we created so many alternate accounts so we could vote for ourselves during the contest ^_^
we spent more time creating the alternate accounts than we did on our entries
conspiracy??????
Advertisement it's the name of the game in the industry. When people have a following a game will have more coverage. We encouraged our friends to play and vote the game fairly, as they saw fit. There were no rules against advertising your game, exposing it to people that follow you and are interested in your development. We don't want to be aggressive, because hate posts exist on the internet and that is something that will always happen, but we have not committed any fraud. If you consider other entries should have been at the top than that is your opinion and we respect that. Saying that we worked outside the rules however it's not true.
The name of the game is actually making a game that is creative and fun. Not, "we have a following" or "advertising." If prizes weren't involved--there probably would have been fewer people "voting up" games, and results a little more accurate. I can imagine the frustration level is pretty high right now. Hopefully, Clickteam/Itch.io will chime in soon.
Here is my rant, copy/pasted here as well....: MNasons got 69 reviews by 'promoting his game to friends', so a majority are likely biased 5 star ratings. The adjusted (median) score is exactly the same as the raw (average) score, meaning there was only votes with all categories with one star and votes with 5 stars. So the legitimate votes would have all been 1 star (rightfully so) and his friends all giving 5 stars, where most people got 10-15 votes he outnumbers us with 60 (by 'advertising' but no 40 people all give 5 star ratings, so can confirm he used alternate accounts) and outnumbered us to the point where his score is on average 4.2 . This competition has been cheated! MNasons was collectively judged by my game development club to easily be the worst entry there was, what am I supposed to say to them now, that the very game has won by him flooding it with biased 5 star ratings, and all our efforts have been a complete waste of time? If this isn't revoked I may need to spread this competition's disaster so more people are aware of the undeserving 1st place winner. Clickteam, do something about this!
We are looking into this, and are being careful with our response till we have accumulated all the facts. One thing I would want to ask of everyone, Indeed the popular votes seems to be out of wack, But why wouldn't you do as Baddoge did and get it out to as many people as possible? We see posts on Social media about vote for this or check that our, give us five stars etc for all sorts of things.
We have done many many contests in the past and we could get people complaining we where unfair when it was judged by us and not popular vote. I am working on the official response right now and will link it here. I am also working on the next contest. and your input on what to improve is of great value so keep it coming.
Here are complete thoughts on the issue so far ladies and gentleman
https://itch.io/jam/iwanttocreate/topic/28649/voting-results-clickteams-official-response
The reason we wouldn't do the same as BadDoge/LoadedTeaspoon is because we have integrity and are not trying to game the system. I think we can all agree that if someone were to make 50 alternate accounts to manipulate the votes (giving dishonest ratings), it would be seen as wrong, yet for some reason if we got 50 friends to give us 5/5 it is seen as ok? It's still dishonest manipulation. Furthermore, by justifying it, you are just opening the door to people doing it again in the future. Why would a developer spend 20 hours of labor on a game to represent your product when you are showing that it is more worth it to play games with the voting system? Also, there was a 60%/40% split that you never even utilized. The scores would be more honest if you were to utilize them... unless you honestly think that the winning games are how you want your product represented.
Well said! I agree with every word. I think a solution could be that contestants don't rate games to affect their place in the competition but rather for constructive criticism; the judges get the full say in who makes the best games. There can be small awards/special mentions to those who rate all the entries and give a comment of feedback for each.
The big problem is that the 60%/40% weighted average was never utilized by Clickteam/itch.io.
If you took the 4.232 (60%) overall of the "winning" entry and weighed what it deserves (1/5) (40%) against it, it would come out to a weighted average of 2.9392. If you gave LoadedTeaspoon's entry what it deserves, (about 3/5) it would come out with a weighted average of 3.6630000000000003.
If you gave Dave C's entry what it deserves (5/5) it would come out with a weighted average of 4.1942.
Hopefully Clickteam will do right by the community and utilize the 60%/40% split that were a part of the rules.