[Voting System] 🏷️ New Feature: Subscriber Tagging to Discount Games

[Marstead]

TL;DR: Shoot me a Discord DM with 3 games on the voting system which you'd like to "tag" (support). This will discount the cost to vote for those games by 1 SP!

*****

Right now, the voting system strongly incentivizes viewers to spend all of their SP on one game at a time. This generally works out alright, but it runs a little contrary to my core objectives for the voting system.

Voting System Core Objectives

• #1 Viewers should need to work together to propel most games to win quickly
• We've had a few games that won because of many viewers working together to push them to win (Dark Souls, Dead Space, Shovel Knight, Persona) but generally 1 viewer accounts for over 50% of the votes for games.
• #2 The more viewers who are excited about a game winning, the better
• I would rather have ~10 viewers who are excited about a game winning the vote than ~1 viewer who is insanely excited about a game winning, most of the time. But it's sometimes fun to play more niche titles, so...
• #3 Individual, patient viewers should still be able to push more niche games to win solo, by voting slowly over time
• We've definitely achieved this goal, and any future system changes shouldn't get in the way of it.

Over the past few years, we've talked about ways to achieve objectives #1 & #2. Most solutions we've discussed have either been way too complex, technically infeasible to implement, or both. But in a recent discussion I think we've come up with a system that should help achieve all 3 objectives. 

Vote Tags

• All subscribers will be able to "tag" at least 3 games on the voting spreadsheet.
• All 3 of the tagged games will receive a 1 SP/vote cost discount. 
• As with all discounts, discounted games will have their vote totals retroactively updated to reflect their new cost.

• Each subscriber must choose a different game for each of their tag slots.
• The purpose of this system is to allow people to support multiple games on the sheet, so we want them spreading their influence around as much as possible.
• This is why I've gone with 3 slots as the default number -- everyone's going to choose their #1 favorite game to tag for one of their slots, so I want to provide at least 2 more games they can pick from the sheet

• Higher subscriber tiers award more tag slots.
• $9.99+: 4 Tag Slots
• $14.99+: 5 Tag Slots
• $24.99+: 6 Tag Slots
• $49.99+: 7 Tag Slots

• Tag choices will be public information.
• All subscriber tags will be listed at http://marstead.com on the new "Vote Tags" tab.

Restrictions, & Scheduling, and Tag Submission

• Many different subscribers can tag the same game, but the maximum discount from tags is capped.
• Each game can be discounted up to 1/2 of its BASE undiscounted HowLongToBeat estimate, rounded up.
• Games can still be discounted below 1/2 the HowLongToBeat estimate via Bonus Streams & Sub Block discounting.
• The minimum vote cost for any game is 1 SP. (If games are allowed to be discounted to 0 SP, they would gain infinite votes!)

• Tags are "locked-in" once specified, but slots are returned to the subscriber once their tagged game wins the vote.
• It requires some effort for me to change the vote cost and total for games, so I don't want to allow viewers to change their tagged games all of the time.

• If a subscriber's subscription lapses, their existing tags are preserved, but they do not regenerate tag slots when tagged games win the vote.
• The system would be very complicated for me to maintain if I had to revert discounts, and I don't want to overly punish people for lapsed subscriptions.

• Subscribers must be subbed for at least 3 months before being awarded tag slots.
• Because of the above rule about tags sticking around after a sub lapses, I want to make sure these are only going out to regular subs.

• Although tag choices are permanent until tagged games win the vote, limited tag slot "respecs" are available.
• I still want to let people "respec" their choices, but I would like to create a barrier to doing that so that discount points aren't changing wildly all the time.
  
• To keep people from changing their tags constantly, I'll allow viewers to respec all of their slots by paying any one of the following costs:
  
• 1000 SP, OR
• $5.00, OR
• 350 Bits
• I will also grant everyone a free respec once a year in ~January during Stagnant Game Removal.

• I may award special tag slots during events, or to non-subscribing regulars when reaching some threshold # hours watched.
• Special tag slots will discount one game by 1 SP until it wins the vote, and then the slot will be destroyed.
• I'd plan to use these for fundraisers, or incentives for tasks like timestamping.

• This system will be activated after two vote deadlines are called using the existing (tagless) rules.
  
• Before applying system changes, I try to give folks a chance to push games to win under the existing rules.
• This system change will apply after the Vote Deadlines triggered by the following games:
• Grim Fandango
• Burnout 3: Takedown

• You can submit tags to me directly the same way you submit Sub Block games -- Discord DMs (preferred) or Twitch whispers.
  
• Although this system doesn't take effect until two more vote deadlines pass, the initial set-up is going to be a ton of work to me, so try to get your tags to me ASAP!
• If for some reason you tag a game that wins in one of the upcoming deadlines, I'll simply refund the slot to you after those deadlines.

• I'll be reaching out to subscribers individually over the coming weeks to get their tags, but there's no time limit to submit tags.
• I'd prefer to get your tag choices as soon as possible (it's easier for me to make cost/total adjustments all at once), but there's no penalty for sitting on an empty tag slot.
• If you have more slots than you have games on the sheet you're interested in seeing, it's okay to leave a slot empty -- just let me know if that's your intent!

*****

I'm excited to get this system up and running. Looking at the math on the sheet, I think it will still be very possible for individual viewers to push their favorite games to win over very long time scales, but I also hope this will help generally-popular games to get a leg up.

Once we get a good number of tag submissions, I'll try to set up a tab to show the current discount for all games from all sources (Bonus Streams, Sub Block, tags, etc).

Thanks!

-Dylan ("Marstead")