We're in the middle of the last Weekly Card Design Competition of Season 3 and I'd like to discuss how all you awesome people feel about these competitions in general as well as your suggestions for changes. Since everybody and their mother will try out the shiny new Stormwind cards next week, I think waiting for Season 3 to end before giving Shadows & friends something to ponder wouldn't work very well.
So here are my two cents:
The WCDC has become a constant part of my weekly schedule, I think I haven't missed one of them since we got started on OOC. I'm super grateful for Shadows and all other members of the staff for creating this space on the site that encourages creativity, engagement with likeminded people and an opportunity to earn internet fame points. You are awesome!
The little grain of salt I've tasted this season came with the finalists votings. Participation goes down in that second voting phase and I really don't agree with people dishing out 1 star votes for perfectly cool cards just to push their favorite contestant. I admit both of these issues are very hard to overcome, but I have a few ideas I'd like to discuss with everybody who cares to do so:
1) Expand the rating system
I think it was DestroyerR who first used a fixed system of categories for their feedback posts in the discussion threads and maybe that's a good idea to help people rate cards a bit more objectively. I'd suggest a 5 star rating in three categories for every submitted card: Flavor, Balance and Execution (= no spelling mistakes, no watermark issues, ...). The average of these ratings would result in the voting person's overall rating for that card (there are arguments for and against showing that overall rating to the voter, but I don't want to go too far down this road without knowing if it's technically possible and what y'all think about the general idea). This idea should also reduce the number of ties since the final rating of a card would be the average of an average.
2) Cut the Finalists Voting
I get that the Finalists Voting adds some flavor and excitement to the competition, it's a little nod of appreciation to people who got close to winning. The decrease in participation in these votes compared to the first voting stage just isn't worth it though imho. The more people are voting, the more valid is the result of the vote.
3) Rewards & Leaderboards
While I'm very proud to wear my avatar border, it would be cool to dish out more rewards for doing well in the competitions. I'm thinking of site currency, forum titels, stuff like that - most importantly, these shouldn't be given to the winners exclusively, but to a to be determined number of runners up as well. Last but not least, why not add seasonal and eternal Leaderboards to the site, based on a system that rewards points for wins and runner up placements (win = 10 points, second place = 5 points, third = 4, ... whatever).
Well, those are my ideas, now I'd be curious what you think about them and I'd be happy to see some suggestions of your own :-)
