07-29-2019, 09:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-29-2019, 09:53 PM by Rising Equinox.)
I just want to start this off by saying that I'm not trying to call out any specific person(s) with this post. I'm just trying to bring attention to a serious issue that I've noticed in the few seasons that I've been here. The issue I want to talk about is the entire setup of the award voting system. My god, this is one screwed up system. I have no idea who came up with this, and I honestly don't really want to know, because that's not the point of this. First, there is literally no reason to allow GM's to vote on awards. This is one of the most biased things I've ever thing that was intentionally made to be this way. I've even been told by several GM's and players that they rarely even look at stats when voting. They just vote for a player on their own team, a recognizable name, or, the worst of all, just copy someone's votes. Also, the fact that players can't win more than one award is a terrible rule. It also is terribly enforced. If you have a rule like this, you have to actually enforce it every single season for every player, not just when you feel like it.
There is so much more wrong with the current system, but I'd also like to mention a few changes that could/should be made to help with the issue. My first suggestion would be to have HO appoint an actual voting committee. The committee should have no less than 10 players in it, and it should be a season-by-season appointed committee, that is payed a one-time sum for the season they're on the committee. People can apply to be on the committee as many times as they like, but they should not be allowed to freely keep the position as long as they like. These committee members would obviously be required to individually analyze stats, on their own time, and make their voting decisions completely anonymously, not shared with the rest of the voters, to avoid copying of voting ballots. It would also be up to HO whether or not they want to be included in the committee or not, so the amount of voters each season could change. This system obviously wouldn't remove all forms of bias when it comes to voting, but it definitely help minimize it. Even if you don't want to make a change this big, you could at least force GM's to actually look at stats for themselves and not have a shared ballot submission chat for all the voters, because all that does is encourage copying. If GM's just randomly submitted voting with no real thought behind their votes, they could possibly be penalized. This is just a suggestion, but I definitely think HO should consider going forward with the league.
There is so much more wrong with the current system, but I'd also like to mention a few changes that could/should be made to help with the issue. My first suggestion would be to have HO appoint an actual voting committee. The committee should have no less than 10 players in it, and it should be a season-by-season appointed committee, that is payed a one-time sum for the season they're on the committee. People can apply to be on the committee as many times as they like, but they should not be allowed to freely keep the position as long as they like. These committee members would obviously be required to individually analyze stats, on their own time, and make their voting decisions completely anonymously, not shared with the rest of the voters, to avoid copying of voting ballots. It would also be up to HO whether or not they want to be included in the committee or not, so the amount of voters each season could change. This system obviously wouldn't remove all forms of bias when it comes to voting, but it definitely help minimize it. Even if you don't want to make a change this big, you could at least force GM's to actually look at stats for themselves and not have a shared ballot submission chat for all the voters, because all that does is encourage copying. If GM's just randomly submitted voting with no real thought behind their votes, they could possibly be penalized. This is just a suggestion, but I definitely think HO should consider going forward with the league.
