Should Spotlight Missions Be Updated Or Eliminated?

theyredeadjim

Spotlight missions are a sweet way to connect players with the Foundry missions, but it's truly limited; only the Old Boy's club is allowed.

That's OK, because the new authors don't deserve recognition. They quite obviously create substandard works.

This is the way it should be. As a more recent author, I lack creativity and intelligence. Anything that I might write doesn't deserve to be acknowleged with the same reward as another, older, author.

OK, even if true for me...what of another?

lorne12

I don not now the situation in the American/English section of the Foundry community but in the German community we have quite a few spotlights from many different authors. And our "Old Boy's club" isn't that huge, BUT the most spotlights are from "newbies". The criteria for a mission to become spotlighted is the quality and not the reputation of the author (and sometimes the accountability of our former CM *flies away* ).

And before a mission is to be spotlighted we "Old Boys" play them and check through their paces and/or write extensive critics.

theyredeadjim

Is the Spotlight available to new authors in the German section, then?

lorne12

theyredeadjim wrote: »

Is the Spotlight available to new authors in the German section, then?

Everyone can submit his mission for spotlight (as long as he can click the button). But not every submitted mission is to be spotlighted.

So the answer is yes.*

*But in the end the CM deciedes which mission is to be spotlighted.

thay8472

Think spotlighting in general stopped shortly after Branflakes left.

Edit: Sorry after last years Christmas foundry challenge.

captainhunter1

theyredeadjim wrote: »

Spotlight missions are a sweet way to connect players with the Foundry missions, but it's truly limited; only the Old Boy's club is allowed.

That's OK, because the new authors don't deserve recognition. They quite obviously create substandard works.

This is the way it should be. As a more recent author, I lack creativity and intelligence. Anything that I might write doesn't deserve to be acknowleged with the same reward as another, older, author.

OK, even if true for me...what of another?

I'm not sure why the ire is aimed at the 'Old Boy's club'. We 'old boys' were new once too.

The passion you are presenting should be used to ask (nicely) Trendy our Forum Community manager if she will ever bring back the Spotlighting venue her predecessors started (well, really just Branflakes - CaptainSmirk only made a passing attempt at doing them).

Because it is Trendy alone that holds the power to Spotlight - using any method she wants (contests, casual play throughs (by her), etc.)

Again, contact her nicely. See if she if she will bring them back. THAT is why no new Spotlight missions have been added in some time.

drogyn1701

I am sure it isn't a concerted effort against new authors. Each community manager has their pet projects. Spotlighting and Foundry Challenges were something that Branflakes really enjoyed. Captain Smirk had other things that he liked to do, as does Trendy. Smirk did make an effort to do some spotlighting during his tenure. He contacted me about one of my missions, but as I had two spotlights already, I told him there were many more deserving authors who had yet to be spotlighted.

Most of the "Old Boys" club as you put it are very much in favor of bringing back spotlighting. Plenty of the authors you would include in that group were never spotlighted at all. I have even had contact with Cryptic about it. I told them the community would be happy to come up with recommendations so as to help minimize the work they would have to do. We've asked. Whether or not it ever happens is out of our hands. We've also been trying to get them to bring back the Foundry Challenges, if need be run by players, like the screenshot contest is now.

In the meantime, we have a tool now to get plays for our missions that is every bit as good as spotlighting. Get your mission qualified for the top 3 system and you will get plenty of exposure. Even I, with two spotlights, used to have trouble getting plays before that came along.

lincolninspace

Since the new system of listing foundry missions in sector space, not being spotlighted isn't as big deal as it used to be. Before if you weren't spotlighted you were too low in the listings to ever see the light of day. But now I find my missions getting plenty of playthroughs with little to no effort on my part.

theyredeadjim

The Top 3 system certainly helps, but, with respect, hardly equalizes.

Spotlighted missions carry the Cryptic "Seal of Approval", and are advertised under the Spotlighted mission tab of the Foundry, the Top Rated tab, and under the Top 3 system. Players are also offered a bonus reward for playing them. This, of course, increases the number of plays that these missions receive.

When one takes into account the bizarre and biased weighting system that Cryptic uses for showing mission ratings, this really does work against the newer author. I understand that up to around 85 to 100 plays the weighting system might be an attempt to counteract other statistical biases that might occur, but past that it really does become an unfair bias. This bias seems to be at play until one has a few thousand reviews under their belt.

I'm not saying that people should not be recognized based on merit; however, everyone should have an equal chance to be recognized based on merit, and that is not currently the situation. So, would this situation be better rectified by updating the Spotlight to recognize new authors, or by eliminating it?

captainhunter1

theyredeadjim wrote: »

The Top 3 system certainly helps, but, with respect, hardly equalizes.

Spotlighted missions carry the Cryptic "Seal of Approval", and are advertised under the Spotlighted mission tab of the Foundry, the Top Rated tab, and under the Top 3 system. Players are also offered a bonus reward for playing them. This, of course, increases the number of plays that these missions receive.

When one takes into account the bizarre and biased weighting system that Cryptic uses for showing mission ratings, this really does work against the newer author. I understand that up to around 85 to 100 plays the weighting system might be an attempt to counteract other statistical biases that might occur, but past that it really does become an unfair bias. This bias seems to be at play until one has a few thousand reviews under their belt.

I'm not saying that people should not be recognized based on merit; however, everyone should have an equal chance to be recognized based on merit, and that is not currently the situation. So, would this situation be better rectified by updating the Spotlight to recognize new authors, or by eliminating it?

