We have our first Hall of Fame...and the winner is
By
AddamsFamily,
Posted on: 2009-05-04 01:20 in Mission Architect
First, my tone wouldn't have been so condescending if someone hadn't started with the "soothing egos" and comparisons to conspiracy theories and UFO sightings, so let's just agree to an I-won't-if-you-won't arrangement here.
Second, your standard of evidence is inconsistent because several people (off the top of my head, Witch_Engine and the person who posted just above you) have stated exactly the observations (downvotes in a rapid timeframe, no progress on the badge for people playing your arcs) you are apparently demanding for "proof", but which you have dismissed in the same post as "anecdotal", since ultimately it's based on a person's experiences. And it shouldn't matter whether it's one hour or five minutes, in neither case is there enough time to play through all the arcs on the first couple of pages.
So what I'm saying is I have no idea what can possibly satisfy you if you are neither going to read what people are telling you, nor accept it as valid because it's "anecdotal" even though it's exactly what you asked for. And I am really, really trying hard not to be condescending here, you are just sending very confused signals.
Let me summarize this thread as succinctly as possible:
This happens to all five-star arcs, regardless of merit.
It is only a few votes at a time, indicating 0- or 1-star ratings.
This only happens when the arcs hit the top pages.
In many cases (only really detectable when the player happens to be on at the same time) this happens within a rapid time frame.
In cases where this could be determined, this is never accompanied by progress on the "people completing your arcs" badge.
In the most egregious examples, this has happened in arcs with few to no 3-star votes, and the majority of votes are 5 stars. Given that the few down-votes pretty much have to be 0 or 1 star to have such an extreme effect, this makes it difficult to attribute this to "differing tastes" since you would expect a more uniform distribution of ratings (more 3- and 4-star ratings).
Once the arcs are off the front pages, the ratings return to 4- and 5-stars.
This pattern holds even for arcs with a huge amount of word-of-mouth (there are several arcs, like Coral Horn, that have made it to 999+ votes and exhibited this exact pattern). Again, if it was down to taste, these arcs would continue to accrue poor ratings, preventing them from ever again hitting the front pages -- but they've done it repeatedly.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly (and the one you keep ignoring), people have openly admitted to doing exactly this.
(Related to the above are the very public and unfortunate recriminations over certain aggressively-promoted arcs, leading to a string of 1-star wars. These incidents are detailed elsewhere in these forums.)
At any rate, given that you yourself admit to there being a large population of "dillweeds" in this game, I don't see how it's so outlandish that certain dillweeds would do exactly this. Whether it's in a misguided attempt to push up a friend's arc, or just a generally-directed griefing for giggles, it doesn't much make a difference, functionally. It's pretty apparently deliberate.
Keep in mind that arcs are cross-server... we may be up against a cartel on another server that wants to clear a path for their stuff.
After all, story arcs are a waste of time, right? (I don't happen to think so, but quite a few people do, and have stated such publicly).
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
I think it's unfortunate that the MA has such a limited search feature, and really no browse/category feature at all. Part of the problem is the amount of visibility arcs on the first few pages have, compared to the lack of visibility all other arcs have. Its not a stretch to say that those arcs on the first couple pages are the targets for all sorts of behaviors, whether it's griefing, or whatever...
I know the devs are revamping search with I15 (not soon enough), but honestly I think they need to rework what the front page of the MA looks like. Rather than just show a handful of arcs, based on rating, they could have links to categories that players can browse through (authors would choose categories themselves). It would be even better if players could custom configure the interface to highlight the kinds of arcs they want to see.
For example, if I like humorous arcs designed for characters level 1-20, I'd want to see those first upon opening MA.
This may seem like an amateur question but why is a 0 star even possible? Not how but WHY? I can understand 1 star but a 0 star seems too abusable (as shown by the previously stated math).
[ QUOTE ]
This may seem like an amateur question but why is a 0 star even possible? Not how but WHY? I can understand 1 star but a 0 star seems too abusable (as shown by the previously stated math).
[/ QUOTE ]
I kinda agree with this. It makes no sense. I can't think of a rating system off the top of my head that allows 0-whatever the max is. Even video game magazines that rate games, in the event that the game is pure and utter garbage can not rate it lower then a 1.
Maybe I haven't been trying hard enough or maybe it's cause I only play arcs advertised here or by my SG, but i have never played an arc that I felt deserved a 0 or a 1. This is why I said before that aside from griefing, I think a lot of people just don't get the idea of rating something. They don't seem to understand there are numbers in between 1 and 5.
You're ridiculous. There. I said it.
Yeah, I think removing the possibility of zero starring arcs would go a long way towards ending these problems, since even a one star isn't nearly as devastating since you're getting something for their time. If they could also retroactively remove the zero stars arcs have already gotten, I think you'd be amazed how many arcs "magically" become five star again.
Just bumping this to say that my arc was on the front page again this morning with 308 votes and five stars, so I'm going to track tickets, ratings, and comments based on the number of votes it had when I left for work. I'll try to have a little more concrete info for the one guy who thinks this isn't happening.
And nothing will make me happier than if a ton of people just play it and like it, so please, CoH players: Prove me wrong by playing my arc, rating it honestly, and giving me feedback (which is actually what a majority of the people have done - which is what got me all those wonderful tickets I've been buying my IO's with in the first place).
I, at least, said I hadn't intended to claim my opinion as fact, which you are conveniently ignoring. Ignoring the rest of the condescending crap in your post, let's discuss this "evidence" and the Scientific Method.
The scientific method says "test your hypothesis". Have you tested or are you just stating anecdotal evidence?
I'm not trying to be facetious here, I'm seriously asking you the circumstances under which you observe this phenomena.
You're telling me, I assume, that you have stood there at the MA watching every arc on the first page (or just a large number of them, let's say 5 or more) disappear within the span of...say....5 minutes? Did all 5 of these arcs that disappeared in that time frame get a rating without a play through? Then you did the same thing again at a later date and witnessed the same phenomena?
Is the preceding true, or did you just log in and find the front page had changed? Did you come back an hour after finding your arc dropped to 4-stars and find the front page changed? That would be anecdotal evidence. Good enough to form a hypothesis, but not proof.
After all, for griefing to be occurring, there isn't going to be any playing. All a griefer needs is the time to bring up the MA interface, click play, then click quit and rate. Given that, does 5 minutes sound like an unreasonable time frame for testing your hypothesis?
@Doctor Gemini
Arc #271637 - Welcome to M.A.G.I. - An alternative first story arc for magic origin heroes. At Hero Registration you heard the jokes about Azuria always losing things. When she loses the entire M.A.G.I. vault, you are chosen to find it.