Invalid Poll Results for Character Creation Contest

csquared5 · July 2017

Due to poll being on external website.

How easy is it to game the results of this poll? Just get a proxy service, and keep endlessly voting. Anybody with even a little bit of tech savvy can do this, as some of the results (300+ votes for one of the results? Hullo, obviously fake) show.

For this poll to be valid (by valid, I mean, 1 player = 1 vote, and ONLY 1 vote), we need a better method of polling.

If this poll was in-house (ie, you need a verified PWI account to vote on the poll) the results would at least be a *little* harder to fake, since it takes more time to create PWI accounts than it does to switch an IP address through a proxy.

The best method I can envision is only allow verified PWI accounts that have a character which has been logged within the last month. This would drastically cut down on the # of "I made 100 PWI accounts so I could vote once from each of them" thing. If you want to be even more realistic, you could only allow accounts that were created at least 1 week ago (before poll opened) and which were also logged before that time.

Not sure if a poll like this is currently possible for the PWI website, but it could be designed I think. In any case, the current external poll is completely invalid. Its basically like saying "free exclusive fashion to the person who spends the most time cheating".

PWI, do you want to encourage cheating? I don't think so.

I would advocate you dismantle this poll, the results are completely invalid, and redo the poll with some method (perhaps something along the lines that I described above) that will ensure that the results have some basis in validity.

No rush, please take your time, but get it RIGHT. The current poll is, unfortunately, a complete disgrace.

Regards,

Aeliah

shineni#2821 · July 2017

I had the same thought when i went to check that, so i opened the first Pool to check the Results and i saw "Astarelle" with 60 and few votes, my first thought was, maybe all the menbers of her faction voted on her, so they could Share the prize, but then i went to check the 2nd pool... , 301 votes for "YOUREINDANGER", i even doubt that etherblade server have that much active players lmfao, save more all of them voted on him/her.

Making a new vote based on pwi accounts won't work either... , the amount of alts that people have are insane, 50+ alts for jolly jones dailly, FSD Alts, the list goes on... , the only way this could work out would be the Staff itself choose the best one and announce the winner, besides that i would say its pointless to even try.

Edit: lol..., i just tried to vote on myself and managed to vote 3 times in less than 1 minute, This need to be fixed.

whipmaihurr · July 2017

Aeliah Ive been thinking the same thing since I look at the poll I agree they do need to take it down and start over again. As you said " verified PWI accounts", should only be allowed to vote.

dblazen1 · July 2017

And what exactly makes a PWI account "verified"?
Like it was already said, a lot of people have a lot of alts on different accounts, so what are they going to do about stopping that?

I agree they should've done the poll on the forum itself instead of using some **** third party site for that, that way they could at least do some checks for authenticity, although I doubt they would take the time to do that.

These polls have always been bull anyway;
public voting will just turn into a "who is the most popular" fest and the other option being judging from PWE itself has proven in the past that they make really odd decisions on who they let win.

There's no definite way of doing this right, but they sure are doing it wrong.

zentfamily · July 2017

If there's a chance for cheating, there will be cheating.

tricksie · July 2017

People are putting the polls on guild forums and world chatting--- but the results are waaaay skewed.
I think Kaly genuinely tried but when there's a way to cheat-- someone would evidently take advantage.

I think if the poll was on PWI forums there would be no way people would get that many people participating in voting let alone for 1 person. 470 people in the 1st poll and 1187 people voting (give or take) in the 2nd poll is really hard to believe.

Cheaters should be disqualified imo but hard to prove.

forbiddenwords · July 2017

Sadly the PWI forum does not support large polls. I think you can have a maximum of 10 options on the poll and there were over 50 entries for this contest. Making multiple polls would also be messy so external sites were the only option. This is happening because of all the complaints about the GMs "rigging" events or, as @dblazen1 mentioned, picking odd entries. Honestly I would much prefer them picking the winners rather than leaving it in the hands of the community, people will always find ways to cheat no matter how much you limit their options. Even with the risk of having an "odd" winner, at least I would know everyone had equal chances of winning.

laluna1990 · July 2017

My friends got some PM's ingame, that people start to BUY them to vote for someone... It's sad that the Contest take this side

ladyserah22 · July 2017

laluna1990 wrote: »

My friends got some PM's ingame, that people start to BUY them to vote for someone... It's sad that the Contest take this side

As predicted, no surprised there, cuz I've seen people buying YouTube subscribers in-game.

shooop · July 2017

I would also like to mention the fact that there are 60 entries on the first poll and 132 (or close to that) on the second which imo isn't very fair. Does anyone even take the time to look at that many entries? Doubt it.
I agree that GMs picking the winners would be more fair, even if they are odd ones. Do something like an inside vote, have employees vote for like 10 that they like the best and pick out the ones that got most votes. Wouldn't that be more fair than one person spending the time to vote 300 times for themselves?

shade13 · July 2017

nowayoutgtx960 wrote: »

but then i went to check the 2nd pool... , 301 votes for "YOUREINDANGER", i even doubt that etherblade server have that much active players lmfao, save more all of them voted on him/her.

Funny thing in this contest is that you take it for granted that people who voted for her are from Etherblade for sure

Even though we are not supposed to vote only for our servermates. We are supposed to vote for the entry we like, no matter what server it belongs to. But it's pretty obvious the players don't even consider to vote for contestants they like, but voting for their friends without looking. And if so, why would the GMs even require entries? Make it simple raffle. At least ppl who really put lots of work into their entry won't be upset because something poorly done won due to bunch of friends they called to vote. Skills? Common sense? Doens't matter. Just be popular and you are ok.