I agree with you (as do many other 'old boy' authors - see Duke of Rock's posts).

The current 'weighting' system Cryptic uses is horrible. It absolutely torpedoes any chance a new mission has of getting plays once it leaves the review section by artificially placing a cement weight on it to drag it to the bottom of the ratings list. This artificial 'weighting' was put in place as a stopgap measure to help fight the new mission spam that was prevalent with grinder/exploit missions always receiving 5 stars and knocking nearly every other mission off the VERY limited listing space.

The intent was good, but it was never re-visted by the Dev team with a permanent fix and so this 'stopgap' became permanent and the result is what you see today; the same old missions are solidly fixed in place on the shown lists and will NEVER move because they are the only ones seen and played by 90% of the playerbase.

Quite a few of us 'old boys' have made suggestions to rectify the situation (see my sig below), see Duke of Rock's posts, etc. I believe the Top 3 system in place was a direct result of Drogyn's efforts and ideas.

We feel for you...and ourselves. New missions get absolutely buried with little chance people can find them - usually only through the mission search function...and that is majorly screwed up right now. I mean seriously....you need a search function to find the search function - it is that badly hidden to players right now (again see my sig). Aggressive advertising helps - but there are many people who never look at the forums or any other 'outside the game' material - it should be an 'in-game' fix for the problem. To put so much time and effort into something just to have it 'disappear' after 5 initial plays is discouraging and infuriating.

We really need an overhaul on how missions are displayed/found. There is some fantastic new material being made - but no one will ever see it with the cruddy weighting and terrible UI systems in place.

drogyn1701

captainhunter1 wrote: »

theyredeadjim wrote: »

I believe the Top 3 system in place was a direct result of Drogyn's efforts and ideas.

I don't claim this one. A long, long time ago on the Roundtable I did propose something similar. Specifically, my idea was a button at each star system that would bring up a listing of every mission starting at that door. Whether Cryptic took any inspiration from that idea, I have no way of knowing.

It's also worth noting that the weighting system was a direct result of feedback from authors. People were complaining at the time that someone could get a couple of their fleetmates to give their mission five star ratings and it would jump right to the top over established missions that had gotten a lot of real ratings, irrespective of the quality of either mission.

markhawkman

Well, they just needed to make the weighting less drastic. as-is it needs too many reviews.

captainhunter1

drogyn1701 wrote: »

RE: Top 3 system:

I don't claim this one. A long, long time ago on the Roundtable I did propose something similar. Specifically, my idea was a button at each star system that would bring up a listing of every mission starting at that door. Whether Cryptic took any inspiration from that idea, I have no way of knowing.

It's also worth noting that the weighting system was a direct result of feedback from authors. People were complaining at the time that someone could get a couple of their fleetmates to give their mission five star ratings and it would jump right to the top over established missions that had gotten a lot of real ratings, irrespective of the quality of either mission.

Aye, but your continued efforts was something I think the folks at Cryptic took inspiration from.

And just like the 'weighting' system - I believe the Top 3 was another 'temporary' fix that has sadly become permanent. They SHOULD have a window open with a list of EVERY mission available at a particular solar system. Instead we get a random 'Top 3' that while a vast improvement over NO missions shown, really messes up following along on multi-part missions (because of the lousy search system in the main Foundry interface).

The weighting system was supposed to be a temporary fix to the problem at the time - exploiter/grinder missions. That time has since past and we are still stuck with it. It is absolutely killing any incentive by me to create new missions - and really harming the Foundry when new folks like the OP become frustrated with the system because there is NO movement off the HUGE *rolls eyes* fifty space mission lists in the interface.

Something needs to be done to help people see and enjoy the nearly 100,000 missions that are inexcusably buried behind a terrible search interface and an old, essentially unneeded weighting system. It's time for an interface overhaul that is badly overdue.

theyredeadjim

I apologize for the use of the phase, "Old Boy's Club." It was a poor choice, as many thought that I meant to impugn older authors, including those who are Spotlighted. This wasn't the case. I was trying to point out that the current status of the Spotlighting system hurts the ability of new authors to establish their own reputation in-game, and that Spotlighting, in it's current state, creates two uneven levels of recognition. I did not intend to suggest that any author was responsible for this situation.

I became interested in authoring in the Foundry because I played the works of other authors and enjoyed them. Any work that I create in the Foundry was built using the knowledge that those who were here before me passed on. I do not disrespect that.

captainhunter1

theyredeadjim wrote: »

I apologize for the use of the phase, "Old Boy's Club." It was a poor choice, as many thought that I meant to impugn older authors, including those who are Spotlighted. This wasn't the case. I was trying to point out that the current status of the Spotlighting system hurts the ability of new authors to establish their own reputation in-game, and that Spotlighting, in it's current state, creates two uneven levels of recognition. I did not intend to suggest that any author was responsible for this situation.

I became interested in authoring in the Foundry because I played the works of other authors and enjoyed them. Any work that I create in the Foundry was built using the knowledge that those who were here before me passed on. I do not disrespect that.

Your frustration is perfectly justified.

All of us work hard on our missions and want to share them so people can enjoy them. To have those good stories and all that effort essentially thrown away because of extremely limited lists that have remained stagnant for YEARS, and now, even including the Spotlight list, is incredibly aggravating.

thay8472

I think they should add some more tabs and add a reward for playing missions that are yet to qualify... the maybe add the option to follow authors whose missions you enjoy. Then maybe redo the current rewards?