*WINNER ANNOUNCED* Win Xbox 360 250GB + Forza Horizon with MyGaming

There was a whole debate about the competition about a week or two ago...and people are still complaining. Even (2)1 post wonders are having a go at the rules. Why weren't there more objections when it was a lot more open for discussion?

The point system makes sense to me, you could accumulate points fairly easily without spamming. A pool of 25 users is pretty fair, I think. It also roots out people who do nothing and rewards people who drive activity. It makes sense to give active members rewards instead of someone who does nothing, doesn't it?

The most important part is this: it drives COMPETITION between the users, instead of just giving it to some random person.

Granted, there could be one or two tweaks to the method that would make the forum's more 'Frequently-Upset-Users' (I'm coining that term, by the way) happy, but I think this is a good starting point.

Good luck every one!
 
TheAvenged87 said:
There was a whole debate about the competition about a week or two ago...and people are still complaining. Even (2)1 post wonders are having a go at the rules. Why weren't there more objections when it was a lot more open for discussion?

The point system makes sense to me, you could accumulate points fairly easily without spamming. A pool of 25 users is pretty fair, I think. It also roots out people who do nothing and rewards people who drive activity. It makes sense to give active members rewards instead of someone who does nothing, doesn't it?

The most important part is this: it drives COMPETITION between the users, instead of just giving it to some random person.

Granted, there could be one or two tweaks to the method that would make the forum's more 'Frequently-Upset-Users' (I'm coining that term, by the way) happy, but I think this is a good starting point.

Good luck every one!
Click to expand...

I think it might be worth it to look at the pool size in future, but generally the system seems to be working well. Well done, James and co.
 
Avatar said:
I think it might be worth it to look at the pool size in future, but generally the system seems to be working well. Well done, James and co.
Click to expand...

I was actually wondering how an increased pool size might work yesterday. Say you took 50 people and then averaged the points and anyone that fell below the average was eliminated.
 
TheAvenged87 said:
There was a whole debate about the competition about a week or two ago...and people are still complaining. Even (2)1 post wonders are having a go at the rules. Why weren't there more objections when it was a lot more open for discussion?

The point system makes sense to me, you could accumulate points fairly easily without spamming. A pool of 25 users is pretty fair, I think. It also roots out people who do nothing and rewards people who drive activity. It makes sense to give active members rewards instead of someone who does nothing, doesn't it?

The most important part is this: it drives COMPETITION between the users, instead of just giving it to some random person.

Granted, there could be one or two tweaks to the method that would make the forum's more 'Frequently-Upset-Users' (I'm coining that term, by the way) happy, but I think this is a good starting point.

Good luck every one!
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone is complaining about the structure of the competition (or at least, complaining with points that have no merit) - people are just concerned that the final pool might not be adequately reviewed/moderated.

Having the forums active is one thing, but treating it as a chat room where people post one-liners in response to each other without really driving a conversation forward is another.

read:
guy1. yam is pretty cool tbh
guy2. yah it is, we should have a yam braai again sometime
guy1. maybe next week?
guy2. cool, I'll bring my console too
guy1. sweet, got any new games?
guy2. yah calladoodie 15 and fifa '42
in a thread that's actually talking about something completely unrelated to their love for yam, braaing and getting together.

I don't recall specifically which threads or users now, but similar off-topic one-liner banter has been occurring in a few threads, and every single one of those posts counts towards their points unless moderated.


As for why people mightn't have commented on the competition before it went live; many, myself included, only found out about the competition after it went live, and hadn't been actively coming to the forums for a while before finding out about it. Yes, people like us are less deserving of winning in the first place, though there's nothing stopping us from continuing to actively partake in the forums post competition even if we don't win - quality over quantity just seems like a better approach to the scoring to me.
 
Last edited:
nanonyous said:
I don't recall specifically which threads or users now, but similar off-topic one-liner banter has been occurring in a few threads, and every single one of those posts counts towards their points unless moderated.
.
Click to expand...

Just squelch the TK from counting and increase the points for peeps who post good threads and blogs and whatnot = perfect system.


/slightly off topic

The term "Frequently-Upset-Users" was already used back in '09 by Joker or grim or someone :D
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Just squelch the TK from counting and increase the points for peeps who post good threads and blogs and whatnot = perfect system.


