We Don't Need No Stinking Badges... Do We?

Scott Hardie | May 29, 2018
I asked recently about the badges scoring system and whether people would prefer to go back to an old system. I have heard no comments either way, so I presume that no one has strong feelings on the subject.

So, let's settle this with a simple poll instead, for those people who have only a mild preference. :-)   I have no time right now to build a new scoring system, but restoring the previus one would be quick (I kept all of the code and images), and of course leaving the current one alone would take me no time at all.

I'll refrain from making my own comments so as not to skew the results, but please discuss freely. Thanks for any feedback you have! I plan to go with the results of this poll on Saturday morning.

Chris Lemler | May 29, 2018
I like both systems. That both has its advantages. Sorry I couldn't play more this round but, the only thing about the badges is that it helps if you stay at the bottom. I think the only thing about the cats is that shiro is the cat that you can get to help win with all the help from players created goos.

Scott Hardie | June 2, 2018
Well, so much for that: We have a tied vote (as of now anyway). I have decided to keep badges for the Summer 2018 season, with the possibility of switching back to the other system in three more months.

Chris, thanks for the comments. More feedback is always appreciated if anyone else wants to weigh in, now or later.

Scott Hardie | August 28, 2018
Another season is almost over. While the badges system has improved with a few tweaks, I still think it's kind of lackluster and static: Whoever takes the early lead usually keeps it, and nothing much interesting happens. You certainly don't get to make clever decisions along the way; you just solve goos and create goos, that's it.

Plus, the above poll may have been tied in May, but since then the result has become lopsided.

Thanks to that, I have decided to go back to the pagoda and lucky cats system next week when the fall season begins. I think it's a better system, a more wide-open system (anyone can advance), and a more interesting system. It does tend to work well with a large number of players; our currently small pool of players may not be best-suited to it. But I think it's a change for a better. We should not have changed to badges, and I don't expect to change again for a long time.

The only hesitation that I have is that major changes like this can run a risk of costing us players. (I didn't learn this lesson about operating a website until a few years ago; I would have redesigned this site a lot less often if I had realized how it was chipping away at the membership every time.) Anyway, if anyone is so turned off by this change that they won't want to play any more, please let me know about it. The more feedback I get about what you want, the better I can decide how to run things.

And that's not just about the scoring system. If there are other things about Celebrity Goo Game, or Funeratic in general, that you'd prefer to be different than they are, I'm always open to feedback, whether public or private. I'm always happy to consider any suggestions, requests, or criticisms. Thanks for your continued support!

Incidentally, if the Jeopardy! discussion turns into a real workable system, I'll definitely consider switching to that instead of the cats and pagoda. Any other good ideas that come my way are fair game too. This decision is not 100% final until I write the code on Saturday. :-)

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2018
The change in scoring systems is complete. We are back to the lucky cats (I missed those kitties) and the pagoda. If anything goes wrong with the restored code, please let me know asap. I appreciate it.

Some changes from last time:
- Because we have five difficulty levels now, the points are redistributed: 30 points for solving a very easy goo, 60 for easy, 90 for medium, 120 for hard, and 150 for very hard.
- When a goo creation of yours is published, you'll get 100 points.
- Shiro now grants 20 points per goo.
- If there are pending guesses at midnight on the last day of the season, a winner won't be announced until they're resolved.

I hope that this change is a happy one for everyone. I know I'm excited!