrade.

All in all, even though it's been made CLEAR that some people are very unhappy with the situation, I'd say I'm very happy we did do the re-vote. Yes, it cost us time and effort, but the positives seem to outweigh the negatives here. But then, I give a great deal of weight to integrity, and I want to have confidence that the results are clean, probably more than anyone else other than Easter Bunny.

 

The outcome of all this could well be the same. Or similar. Or entirely different. But this time we will know that things were well monitored. And whether you believe it or not, we'll know that this time, for sure, things were all above board, and we've done all we could do to make sure of that.

 

 

I think at the heart of this is the fact that most of the people who are complaining don't know us at all, so they are not as likely to trust us as those that do know us. We will both continue to reach out to the community, build relations, and be ready to help with anything we can help with, and hopefully connect people together. Especially in base building, there's no need to reinvent the wheel; there is so much we've learned about the editor that can help people build the kind of base they want to build, and we, the CR's would love to help you learn what it is you need to know.

 

This is why so many bases are so excellent: they have learned what's possible, and they have learned the techniques, and honestly, many of them learned those from us and each other. With base building, it's our strong belief that sharing ideas and information is how things improve for everyone. That is why it seems like bases just are getting better and better: we are literally building on each other's discoveries. Those not connected to the community resources have to discover those same things on their own. So, if you want to improve, I suggest you get connected. 🙂

 

Next time, from what we learned and what we'd already planned:

1. No base built even partially by a CR will be in the competition. No matter how much we reassured people, a vocal minority still felt like that base was getting some special consideration. I am not really (myself) sure how one can look at it and think it had to have some help to be considered as a top contender. We agreed when we agreed to become CRs that we wouldn't get to compete (and learned that this principle is applied even when it's not we, ourselves, competing); now that extends to anyone who wants any sort of a building partnership with us. It would not, however, apply to bases where we simply help you with something.
2. The next contest(s) will have different categories. That was always going to be true. Some will fit some bases better than others.
3. We now have a better idea of how much time different parts of the contest will take.
4. We have a better handle on what more we need the rubric to evaluate.
5. Community Choice voting is very problematical. IF there’s a next time, any non-judge winners will probably be selected by a vote of the contestants who entered the contest, or some other group easy to identify and verify.
6. No matter what we do or how hard we try, there are people that are not going to be happy. And that's just how it is. We can't and won't ever be able to please everyone, and so we just focus on making sure that, at the end of the day, we are comfortable with how we did things. And I have to say, even with the complaints...we are happy with how we did things overall.

Thank you for the patience, grace, and understanding. 🙂 And the awesome bases!

 

-Dacy

Edited May 5, 2023 by Dacy

[Bionic_Flea]

Respectfully, my suggestion to you is only to have judges and not any community votes in the future.  Maybe just add a few "Honorable Mention" awards.

[CU_Krow]

People easily forget that HC staff and reps are dedicated staff on a pure volunteer basis pouring into the community and game that we all love. These are not teenagers. Great majority of these volunteers are likely working adults putting aside considerable time into these events.

 

I recall a business owner who once put his business on temporary hold and actually lost some profit as a result, but he did so in order to re-check his quality of products; ensuring that what was coming out was the best product possible not only for the environment, but his customers too. Over time, his business grew exponentially.

Similar case, I can respect the judges decisions on this. Dacy shared this decision was weighed in cost, but it was from a source of integrity and keeping things fair. That speaks volumes right there about the character of the judges who do these events and what you can expect in the future.

Edited May 5, 2023 by CU_Krow