It's the reason why I don't see any sense to bother with contests based on players voting.

Second reason is the cheating as csquared5 have said.
Kinda pointless.

goldfinch47 · July 2017

For this many entries, it would require elimination rounds.

dingo488 · July 2017

All your inis are ugly and your favorite anime sucks.

blazerboy · July 2017

Agreed when you see Starboy had 71 votes and the average person had 5 but that's not fishy that was it's the beginning idk how it's doing now because after I saw that I said ok **** this lol

asterelle · July 2017

That voting site is really buggy and lets you vote multiple times without being tech savvy. There's not even any registration or captcha required and it seems to forget whether or not you've already voted after some time. Using verified game accounts is also not really an option when you consider how some players have access to dozens of accounts. Even if by some method you could eliminate that then things are just reduced to a contest of who can convince as many people as possible to vote for them (the winning strategy is buying votes for coins as others have said). There is no incentive for any player to go through the entries and judge based on merit.

We have never had a successful online voting contest. Just move the contest to internal judging so it's fair.

valdisman · July 2017

Its a PWI competition, what did you all actually expect? Everytime GM log into servers you see the players who they favor and those are the same ones who win previous GM decided competitions.. The proof is in screenshots

This comp was destined to be ruined from the start.
The amount of inis being taken from people such as https://vk.com/pw_sos and being passed off their own lmao.

shopcheese · July 2017

This is why I mentioned a few times in the contest thread that letting the community vote is a bad idea.
I thought they learnt their lesson previous contest, but then again I thought that about the contest previous to that as well...

dingo488 · July 2017

I love how PWE just makes some events with the thought ''ow its fun little things for the community to do''. And y'all clowns are blasting them like it's a battle royale to the death and they didn't treat it with the utmost seriousness. It's a stupid character customization contest, we not doing a raffle for your welfare check, chill the f out.

paralleogram · July 2017

You seem to be really angry at the fact that people have other interests in this game besides QQing over xtw.
You don't have to read this thread.

Isn't it about that time you RQ pwi again?

dingo488 · July 2017

paralleogram wrote: »

You seem to be really angry at the fact that people have other interests in this game besides QQing over xtw.
You don't have to read this thread.

Isn't it about that time you RQ pwi again?

Yay, a wild anonymous idiot appeared

Your favorite anime is especially garbage

heerohex#3018 · July 2017

I'm for moving it to internal as well. PWE staff to pick the winners.

@kalystconquerer#0876

Thanks.

eylenaa · July 2017

Despite being 3rd for my server i have to agree very much with Aeliahs post which me and several other players already expressed earlier on katalyst wall few days ago. This voting system just is not working. Sadly I don't think it would be much better having registered PWI accounts considering the amount of alt account existing. The best way would just be for the PWI staff to pick the winners. I rather not win at all then having people who cheat snag prizes.

kyrinrayne · July 2017

The voting system is invalid. I had votes & now I have 0. All votes were from people I know. 4 votes is hardly cheating on my part but I can list who voted for me as I was advised by them. My point is though to go from 4 votes to 0 reflects how broken the voting system is. I'm asking the voting system to be scrapped as fraudulent. A new system should be installed or the staff should pick the winners according to the guidelines of the orginal post less the "popularity part as the cheating is rampant". Also Photobucket for those that used it has changed it's terms. Free accounts can no longer 3rd party share thier images. I ask that those affected be given a chance to reload thier pics to another site & submit to the gm's. This to my mind constitutes an outside influence that is neither PWI or the entrants fault. Letting this farce stand though is not acceptable as it goes against the TOS of the site & the ethics of any reputable company.

Best
Merdywn

eylenaa · July 2017

Um I just noticed I got 30-40 votes right before the voting closed. That honestly looks like a desperate try to make me look like one of the cheaters too since it doesn't even place me higher up on my server. Seriously this contest turned in to a complete fiasco so far>_>

forbiddenwords · July 2017

It's a bit comical that the first place contestant (on my server and overall) stopped getting any votes as soon as they secured first place. Nothing strange about that, right? Butheywhatdoiknow

catgirldesu · July 2017

I agree with what has been said. Polls don't work for our community because people tend to cheat or buy votes, defeating the purpose of the contest.

It's better if GMs pick the winners. Even if we might not agree with their choices, we at least know they were (most likely) picked based on their preferences rather than than cheating or other shady reasons.

yayoblow#4632 · August 2017

thats exactly why i gave up on it. because of the proxy users can cheat.

kyana · August 2017

when the rewards gonna be send out ? im waiting badly for the ancient gifts and since everyone gets them, it should be possible to give them away already.

would be awesome !

muh14 · August 2017

when will the rewards be spent on us from the character creation contest?
long time ago and still didnt hear anything yet about it?!!

laluna1990 · August 2017

I just got a mail with 5x Ancient Gift ... Thanks PWI hope the next Sky lvl come soon ... and gratz too all "Winners" in that Creation Contest xD not worth but gratz

kalystconquerer#0876 · August 2017

Rewards should be hitting mailboxes soon!

As far as polls and cheating results...I've made it the strictest settings I could through that external site (there's a setting for IP and cookie lock). If people are spamming and going though proxys AND clearing their cookies every single time...the only recourse I'd have is to make these polls live for such a short amount of time that they can't be exploited.

The poll times for the Player's Choice however is already locked in, so I won't be changing this voting duration. But going forward, I will most likely have to make these short-lived to avoid further issues!

Invalid Poll Results for Character Creation Contest

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