/slightly off topic

The term "Frequently-Upset-Users" was already used back in '09 by Joker or grim or someone :D
Click to expand...

Hahaha awesome! :cool:
/sees which one he can sue for the rights to use FUU.
 
James said:
We wanted a cool system that promotes forum activity. That is why we now have achievements and awards and stuff. I want to tweak that a bit more when I have time. The activity system allows us to run competitions based on forum activity. Forums are fun and happy places when they are active, and isn't it cool that the most active people stand a chance to win a prize as well? We can also build different types of awards in future, which I'm putting some thought toward.

Of course MyGaming operates entirely on ad revenue and so we will always want to increase our traffic - that's just how online works. It's a great job and a privilege to bring the MyGaming readers news and foster a cool community, but we still need to put food on the table and pay our rent as well.

With MyGaming doing well we can organise more cool stuff for the forum community like competitions with prizes that MyGaming pays for, organise events like the ongoing Dota 2 tournaments, and expand our news content and coverage.

There's no exact reason why the changes have been implemented, just that we are always striving to improve where we can. We do tend to think decisions through and things aren't done arbitrarily.
Click to expand...

I dont mind the system except that I have to post now instead of only reading :p
 
Out of curiosity, what exactly would constitutes 'spamming to earn points?'

I ask because it seems some users have now learned how to 'game' the system, using the activity contest page to determine which actions give you certain amounts of points and then abusing those sections of the site to earn points.

I'm starting to warm to the idea of this competition format, as it has generated a lot of forum activity, but I think the fact that people can actively check the competition leaderboard as well as their points is the most harmful thing to this competition format. It can only, and already has, led to abuse of the system.

In another thread you said this;

James said:
Posting the points breakdown would undermine the purpose of the competition.
Click to expand...

But the thing is, people have now worked it out for themselves, so I guess you could say the purpose of the competition is already somewhat undermined.

It's probably too late to do something about it now, but if you guys decide to use this competition format again, maybe you could consider changing the point breakdown on a day-to-day basis? Say, on Monday posts are worth x, but on Tuesday it changes and posts are only worth y? That way it makes it hard for anyone to abuse the competition as they'll have to contribute to all aspects of the forums instead of just contributing to those that grant the most points.
 
Last edited:
Moderation and review of the top25's posts and activity before they get put into the pool for the draw.

Having x be worth more or less on day 1 than on day 2 wouldn't necessarily help much for two reasons;
1. it favours those that are here only alltimes to make posts that don't necessarily have much, if any, substance
2. those that may happen to only be 'able' to come and 'do stuff' on the forums at certain times or on certain days may have the crappy luck to only ever come and do those things during the worst times for them as far as points-gathering would be concerned


All I know is that if review is done of posts, it's going to be a nightmare for whoever's taken that responsibility upon themselves, since some 'one-liners' may actually have merit while others simply don't.
 
Unfortunately the activity system doesn't generate the final list if I choose to make it hidden. Pretty dumb implementation, so I'm in contact with the devs. I didn't want to take a risk with re-enabling the list just before the competition ends (this does work) with a big prize on offer - I didn't want something to go wrong.

I'll look at getting that system fixed, or seeing if I can reliably re-enable the final list before a competition ends. I'll try this with something trivial, like a temporary award badge thingy, and not an actual valuable prize.

Ideally, I want to be able to hide the points total list as discussed before.
 
simon said:
Everybody does...
BTW James how come there have been so many Xbox giveaway comps compared to Playstation or Wii? If I remember correctly this is the 3rd xbox, one ps3 and no Wii's since I came here.
Click to expand...

Maybe because they're slightly cheaper? I don't know, that's a good question.
 
simon said:
Everybody does...
BTW James how come there have been so many Xbox giveaway comps compared to Playstation or Wii? If I remember correctly this is the 3rd xbox, one ps3 and no Wii's since I came here.
Click to expand...

Always wondered that too want to see a Wii U competition since I would love one :D
 
Some of the competitions' prizes may be sponsored, with Sony and Nintendo (or their South African affiliates) not being too concerned with sponsoring kit for mygaming's comps?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top