Allods Online Forum

Hey folks,

Just going to brush up on some of the points raised and/or provide some internal insights:

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But i´m kind of pissed of by the fact that every event now seems to be just a "you don´t need skill but try your luck as everyone else you might be picked up" while i´d prefer a "you are objectively (one of) the best of the contest = you win"

Events that cater to specific groups are something we wish to avoid, at least in terms of the custom events we're creating (eg. S.O.S, Task Force, Costume Assembly and any future endeavours). For example, we used to hold countless community drawing contests in the past which typically don't require any game knowledge or experience at all.

On the flip side, contests that rely solely on game knowledge or experience alienate new players or those who haven't reached a particular level of in-game progression. Even an event as simplistic as "Guess the Region" or "Trivia" (Facebook) excludes some people as there are only so many zones or in-game references that 'everyone' knows (and they not only run out quickly, but also make experienced players cringe). Circle of Equals & PMB are two examples of entirely in-game & skill related - people can participate regardless, sure, but only certain entrants are likely to be reward viable.

In short, every event will always have a group of people who are unhappy with it or can't participate, so we try to provide a little something for everyone, and offer rewards for players at the cost of variable amounts of effort (preferably involving fun).

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You will take this feedback on-board, cant get better than this. Just
for your info, this event is only chance for some1 to get any reward because not all are gifted with drawing talent or sth like that.

And what happens to me e.g.? Cuz of your (i mean plural) internal error in which you cant read and understand your own criteria, you give reward to non-legit entry...you take prize from "my" hands. This is simply injustice. Maybe next time in Swimsuit contest i take a swimsuit from net and copy + paste it and i can hope internal error will occur so i can get reward.

"You will take this feedback on-board" - Of course, feedback has already helped refine all facebook contests; such as preventing repeat winners -- taught us valuable lessons about underestimating participation scale & mass-rewarding (Task Force), and Costume Assembly shows us that we need to be more vigilant when gathering & supplying entries for the voting process, especially when said events have very specific rulesets.

As for the rest of your comment; lately we've been going for custom made events that attempt to include as many players as possible, regardless of their level or experience. Task Force was the first step in this trend -- we made a list of achievements with varied levels of play in mind and simply asked you to prove that you accomplished them (within specific rules) for a reward.

The real catch was that if a certain number of people took part, the whole server would benefit regardless. Some event-goals were high level specific, some low level, some profession based, some exploration etc. etc. Even if there were players out there who weren't able to achieve all the requests, they were still guaranteed to acquire a respectable 'individual' reward for trying and/or lucky moments for all involved. We conjured up the plan, grossly underestimated the participation levels, went through countless hundreds of entries tirelessly, and came out at the end, happy in the knowledge that it was undoubtedly the largest community event to-date on all scales and that (most) people could be part of it. You would not get this in a niche contest, hence they aren't happening as often as they used to eg. drawing, stories, crafting etc.

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staff from allods have goods ideas for events but their logic to elect the winners is still ridiculous

Regarding "Winner Selection", with Costume Assembly as the 'offending' example, anyone could participate (even on a level 1 character) simply by opening the wardrobe and forging a costume. You didn't need to physically have those pieces unlocked (restrictions, restrictions) and, yes, the end result would end subjectively. Voting always does. RNG has no consideration for rules or criteria, nor is it entirely fair in general if you want to account for effort or quality. You could open it up to a public vote and have a more streamlined list of winners, but this is at the risk of cliques or groups dominating the voting, which is even more unfair than RNG would be, so for now we opt for impartial voting. No method is perfect.

To those who undervalued the mods, bear in mind one example-sacrifice they have to make for the sake of impartiality; they are not allowed to participate in any of these events, and have never been allowed for many years. Impartiality is expected in any/all dealings with events & rewards, and this made very, very clear when voting is concerned.

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You know, there are some race on this game like orc, gibberlings or arizens? Had there wonderful proposals with them too.

Winners being selected by voting > resulting in a less varied mixture of races used in the entries is not a mistake, it is something that can be tweaked and improved via the rules or reward system in future events (something we will do if/when there is another). Even just bringing that up has given me an idea for a new event in future, so the feedback has already helped in two ways.

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What seemed legit to be done at this point, for me, was just to leave the awards for 1st to 3rd place as they are (and congratulations to them i guess), and extend the reward for 4th to 6th place to everyone who submitted an entry as a "partecipation reward", since the 5th place is not entitled to get any award. But if you'd rather choose the "suck it up" line, be it

The rewards will remain as they are - we won't punish them because 'we' made an error during the votes, but the situation/feedback has already led to the refinement of the events procedures to better ensure something like this doesn't happen again (or, more realistically, is far, far, far, far less likely to ever happen again).

And now, to end on a positive note:

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These events are for fun. We've been getting some nice ones in the last few months and it's been good for the game.

Comments like this are highly appreciated. Are the events perfect? No. Will they ever be? No, not likely - but we won't be made feel bad for trying to push out some new, rewarding, non-scripted events and making the occasional error along the way. We genuinely apologize for messing up - and assure you guys that yes, your feedback has (on numerous occasions) effected how we handle them, and will continue to do so - but we will not apologize for being human.

On that note, the matter of the Costume Assembly error can be put to rest - there's little else to be said on that subject. We done goofed, acknowledge it, apologize for it, and will take all the comments regarding it on board.

On a different subject, we'd be interested to read up on your ideas for new events, so feel free to create a community event thread and submit your ideas! We're always on the lookout for new ideas, especially highly community-inclusive ones.

Regards,
Mhul