Voting System

[EvilBrage]

Suddenly, all of the other people who voted for their minority-gamemodes start switching into the Y gamemode.

 

Maybe because the majority of players don't want to play that game mode that was originally winning?

You're addressing something that isn't even a problem - if anything, it's an advantage.

 

Time for the next problem. Vote is 11:11 for either the X gamemode or the Y gamemode. And then there's that one fucking person who thinks s/he is the king. 12:11. 11:12. Those fucking vote hoppers. They're taking advantage of the previous problem.

Want another solution to chop him down from his/her tree? Lock in the vote. Yep, that's right. Just lock them in. You want to play Heist? Alright, you're locked in for heist. That's it. No more beating around the bush between X and Y, it's just Heist for you now.

 

I usually do it to piss off people who're easily pissed off at stupid things like a single vote. Anyone can switch their vote at any time; they likely have a game mode they prefer anyways. If you like, think of the vote as having already been decided, but you just don't know what it is yet. Like the outcome of your first suggestion would be.

I know, right? You got what you wanted and we didn't change a thing!

 

Final problem. OOC vote manipulation.

 

If someone is so easily manipulated as to vote for something just because some squirrely symbols were stuck in front of it, we have bigger problems than the voting system. All the OOC conversation block does is serve to annoy me when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone, and if there's an individual spamming the chat box, that's another matter entirely.

When you're trying to decide on a board game (archaic, I know) to play with your friends, you don't all write your desires down on a piece of paper and reveal them dramatically, telling the minority to suck it up because "YEAH MONOPOLY WON!" You decide together, and while the majority may want to play Monopoly, you may be unanimously satisfied with Settlers of Ctan - but you won't know that unless you talk.

The only result of a system like the one you propose would be to lock us into extended every time the chair-RP group decides to vote together. Then, we'd get 2/3 of the vote calling to leave at the two hour mark, and now everyone's perpetually pissed off because we can't coordinate in OOC to prevent ourselves from voting extended in again.

Sorry mate, I'm going to have to say no on this one.

[Lady_of_Ravens]

Herd mentality? So, what, we change our votes to try to fit in? Not hardly. The reason people change their votes is better described as a form of non-verbal consensus building. Does it result in compromise? Yeah, that's sorta the nature of consensus building, but it also results in the selected option being at least somewhat palatable to the majority of the people who voted. Removing either the ability to view the votes in progress or change your vote would, instead, result in voting strategies which are more likely to lead to a mode being selected that a large minority want but the majority don't (I'm talking about nuke or extended, which are the most-voted-for options after secret), as well as making voting for more obscure options the equivalent of wasting your vote.

If you want a more detailed explanation of why this sort of voting system is bad, google "first past the post". You'll find nice, easily followed explanations with animations and everything. Other than that, I suggest reading a little less about psychology and a little more about game theory, as our voting system is a pretty good example of game theory in action.