[Voting System] 🗳️ HowLongToBeat Policy Update (Murky Beat Conditions)

[Marstead]

Howdy folks!

• Main + Extra: We've discussed the HowLongToBeat policy for games that are best experienced with a significant amount of side content. 
• The short version: when adding a game to the sheet, you can ask to use the "Main + Extra" HLTB estimate instead of the "Main" estimate, and ask that I play more of the game than just the critical path.
• Since vote cost corresponds directly to game length, we can fiddle with this number pretty safely -- if you want me to play a game longer, that's fine, it will just cost more.
• In these cases, the vote cost and hours played becomes a negotiation between me and the person adding the game. It doesn't need to exactly equal a value on HLTB.

• Murky Beat Conditions: This system has worked pretty well for many games added so far. But there are still several awesome games out there that either aren't traditionally "beatable", or which have murky beat conditions--for which it is difficult for viewers to estimate how many hours will be needed for me to "tap out" a game of its significant content.
• In these cases, we've settled on picking a number of hours for me to commit to playing the game, regardless of the beat condition. 
• Usually we play til we beat a game, and that could come a little bit under or over the estimate. 
• But in these cases, I agree to simply play the game for a certain number of hours, without any variance. 
• Dwarf Fortress & Minecraft are two games that are currently on the sheet and using this model (Play for exactly X hours, do as much as you can in that time).
• Burnout 3 was the first game to win the vote under this model.

• Burnout 3: Takedown: As a racing game, Burnout 3 doesn't have a traditional beat condition. 
• It's hard to say before I start playing it whether there's "stream value" in me, say, bronzing all courses, or spending the extra time to revisit and gold as many courses as possible. 
• In this case, the viewer who added Burnout 3 erred on the side of caution and asked for the game to cost 18 SP/vote for 18 hours of play.
• We've played Burnout for about 12 hours now, and having seen all of the courses, series of vehicles, and gotten the two different main game mode trophies, I feel pretty comfortable saying we've "tapped out" the game.  
• Another 6 hours of play would be fun, but I think it would have less stream "value" than 6 hours of the next game to win the vote.
• Herein lies the issue -- for most games, it's not a problem if I reach the beat condition before or after the HLTB estimate (and vote cost), but thisnameislame specifically added Burnout 3: Takedown requesting I play it for exactly 18 hours.

• New Policy - Early Wrap Refund: Going forward, for games with murky beat conditions, I'll be issuing limited SP refunds if I complete or "tap out" on a game early.
• When negotiating the cost to add a game to the sheet, if you believe the game has a murky beat condition, we can agree on a refund policy for that game.
• Current games on the sheet that will qualify for this include Minecraft & Dwarf Fortress.
• Other than Burnout 3, The only past game which I think should have qualified for this system would have been NieR: Automata.
• At the time NieR was added, we hadn't played any other games with such murky HLTB data.
• Since NieR was such an unusual game (with strange beat conditions), I decided not to make any policy changes at that time. 
• But seeing games like Burnout, I think it's appropriate now to codify something.
• For games that qualify for early wrap refunds, I will commit to playing the game for the # hours specified, or until I choose to tap out early and say the game is "beaten".
  
• If I choose to tap out early, I will refund SP to voters based on the difference in hours between what I actually played when I tapped out, and what I had committed to playing.

• "Normal" Games: Games with "normal" beat conditions are not impacted by this policy change.
• "Normal" games typically include getting an explicit ending with credits to play. In these cases, the HLTB value is the minimum cost for the game, and voters risk me beating the game early (without refund). To that end, they can sometimes also benefit from me taking longer than the HLTB or choosing to play it to a greater completion level than they submitted it for.
• If you have reason to believe the game you want to add shouldn't count as a "Normal" game, negotiation would be the best way to handle it with me.
• In the case of NieR, it would have been impossible to negotiate with me without spoiling major elements of the endgame. In that case, multiple viewers can discuss and present a model that they think is fair.
• NieR in particular did have a clear beat condition that supporters wanted me to achieve, but it was impossible to fairly disentangle that condition from the HLTB data.
• If NieR were being added today, I would have advised viewers to agree on a "safe" number of hours in which I should be able to reach the true beat condition, and then agree to a refund policy if I were to reach it early.

• Backdating: Whenever possible, I try to backdate new policies as far back as we can.
• Under this new policy, viewers will be receiving SP refunds for votes cast for NieR: Automata & Burnout 3: Takedown.
• NieR: Automata's refund will be ~9.5 SP/vote cast.
• Burnout 3's refund will be ~5.5 SP /vote cast.
• I'll be working to disburse these refunds later this weekend or early next week.

Thanks!

-Dylan ("Marstead")