POINTS

[rotter]

No points for entering an official IF competition (Spring Thing, IF Comp etc.)? Unlikely you will ever award the 100 points for winning.

[David Whyld]

Actually it seems strange that winning an ADRIFT comp gives you less points than any other comp. This is an ADRIFT site after all.

[Lumin]

Actually it seems strange that winning an ADRIFT comp gives you less points than any other comp. This is an ADRIFT site after all.

To be fair you'd be up against a lot more competition in a mainstream comp, as opposed to the like...three entries we might expect here. Although don't think just entering something off site should be worth anything beyond the points for creating a game though.

Getting rewarded for entering a comp here I'd see as more of a forum participation bonus. 100 points for winning a mainstream comp meanwhile is a medal for coming home a war hero.

[David Whyld]

Okay, good point. And it's kind of a moot point anyway as the odds of an ADRIFT game ever winning the IFComp or the Spring Thing is pretty much zilch.

[saabie]

How about making it proportional to the number of competitors you beat in a mainstream comp.
So if you come 5th out of 50 you have beaten 45/49 competitors and get 91 points.
Or give 1 point for each beaten competitor and extra points for the top 3 placings.

[Lumin]

Or give 1 point for each beaten competitor and extra points for the top 3 placings.

Oh, I like this.

Also, Po, I'm not sure if you'd planned to, but definitely don't give me ten points for a prompt thread EVERY week, that would unbalance our fragile newborn points economy hilariously. Once is fine.

[P/o Prune]

What do we think about making the points given for uploading a game a little more flexible? Not all games are created equal, and although quality may be subjective there are other factors like size. Some fine print about a game needing to use understandable English and be completable might be good to put in now, even if it is more of a newbie issue and well...the river of newbies seems to have dried up a bit lately.

I like the idea about flexible points for uploading a game.
Of course, someone having worked on a game for a long time should be awarded more points than the one who throw together a few locations. Also, there are so many editors out there that it should be expected that the text is flawless within reason.
As for the grammar I'm not sure. English grammar is a killer In Danish we say General Secretary, whereas in English it's a Secretary General (something like this will never be caught in an editor)

Questions is, who decides how many points to be given to a game?

[P/o Prune]

No points for entering an official IF competition (Spring Thing, IF Comp etc.)? Unlikely you will ever award the 100 points for winning.

Has been implemented.

[Lumin]

No points for entering an official IF competition (Spring Thing, IF Comp etc.)? Unlikely you will ever award the 100 points for winning.

Has been implemented.

20 seems like a lot just for entering a game in a contest. I mean the game might be terrible and actually make ADRIFT look bad.

I liked saabie's idea of a point for every other game beat and a bonus for winning the best so far.

[P/o Prune]

20 seems like a lot just for entering a game in a contest. I mean the game might be terrible and actually make ADRIFT look bad.

I liked saabie's idea of a point for every other game beat and a bonus for winning the best so far.

It's like a catch 22 isn't it?
The 20 points should (hopefully) inspire people to enter one of the major contests. On the other hand, as you so beautifully point out, it could backfire.
With Saabie's idea I'm worried that if someone enters the Annual IF for instance, and there's, say, 100 entries (or at least a lot) if the Adrift game comes in as number 20, that's 80 points right there. Optimistic? Perhaps but if it happens we'd either have to go with the 80 points or readjust the score board.

[David Whyld]

Do the points stack in Saabie's example? Like is it 20 points for entering the IFComp and then extra points for how many other games you beat? So someone could enter a joke game they wrote in five minutes, get 20 points for entering, come 80th out of 100 games and get another 20 points. 40 points for a five minute joke game seems a lot.

I think it's fair to say that there's no 100% ideal way of assigning points and people will find ways to abuse it if the points matter that much to them. (Which in a way might not even be a bad thing if it gets people posting here and writing games regularly.) I'd say just assign the points as you see fit, don't spend too long debating the finer details - it's just for fun, after all, and I totally don't feel the need to look down on those sad, pathetic nerds with their lousy 10 points (ha! you guys suck! ha! lol!) - and if the points system proves a success in the long run and people warm to it, have another look at it then.



David (an 11 pointer - and don't forget it)

[Lumin]

Well, I guess my 21 point opinion would be that a compromise might be making rewards NOT stack for the IF Comp only. No points just for writing a game specifically to enter, in this specific case you have to send it out to kick the stuffing out of the competition. Kind of a gamble that way but I could see that being appealing, and the potential rewards if you do well are big enough to make up for it.

The IF Comp only comes once a year and is a major enough thing I don't see it as a problem to have a special set of rules attached. Meanwhile the Spring Thing is a much smaller pool (or at least it was a few years ago when I last paid attention) so maybe just keep that one the same as a standard contest, and have all non IF Comp contests rewarded the same, here or elsewhere.

As for how many points to give individual games...well I think we can all agree a game being finishable as proven by a walk through ought to be a requirement for getting points at all, and other than that I'd say a tiny mini game is pretty distinguishable from the blurrier lines of medium vs full sized one, while a game that considers punctuation optional is another thing entirely.

It'd have to be left up to Po's discretion and it may be impossible to make precisely, objectively fair but that's not a huge deal. In general though I'd rather see the points system balanced towards giving out smaller amounts that accumulate over time. (With just the IF Comp remaining as the annual jackpot option....)

[David Whyld]

Bah! Damn 21 pointers coming on here and acting like they own the place!

[Lumin]

I know you must feel very inadequate right now David, but cheer up, you're still better than a ten pointer.

Not gonna lie, people with only ten points disgust me.

[P/o Prune]

Not because I want to push rank But don't forget who's administrating the points...