Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Building Suggestion Box (2018)

Tags: #Crucial Discussion 
  • February 18, 2018
    What if contests were judged by a panel of trusted members that every contestant agreed to? Also what if the winner got a substantial prize like steam points?
  • February 18, 2018

    Because letting the community vote gives them the power -- as they rightfully should have. This is not an aristocracy, and there are no ivory towers. Everyone has a voice here, and those voices are heard equally -- not through panels. 

  • February 18, 2018
    I had gotten the impression dragonborn did not like the idea of likes determining a winner. But popular vote in the form of likes is probably the most fair way to do this kind of thing.
  • February 18, 2018

    Well I don't speak for DB, so I'll let him do what he wants with that impression. He said he'd think about what I had to say, and get back in a few days, so we'll just have to wait and see. 

  • February 18, 2018
    Don't mind me too much. Just throwing ideas out to help as best I can. What about competition with other skyrim communities like the skyrim calculator? Might spark something big if they go for it.
  • February 18, 2018

    Communities competing? That would turn openly hostile in no time. Bad idea all around, with decades of social psychology research to explain why. No one interested in the long-term survival of their site would agree to such a thing. I was suggesting a modest return to a friendly competitive spirit. Not competing with other sites. That's a hell of a leap. 

  • February 19, 2018

    You mention stakes. I like that idea. What about some kind of elimination event? Like take builds from the lowest rank every month and have a vote. Build with the least votes gets canned. Thoughts?

    True, we used to have this sort of thing, called it the Deathmatch and it did a much better job of raising resentment and discouraging people from posting. Well, in some people, to be fair there were people (and I consider myself one) who drew from that and became better builders, but honestly, the cons outweighed the pros and it established an odd precedent. Plus I'm just not comfortable with deleting people's work, even if I don't consider it to be high quality, it's still (usually) a fair amount of time that someone's put into putting an idea on paper 

    What if contests were judged by a panel of trusted members that every contestant agreed to? Also what if the winner got a substantial prize like steam points?

    I'm honestly not entirely opposed to something like this. Well, the former at least. I don't have an issue with the idea of a voted committee ranking builds using a firmly established set of criteria, but it'd take months to properly set that up in a manner that I would find satisfactory. But yeah, because I'd make a position on the committee temporary, allow people to vote for it, then spend time outlining exactly how we'd judge a build as fairly as possible, and so on and so forth it'd take more time than it'd be worth in the end to get a fair system set up. As for the latter...heh, well I did actually think about this in the past, not for the Character Building Group but I used to host the RPG Group (where arguably it's a bit more fitting because said money could go towards an RPG and thus generate more content) but there are a few flaws. Won't go too far into it because it's a pretty long answer, but basically a combination of me not really liking the idea, in general, the more I thought about it, the fact that I'd need to work out Playstation, Xbox and now possibly Switch rewards as well, and that people live in different countries all make a monetary reward a bit difficult.

    It also brings up a fair point. Ultimately all I can reward people with is a badge, a bit of extra promotion and...that's it. Finding actual, tangible rewards for winning is insanely difficult, and I just don't think a Badge, particularly with the changes in how Events will be run this year, would make a lot of sense as a prize. Realistically the best thing I can offer is being able to say you won, and that just wouldn't cut it for most people.

    I had gotten the impression dragonborn did not like the idea of likes determining a winner. But popular vote in the form of likes is probably the most fair way to do this kind of thing.

    Actually, it's a fair point. I think there are flaws in the like/voting system, and that's primarily that it turns it into a popularity contest, or at least half into one.I don't really like the idea because I like the idea of letting everyone decide, but I also think that if a build is just better it should win, and that's not always going to happen. But I think it's a better idea than possibly leaving it up to a few people, flaws in both that I've argued against, but ultimately it's more the 'lesser or two things that aren't evil but aren't good either.'

    Don't mind me too much. Just throwing ideas out to help as best I can. What about competition with other skyrim communities like the skyrim calculator? Might spark something big if they go for it.

    Ah...just no. Sorry man, hate to be just essentially saying no to everything, but this one is such a potentially volatile idea that I'd much rather avoid even thinking about it. I can't see it working out that well ever, especially since (from what I've seen) the two styles of building are utterly different.

     

    Thanks for joining in on the discussion though Paladin, it means a lot to me that someone's participating and suggesting things so feel free to keep at it :D I will say that I've got some ideas that I'll bring up soon, just need to plan them out but I think they might work.

  • February 19, 2018
    Earlier Legion mentioned he had to google search to find this site's Hall of Fame thread, so I did some digging which leaves me with yet more suggestions: Could the group be restructured in a way that makes it easier to navigate? I'm assuming the hall of fame is the most important thread in the cb group, so it's not a good look if it's so easy to lose that a senior member had to google it to find it. Maybe branching out is what the group needs. Advertise your builds and get people interested in taking part in what you have going on here. YouTube is the best bet. Are any of the authors in the hall of fame active here anymore? If not perhaps reach out to them and get them interested in character building again?
  • February 19, 2018

    Could the group be restructured in a way that makes it easier to navigate? I'm assuming the hall of fame is the most important thread in the cb group, so it's not a good look if it's so easy to lose that a senior member had to google it to find it. Maybe branching out is what the group needs. Advertise your builds and get people interested in taking part in what you have going on here. YouTube is the best bet. Are any of the authors in the hall of fame active here anymore? If not perhaps reach out to them and get them interested in character building again.

    Nope, not really, the best bet is just making all of the navigation based threads as easy to use as possible. Which is why I changed the formatting, have added in other discussions and used the 'Crucial Discussions' tag. Might put the Hall of Fame in that one. That said, I don't consider it to even be one of the top 5 most useful discussions. The Help Desk, Welcome Thread, Build Recommendations, Weekly Build Roundups, Archives, possibly the Weekly Features are all discussions that I consider more important than the Hall of Fame. It's a good source to get people interested in builds, but that's all, especially since it's outdated as shit (and before you ask, we already have things in place that are similar but more modern.

    Out of the people with multiple HoF entries? Just Phil, Shinjin and myself. I don't really have a way to get in contact with most of them, plus a majority haven't really been that interested in building for Skyrim for a few years, not going to drag in people that barely want to play the game to build, especially when we're getting new builders, and focusing on them is more my speed.

    Already considered the idea of Youtube and branching out, neither are particularly simple for a wide range of reasons. But yeah, we've thought about it mate :)

     
  • Member
    February 19, 2018
    I mean, HeroicX has stopped making build videos, mostly doing vlogs, and PC's been doing his own thing. I know a few builders here have their own YouTube channels...